Volume 1

The prevention of malaria / by Ronald Ross ; with contributions by L.O. Howard [and others].

  • Ronald Ross
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The prevention of malaria / by Ronald Ross ; with contributions by L.O. Howard [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    19 might now escape from the dead insect into the water, with which they might be swallowed by men; or they might be blown about with the dust and be inhaled; and they might also be swallowed by mosquito larvae and so propagate them¬ selves indefinitely in the insects, apart from man. Roughly, the life-history of Laveran’s bodies was, he thought, similar to that which he considered Filana bancrofti to possess. A few months later A. Bignami attacked Hanson’s views for several reasons [1896]. He refused to admit that mosquitos can take the parasite from human beings, but supposed, con¬ versely, that human beings take it from mosquitos. In support of this he merely adduced some of the reasons previously given by Several other writers supported or opposed the hypothesis about the same time. This is a short, but, I think, a fairly exact account of these hypotheses. The importance of speculations of this kind is apt to be either underrated or overrated. Modern science does not look upon them with much favour unless those who publish them strive also to verify them. It is easy to sit at home and weave many hypotheses ; but attempts to verify them generally demand endless labour, expense, self-sacrifice or even danger, and often fail, or, even if successful, win little reward. There were many before Columbus who imagined America; but between the dream and the reality an ocean had to be traversed. All the conjectures mentioned above have proved wrong in many particulars. Mosquitos do not bring the virus from the marsh to the man, nor from the man to the marsh. The truth has proved to be far more wonderful than any hypothesis. It is curious that no one recognised the suggestion which should have been obtained from the phenomenon of metaxeny among some other parasites, namely, that the mosquitos might carry the virus from man to man. I was driven to this in 1896- 1897 just before the fact was revealed. On the other hand, such speculations often serve a useful purpose by giving some direction to practical work. Thus
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