The history of Italian parasitology

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4017(01)00420-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The history of Italian parasitology can be subdivided into two periods: pre-Redi and post-Redi. The first period includes the contributions to parasitology by savants who operated during the Roman, medieval and Renaissance eras; the second period started in 1668 when Francesco Redi published his experiments to debunk the theory of spontaneous generation; the work of Redi was subsequently continued by Vallisnieri, Spallanzani and others. The latter period includes classic contributions in the field of parasitology provided by veterinarians such as Ercolani, Perroncito, Piana and Rivolta, and by physicians such as Bassi, Grassi, Golgi, and Celli. Also, two outstanding pages of medical parasitology were written during this period — the unraveling and defeat of St. Gotthard’s disease and the conquering of malaria on Italian soil — both accomplished through the generous efforts of dedicated individuals.

Section snippets

The Roman era

During Roman times, a group of agricultural and medical writers, with varying backgrounds, reported in their scripts a number of observations relevant to veterinary and medical parasitology. It is interesting to observe that numerous reports were relevant to sheep, a domestic animal species mostly appreciated at that time for wool and meat.

Marcus Portius Cato the Elder (or the Censor) (234–149 b.c.), the first of the Roman agricultural writers, in his De rustica (Chapter 96, Oves ne scabrae

The 1600s — The Academies, the microscope and the introduction of experimental medicine

At the beginning of the 1600s two interesting publications on worms came to light in Italy. The first, De vermibus tractatus was by the Neapolitan De Urso (1601). In this treatise, which is divided into 14 chapters, he discusses the worms present in the human body, as well as their prevention and treatment. The second publication, “Trattato sopra li vermi”, a booklet of 30 pages, is the work of Salando (1607), a physician from Verona. Being written in Italian and with large type, the book had a

References (165)

  • I. de Carneri

    Cutaneous leishmaniasis, apparently of the Pian Bois Type, on the Amazonian side of Mato Grosso

    Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.

    (1964)
  • I. de Carneri

    Francesco Redi and experimental chemotherapy

    Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.

    (1967)
  • P.C.C. Garnham

    Obituary. Professor Augusto Corradetti 1907–1986

    Int. J. Parasitol.

    (1987)
  • Aldrovandi, U., 1602. De animalibus insectis, libri septum cum singulorum iconibus ad vivum expressis. Apud Joan Babt....
  • Alessandrini, G., 1929. Parassitologia dell’uomo e degli animali domestici. UTET,...
  • Alighieri, D., 1982. La Divina Commedia. Chartwell Books, Inc., Secaucus,...
  • Anonymous, 1929. La malaria et les grandes cultures. Amsterdamsche Chininefabriek....
  • T. Balbo

    Indagini sulla situazione parassitologica dei mammiferi del Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso

    Parassitologia

    (1973)
  • T. Balbo et al.

    La filariosi del cane. Epizoologia e diagnosi di laboratorio

    La Nuova Vet.

    (1968)
  • B. Baldelli

    Sufficiente la preparazione parassitologica del veterinario pratico

    Obbiettivi Vet.

    (1984)
  • C. Bandi et al.

    Phylogeny of Wolbachia in filarial nematodes

    Proc. R. Soc.

    (1998)
  • Bassi, A., 1835. Del mal del segno, calcinaccio o moscardino, malattia che affligge i bachi da seta e sul modo di...
  • Bassi, A., 1836. Del mal del segno, calcinaccio o moscardino, malattia che affligge i bachi da seta e sul modo di...
  • R. Bassi

    Sulla cachessio ittero-verminosa, o marciaja dei cervi, causata dal Distomum magnum

    Medico Vet. Torino

    (1875)
  • R. Bassi

    Sopra la tracheite verminosa dei fagiani (Phasianus colchicus)

    Medico Vet. Torino

    (1881)
  • G. Bastianelli et al.

