INTRODUCTION

In the summer of 2003, I finished work on a book entitled Parasites, People and Places: Essays on Field Parasitology. My wife, Ann, and I were in our cabin in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, and I was trying to tell her the story from the book that had to do with the discovery by William Walter Cort of the cause of swimmer's itch back in 1927. At the same time, she knew I was sort of lamenting the absence of a new project. She must have been impressed by my tale, because out of the blue, she said, “Why don't you write a book about discovery in parasitology?”

This started me thinking about the possibility of doing something along that line. Gradually, over the next several months, I put together an idea. Stories regarding the discovery of the transmission of malaria or sleeping sickness have been told many times over the years, so they are sort of ‘old hat’. But, then I thought, are they really?

I recalled the way I teach my own general parasitology course to undergraduates. I know that I mention Ronald Ross and David Bruce, among others, but I really do not get into much detail about how Ross and Bruce did their work regarding malaria or African sleeping sickness, respectively.