Ronald Ross
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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Sir Ronald Ross
(born May 13, 1857, Almora, Indiadied Sept. 16, 1932, Putney Heath, London, Eng.) British bacteriologist. After earning a medical degree, he entered the Indian Medical Service and served in the third Anglo-Burmese War (1885). He studied bacteriology in London, then returned to India, where he discovered the plasmodium parasite (cause of malaria) in the gastrointestinal tract of the Anopheles mosquito in 1897. He used infected and healthy birds to learn its entire life cycle, including its presence in the mosquito's salivary glands, showing how it is transmitted by a bite. He received a 1902 Nobel Prize.
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Oxford Dictionary of Scientists:
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Sir Ronald Ross
British physician (1857–1932)
The son of an Indian Army officer, Ross was born in Almora, India. He originally wished to be an artist but his father was determined that he should join the Indian Medical Service. Consequently, after a medical education at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, Ross entered the Indian Medical Service in 1881.
Much of Ross's early career was spent in literary pursuits, writing poetry and verse dramas; he published some 15 literary works between 1883 and 1920. It was also during this first period in India that Ross developed his passion for mathematics. This was a lifelong interest and he published some seven titles between 1901 and 1921; in his Algebra of Space (1901) he claimed to have anticipated some of the work of A. N. Whitehead.
On leave in England in 1889, Ross took a diploma in public health and attended courses in the newly established discipline of bacteriology. He became interested in malaria and in 1894 approached Patrick Manson with a request to be shown how to detect the causative parasite of malaria, first described by Charles Laveran in 1880. With his guidance and encouragement, Manson turned out to be the major influence in Ross's scientific career; it was Manson who suggested to Ross that mosquitoes might be the vectors of malaria, and when Ross returned to India he spent the next four years researching this theory.
His first strategy, to try and demonstrate the transmission of the disease from mosquitoes to man, met with little success: attempts to infect a colleague with bites from a mosquito fed on malaria patients failed, possibly because the species he used was not a carrier of the disease. He therefore decided to study the natural history of the mosquito in more detail and by 1897 had succeeded in identifying malaria parasites (plasmodia) in the bodies of Anopheles mosquitoes fed on blood from infected patients. Ross then attempted to show what happened to the parasite in the mosquito and how it reached a new human victim. He decided to work with avian malaria and its vector Culex fatigans, giving him a control over his experimental subjects impossible to attain with man. By 1898 he had succeeded in identifying the Proteosoma parasite responsible for avian malaria in the salivary glands of the mosquito, thus proving that the parasite was transmitted to its avian host by the bite of the mosquito. Manson was able to report Ross's work to the meeting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh and by the end of the year Italian workers under Giovanni Grassi had been able to show similar results in the Anopheles mosquito, the vector of human malaria.
In 1899 Ross resigned from the Indian Medical Service and accepted a post at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, remaining there until 1912, when he moved to London to become a consultant. During this period he spent much time on the problem of mosquito control, advising many tropical countries on appropriate strategies.
For his work on malaria Ross was awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.
Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health:
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Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross (1857–1932) was a British medical scientist, entomologist, and epidemiologist. Born in India, he studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London and then went to India to embark upon a career in the Indian Medical Service, where he focused his attention on malaria. On a return visit to Britain he met the tropical disease specialist Patrick Manson, discoverer of the mosquito-borne transmission of filariasis (parasitic worms), who urged him to concentrate on the quest for the mechanism of mosquito transmission of malaria.
Ross worked in the south of India around Madras, where malaria was highly endemic and often fatal. After much careful and painstaking work, he discovered that only the small, inconspicuous female anopheline mosquitoes carried the malaria parasite. The males lived entirely on fluids from succulent plants, and culicine mosquitoes did not carry malaria parasites. During later work in Sierra Leone and in Ismailia, Egypt, Ross did microdissections to show the development of the parasite in the female mosquito's stomach and its migration to the salivary glands, publishing his findings in a series of papers and monographs.
