Elucidation of the Life-cycle of Fasciola hepatica

Abstract

DR. B. DAWES, in his recent communication¹, has made an important contribution to our knowledge of the trematodes. In the interests of historical accuracy and in justice to a great nineteenth-century zoologist I would, however, like to point out that the life-histories of several trematodes, including that of Fasciola hepatica, were beautifully and accurately described by J. J. S. Steenstrup in his work “On the Alternation of Generations”, translated into English and published as a Ray Society monograph in 1845, nearly forty years before the work of R. Leuckartand A. P. Thomas. Steenstrup solved one of the most difficult of all zoological problems, and his ideas on the alternation of generations were considered so revolutionary that G. Buck, his translator and editor, thought fit to write an apologetic introduction to assuage the anger of his readers.