[The Heidelberg trichina dispute. A parasitologic episode from the year 1840]

Since the initial zoological description of "Trichina spiralis" (later renamed "Trichinella spiralis") by Owen in 1835 several other scientists had observed trichinas in human muscles, when an inglorious dispute about priorities arose between the anatomists Kobelt and Bischoff at the Heidelberg University in 1840 because of one of those findings. The genesis of trichinosis was only to be explained in 1860 by Zenker, while Bischoff, who was among the leading 19th century embryologists, then still believed in a "generatio spontanea" as it has been described in the context of the chronological outline of the "trichina dispute".