NATURE 



[July 7, 1923 



of the Plasmodium were " flagellated-spores " (which 

 was an error), no originality is recognizable. By 

 dovetailing various views of acknowledged authorities 

 with the analogy of filariasis, as previously suggested 

 by Laveran, he attempted to meet the then current 

 opinion of transmission of malaria to man through 

 the medium of air or water. 



The " Memoirs " show that up to 1896 Ross had 

 laboured to prove the hypothesis of Manson, and that 

 mosquitoes, fleas, bugs, horse-flies, and cockroaches 

 had been duly examined, while direct experiments 

 upon human beings had been made as to conveyance 

 by water, with the result that he informed Manson 

 that " the belief is growing upon me that the disease 

 is communicated by the bite of the mosquito " (pp. 

 176, 190, 193). To this Manson rephed, " It may be 

 the mosquito conveys the parasite by biting, but I do 

 not think so — at all events, I do not think so directly." 

 Ross now informed Manson that he was " dying to go 

 away to some regular hotbed of malaria " — the object 

 obviously being to secure possible factors in intense 

 occurrence. He obtained short leave from military 

 duty, and proceeded to a spot popularly held to be 

 the haunt of a deadly form of malaria — Sigur Ghat in 

 the Nilgiris Hills. This resolve was the turning-point 

 of his investigation. A detail concerning his return 

 to Bangalore, where he was stationed, does not appear 

 in his " Memoirs." A friend perceived a mounted 

 man approaching him gesticulating excitedly. This 

 proved to be Ross, who shouted " I've got it — I've 

 got it ! " Naturally, a fortune by a sweepstake or 

 the like was " sensed," but a demand for enlightenment 

 elicited the banal reply, " I've got the fever." He 

 had been able to concentrate attention upon air, 

 water, and the mosquito as factors, with the crowning 

 joy of suffering from fever ; he was able to adopt a 

 " mathematical line of reasoning," which pointed to 

 the chances of the malarial germ being conveyed by 

 the mosquito direct to man rather than in a form 

 diluted by air or water. Thereafter, he could say 

 with Newton that he did not deal with hypotheses 

 but with facts. On August 20, 1897, Ross identified 

 the first stage of development of the plasmodium in 

 the mosquito. It would deprive the reader of in- 

 teresting details were the further history of his efforts 

 traced. Suffice it to say that by July 9, 1898, Ross 

 had not proved but had disproved Manson' s hypothesis 

 of i8g4. 



Ross has roundly declared time after time, and in 

 various forms, that it was Manson's " great induction 

 which did it — nothing else," and that he had received 

 advice from Manson. These affirmations have been 

 misconstrued. Lister, after entering judicially into 

 the attempted piracy of Ross's discovery by dfertain 



NO. 2801, VOL. 1 J 2] 



ItaUan savants, gave his opinion thus : " The discovery 

 of the development of the parasite in the mosquito 

 was due solely and simply to Major Ross, who had 

 shown absolute candour, perfect openness of mind, 

 and a readiness to recognise the work of others." 

 Throughout the " Memoirs " these attributes are 

 unconsciously displayed by the author.^ The advice 

 as to technique given by Manson was based upon 

 special knowledge of filariasis — it was found inappli- 

 cable by Ross to his requirements ; it was, nevertheless, 

 courteously acknowledged. The " great induction " 

 referred to the function of the fiagella, and, when 

 deprived of Manson's erroneous suggestion as to these 

 being spores, did not differ materially from the views 

 expressed previously by Laveran and Mannaberg. 

 Ross, however, justly held that, by insisting that the 

 fiagella had some undiscovered yet important bio- 

 logical function, Manson had provided an incentive 

 to research, which he handsomely acknowledged. 



Manson had the gratification of finding that he had 

 been the factor in inducing one man, among hundreds 

 of potential workers to whom he had made an appeal 

 broadcast, to undertake research on what he believed 

 to be (British Medical Journal, 1898, p. 1576) "the 

 logical outcome of well-ascertained facts, . . . and 

 the most promising guide to fresh facts." That one 

 man was Ross, whose inner consciousness, as early 

 as 1890-93, had been stirred to discover means for 

 averting the misery incident to malaria in the popula- 

 tions of India. In his poetic record, under the title 

 " Indian Fevers," he had written, " O God reveal 

 thro' all this thing obscure, the unseen, small, but 

 million-murdering cause " (" Philosophies," p. 21) ; 

 and, on the day when he realized that his invocation 

 had been answered, wrote, " This day relenting, God 

 hath placed within my hand a wondrous thing ; and, 

 God be praised, I know this little thing a myriad men 

 will save." 



Ross had definitely undertaken his research — ^not 

 in the quest of abstract science — but in the interests 

 of preventive medicine. His next hope therefore was 

 to be allowed to apply methods based on his discovery. 

 The Government of India (in which country one 

 million deaths occur yearly from malaria), however, 

 not only failed to issue so much as the usual stereo- 

 typed "thanks of Government," but also refused to 

 promise him facilities. Rather than leave matters thus 

 he retired from the Indian Medical Service ; with a 

 pension one-fourth the value he might have secured 



• At forty years of age, he had still to learn that the compendium to the 

 tenth Commandment — " nor anything that is his " — was liable to be 

 forgotten by pseudo-men of science, and that, with Governments, the 

 axiom " Politics first " and " deil tak' the hinmost " allows little room for 

 financing the interests ot so trivial a fad as disease prevention. Difficulties 

 encountered are factors in evolution — sometimes beneficent ; in the case 

 of the author, for many years since he arrived at that age of discretion, in 

 public speeches and in literature, he has proved a powerful advocate of aid 

 to research workers. 



