CHAPTER VI 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE TAKASITE OF ^lAI-AllIA IN 

 THE BFOOD OF MAN BY LAVERAN, AND OF ITS 

 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AND PASSAGE THROUGH 

 THE MOSQUITO BY ROSS 



Having in the preceding chapters traced how men's 

 minds were gradually being turned to the possible 

 danger of the mosquito in relationship to disease, and 

 thus in some measure preparing the way to the great 

 discovery of Ross that one particular genus of mosquito 

 could alone communicate malaria from man to man, 

 I will in this chapter refer first to the discovery of the 

 malarial parasite in the blood of man by Laveran and 

 others, and then I will deal fully with the discovery 

 of Ross. 



AVhilst, as we have already seen in the preceding 

 pages, the marsh fevers or malaria were attributed 

 to emanations or miasms from swamps, investigators 

 folloM'ing other lines liad searched the blood of man 

 by means of the microscope to try to find sometliing 

 in the blood-stream — some organism to whicli the very 

 characteristic febrile symptoms of malaria might be 

 definitely ascribed. 'J'his quest was but natural, and 



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