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PERSONALITY
OF THE MONTH
Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932)
Sir Ronald Ross of Great Britain, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1902 was born in Almora, India on May 13, 1857. Son of General Sir Campbell Clay Grant Ross, Indian Army, he joined the Indian Medical Service, and served with the Indian Army from 1881 to 1894 in Madras and Burma. In 1894, while on leave in London, he met Sir Patric Manson and under his influence started working on the cause of malaria. Two years later, he discovered that a parasite in the blood of birds closely resembled the malarial parasite of humans. He came to the conclusion that human malaria was transmitted in the same way. The entire research was done in a small laboratory in the Presidency General Hospital (later known as the SSKM Hospital), Kolkatta. During World War I, he was War office consultant on malaria to the Indian Troops.
Ross is most famous for being the first man to demonstrate that mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of malaria from person to person. He showed how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for the successful research on this disease and methods of combating it. He was given the Nobel Prize for his work on malaria.
Today, the dreadful malaria is well under control with suitable drugs and medication. The disease which claimed the lives of millions of people decades ago has become a minor pain due to the great help and hard work of Sir Ronald Ross and the world salutes him for it.
—Courtesy: Manorama