    Coltivazione delle semilune malariche dell’uomo nell’ Anopheles claviger (Sinonimo: Anopheles maculipennis Meig)

    Atti R. Accad. dei Lincei

    (1898)
  • F. Bazzi

    La scabbia nei Consilia di Taddeo d’Alderotto

    Cronache IDI

    (1958)
  • Berlese, A., 1882–1903. Acari, Miriapoda et Scorpiones hucusque in Italia reperta....
  • Berlese, A., 1909–1925. Gli insetti, loro organizzazione, sviluppo, abitudini e rapporto con l’uomo. Vol. I,...
  • Berlinguer, G., 1964. Aphaniptera d’Italia — studio monografico. Il Pensiero Scientifico,...
  • Berlinguer, G., 1988. Le mie pulci. Editori Riuniti,...
  • A. Bignami

    Ricerche sull’anatomia patologica delle perniciose

    Atti R. Accad. Med. Roma

    (1890)
  • E. Biocca

    Osservazione sulla morfologia e biologia del ceppo sardo di Schistosoma bovis e sulla dermatite umana da esso provvocato

    Parassitologia

    (1960)
  • Birago, F., 1626. Trattato cinegenetico ouero della caccia del Sign. Francesco Birago. Signor di Metono and di Siciano....
  • Bolognini, E., 1759. Memorie dell’antico, e presente stato delle Paludi Pontine, rimedj, e mezzi per diseccare a...
  • Bonanni, F., 1691. Observationes circa viventia, quae in rebus non-viventibus reperiuntur. Cum micrographia curiosa....
  • Bonomo, G.C., 1687. Osservazioni intorno a’ pelicelli del corpo umano. Da Pietro Matini,...
  • Bozzolo, C., 1879. L’anchilostomia e l’anemia che ne conseguita (anchilostomo-anemia). G. Int. Sci. Med. Napoli 2,...
  • Brasavola Musa, A., 1541. In octos libros aphorismorum Hippocratis et Galeni commentaria et annotationes. In Officina...
  • Brera, V.L., 1802. Lezioni medico-pratiche sopra i principali vermi del corpo umano vivente e le cosı̀ dette malattie...
  • Brera, V.L., 1811. Memorie fisico-chimiche sopra i principali vermi del corpo umano vivente e le cosı̀ dette malattie...
  • Brilli, I., 1540. Opusculum de verminibus in corpore humano genitis. In officina Erasmiana, Vincentii Valgrisii,...
  • Brunori Cianti, L., Cianti, L., 1993. La pratica della veterinaria nei codici medievali della mascalcia. Edagricole,...
  • Burserii J.B., 1753. De anthelminthica argenti vivi facultate. Typis Benedicti Impressoris Episcopalis....
  • V. Busacchi

    Ricordo dei parassitologi emiliano-romagnoli

    Parassitologia

    (1972)
  • G. Cancrini et al.

    Infestazione sperimentale del gatto con D. repens di origine canina

    Parassitologia

    (1979)
  • G. Canestrini

    Intorno ad alcuni Acari ed Opilionidi dell’America

    Atti Accad. Sci. Veneto-Trent-Istriana 11. Fasc.

    (1887)
  • Canestrini, G., Kramer, P., 1899. Demodicidae und sarcoptidae. Das Tierreich,...
  • Caracciolo, P., 1566. La gloria del cavallo. Opera divisa in dieci libri: ne’ quali oltra gli ordini pertinenti alla...
  • M. Carpano

    Tripanosoma tipo Theileri nei bovini della Colonia Eritrea

    Stud. Med. Trop.

    (1914)
  • Casarosa, L., 1985. Parassiti degli animali domestici. Casa Editrice Ambrosiana,...
  • A. Castellani

    On the discovery of a species of trypanosoma in the cerebrospinal fluid of cases of sleeping sickness

    Proc. R. Soc.

