From the treatise on tapeworms by Marcus Bloch, 1782 (Courtesy Wellcome Library)

I first set eyes on the original version of this engraving while seated on a hard wooden chair—was it from the middle ages?—at the Université Montpellier in southern France. “Worm heads so cute,” I wrote in my notes, sure that I would be able to use the information later. At last that time has come. All week I have been working on a chapter for a book about eighteenth-century reproduction. When the editor asked me to write something related to my specialization in the history of childbirth, I refused. “I want to wax poetic about worms and dead body parts instead. Take it or leave it.” Luckily, he took it, for my research on tapeworms ultimately led me to the topic of this post: the idea that the human body is an ecosystem. Continue reading →