Ronald Ross

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Ronald Ross

Sir Ronald Ross KCB KCMG (born May 13, 1857 in Almora , India , † September 16, 1932 in Putney Heath , today a borough of London ) was an English physician, especially tropical medicine and bacteriologist, and as a malaria researcher, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1902).

Research interest in malaria

Ronald Ross's main interest was the discovery of ways to prevent the tropical disease malaria in different parts of the world. For this he traveled to a wide variety of places, including West Africa , the region around the Suez Canal , Greece , Mauritius , Cyprus and the theaters of war of the First World War from 1914 to 1918. He made many discoveries about the epidemiology of malaria and about the possibilities of protection and of care. His greatest successes were the discovery of the pathway of infection by mosquitoes and the identification of the malaria mosquitoes . He also used his observations to develop a mathematical model for studying the spread of malaria (Ross-MacDonald model). These models, known as pathometry , are still the basis for understanding epidemics caused by insects today . In addition to the Nobel Prize in Medicine, his work earned him many other honors.

Life

Ross was born on May 13, 1857, the son of the English general CCG Ross in Almora , India . In 1875 he began studying medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London .

In 1881 he joined the Indian Medical Service . In 1892 he began working with the tropical disease malaria . In 1894 he developed an experiment to confirm the hypothesis of his colleagues Alphonse Laveran and Patrick Manson that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes . After two and a half years with no results, he was able to demonstrate the life cycle of the malaria pathogens in the mosquito . On August 20, 1897 (" Mosquito Day ") he discovered a cyst with black pigment bodies (Ross's germs) in the stomach wall of an Anopheles and was able to identify the mosquito genus Anopheles as the carrier of the disease .

In 1899 he moved to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine under the direction of Sir Alfred Jones. He started his work at the institute with a trip to West Africa .

From 1902 to 1912 he held the post of Professor of Tropical Medicine at the School of Tropical Medicine, which was created in honor of the director Sir Alfred Jones.

From 1912 to 1917 Ross worked as professor of tropical diseases at King's College in London and at the same time occupied the position of professor of tropical nursing in Liverpool . In 1917 he became a Malaria Adviser to the War Office. In 1926 Ross received the post of General Manager of the Ross Institute and Hospital of Tropical Diseases and Hygiene .

Private life

Ronald Ross married Rosa Bessie Bloxam in 1889, who died a year before him in 1931. They had two sons and two daughters. In 1932 he died on September 16 after a long illness at the Ross Institute in Putney Heath.

Honors

In 1902 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on malaria, with which he had shown how the disease penetrated the body and thus laid the foundation for successful research into this disease and its control." In 1902 Ross also became accepted as Companion in the Order of the Bath .

In 1909 Ross was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society . In 1911 he was knighted as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and from then on carried the suffix "Sir". In 1918 he was also promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George . Since 1921 he was an honorary member ( Honorary Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Fonts (selection)

  • Surgn.-Lieut.-Col. Lawrie and the parasite of malaria . 1896 (digitized version)
  • A malaria problem. On some peculiar pigmented cells found in two mosquitos fed on malaria blood . London 1897 (digitized)
  • Report on a preliminary investigation into malaria in the Sigur Ghat, Ootacamund . 1898 (digitized version)
  • Instructions for the prevention of malarial fever for the use of residents in malarious places . University Press, Liverpool 1899 (digitized version)
  • Captain Roger's recent investigation on malaria . London 1900 (digitized version)
  • Together with Henry Eduard Annett. Report of the malaria expedition of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Medical Parasitology . University Press, Liverpool 1900 (digitized version)
  • Malaria and mosquitoes, abstract of a discourse delivered before the Royal Institution of Great Britain on March 2nd, 1900 . Univ. Press, Liverpool (digitized version)
  • First progress report of the campaign against mosquitoes in Sierra Leone . University Press, Liverpool 1901 (digitized version)
  • Malarial fever; its cause, prevention and treatment; containing full details for the use of travelers, sportsmen, soldiers, and residents in malarious places . Longmans & Green, New York 1902 (digitized)
    • Malaria fever: its causes, prevention and treatment Tips for travelers, hunters, military and residents of malaria areas . W. Süsserott, Berlin 1904 (digitized version)
  • Report on malaria at Ismailia and Suez . Longmans & Green, London 1903 (digitized)
  • Researches on malaria being the Nobel Medical Prize lecture for 1902 . Stockholm 1904 (digitized)
  • Report on the prevention of malaria in Mauritius . Waterlow & Sons, London 1908 (digitized version ) JA Churchill, London 1909 (digitized version)
  • The campaign against malaria . London 1909 (digitized)
  • With Malcom Watson (1873–1955). The prevention of malaria in the Federal Malay States . Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 1911 (digitized version)
  • The prevention of malaria . Murray, London 1910 (digitized) ; 2nd edition 1911 (digitized version)
  • Memoirs, with a full account of the great malaria problem and its solution . Murray, London 1923 (digitized)
  • Studies on malaria . Murray, London 1928 (digitized version)

literature

  • Werner E. Gerabek : Ross, Sir Ronald. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1265.
  • Paul de Kruif : Ross against Grassi . The fight against malaria. In: Paul de Kruif: Microbe hunters. (Original edition: Microbe Hunters. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York 1926) Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich / Leipzig 1927; 8th edition ibid. 1940, pp. 268-300.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For example Michael Li, An introduction to mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, Springer 2018, pp. 68ff
  2. ^ Wolfgang U. Eckart : Ronald Ross , In: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann (eds.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the present , 1st edition 1995 CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung München pp. 309 + 310, 2nd edition 2001 p. 271, 3rd edition 2006 Springer Verlag Heidelberg, Berlin, New York p. 282. Medical glossary 2006 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  3. ↑ a b Knights and Dames; RAE – SEK at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
  4. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 4, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Ronald Ross  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Ross, Ronald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English medic and winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine (1902)
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Almora , India
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1932
Place of death Putney Heath , now London