George Henry Falkiner Nuttall and the Origins of Parasitology and Parasitology
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1389 George Henry Falkiner Nuttall and the origins of parasitology and Parasitology F. E. G. COX* Department of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK (Received 26 January 2009; revised 20 February 2009; accepted 23 February 2009; first published online 30 March 2009) SUMMARY By the beginning of the twentieth century, most of the major discoveries concerning the nature and life cycles of parasites had been made and tropical medicine was beginning to establish itself as a discipline but parasitology still lacked any real cohesion or focus. This focus arrived in 1908 when George Nuttall founded a new journal, Parasitology, as a Supplement to the Journal of Hygiene in order to cater for increasing numbers of papers on protozoological, helminthological and ento- mological topics that were being submitted for publication to that journal, thus bringing these three subjects together under one heading and, in doing so, established the discipline of parasitology. The events leading up to and the subsequent development of the discipline are discussed. Key words: G.H.F. Nuttall, history, parasitology, Parasitology. INTRODUCTION parasite to include all organisms that live in or on another living organism; a concept so wide that it Anyone picking up this journal should immediately embraces everything from viruses to cuckoos and know from its title what sort of papers they might to mistletoe. Some definitions are much more restricted expect to find among its contents but ask the same and include only helminths or, more often, in order individuals how they would define parasitology and to exclude bacteria and fungi, protozoa and helminth they would probably be at a loss for an adequate worms. Currently, the most frequently used defi- answer. Most would come up with a definition such nitions restrict the use of the word parasite to proto- as the scientific study of parasitism, the scientific zoa, helminth worms and insects and, occasionally, study of parasites, the scientific study of parasites and other arthropods and molluscs, groups with very their hosts or the scientific study of the relationships little in common. From an immunological or epi- between parasites and their hosts, but the one most demiological viewpoint, protozoa, being micro- frequently cited would probably be the scientific parasites, have much more in common with bacteria study of parasites and parasitism. The problem with than with helminth worms, neither helminths nor this definition is that it relies on the definitions of protozoans have any affinity with insects except poss- parasite and parasitism. Here again the definition ibly as vectors and insects, in their own turn, have runs into a number of problems. Firstly, what is a more in common with parasitic and non-parasitic parasite? The earliest uses of this word in English arachnids and crustaceans than with helminths. date back to the early seventeenth century when it However it is defined, the question remains as to appears to have been used to describe individuals what major discipline parasitology belongs or if it a living at the expense of others, a meaning that is still discipline in its own right. Clearly it is a life science in common usage today. The word arrived in the but is it a branch of medicine or zoology? It could be scientific literature a century later but was so all either or both but does not sit comfortably within embracing that it encompassed all organisms that live either. It is probably best, then, to regard parasit- in or on other living organisms including those that ology as a discipline in its own right, but this raises we now call saprophytes. It was not until the end of another question as to how a field of study with the nineteenth century when, after the abandonment boundaries so elastic that they embrace protozoa, of the theory of spontaneous generation and the helminths and arthropods has become a coherent establishment of the germ theory of disease, the word discipline that has spawned off so many university gained common usage. Some commentators have courses, journals and books. The medical historian, adopted the broadest possible definition of the word Michael Warboys, has discussed this question from a scholarly and historical point of view and has asked * Tel:+44 (0) 207 927 2347. Fax: +44 (0) 207 927 2918. the very pertinent question alluded to at the begin- E-mail: [email protected] ning of this article, ‘‘how did helminths get lumped Parasitology (2009), 136, 1389–1394. f Cambridge University Press 2009 doi:10.1017/S0031182009005915 Printed in the United Kingdom F. E. G. Cox 1390 together with protozoa in parasitology …?’’ helminthology as we know it began with the dis- (Warboys, 1983). I should like to argue that this is covery of the larval forms of Dracunculus medinensis due to one person in particular, George Henry in 1819, the incrimination of crustacean intermediate Falkiner Nuttall, and the first issue of Parasitology in hosts in the life cycle of this worm in 1870, the dis- 1908. covery that mosquitoes transmitted filarial worms in 1877 and the discovery that snails were involved in the life cycle of Fasciola hepatica in 1882. PARASITOLOGY AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH AND Protozoology had had an equally, but shorter, 20TH CENTURIES distinguished history beginning with the discoveries Before exploring this thesis further it is necessary of Antony von Leeuwenhoek in 1681 and its massive to look back at the period around the turn of the expansion following Pasteur’s discoveries and, with nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The theory of improvements in microscopical techniques, the dis- spontaneous generation, the destruction of which covery of more and more protozoa many of which had begun in 1842 with the publication of Japetus inhabited the bodies of animals. The most significant Steenstrup’s influential book On the Alternation of advances in the field of protozoology, following Generations and had experienced its last gasp with Manson’s incrimination of mosquitoes in the trans- Gros’s description of the production of parasitic mission of filarial worms, were the discoveries, all worms by spontaneous generation in 1847, was to all around the turn of the century, that ticks transmitted intents dead by the middle of the nineteenth century piroplasms, tsetse flies transmitted African trypano- (Farley, 1977). This escape from the straitjacket of somes and mosquitoes transmitted malaria para- the spontaneous generation dogma and the promul- sites. gation of the germ theories of the cause of disease So what was our understanding of parasites at that stemmed from the work of Louis Pasteur in the the turn of the century? The second half of the 1860s made it possible for scientists to recognize nineteenth century was probably the ‘golden age’ of parasites as the causes of infection and not merely parasitology; many parasite life cycles had been as non-causal associations between two organisms. elucidated and the discoveries of previous centuries These related events set the scene for a rational had been pulled together into coherent stories. So understanding of host-parasite relationships and many important discoveries were made in this half opened up the possibility of a new and respectable century that it would be impossible to do justice to science specializing in the study of parasites. them all and here it is only possible to give a brief So rapid and comprehensive were the possibilities summary of the most significant events. Fuller ac- opened up by the liberation from earlier dogmas, counts are given in Cox (2002, 2004, 2005), Foster and the rate at which new discoveries were being (1965), Grove (1990) and Kean et al. (1978). made, that many observers believe that the last few One of the parasites most frequently described decades of the nineteenth century were the golden in the earliest literature is the Guinea worm, age of tropical medicine which itself became almost Dracunculus medinensis. Carl Rudolphi discovered synonymous with the study of parasitic diseases as adult female worms containing larvae in 1819 and can be seen from a casual perusal of the first edition Forbes found the larvae in water in 1836 but it was of Patrick Manson’s monumental work, Tropical not until 1870 that Alekej Pavlovitch Fedchenko Diseases (Manson, 1898). However, to attribute the discovered that crustaceans belonging to the genus birth of parasitology to discoveries made in the field Cyclops were involved in the life cycle and that of tropical medicine does the subject a disservice. infection was acquired by accidentally consuming Helminth worms, or entozoa, had already been them. Fedchenko’s discoveries were controversial studied in a systematic way by many eminent zool- and remained so until they were confirmed by ogists, mainly in Britain and Germany prior to the Manson in 1894. Fedchenko’s discovery was fol- discovery of microorganisms, and later became in- lowed by one of the most significant events in the tegral parts of all university zoology courses sand- history of parasitology; the discovery that filarial wiched between the coelenterates and annelids, worms were transmitted by mosquitoes by Patrick something that persisted well into the second half Manson in 1877, an event that is widely regarded as of the twentieth century. To most zoologists, the the most significant discovery in tropical medicine, parasitic helminth worms were merely interest- with implications that go far beyond helminthology ing examples of a somewhat unsavoury way of life. into such diverse areas as malaria and the arbo- Arguably the first British zoologist who can be rec- viruses. The discovery of the partial life cycles of ognized as a helminthologist was Thomas Spencer Loa loa (eye worm) and Onchocerca volvolus (river Cobbold (1828–1886), Professor of Botany and blindness), both caused by filarial worms, owes much Helminthology at the Royal Veterinary College in to the discoveries made by Fedchenko and Manson London, whose prodigious output included papers although the transmission of Loa loa by flies of the on helminths and other parasites of veterinary, genus Chrysops spp.