ABSTRACT
Sir Patrick Manson, who used to mock himself as a ‘Scandinavian pirate’ owing to his Norwegian descent, was described as a dull but curious child. Amongst his Presbyterian family, he was noted to have a good memory of church sermons when five years old. In order to answer many of the questions that he had contemplated whilst working abroad, Sir Patrick decided to return to Great Britain and Ireland to undertake further study. In 1875, he returned to Scotland, but finding little information of help to him, he travelled to London and studied Ophthalmology at the City of London Hospital. Despite his many successes, Sir Patrick acknowledged the difficulties of maintaining his general practice whilst trying to continue his research. By 1900, Sir Patrick’s ideas had been widely accepted and on 14 June 1900 he was elected an Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his research.
