Learning to See Tapeworms: Naturalist Charles Bonnet and Artist Henrik Plötz

Abstract:Naturalist Charles Bonnet wrote three publications on the tapeworm—in 1750, 1777, and 1780—now largely forgotten. This article considers how these texts reveal both the challenges of researching intestinal worms and the practices used to examine tapeworms. Bonnet's publication of 1777 is particularly informative as it provides a rare and detailed account of an artist conducting research alongside the naturalist. Bonnet explains how the Danish artist Henrik Plötz manipulated, described, magnified, and drew tapeworm fragments to help the naturalist see them more clearly with the naked eye. The attentive observation often associated with eighteenth-century naturalism played a diminished role in their efforts to discern the tapeworm's anatomy.