REPORT OF THE MALARIA EXPEDITION TO 
NIGERIA OF THE LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF 
TROPICAL MEDICINE AND MEDICAL 
PARASITOLOGY 
I. PRELIMINARY 
I. — Introduction. Scientific research and investigation in the subject of the 
aetiology of malarial fever during the last twenty years of the past century furnished 
results unequalled in their important bearing, not only in the science of parasitology, 
but more especially on the imperial question of the colonisation of the notoriously 
unhealthy parts of tropical and subtropical countries. 
In 1880 Laveran, 1 in Algiers, first discovered adventitious living organisms 
in the red blood corpuscles of patients suffering from malarial fever, which were 
characterised by the possession of a dark pigment, and by their capability of executing 
amoeboid movements. 
In 1889 Golgi, 2 of Pavia, by studying the 'rosace' forms, was able to 
differentiate between tertian and quartan forms of fever, and to trace out the 
processes of maturation and sporulation of the parasites and their relations to the 
periodicity of these fevers. 
In 1894, Manson 3 originated the idea that the malarial parasite was capable 
of an existence outside the human body, in which the 'flagellate' form played an 
important role. He was led to suggest that the mosquito served as a host for the 
further development of the parasite. 
Ross, in 1897 4 and succeeding years, 5 established the truth of these ideas, 
and first succeeded in the cultivation of the crescent form of the aestivo-autumnal 
parasite {Haemomenas praecox) in the stomach of Anopheles rossii- In 1898 the life- 
history of a similar parasite of birds (Proteosoma grassii, Haemamoeba relic ta) was worked 
out by him — from the formation of zygotes from the fertilised female parasite 
(macrogamete) in the stomach wall of Culex pipiens to the collection of the germinal 
rods (blasts, sporozoi'tes) in the cells of the salivary glands. The complete biological 
cycle of the parasite was furnished by the production of infection in healthy birds by 
the bites of mosquitoes previously fed on infected birds. Confirmation of these 
