Abstract
THERE are several groups of animals which from time im-memorial have been more or less generally neglected by zoologists, and which have induced but very few amongst the latter to make a specialty of their investigation. As an instance of comparatively highly developed animals to which this remark applies, we need only point to the whole class of cephalopoda, and among the lower animals the entozoa are certainly a good case in point. Apart from the comparative scantiness of the literature treating of these animals, it has the additional disadvantage, in common with much other zoological literature, of being scattered in the numerous volumes of several hundred different scientific serials. Dr. Cobbold has for a long time been held an eminent authority on helminthology, and, as he states in his preface, many hundreds of correspondents, not having ready access to the works of Rudolphi, Diesing, and Dujardin (three great foreign authorities on the subject), have applied to him for identification of parasites they met with in dissections or otherwise. He therefore pronounces the most justified hope that by the work now published a reasonable limit may be placed upon the number of future applicants. What particularly characterises Dr. Cobbold's work is the thoroughly scientific enthusiasm with which it is written, and which in itself is admirable. We cannot help reproducing the closing sentences of the preface, which will give to our readers a true notion of the spirit to which, according to our view, a scientific work ought to owe its origin:—
Parasites; a Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals, including some Account of the Ectozoa.
By T. Spencer Cobbold (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1879.)
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Our Book Shelf . Nature 20, 312 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020312a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020312a0