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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    those connected with Texas cattle-fever, nagana, and tick- fever greatly limited the labour of research by suggesting the actual species of the alternative hosts, namely certain ticks and tsetse flies; and those of Beauperthuy and Finlay suggested the Stegomyia calopus as the agent of yellow fever. With regard to paludism the earlier hypotheses, critically looked at, suggested nothing more than that there might possibly, or probably, be some connection between mosquitos and the disease. Manson’s idea regarding these forms of the parasites (gametocytes) which produce the motile filaments (microgametes) was, however, more than a mere speculation—it was an induction based upon our general knowledge of parasites. As he said, these bodies must have some meaning and. object. It was difficult to imagine that they could have any other object except to infect some suctorial animal—probably mosquitos. But this idea led us no further; it gave no clue as to how and where the parasites live in mosquitos, how they return to man and infect him, and in which of the hundreds of species of mosquitos they exist. It was only a glimmer in the darkness—but it was something. Obviously the truth could be obtained only by a long and determined investigation of the whole subject. 5, Researches regarding* the Mode of Infection.—These really began with the old attempts mentioned in section 3 to find the infective organism in marsh water, and with those mentioned in section 4, and culminating in the negative efforts of Zeri [1890] to infect healthy persons with such water. Parallel researches on various worms and on Piroplasma bigeminum were referred to in the last section. I have now to describe my own work. Entering the Indian Medical Service in 1881 I was much struck by the misery caused among the people by this and other diseases; and in 1889, during leave in England, studied bacteriology and public health, with a view to undertaking pathological investigations. On return¬ ing to India I was especially drawn to the difficult problem of
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