ABSTRACT
In the early Autumn of 1894, a sixty-six year-old Eleanor Ormerod leaned over her microscope to examine a specimen of Heterodera schachtii (Beet-root eel-worm). Frustrated by the insufficient power of her microscope she nevertheless persevered, watching closely, and suddenly she saw a female specimen with a regularly formed, circular orifice. This opening's natural existence was uncertain to entomologists as it was usually found torn. Taking up this particular specimen with excitement she placed it in glycerine under a thick cover-glass, pressed slightly, and several little eel-worms exited without tearing the orifice. With the excitement of discovery, Ormerod ran to the study door and called through the house for her sister, Georgiana, to come and see “the interesting sight”. Unfortunately, returning her attention after only a few minutes to the female eel-worm “the regularity was gone; the outer skin … [of the female]- was cracking irregularly from the aperture and giving exit to a mixed collection of eggs and wormlets.” Not giving up hope of a discovery, Ormerod returned to the microscope to try to find another female specimen to prove this anatomical point. 1
