 It was also recognized by ancient scholars such as Hippocrates, Aretaeus, Galen and Rhazes.Although echinococcosis has been well known for the past two thousand years, it was not until the past couple of hundred years that real progress was made in determining and describing its parasitic origin.The first step towards figuring out the cause of echinococcosis occurred during the 17th century when Francesco Redi illustrated that the hydatid cysts of echinococcosis were of "animal" origin.