ABSTRACT
Two years after its foundation, Professor (later Sir) Ronald Ross CB FRCS FRS (see Figure 3.1) (see also: References and Notes to Chapter 1) succeeded Manson as president. Before introducing him, Manson outlined the progress of the Society which ‘from a very tender plant … had grown up to be a very vigorous tree’; the fellowship had in 1909 risen to 306. Like Manson, Ross (although much younger) was then a major national and international figure; his work at Secunderabad and Calcutta, India, which clinched the rôle of the mosquito in the transmission of Plasmodium sp infection had captured the public’s imagination. The accepted viewpoint prior to this had been that malaria was caused by a miasma. 1 Taken in conjunction, Manson’s and Ross’s researches had paved the way for the discovery that yellow fever (a viral infection) is also mosquito-borne. However, Ross did not dwell on this theme (ie malaria) when he delivered his presidential address ‘The future of tropical medicine’ at 11 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, on 18 June 1909. Nor did he touch on clinical medicine, unlike Manson two years before. Instead, he dwelt on his favourite theme – ‘hygiene’. He began:
Gentlemen, – I had hoped to acknowledge the honour which you have done me to-day in electing me your President by an address which should contain a worthy survey of the wonderful advances recently made in that science and art – nay, rather that family of sciences and arts – which under the name of Tropical Medicine we have banded ourselves together to serve. But on attempting the task I found it to be beyond the limits both of my time and my capacity; and I trust, therefore, that you will bear with me if I move towards an easier but perhaps more profitable theme. The past is passed – already shaped and done with; but the future is before us, to be moulded by reason and labour. Will you permit me, then, to lay before you very briefly, for your consideration and judgement, some thoughts … on a few points which I believe to be connected with the future of Tropical Medicine?
(Sir) Ronald Ross KBE, FRS (1857–1932) – second president of the Society (1909–11) (reproduced courtesy the Wellcome Library, London). https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315365329/9022d2de-bbcb-4596-99fb-588c6b732781/content/fig3_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>