The Untold Story of Sir Ronald Ross

The Untold Story of Sir Ronald Ross
Stanton E. Cope, PhD
Director, Entomology and Regulatory Services
Terminix International
• Born May 13, 1857 – Fringe of Indian Himalayas
• Oldest of 10 children
• Father - BG Sir Campbell Claye Grant Ross
• Mother – Matilda Charlotte Elderton
Flag of British India Army
• “Like all mothers…….(she) was the best in the world…”
• 1865 – back to England for school
• Proficient in math - natural
• Interest in natural history
• Age 17 – enrolled in medical school
Pope
• 1879 – failed to qualify
• 1880 – Ship’s Surgeon
Shakespeare
St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Past President Tom Wilmot
Milton
Campbell Ross
Age 19
Rosa Bessie Bloxam Ross - 1902
L to R – Dorothy, Sylvia and Campbell Ross
• 1889 – Returned to India
• Began to study mosquitoes
• Ignorant of the literature
• Criticized Laveran’s findings
Ross
Where the mystery resides…
Ronald Ross
Patrick Manson
• 1894 – year’s furlough, met Patrick Manson
• Convinced of Laveran’s observations
• Heard Manson’s theory on mosquito transmission
• Series of letters between Manson and Ross
• Manson kept Ross focused and preached urgency
• Both men needed each other for success
•
Multiple handicaps
• “To study Plasmodium…..”
• Contaminated water studies
• Human malaria parasites in Anopheles
• Mosquito Day – August 20, 1897
Laboratory Notebook
Mosquito Day
Box used by Ross
to Hold Mosquitoes
Microscope designed by Ross
• No human malaria
• Malaria life cycle in sparrows and Culex
• Experimental career ended in 1899
Ross Memorial - Calcutta
Ronald and Rosa Ross
Calcutta, 1898
Sir Ronald Ross
Ross receives Nobel Prize
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Nobel Prize medal
Nominated in 1901
Nominated in 1902
Three finalists – Ross won!
7,880 pounds sterling
Swedish King Oscar II
Grassi’s Home and Lab
Giovanni Battista Grassi
Ronald Ross
Grave of Sir Ronald Ross
That’s All, Folks!
Patrick Manson
Carlos Finlay
Theobald Smith
David Bruce
Alphonse Laveran
Ronald Ross
“…..swept away a hideous plague……”
This is The Story of Clara Maass
Aftermath………..and Then Tragedy
Reed
Gorgas
Wood
Guiteras
• Born 28 June 1876 – East Orange, NJ
• Oldest of Nine Children
• Age 15 – Left School
• Newark German Hospital – Nursing
• 1898 – Head Nurse at Age 21
Newark German Hospital
Clara Maass
• Contract Nurse for Army
• Jacksonville, FL; Savannah, GA; Santiago, Cuba – Discharged Feb 1899
• November 1899 - Philippines
• Returned to Cuba – Las Animas Hospital
• 19 participants
• Only Woman and Only American
• Numerous bites during May, June and July
• Negative Results
Clara Maass
• Last Bite 14 August 1901
• Sequence of Infection in volunteers
• 18 August – Illness
• 24 August – Death
“God will care for me in the yellow
fever hospital the same as if I were
Home. I will send you nearly all I
Earn, so be good to yourself and the
Two little ones. You know I am the
Man of the family, but do pray for me.”
New York Journal
26 August 1901
Fairmount Cemetery
Newark, NJ
Stamp from Cuba - 1951
U.S. Stamp - 1976
First Day Issue
“An American HeroineClara Louise Maass”