HOW MAN CONQUERED MALARIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 130, 4 June 1938, Page 27

HOW MAN CONQUERED MALARIA

A tribute has been paid to the work of Sir Patrick Manson and Sir Ronhld Ross for their work in the prevention and cure of malaria, says the "News Chronicle!"

Sir Patrick Manson was for many years medical adviser to the Colonial Office. In 1897 he demanded special education in tropical medicine .in Britain's medical schools, and in 1898 the London' and Liverpool Schools of Tropical Medicine were founded. At the head of the London school was Sir Patrick Manson, and the processor of tropical medicine at the Liverpool school was Sir Ronald Ross until his death in 1932.

It was Dr. Manson's son who submitted himself to a crucial experiment which proved the now long-established theory of - the transmission of the malaria parasite by the mosquito.

In 1897 Sir Ronald Ross, after years of experimenting under most disheartening conditions, solved the problem of malaria: "A water-breeding mosquito sucked not decomposed vegetable or animal matter at the marsh, but the blood of a man suffering from malaria, and in which there were parasites in abundance. The parasites sucked in with the meal of blood underwent further development in the mosquito—i.e., infected the mosquito; and then, when the infected mosquito (which had now become the carrier) bit a man it infected him."

Here is Sir Ronald Ross's story of how he discovered the secret of the malaria parasite:—

"On August 20, 1897;, I had two remaining insects;' both Jiving. [They were insects which were known to

have bitten malarial patients.] Both had been fed on the 16th inst. I had much work to do with other mosquitoes, and was not able to attend to these until late in the afternoon, when my sight had become very fatigued. The seventh dapple-winged mosquito was then successfully dissected. Every cell was searched, and to my intense disappointment nothing whatever was found until I came to the insect's stomach. "Here, however, just as I was about to abandon the examination, I saw a very delicate circular cell, apparently lying among the ordinary cells of the organ, and scarcely distinguishable from them. Almost instinctively I felt that here was something new. On looking further another and another similar object presented themselves. I now focused the lens carefully on one of these, and found that it contained a few minute granules of some black substance, exactly like the pigment of the parasite of malaria. I counted altogether twelve of these cells in the insect, but was so tired with work and had been so often disappointed before that I did not at the moment Recognise the value of the observation. After mounting the preparation I went home and slept for nearly an hour. On waking my first thought was that the problem was solved, and so it was. "These minute spores enter the salivary gland of the mosquito and pass with its poisonous saliva directly into the blood of man. Never in our dreams, had we imagined so wonderful &< tale as this." For this discovery Ross received the Nobel Prize some years later.