CHAPTER XIX 



MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA 

 How Sir Ronald Ross Conquered an Enemy of Man 



THE history of Science is a record of attempts 

 made by devoted men and women to wrest from 

 nature secrets which enable us to save life or to 

 develop life more fully day by day. If the seeker after 

 truth succeeds in adding something to the sum total 

 of human knowledge, then sooner or later his work is 

 recognized. If he fails, his work remains unknown to the 

 world, and others carry on the search. 



Often the margin that divides success from failure is as 

 narrow as a knife-edge. A few minutes' extra work when 

 the body is already tired beyond endurance and the brain 

 cries "It is useless " may result in a discovery that will 

 save countless human lives. Sometimes the discovery 

 comes like a flash of lightning. More often, as this 

 volume reveals, it is the reward of infinite patience, of 

 sheer dogged persistence which takes no thought of time 

 or difficulties or sacrifices. 



To patience of that order the world owes the greatest 

 medical discovery of the past fifty years — the discovery 

 that malaria, dread scourge of the tropics, is ' carried ' 

 by mosquitoes. Apparently simple, yet a discovery that 

 has revolutionized the whole study of tropical medicine, 

 and made inhabitable vast tracts of the earth's surface 

 where formerly men died or were incapacitated in their 

 tens of thousands. None knew how this terrible disease 

 was spread, until the secret was revealed by two British 

 doctors, who will always be honoured as benefactors of 



the human race. 



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