Contemporary British parasitologist Frank Cox has explored how the question of what parasitology is has shaped the history of the discipline. Given that the parasitic lifestyle is common to helminths, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi, parasitoid insects, some plants like mistletoe, and even birds like cuckoos, there is—and has historically been—a need to narrow down the subject of study. Cox uses the understanding of ‘discipline’ as a ‘social institution’ to trace the emergence of parasitology to the second half of the nineteenth century and specifically to the publication of the field’s first dedicated journal Parasitology in 1908. This social understand-ing of ‘discipline’ makes the formation of institutions, societies, and spe-cialist journals (enabling like-minded individuals to meet and exchange ideas) a watershed moment.