18 



Other biologists, from the similarity of their appearance 

 believed them to be identical with the maggots found in cheese *, 

 and, for this reason, some physicians condemned cheese as 

 an article of diet. The fact that the cheese -maggot is merely 

 the larval stage of a fly was not then known, but it is worthy of 

 note that some authors advanced the idea that threadworms 

 were merely the larvae of certain other insects, and in particu- 

 lar, those of the common house-fly, to which they bear some 

 superficial resemblance 2 . 



Linnaeus. 



LINNAEUS re-established the threadworm's claim to bo 

 regarded as a true species 3 , and in his system of classification 4 , 

 he gave it the generic, name Ascaris, adding to it the specific 

 designation Vermicular is, in contradistinction to Ascaris 

 lumbricoides, the round worm, the only other species of Ascaris 5 

 he mentions. The fame of LINNAEUS, as the first man to 

 systematise Natural History by applying an orderly classifi- 



1 " Hos animalculis in caseo 

 degentibus similes fuisse creditum 

 est. Hoc autem aegri cujusdam 

 historia a Cl. v. Swieten memorata 

 probare videtur, qui nunquam non, 

 postquam caseum degustasset, hos 

 una cum faecibus secundum circiter 

 diem excernere solebat." (PALMER, 

 J. F., Tentamen medicum inaugurale 

 de vermibus intestinorum, Edinburgi, 

 1766, p. 24.) 



2 " Fliegenlarven sowohl, als 

 einzelne Glieder des Kettenwurms 

 haben schon dafiir gel ten miissen." 

 (BREMSER, J. G., Ueber lebende 

 Wuermer im lebenden Menschen, 

 Wien, 1819, p. 81.) 



3 LINNAEUS knew only eleven 

 species of intestinal worms, but this 

 number was soon greatly increased : 



" Linne kannte ii. Species von 

 Eingeweid'ewiirmern, Gmelin (in 

 der 13-ten Ausgabe von Linnei 

 Systema naturae) 292, Zeder 391, 

 und Rudolphi endlich beschreibt 

 deren 1100." (NORDMANN, A. VON, 

 Mikrographische Beitraege zurNatut- 

 geschichte der wirbellosen Thiere, 

 Berlin, 1832, pp. 5, 6.) 



4 LINNAEUS' classification was 

 most elementary, and even behind his 

 own times : " Die wenigen runden 

 Eingeweidewiirmer, welche bis zu 

 Linne's Zeiten im menschlichen 

 Korper entdeckt waren, wurden in 

 seinem System in eine Gattung 

 unter dem Namen, Ascaris, zusam- 

 mengeworfen, ohne dass auf die 

 Beobachtungen und Entdeckungen 

 eines Redi und Pallas die gebiihrende 

 Rucksicht genommen worden ware ; 

 es enthielt sehr von einander 

 verschiedene Eingeweidewiirmer. ' ' 

 (ZEDER, D. J. G. H., Anleitung zur 

 Naturgeschichte der Eingeweide- 

 wuermer, Bamberg, 1803, pp. 93, 94.) 



5 Other authors confined the 

 name ascaris to the threadworm, 

 calling the round worm Lumbricus 

 teres : " Ascarides . , . . vix 

 digiti lati longitudinem excedunt, 

 suntque albissimi et agilissimi, 

 unde etiam nomen accepisse apud 

 Graecos videntur. (DRAUTH, S. DE, 

 Dissertatio inauguralis medica de 

 animalibus humanorum corporum 

 infestis hospitibus, Halae Magde- 

 burgicae, 1734, p. 40.) 



