Dramatic Moments. MALARIA GERM DISCOVERED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 97, 18 January 1935, Page 7

Dramatic Moments. MALARIA GERM DISCOVERED

For years Dr. Ronald Ross, of the Indian Medical Service, had worked on his theory that the malaria germ was carried by mosquitoes. He dis sected thousands of the insects ■ and painstakingly observed them until the intense light reflected in his microscope began to affect his sight. On August 20. 1897, he successfully dissected the last insect. Nothing was found until he came to' the insect’s stomach. Just as he was about to abandon the examination he saw a very delicate circular cell, apparently lying among the ordinary cells of the organ, and scarcely distinguishable from them. Almost instinctively he felt that here was something new. On looking further another and another similar, object presented itself. “I now focused the lens carefully on one of these, and found that it contained granules of some black substances exactly like the pigment of the parasites of malaria,” he said. It was Dr. Ross’s supreme moment of triumph, but so tired was he, and so often had he been disappointed, that he did not recognise it then. After mounting the preparation, he went home and slept for nearly an hour. On waking, his first thought was that the . problem was solved, and so it was.