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social problem in India and it is not surprising, therefore, that it should
have received a large measure of attention from medical research workers
in this country.
2. The modern history of malaria research in India may be said to have
commenced at the close of last century with the classical investigations of
the late Sir Ronald Ross which culminated in the incrimination of the
mosquito as the carrier of malaria. Even before this, however, important
researches were carried out in India and among these two investigations are
worthy of special mention. As long ago as 1845 Surgeon-Major Dempster
introduced the spleen rate as a measure of malarial endemicity and used it
to map out the incidence of malaria in villages in the Punjab lying along
the course of the old Jumna Canal. Workers in India also took a very
prominent part in the early botanical and other work connected with the
introduction and cultivation of cinchona, and with the manufacture of
cinchona preparations in medicinal form. "Cinchona febrifuge" was the
first preparation to be produced on a large scale. A great advance in
Malaria therapy was made in 1887 when a new method of manufacturing
pure quinine sulphate was discovered at the Government's Sikkim planta
-tion. This resulted in a great reduction in the cost of quinine production all
over the world.
3. Ross's discovery of the mosquito as the carrier of malaria is so well
known that it is superfluous to refer to it in detail. The ready acceptance
of his findings was quickly followed by the enthusiastic investigation of
malaria and other tropical diseases in many parts of the world. In 1900,
the Malaria Commission of the Royal Society visited India and commenced
an intensive investigation of the malaria problem in the light of
R o s s ' s d i s - c o v e r y . P r o f i t i n g b y t h e i r p r e v i o u s e x p e r i e n c e i n A f r i c a t h e m e m b e r s o f
this Commission which included Stephens, Christophers, and Daniels, in
-troduced a knowledge of the technique of malaria investigation which was
made readily available to all who were desirous of entering this new field of
research.
4. The systematic investigation of mosquitoes received much attention
and the researches of Giles on mosquitoes generally, and of James and
Liston on the Indian anophelines were prominent among the pioneer in
-vestigations in this field in the world. These researches also
i n c l u d e d s t u d i e s o n t h e d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n o f a n o p h e l i n e s i n b o t h t h e i r a d u l t a n d l a r v a l
stages and on the bionomics of the different species. Investigation of the
efficacy of the different species of anophelines as carriers of malaria led
eventually to the enunciation by Christophers of the principle of "species
sanitation". This school of pioneer workers in India included, in addition to
those already mentioned, Adie, Coghill, Donovan, Patton, Turkhud and
others.
5. In 1908, the epidemiology of malaria in India began to receive atten
- t i o n . T h e i n v e s t i g a t i o n s o f C h r i s t o p h e r s a n d B e n t l e y i n t h e B e n g a l D u a r s ,
of Bentley in Bombay City, and of Christophers in the Punjab following
the great malaria epidemic of 1908, were of particular importance. It
became apparent from these studies that the causative factors in the pro
-duction of malaria were very diverse, and that the possibilities for control-