'42 MALARIA 



to encourage Major Ross, who in 1895 began in 

 Secunderabad a series of investigations, which, after 

 much weary work, were crowned with brilliant 

 success. The difficulties of the work were very great. 

 Hardly anything was known about the great number 

 of gnats and mosquitoes which are found all over 

 India, and it was often impossible to have them accu- 

 rately determined. Then no one could predict the 

 appearance of the parasite within the body of the 

 mosquito — if it were there — or in what part of the body 

 it should be looked for. The mosquito had to be 

 searched cell by cell. The difficulty of dissecting a 

 mosquito is great even in temperate climes, and when 

 we recollect that hundreds of all the available species 

 were dissected in the most malarious districts in 

 India, we must recognize that it was only a faith akin 

 to that which moves mountains which sustained the 

 courage and stimulated the perseverance of the tire- 

 less worker. For nearly two years and a half Major 

 Ross searched in vain. No matter what species of 

 mosquito he worked at, the results were negative. A 

 less determined man would long ago have abandoned 

 the research ; Major Ross only tried new methods. 

 At Sigur Ghat, near Ootacamund, a peculiarly 

 malarious district, he noticed for the first time a 

 mosquito with spotted wings which laid boat-shaped 

 eggs. Shortly afterwards he was able to feed eight 

 specimens of this mosquito on a patient whose blood 

 contained the parasites in the gametocyte stage— and 

 it should have been mentioned above that all mos- 

 quitoes dissected were first fed upon the blood of 

 malarious patients. Six of these insects were searched 

 through and through, organ by organ, but without 

 result. The seventh showed certain unusual cells m 

 the outer surface of the stomach, which contained a 

 few granules of the characteristic black pigment or 

 melanin of malarial fever. The eighth and last speci- 



