100 YEARS AGO

Recent researches by Surgeon-Major Ronald Ross have shown that the mosquito may be the host of parasites of the type of that which causes human malaria. Ross has distinctly proved that malaria can be acquired by the bite of a mosquito, and the results of his observations have a direct bearing on the propagation of the disease in man. Dr. P. Manson describes the investigations in a paper in the British Medical Journal, and sums them up as follows: — The observations tend to the conclusion that the malaria parasite is for the most part a parasite of insects; that it is only an accidental and occasional visitor to man; that not all mosquitos are capable of subserving it; that particular species of malaria parasites demand particular species of mosquitos; that in this circumstance we have at least a partial explanation of the apparent vagaries of the distribution of the varieties of malaria. When the whole story has been completed, as it surely will be at no distant date, in virtue of the new knowledge thus acquired, we shall be able to indicate a prophylaxis for malaria of a practical character, and one which may enable the European to live in climates now rendered deadly by this pest.

From Nature 29 September 1898.

50 YEARS AGO

“Thomas Jefferson Among the Arts” — Thus we find Jefferson the revolutionary, workman, writer, thinker, toiling ever and anon to establish culture, both abstract and material, in his youthful America. To him there was no difference between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ (whether art or science); all was for the benefit of mankind, and the pursuit of the good. Naturally, this led to some strong likes and dislikes, short shrift for Plato and Samuel Johnson, to mention but two. Love of contrast is characteristic; formal Palladian architecture, surrounded by ‘serpentine’ gardens, as if to say “Oh Western Wind, blow soft and kind” upon the exceedingly solid and uncompromising stone buildings he admired and advocated. The author of the Declaration of Independence is entitled to such light and shade in his dealings with contemporary events.

From Nature 2 October 1948.