Rudolf Leuckart
Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart was a German zoologist and a professor at the University of Giessen and then at Leipzig. He was a pioneer of parasitology research and established the field through a two-volume work on the parasites of humans. He has been called the "father of parasitology". He published a two-volume work on the parasites of humans. He helped identify the life-history of Trichinella and helped manage trichinosis. He was also known for developing a series of illustrated wall charts for use in zoology instruction. He was a nephew to naturalist Friedrich Sigismund Leuckart. His son Rudolf Leuckart became a chemist but died young.
Life and work
Leuckar was born in Helmstedt to the son of book printer and his wife Friederike Dorothea Charlotte née Theuerkauf. He studied at the local school and became interested in entomology at an early age through the influence of the Helmstedt lepidopterist Hermann von Heinemann. In 1842 he joined the University of Göttingen to study medicine and here he was influenced by the physiologist Rudolf Wagner. In 1845 he graduated and became Wagner's assistant. He worked with Heinrich Frey on rewriting "Anatomy of the Invertebrates". He also wrote a dissertation in 1845 “De monstris eorumque causis et ortu” that earned him a doctorate. He habilitated in 1847. He participated in an expedition into the North Sea and then began to examine the classification and evolution of marine organisms. He was responsible for splitting Cuvier's phylum Radiata into Coelenterata and Echinodermata. He became an associate professor at the University of Giessen in 1850 and became a full professor in 1855. He married Amalie daughter of professor Eduard Henke in 1850. He examined sexual reproduction in insects and discovered the micropyle of the egg. He also examined parthenogenesis in bees. In 1851 he took an interest in the siphonophores and introduced the idea of "polymorphism" where many individual organisms formed a larger body. In Giessen he was involved in studies on Trichinella spiralis. Further work on parasitic worms led to his most famous work - Die menschlichen Parasiten und die von ihnen herrührenden Krankheiten on human parasites and their diseases. In 1869 he moved to the University of Leipzig where he began to work on invertebrate comparative anatomy. Here he began to study the evolution of the eye. He served as a rector in 1877 and he also developed a system of wall charts for teaching biology. With his colleagues Hinrich Nitsche and Carl Chun, they developed 101 charts between 1877 and 1892. In 1898 he suffered from pneumonia which worsened his suffering following the death of his son Rudolf in 1889 and that of a daughter.In 1877 he became honorary foreign member of the Linnean Society of London.
Parasitology
Leuckart is remembered for his work in parasitology, particularly research regarding tapeworm and trichinosis. He was the first to prove that Taenia saginata occurs only in cattle, and Taenia solium occurs only in swine. His study of Trichina helped support Rudolf Virchow's campaign to create meat inspection laws in Germany. With Virchow and Friedrich Albert von Zenker, he was the first to document the life cycle of the parasite Trichinella spiralis in swine and humans.He, and independently Algernon Thomas, experimentally discovered the life-cycle of the sheep liver fluke in 1881–1883.
Today the "Rudolf-Leuckart-Medaille" is an annual award given for research in parasitology by the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Parasitologie.
Other contributions
Leuckart is credited with splitting George Cuvier's Radiata into two phyla: Coelenterata and Echinodermata. In the field of entomology, he conducted investigations into the micropyle and fertilization of insect eggs, the reproduction and development involving members of Pupipara, parthenogenesis among insects, and studies on the anatomy and life history of the honeybee.A quote attributed to Rudolf Leuckart: