340 AISIlSrUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTIl^UTION, 1942 



In a letter dated July 5', 1897, to Sir Charles Crosthwaite, asking 

 him to influence the Government of India to put Ross on special 

 malaria research, Sir Patrick Manson wrote : 



Money can build institutes, but a thousand institutes are useless if they are 

 not manned by the right men. A good man is worth them all. I have no hesita- 

 tion in saying that at the present moment Ross is the best man in India to carry 

 on malaria investigation. To lose him therefore as I say, would be a public 

 calamity. ... It would be a vast pity if the chance which now presents of 

 maliing a substantial addition to the pathological science should once again be 

 lost to Englishmen. We are cutting a sorry figure alongside other nations at 

 present. To our national shame, be it said that few, very few, of the wonderful 

 advances in the science of the healing art which have signalized recent years, have 

 been made by our countrymen. This is particularly apparent in the matter of 

 tropical diseases, in which we should in virtue of our exceptional opportunities 

 be facile princeps. . . . But in this matter of malaria here is a chance for an 

 Englishman to rehabilitate our national character and to point out to the rest 

 of the world how to deal with the most important disease in the world — 

 malaria. (Manson-Bahr and Alcock, 1927.) 



Infinite patience and the burning energy of his genius enabled 

 Ross to overcome innumerable difficulties, and prove to the world 

 something that neither he nor Manson quite expected: the malaria 

 parasite was not just sucked up by the mosquito from a man suffering 

 from the disease, or transferred mechanically. The parasite actually 

 bred in the wall of the mosquito's stomach; the offspring of the 

 original parasites when mature were injected into another man; so 

 the disease spread. Ross discovered what the parasite looked like in 

 all its various stages in the mosquito and where these stages were to 

 be found; the prolonged researches also proved that not every mos- 

 quito could be infected; only some with spots on their wings, later 

 identified by entomologists as Anopheles mosquitoes. The mosquitoes 

 which could not be infected are those popularly called Culex. This 

 was a huge step forward : indeed it constituted one of the major dis- 

 coveries of medicine. For malaria probably kills more people than 

 any single disease in the world. The stage was now set for the pre- 

 vention of malaria by striking at the mosquito. 



The medical profession in this connection divided into two camps: 

 in one Ronald Ross; in the other the rest of the profession. Ross 

 realized more fully than did his colleagues at that time the line that 

 would have to be taken if malaria was to be prevented. In an ex- 

 ceedingly able report to the Government of India he wrote that while 

 it was not possible to kill mosquitoes everywhere, it would be wise to 

 make a beginning by ascertaining which of the mosquitoes carried 

 malaria and which did not. Neilher Ross nor anyone else working 

 at the problem realized that before this could be successful on a large 

 scale and especially in rural areas, many more years of research 

 would be required with Ross's discovery as its starting point. Nor 

 did anyone realize at first that the very technique which Ross invented 



