xxvi Annual Address. [February, 1917. 



and the eastern part of the valley saved from devastation little 

 if at all less disastrous than war itself. A recent investigation 

 by Major McCombie Young, Sanitary Commissioner. Assam, has 

 showed that the disease remains in a sporadic form in just those 



mi 



point 



Before leaving this part of the subject let me emphasize the 

 fact that all the above practically important prophylactic 

 measures were worked out as a result of m\ epidemiological 

 studies before we had any accurate knowledge of the true 

 nature and causation of the disease, so that however wrong my 

 theories proved to be, 1 have the satisfaction of knowing that 

 my earliest important investigation in India led to much saving 

 of life and suffering, which has always been a greater satisfac 

 tion to me than in making purely scientific discoveries without 

 much practical value. 



The Discovery of the Parasite of Kala-Azar and 



of its "Life-History. 



In the meanwhile my theory that kala-azar was an epi- 

 demic malaria, although supported by the high authority of 

 ^ir Ronald Ross, was criticized by others, and Dr. Bentley, on 

 the strength of what ultimately proved to be erroneous blood 

 tests made at Kasauli. declared the disease to be an epidemic 

 of Malta fever, but at the same time he brought forward some 

 strong arguments against the disease being malarial. While 



opinions 



probl 



is scientific thought all over the world united b\ medical litera- 

 ture at the present day. In Africa the late Dr. Dutton. the 

 most brilliant worker yet produced by the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine, discovered a human 1 1 y panosome in th« 

 blood of a patient suffering from a fever, which was later proved 

 by Sir David Bruce to be the eariv si age of the deadly sleeping 

 sickness. Sir William Leishman then recorded having fouad 

 some minute bodies in the spleen of a soldier who died in 

 England of a fever contracted in Dum Dmn. and suggested 

 that they were degenerate trypanosoro ;. Lfc. < olonel. C. Dono- 

 van, I.M.S., of the Madras Medical College, immediately 

 announced that he had independent!; found the same bodie 

 some months before, and added the important fact that thev 

 could be obtained by spleen puncture during life, thus disprov- 

 ing Irishman's theory that thev were degenerate trvpanosomes 

 Donovan also suggested that the so-called malarial cachexia 

 and kala-azar might also be due to this parasite. Leishman 

 and Donovan were therefore the joint discoverers of the para- 

 site of kala-azar which is called after them, and I am glad to 

 say that the Asiatic Society has been the first to recognize the 

 importance of Donovans work bv electing him to our Ml° w " 



