Thomas Spencer Cobbold FRS (1828 – March 10, 1886), English man of science, was born at Ipswich, the third son of the Rev. Richard Cobbold (1797–1877), the author of the History of Margaret Catchpole.
After graduating in medicine at Edinburgh in 1851, he was appointed lecturer on botany at St Mary's Hospital, London in 1857 and also on zoology and comparative anatomy at Middlesex Hospital in 1861. he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June, 1864. [1]
From 1868 he acted as Swiney lecturer on geology at the British Museum until 1873, when he became professor of botany at the Royal Veterinary College, afterwards filling a chair of helminthology which was specially created for him at that institution. He died in London on the 20th of March 1886.
His special subject was helminthology, particularly the worms parasitic in man and animals, and as a physician he gained a considerable reputation in the diagnosis of cases depending on the presence of such organisms.
His numerous writings include Entozoa (1864); Tapeworms (1866); Parasites (1879); Human Parasites (1882); and Parasites of Meat and Prepared Flesh Food (1884).