Editing Paramecium (section)

==Historical background==
[[File:Muller paramecium aurelia.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Paramecia, illustrated by [[Otto Friedrich Müller|Otto Müller]], 1773]]
[[File:Paramecium from Philosophical Transactions 1703.jpg|right|280px|thumb|Earliest known illustration of ''Paramecium'']]
[[File:Joblot chausson.jpg|280px|right|thumb|"Slipper animalcule," illustrated by [[Louis Joblot]], 1718]]
''Paramecium'' were among the first ciliates to be observed by [[microscopy|microscopists]], in the late 17th century. They were most likely known to the Dutch pioneer of [[protozoology]], [[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek]], and were clearly described by his contemporary [[Christiaan Huygens]] in a letter from 1678.<ref>{{cite book| last= Dobell| first= Clifford| title= Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his "Little Animals"| place= New York| publisher= Dover| year= 1932| edition= 1960| pages= 164–165 | isbn= 978-0-486-60594-4}}</ref> The earliest known illustration of a ''Paramecium'' species was published anonymously in [[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]] in 1703.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dolan|first=John R.|date=2019-08-01|title=Unmasking "The Eldest Son of The Father of Protozoology": Charles King|journal=Protist|volume=170|issue=4|pages=374–384|doi=10.1016/j.protis.2019.07.002|pmid=31479910|issn=1434-4610|url=https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-02283230|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In 1718, the French mathematics teacher and microscopist [[Louis Joblot]] published a description and illustration of a microscopic {{lang|fr|poisson}} (fish), which he discovered in an [[infusion]] of oak bark in water. Joblot gave this creature the name {{lang|fr|"Chausson"}}, or "slipper", and the phrase "slipper animalcule" remained in use as a colloquial epithet for ''Paramecium'', throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|title=Description et usages de Plusieurs Nouveaux Microscopes, tant simple que composez|last1=Joblot|first1=Louis|publisher=Jacques Collombat|year=1718|volume=2|location=Paris|page=79|language=fr}}</ref>

The name "''Paramecium''" – constructed from the [[Greek language|Greek]] {{Lang|grc|παραμήκης}} (''paramēkēs'', "oblong") – was coined in 1752 by the English microscopist [[John Hill (botanist)|John Hill]], who applied the name generally to "[[Animalcules]] which have no visible limbs or tails, and are of an irregularly oblong figure."<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Hill | first1 = John | title = An History of Animals | url = https://archive.org/details/historyanimals00hill | publisher = Thomas Osborne | year = 1752 | location = Paris | page = [https://archive.org/details/historyanimals00hill/page/5 5]}}</ref> In 1773, [[Otto Friedrich Müller|O. F. Müller]], the first researcher to place the genus within the [[Linnaean taxonomy|Linnaean]] system of [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]], adopted the name ''Paramecium'' but changed the spelling to ''Paramæcium.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Müller |first=Otto Frederik |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/100435 |title=Vermivm terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu, Animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia |last2=Müller |first2=Otto Frederik |date=1773 |publisher=apud Heineck et Faber |volume=v.1 (1773-1774) |location=et Lipsiae}}</ref> In 1783, [[Johann Hermann]] changed the spelling once more, to ''Paramœcium''.<ref>[https://www.gbif.org/species/8336773 ''Paramoecium'' Hermann, 1783]</ref> [[Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg|C. G. Ehrenberg]], in a major study of the [[infusoria]] published in 1838, restored Hill's original spelling for the name, and most researchers have followed his lead.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Woodruff|first=Lorande Loss|title=The structure, life history, and intrageneric relationships of ''Paramecium calkinsi'', sp. nov.|journal=The Biological Bulletin|date=September 1921|volume=41|issue=3|pages=171–180|doi=10.2307/1536748|jstor=1536748|doi-access=free}}</ref>