Pierre-Joseph van Beneden

Pierre-Joseph van Beneden (born Dec. 19, 1809, Mechelen, Belg.—died Jan. 8, 1894, Louvain [Leuven]) was a parasitologist and paleontologist best known for his discovery of the life cycle of tapeworms (Cestoda).

After an apprenticeship with the pharmacist Louis Stoffels, van Beneden studied medicine at the University of Louvain. In 1835 he was appointed professor of zoology at the Catholic University of Louvain, where he remained throughout his career. In 1842 he was elected to the Belgian Academy of Sciences, of which he became president in 1881.

Van Beneden’s work on tapeworms began in 1845 and continued for about 15 years. Before his studies, certain life stages of tapeworms had been discovered and named, but their relationship was not suspected; some were even thought to represent aberrant tissues of the animals in which they were found. By studying the digestive tracts of many fishes, van Beneden was able to show that organisms known as cysticerci were larvae of intestinal worms then called taeniae (adult tapeworms). Van Beneden’s work covered a wide range of parasites in diverse animals and culminated with his Les Commensaux et les parasites dans le règne animal (1875; “Commensals and Parasites in the Animal Kingdom”). About 1859 he began a study of fossil and recent whales, which resulted in a major work, written in collaboration with the Belgian anatomist Paul Gervais, Ostéographie des Cétacés, vivants et fossiles (1868–80; “The Osteology of Cetaceans, Living and Fossil”).