In addition to laboratory-based and microscopic studies of mosquitoes, Ross developed the first mathematical models of malaria epidemiology, factoring into these models all the relevant variables relating to the life cycles of the malaria parasite in humans and mosquitoes. His models allowed for variations in ambient temperatures and other factors that influenced both the mosquito's breeding period and the time taken for parasites to mature. He received the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. The Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, later absorbed into the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was established to house his work in his later years in England. In his spare time, Ross wrote poetry, plays, and an autobiography. He received many other honor besides the Nobel Prize, including a knighthood.
(SEE ALSO: Malaria; Manson, Patrick)
— JOHN M. LAST
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Ronald Ross
Ross, Sir Ronald, 1857-1932, English physician, b. Almora, India. He studied malaria in India as a member (1881-99) of the Indian Medical Service, was professor of tropical medicine at University College, Liverpool, from 1902, and directed the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London, from 1926. In 1898 he demonstrated the malarial parasite (Plasmodium) in the stomach of the Anopheles mosquito; in W Africa he discovered the mosquito that transmits African fever. He received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on malaria and was knighted in 1911. He also published poems, novels, and mathematical studies.
Bibliography
See his memoirs (1923); J. Rowland, The Mosquito Man (1958).
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Ronald Ross
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For other people named Ronald Ross, see Ronald Ross (disambiguation).
| Sir Ronald Ross | |
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| Born | 13 May 1857 Almora, India |
| Died | 16 September 1932 (aged 75) London, England, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Alma mater | St. Fratbore Hospital |
| Known for | Malaria parasite discovery |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1902) |
Sir Ronald Ross KCB FRS[1] (13 May 1857 – 16 September 1932) was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. His discovery of the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of the Anopheles mosquito led to the realization that malaria was transmitted by Anopheles, and laid the foundation for combating the disease.
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Early life
Ross was born in India, the eldest son of General Sir Campbell Claye Grant Ross of the British Indian Army and Matilda Charlotte Elderton. His grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Ross, had malaria, and the boy resolved to find a cure for the disease. At the age of eight, he was sent to England for his education.
He commenced the study of medicine in London in 1875. He passed his final examination in 1880 and joined the Indian Medical Service in 1881. His first posting was in Madras. He commenced the study of malaria in 1892.
Discovery
Ross studied malaria between 1882 and 1899. He worked on malaria at the Presidency General Hospital, Calcutta. Ross built a bungalow with a laboratory at Mahanad village, where he used to stay from time to time collecting mosquitoes in Mahanad and adjoining villages and conducting research. In 1883, Ross was posted as the Acting Garrison Surgeon at Bangalore during which time he noticed the possibility of controlling mosquitoes by controlling their access to water.
In 1897, Ross was posted in Ooty and fell ill with malaria. After this he was transferred to Secunderabad, where Osmania University and its medical school is located. He discovered the presence of the malarial parasite within a specific species of mosquito, of the genus Anopheles. He initially called them dapple-wings.He was able to find the malaria parasite in a mosquito that he artificially fed on a malaria patient named Hussain Khan.
In 1902, Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his remarkable work on malaria. His Indian assistant Kishori Mohan Bandyopadhyay was awarded a gold medal.In 1899, Ross went back to Britain and joined Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine as a professor of tropical medicine.[2][3] In 1901 Ross was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and also a Fellow of the Royal Society,[4] of which he became Vice-President from 1911 to 1913. In 1902 he was appointed a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of Bath by King Edward VII, and discovered how malaria was transmitted. In 1911 he was elevated to the rank of Knight Commander of the same Order.
During his active career Ross advocated the task of prevention of malaria in different countries. He carried out surveys and initiated schemes in many places, including West Africa, the Suez Canal zone, Greece, Mauritius, Cyprus, and in the areas affected by the First World War. He also initiated organisations, which have proved to be well established, for the prevention of malaria within the planting industries of India and Ceylon. He made many contributions to the epidemiology of malaria and to methods of its survey and assessment, but perhaps his greatest was the development of mathematical models for the study of its epidemiology, initiated in his report on Mauritius in 1908, elaborated in his Prevention of malaria in 1911 and further elaborated in a more generalised form in scientific papers published by the Royal Society in 1915 and 1916. These papers represented a profound mathematical interest which was not confined to epidemiology, but led him to make material contributions to both pure and applied mathematics.