    (1903)
  • A. Castellani

    Note on certain protozoa-like bodies in a case of protracted fever with splenogamely

    J. Trop. Med.

    (1914)
  • Castellani, A., Chalmers A.J., 1910. Manual of Tropical Medicine. Baillière, Tindall and Cox,...
  • Castiglioni, A., 1946. A History of Medicine. Alfred A. Knopf, New...
  • Cato, M.P., 1783. Scriptore rei rusticae veteres latini ex recensione Jo. Matthiae Gesneri cum Notis selectioribus,...
  • Celli, A., 1925. Storia della malaria nell’agro romano. Opera postuma. Memorie R. Acc. Naz. Lincei,...
  • A. Celli et al.

    Sul parassita del globulo rosso nell’uomo e negli animali. Contributo all’emoparassitologia comparata

    Ann. Istit. Igien. Sp. Roma

    (1891)
  • Celsus, A.A.C., 1785. De Medicina. Libri Octo. Ex Typographia Societatis,...
  • A. Chabaud

    Remise du Prix mile Brumpt à Ettore Biocca

    Bull. Soc. Franc. Paras.

    (1996)
  • Cited by (27)

    • An annotated checklist of tick-borne pathogens of dogs in Nigeria

      2019, Veterinary Parasitology: Regional Studies and Reports
      Citation Excerpt :

      More work is required to establish if the cattle-related species ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemobos’ indeed infects dogs in Nigeria or if it is an accidental finding due to erroneous amplifications or laboratory contamination sometimes associated with sensitive technique like the PCR. The first record of canine Babesia infection was made in Italy in 1895 not long after the detection of the bovine disease (Roncalli, 2001). Canine babesiosis is caused by intraerythrocytic protozoan parasites of the genus Babesia and it is one of the most important tick-borne infectious diseases among dogs.

    • The horse pinworm (Oxyuris equi) in archaeology during the Holocene: Review of past records and new data

      2015, Infection, Genetics and Evolution
      Citation Excerpt :

      In 1561, the veterinarian Agostino Columbre also observed oxyurids around the anus of horses, and in 1598, Carlo Ruini noticed the presence of worms during horse necropsies, probably ascarids and oxyurids. Finally, in 1603, Phillip Scacco of Tagliacozzo described the clinical signs of oxyuriasis (Penso, 1981; Roncalli, 2001). During our investigations in paleoparasitology, sixteen samples of sediments and coprolites collected from seven various archaeological sites revealed the presence of O. equi eggs, all studied in the Besancon laboratory and prepared following the RHM standard protocol (Rehydration-Homogenization-Micro-sieving) (Dufour and Le Bailly, 2013).

    • Babesia: A world emerging

      2012, Infection, Genetics and Evolution
      Citation Excerpt :

      Soon afterwards, babesias parasitizing the blood of other domestic animals were observed, such as those that eventually became known as B. canis and B. caballi, described by Piana and Galli-Valerio (1895) and by Koch (1904), in dog and horse erythrocytes, respectively. Since these early findings, more than 100 different Babesia species have been discovered, and thanks to the advances in microscopy, cell biology and molecular biology techniques our knowledge of the Babesia world is rapidly expanding (Levine, 1988; Roncalli Amici, 2001; Criado-Fornelio et al., 2004; de Waal and Van Heerden, 2004; Uilenberg, 2006; Lack et al., 2012). The remarkable impact of babesia infections in three host groups: domestic animals, humans and, most recently acknowledged, some wildlife species, has inspired a great amount of research efforts in recent decades.

    • Babesiosis in dogs and cats-Expanding parasitological and clinical spectra

      2011, Veterinary Parasitology
      Citation Excerpt :

      These agents were subsequently named Babesia bovis and Babesia ovis, respectively, and the genus was named Babesia in honor of Dr. Babes (Uilenberg, 2006). Although bovine babesiosis is the oldest tick-borne disease reported, the first record of canine Babesia infection in Europe was made in Italy in 1895 not long after the detection of the bovine disease (Roncalli Amici, 2001). The genera Babesia and Theileria belong to the phylum Apicomplexa, class Piroplasmea and order Piroplasmida.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text