French parasitologists

Louis-Joseph Alcide Railliet (also known as Alcide Railliet, born 11 March 1852 at La Neuville-lès-Wasigny in the Ardennes – died 25 December 1930) was a French veterinarian and helminthologist.
Professor at the Veterinary School of Alfort, he is considered one of the founders of modern parasitology and wrote several books of veterinary parasitology. He chaired the Société zoologique de France in 1891. He was a member of the French Académie Nationale de Médecine, from 29 December 1896 to his death. He received the Legion of Honor.

Félix Dujardin (5 April 1801 – 8 April 1860) was a French biologist born in Tours. He is remembered for his research on protozoans and other invertebrates.

Alexandre Joseph Émile Brumpt (10 March 1877, in Paris – 8 July 1951) was a French parasitologist.He studied zoology and parasitology in Paris, obtaining his degree in science in 1901, and his medical doctorate in 1906. In 1919 he succeeded Raphaël Blanchard (1857-1919) as professor of parasitology to the Faculté de Médecine de Paris, a position he maintained until 1948. Much of his career was spent performing research in Africa and Latin America.
Brumpt is credited for introducing a technique known as xenodiagnosis into parasitological research. In 1935, he described Plasmodium gallinaceum, an avian malarial parasite that infects chickens and other fowl. He also conducted important research involving the African tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis) as a biological vector for trypanosomiasis. In addition, he did extensive studies of the diseases: schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, onchocerciasis and leishmaniasis.
He described Blastocystis hominis and Entamoeba dispar. The latter species helped to explain why most people who appeared to be infected with Entamoeba histolytica were asymptomatic. However, because there are no morphological differences between the two species, his proposal was largely ignored for over 50 years before being proven correct using molecular techniques.The French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Prix Savigny for 1910. A number of parasitic species bear his name, including Plasmodium brumpti and Xenocoeloma brumpti. Also, a genus of phlebotomine sand flies, Brumptomyia, and a species of Corsican mosquito, Culex brumpti, are named after him.
Brumpt's best known written work is Précis de Parasitologie, which was published in six editions between 1910 and 1949. He was the author of many scientific papers, including several on the Anopheles mosquito and its relationship to malaria. He was the President of the Société zoologique de France in 1922. With Maurice Neveu-Lemaire and Maurice Langeron, he founded in 1923 the parasitological journal Annales de Parasitologie Humaine et Comparée, now continued as Parasite.

Raphaël Anatole Émile Blanchard (28 February 1857 – 7 February 1919) was a French physician and naturalist who was a pioneer of medical zoology, with studies on parasites ranging from protozoa to worms and insects.

Blanchard was born in Saint-Christophe-sur-le-Nais. He was a great grand nephew of the balloonist and parachute inventor Jean Pierre Blanchard. He went to study medicine in Paris in 1874. He became interested in zoology and worked at the laboratory at the École des Hautes-Études where he became a histological preparator for Charles Robin and Georges Pouchet, the latter influencing him towards studies on experimental teratology (inducing mutations and malformations). He travelled around Europe in 1877 with a grant from the Paris City Council, studying embryology in Vienna and comparative anatomy in Bonn. He received another grant in 1880 to study the organization of universities and biological education across Europe. He wrote a dissertation on anesthesia induced by nitrous oxide in 1880 under Paul Bert and received a medical degree. He became a professor of natural history at the faculty of medicine in Paris in 1883. In 1884 he also became a professor in the school of anthropology. He taught medical zoology from 1883 to 1887. He became interested in microbiology after studies at the Institut Pasteur in 1896 and took an interest in parasitology. He founded the journal Archives de parasitologie in 1898.In 1889 he served as the secretary general for the 1st International Congress of Zoology in Paris alongside the Universal Exhibition. He was made officer of the Legion of Honor in 1912. Towards the end of his life he studied medical works from the Middle Ages including stone inscriptions.