Nematology in retrospect and prospect

The first small nematodes to be described, free-living in the seventeenth century and plant-parasitic in the eighteenth, are identifiable only from their peculiar habitats; taxonomy came relatively late in nematology because adequate optical equipment was a prerequisite. In the study of the free-living and the plant-parasitic species, the development of two readily-presented aspects of taxonomy, figure drawing and mensuration ( each showing oscillation between paucity and excess of detail), is traced in the work of five founders, all of whom were living in 1904: Bastian, Butschli, de Man, Cobb and Goodey. Possible future developments in the identification of species and strains, the investigation of host-parasite relationships, and the training of nematologists are briefly discussed.