The mode of infection in malaria : three more Ross-Manson letters, 1898 / by Sir Ronald Ross.

  • Ronald Ross
Date:
1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mode of infection in malaria : three more Ross-Manson letters, 1898 / by Sir Ronald Ross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THREE MORE ROSS-MANSON LETTERS, 1898, PREFATORY NOTE. Last month I published my two letters of August 22nd and 31st, 1897, to Dr. Patrick Manson, in which I recorded the finding of the malaria parasite in the stomach tissue of two Anopheles mosquitoes. I now publish my three letters of June 28th, July 6th, and July 9th, 1898, regarding the unexpected discovery by me that the parasites of malaria are communicated by the bite of the infected mosquitoes through their salivary glands. There was no guide at all to conduce us into the opinion that the parasites are communicated in such a manner. ‘There was no reason to believe this and no evidence directing our thoughts along that line. The discovery amazed me when I made it, Manson when he heard of it, and all those who read of it; and we are still astonished at the fertility of invention possessed by nature and derived merely from her trial-and-failure methods. Obviously, even if the infection does succeed in being carried by this method, it will succeed only in a minute proportion of the parasites present in the mosquito at any one time. As a matter of fact, this portion of my work was practically the most important portion, because it showed us exactly how the contagion vivum is carried and how it could be avoided. If I had not succeeded in showing the exact route, one can imagine the immense amount of talk that would still have been to follow, even after the mode of entry of the parasite into mosquitoes was demon- strated. Unfortunately, though this subject has been before medical men for more than 30 years, most of them seem still to be under the delusion that this part of the discovery was one of trifling and of secondary interest—showing how long it takes them to understand even demonstrated facts. It is of little importance that a mosquito should carry the poison oué of us, but one of vast importance that AS
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