Augustine Pamplany CST
The 21st century public health struggles with the Covid pandemic revive the memories of a renowned public-health scientist, Ronald Ross. Ross was a British medical doctor who received the Noble Prize for medicine in 1902 for discovery of the role of mosquitoes in spreading malaria. His award is also unique as the first British Novel laureate.
Ross was born in Almora in the present Uttarakhand in 1857 of British parents. He had his education in England since his age eight. He had his training in medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Ross had knowledge in a vast number of subjects and his expertise span over several disciplines and he could bring them together to solve complex issues. Writing had been his passion and he composed several poems and novels. Despite his interest in writing, it was his father’s designs that made him a medical doctor.
He started his career in India in 1881 as a medical doctor and researcher. While working with public health issues, he explored the role of mosquitoes in spreading malaria. Though he went back to England in 1894, he returned to India in 1895 with a view to conduct researches on malaria. He started researches in Bombay civil Hospital. He observed the early stages of malarial parasite in the mosquito. In 1897, he made significant progress and managed to culture mosquitoes and infected them with malaria from a patient. As he dissected the mosquito he found the growth of the parasite in the stomach of the Anopheles type of mosquitoes. His findings were published in in 1897 in the Indian Medical Gazette and the British Medical Journal.
The wall of the SSKM (Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial) Hospital in Calcutta hosts a memorial of Ross’s discovery. Ross himself had unveiled this memorial in 1927. The Lab, converted to a laboratory clinic, is now named after him. He is one among the 23 persons in the honorary list of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. This is a group of scientists who have made significant contributions to public health.
The personal religious fervor of Ross is seen in the poem he composed on the same day he made his discovery, his journal carried the following poem:
This day relenting God
Hath placed within my hand
A wondrous thing; and God
Be praised. At His command,
Seeking His secret deeds
With tears and toiling breath,
I find thy cunning seeds,
O million-murdering Death.
I know this little thing
A myriad men will save.
O Death, where is thy sting?
Thy victory, O Grave?
His poem showed his deep faith in God and thanked God for this major discovery that was to save the lives of many. The Dictionary of Scientific Biography cites the following words of Ross: “Before Thy feet I fall, Lord, who made high my fate; For in the mighty small Thou showed’st the mighty great. Henceforth I will resound But praises unto Thee; Tho’ I was beat and bound, Thou gavest me victory.”
