| It is highly likely that many of you have heard the name Ronald Ross, and perhaps you even know a bit about him. In the history section of almost any medical entomology class or textbook, we learn that Ross, a British physician of Scottish descent, is credited with the first successful demonstration of the transmission of malaria parasites (in birds), and that he was guided in his studies by Sir Patrick Manson, generally considered the Father of Tropical Medicine. |
| In April of 1865, when he was nearly 8 years old, Ross was sent back to England for schooling. He lived with his father ’s sister and her husband, also an Army officer. For the next 9 years, Ross attended various schools, including a boarding school, where he was grounded in the classics, became proficient in mathematics, and studied drawing and music. He also indulged his interest in natural history, star ting a book “which should contain a description of every known species of animal.” He read the Bible and studied noted authors such as Pope, Milton and Shakespeare. By age 17 (1874), Ross’s career goal s focused on being an artist or joining the Army or Navy. However, his father had other ideas for his eldest son. In Ross’s own words, “my father had set his heart upon my joining the medical profession and, finally, the Indian Medical Service, which was then well paid and possessed many good appointments….but I had no predilection at all for medicine and like most youths, felt disposed to look down upon it.” Ross enrolled in medical school at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London after being delivered to the front door by his father personally, but his academic efforts were diluted with writing drama and poetry, composing and playing music, and teaching himself to play the piano. In 1879, after 5 years of insincere effort, Ross failed to qualify in medicine. Then, he made a fateful decision. Threatened with losing his father’s financial support to continue his medical school efforts, Ross instead took a job as a Ship’s Surgeon, something that he had qualified for while in school. |
| Ross finally joined the Indian Medical Service and served in India and Burma until 1888. By this time, pay in the Service was average or below and opportunities for promotion were scarce due to a plethora of junior officers. Also, the medical work was slow so Ross had plenty of time to devote to tennis, golf, writing dramas and studying mathematics and philosophy. This was not, however, Lieutenant Ross’s ‘cup of tea,’ and depression set in. In 1888 he returned to England on furlough. His life was about to change drastically. |
| After leaving Manson and returning to India, Ross began his quest with a handicap that would have easily overtaken a lesser man – ignorance of almost everything he needed to know! As previously mentioned, he had taken a short course in bacteriology. He was self-taught in microscopy and did not know the literature so he was unaware of a new staining procedure that would have likely saved him hundreds of hours. As serious as these deficiencies were, they were trivial compared to his total lack of knowledge concerning mosquitoes! His task was simply stated – to study Plasmodium, not in humans, but in mosquitoes – but incredibly complicated, and he encountered almost every possible obstacle. His major contributions over the next three years may be summarized as follows: First, he demonstrated that volunteers who drank water contaminated with infected mosquito adults and larvae failed to contract malaria. Second, on August 20, 1897 he observed developing human malaria parasites and their characteristic black pigment in the stomach wall of Anopheles mosquitoes, which he cal led “dapple-winged.” For years after, Ross referred to this date as ‘Mosquito Day.’ The third and most significant contribution made by Ross came about courtesy of the British Army, for about one month after Mosquito Day, he received orders to an area where there was no human malaria. Ross was incredibly disappointed and frustrated by this at first. Some months later, however, this ever-resourceful scientist was able to demonstrate the full avian malaria life cycle using sparrows and Culex mosquitoes. Ross’s experimental career ended in 1899 when he retired from the Indian Medical Service, perhaps so that he would not have to be away from his daughters, who likely would have been sent back to England for schooling. I shall have more to say about this later. |
| I would like to briefly examine the rift (to put it mildly) that developed between Ross and the Italian investigators, particularly Giovanni Battista Grassi. The Italians began work on transmission of human malaria in the middle of July 1898. By this time, Ross’s proof was complete and partly published. The Italians were well aware of what he had done and they knew that two main tasks remained: (1) demonstrate that the parasite of human malaria had a cycle in the mosquito similar to what Ross had shown; and (2) identify the mosquito that transmits human malaria parasites. Essentially, the Italians followed Ross’s exact line of investigation, but used Anopheles mosquitoes and human parasites. When their work was published, Ross was stung to anger as he felt he was not given adequate credit. And in my opinion, he was right. But once the quarrel escalated, the simple truths were cloaked and twisted by pas s ion and jealousy. Here is the essence of the turmoil: 1) Ross might have completed his proof with human malaria, but he did not – the Italians did. 2) Ross speculated that the “dapple-winged” mosquito probably was the culprit – the Italians proved it. 3) Ross was the first to demonstrate the entire life cycle of the malaria parasite. 4) Ross is not entitled to the whole credit for the whole proof because he did not finish it in humans. |
| So how should the world remember Ronald Ross? How should we, in the mosquito control profession and field of public health, think of him? The answer, although complicated, is clear in my opinion. He was a dedicated, highly intelligent scientist who made great discoveries. He was a renaissance man, for sure, schooled in the arts and music. He was passionate, inquisitive, and romantic. He could be cantankerous and difficult with friends and others, without a doubt. Even his relationship with Manson cooled over the years, in par t due to Ross ’s feud with Grassi. |