Helminthology

Spinochordodes parasitising Meconema

Helminthology is the study of parasitic worms (helminths), while helminthiasis describes the medical condition of being infected with helminths. Helminthology deals with the study of the taxonomy of helminth and the effect on their hosts.

The origin of the first compound of the word is from the Greek ἕλμινς - helmins (root: helminth-), meaning "worm".

In the 18th and early 19th century there was wave of publications on helminthology and this period has been described as the “Golden Era” of helminthology. During that period the authors Félix Dujardin,^[1] William Blaxland Benham, Peter Simon Pallas, Marcus Elieser Bloch, Otto Friedrich Müller,^[2] Johann Goeze, Friedrich Zenker, Carl Asmund Rudolphi, Otto Friedrich Bernhard von Linstow ^[3] and Johann Gottfried Bremser started systematic scientific studies of the subject.^[4]

The Japanese parasitologist Satyu Yamaguti was probably one of the most active helminthologists of the 20th century; he wrote a series of six volumes entitled "Systema Helminthum".

References

1. Dujardin, Félix (1845). "Histoire naturelle des helminthes ou vers intestinaux". doi:10.5962/bhl.title.10123.
2. Müller, Otto Frederik (1773). "Vermivm terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu, Animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia / auctore Othone Friderico Müller". doi:10.5962/bhl.title.46299.
3. Linstow, Otto Friedrich Bernhard von (1878). "Compendium der Helminthologie. Ein Verzeichniss der bekannten Helminthen, die frei oder in thierischen Körpern leben, geordnet nach ihren Wohnthieren, unter Angabe der Organe, in denen sie gefunden sind, und mit Beifügung der Litteraturquellen". doi:10.5962/bhl.title.1406.
4. Ernst, Maurice. (1910). "Oxyuris vermicularis (the threadworm). A treatise on the parasite and the disease in children and adults, together with the particulars of a rapid, harmless and reliable cure". doi:10.5962/bhl.title.22359.