Parasitology, Harold W. Manter Laboratory of
Date of this Version
1-1-1893
Abstract
An important advance in the morphological and systematic knowledge of the Cestoda has been made this year through two papers published by Dr. C. W. Stiles, of the Bureau of Animal Industry. They command attention not only since they emanate from an American worker, but also by reason of the methods employed. Heretofore it has been largely true that tapeworms were identified by their hosts and by their general appearance, and hence no branch of systematic zoology has been more confused. The same form from different hosts was the recipient of as many different names, and even specimens from the same hosts were renamed, owing to the dissimilarity of external appearance due to different methods of preservation. Not only this, but it was almost impossible to identify a species a second time, since the descriptions, containing little or no mention of internal anatomy, were so general as to apply to more than one species. Finally, the genus Tania had become overloaded with species that in structure were far from closely related. Railliet, Blanchard, and others have been constant in their endeavors to limit this genus by excluding groups of forms anatomically related, which were, after being separated, classed as cognate genera. Dr. Stiles, in the two papers (93, 93a), has done much to extend our knowledge of the Cestodes and to further the end just mentioned.
Comments
Published by American Microscopical Society.