The Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1923. WAR AGAINST TROPICAL DISEASES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17170, 13 October 1923, Page 8

The Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1923. WAR AGAINST TROPICAL DISEASES.

An appeal is being made throughout the Empire for funds to be used for the founding of a Ross Institute, in honour of one of Britain’s greatest scientific investigators, Sir Ronald Ross. The twenty-fifth anniversary of Ross’s epoch making discovery of the transmission of malaria to human beings through the bite of the anopheline mosquito w ill shortly occur. The discovery revolutionised medical science and living conditions throughout the tropics. Many parts of the world whose climates were reputed to be fatal to Europeans have been disarmed of a large

measure of their dangers. It is pointed out that in the case of the Panama Canal the application of the knowledge acquired by Sir Ronald Ross's labours enabled General Gorges to so completely stamp oyt malaria and yellow fever that the imported labour forces were able to carry out their work amid normal health conditions. The elimination of the risk of the malarial injection was complete. In many other parts of the tropics where local control cannot be so rigid the danger lias been reduced in a remarkable degree during the last quarter of a century. It is not possible to exaggerate the services \ which Ross has thus rendered to mankind, the number of lives that he has been instrumental in saving, and the amount of suffering which he lias spared to thousands. All the world has shared in the benefits, but from the British Empire, which is the possessor of vast areas in the tropics, a special debt of gratitude is due to this son who has rendered an incalculable service.

The movement in Britain is designed to secure a public recognition of Sir Ronald’s services while he is still alive to appreciate it, and one that will he a lasting memorial to him after his death. There is in process of organisation the nucleus of an institute in which it is proposed that laboratory research and clinical investigations should be combined as closely as possible in accordance with Sir Ronald’s teaching. The institute is intended to supplement and in no way compete with the existing Schools of Tropical Medicine. Its primary object should be research, hi which Ross, assisted by other experts in medical science, should have the fullest scope for the initiation and continuation of researches into the still unsolved problems of tropical medicine and hygiene.