Memorial Urged For Sir Ronald Ross,

Who Found Cause Of Malaria.

A FEW weeks ago there died, in com parative obscurity and poverty, a man whom every resident of the tropics should be delighted to honour — Colonel Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.M.G., F.R.C.S., LL.D., D.Sc. He is the man who discovered the life-history of mal aria parasites in mosquitoes and there fore is entitled to a place, for all time, among the great men of the earth.

He was born in 1857, the son of Gen eral Sir C. C. G. Ross, and he entered the Indian Medical Service in 1881.

Eleven years later, in 1892, he com menced the special study of malaria.

Within two years, he presented his startling and revolutionary theory of the mosquito method of malarial infection; in 1897-98, he confirmed and proved it.

In 1899, he led an expedition into West Africa, where he proved again that it was actually the fever-carrying an opheles mosquito which had given that region its sinister reputation as the “white man’s grave.”

This was one of the world’s epochal discoveries. Other men, quickly follow ing along the pathway blazed by Ross, secured some sort of control over the malaria scourge, and in the ensuing two decades large sections of the world’s surface, hitherto fever-ridden, became comparatively safe for white settlement.

We are inclined to regard malaria as a very serious obstacle to European penetration of the tropics. So it is— much remains yet to be done. But, now adays, we know exactly the nature of the problem we have to deal with. We must either find a safe prophylactic or cure for the fever itself, or we must discover a means of destroying or bet ter controlling the anopheles mosquito.

In the meantime, because the anopheles can be kept out of particular localities, and because drugs are moderately suc cessful in combating malaria, white women, as well as men, can live com fortably in places which formerly were hopelessly fever-ridden, and thousands of European families regard the tropics as their permanent home.

The change that has taken place in this respect within 30 years is extra ordinary—and that change is the direct result of the brilliant work of Sir Ronald Ross. His achievements added incalculable millions to the value of all tropical territories, and of British tropi cal territories in particular.

We know little of the later life of this brilliant scientist—only that, according to the he is dead at the age of 75, in poverty. Academic honours were showered upon him in the years which followed his discoveries (1895- 1890); but 20 years passed before his grateful country, in 1911, created him K.C.B. Within the same period, no doubt, hundreds of profiteers and lime lighting politicians received titular dis tinction. Sir Ronald Ross was raised to K.C.M.G. in 1918.

The proposal has been made —and we heartily endorse it—that it would be a grateful act if residents of the Pacific Islands, who owe so much to the great Scottish scientist, were to erect a memorial to him. The suggestion is that a plain, inexpensive, conspicuous struc ture of indestructible rock be placed by public subscription in some part of the Pacific Territories, where it may be seen by future Pacific travellers, who thereby may learn what European civil

isation in the South Seas owes to Sir Ronald Ross.

Mr. Vogan, who is taking a keen in terest in this matter, and whose article follows, has urged that the Ross me morial should be placed at or near Samarai. There are some good reasons for this. Samarai is the centre of a re gion that was handicapped for half a century by malaria, and this extra ordinarily beautiful little town is itself built on an island that, 50 years ago, was a fever-swamp, and a notorious death-trap. Now, it is a pleasant, healthy place. Samarai, also, is becoming one of the minor cross-roads of the Pacific. All the regular New Guinea and Papuan steamers call there.

A claim can also be lodged on behalf of Rabaul, which is a larger place and busier port than Samarai, and which also has succeeded in cleaning out the anopheles and keeping the malaria fever at bay.

The obvious place for a Ross me morial is Suva, now an important and busy port, where almost all Trans pacific traffic calls; but, fortunately for that part of the Pacific, there is no ma laria in Fiji, and the Fiji community is under no special debt to Sir Ronald Ross.

We hope the plan will be approved. A sum of £100, raised by public subscrip tion, would suffice to provide a fitting memorial. A statue of Cook, who found Eastern Australia, is conspicuous in Sydney; a stone figure of de Lesseps guards the Mediterranean entrance of the Canal, which he built; the memory of Sir George Grey, who laid the founda tions of New Zealand, is kept green in Auckland. What more fitting that at least a stone slab, with adequate in scription, be placed in a prominent posi tion to honour the memory of Sir Ronald Ross, whose genius made the white settlement of Melanesia possible. (Continued on next page.)