Through these works Ross continued his great contribution in the form of the discovery of the transmission of malaria by the mosquito, but he also found time and mental energy for many other pursuits, being a poet, playwright, writer and painter. Particularly, his poetic works gained him wide acclamation which was independent of his medical and mathematical standing.
Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases
The Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases was founded and in 1926 established at Bath House, a grand house with keeper's lodge and large grounds adjacent to Tibbet's Corner at Putney Heath. The hospital was opened by the then Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII.[5] It was later incorporated into the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in Keppel Street. Bath House was later demolished and mansion flats built on the property. In memory of its history and owner the block was named Ross Court. Within the grounds an older dwelling, Ross Cottage, remains.
Family
Ross married Rosa Bessie Bloxam in 1889. They had two sons, Ronald and Charles, and two daughters, Dorothy and Sylvia. His wife died in 1931. Ross survived until a year later when he died after a long illness and asthma attack, at Bath House in 1932. He was buried at the nearby Putney Vale Cemetery.
Honors and awards
Ross received many honours in addition to the Nobel Prize, and was given Honorary Membership of learned societies of most countries of Europe, and of many other continents. He got an honorary M.D. degree in Stockholm in 1910 at the centenary celebration of the Caroline Institute and his 1923 autobiography Memoirs, Etc. was awarded that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Whilst his vivacity and single-minded search for truth caused friction with some people, he enjoyed a vast circle of friends in Europe, Asia and the United States who respected him for his personality as well as for his genius.
In India Ross is remembered with great respect. Because of his relentless work on malaria, the deadly epidemic which used to claim thousands of lives every year could be successfully controlled. There are roads named after him in many Indian towns and cities. In Calcutta the road linking Presidency General Hospital with Kidderpore Road has been renamed after him as Sir Ronald Ross Sarani. Earlier this road was known as Hospital Road. In his memory, the regional infectious disease hospital at Hyderabad was named after him as Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases in recognition of his services in the field of tropical diseases. The building where he worked and actually discovered the malarial parasite, located in Secunderabad near the old Begumpet airport, is a heritage site and the road leading up to the building is named Sir Ronald Ross Road.
In Ludhiana, Christian Medical College has named its Hostel as "Ross Hostel". The young doctors often call themselves "Rossians".
The University of Surrey, UK, has named a road after him in its Manor Park Residences.[6]
Ronald Ross primary school near Wimbledon Common is named after him. The school's coat of arms includes a mosquito in one quarter.[7]
See also
References
- ^ n., G. H. F. (1933). "Sir Ronald Ross. 1857-1932". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1 (2): 108. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1933.0006.
- ^ Watson, M. (1932). "Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S". Nature 130 (3282): 465–460. doi:10.1038/130465a0.
- ^ "Sir Ronald Ross". Nature 130 (3282): 467–460. 1932. doi:10.1038/130467a0.
- ^ "ROSS, Major Ronald". Who's Who, 59: p. 1520. 1907. http://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1520.
- ^ http://timeline.lshtm.ac.uk/1920.html
- ^ http://portal.surrey.ac.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/ACCOM/UG/ARRIVAL/MANOR_PARK_WIDE.PDF
- ^ http://www.ronaldrossprimaryschool.co.uk/
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Biography on NobelPrize.org
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ronald Ross |
- History
- Unveiling of a 'Blue Plaque' memorial to Ross at the University of Liverpool's Johnston Laboratories where he had worked
- Anecdotes from Ronald Ross' life
- History
- Royal Society citation (1901)
- Nobel prize page
- Ross and the Discovery that Mosquitoes Transmit Malaria Parasites
- Ross's three part paper on the theory of epidemics is available on the web
- Ross, R. (1916). "An Application of the Theory of Probabilities to the Study of a priori Pathometry. Part I". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 92 (638): 204–226. doi:10.1098/rspa.1916.0007.
- Ross, R.; Hudson, H. P. (1917). "An Application of the Theory of Probabilities to the Study of a priori Pathometry. Part II". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 93 (650): 212. doi:10.1098/rspa.1917.0014.
- Ross, R.; Hudson, H. P. (1917). "An Application of the Theory of Probabilities to the Study of a Priori Pathometry.--Part III". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 89 (621): 507. doi:10.1098/rspb.1917.0008.
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