Parasites Mean Prizes
It was well documented that Sir Ronald Ross was not fully content with the recognition and practical rewards he received as a scientist and discoverer. He was discontented not only on his own behalf, but on behalf of other British scientists who he felt were inadequately rewarded for their efforts and achievements.
Ross seems to have felt particularly bitter about the Italian scientist Grassi, who he considered was wrongly credited with some of his discoveries. ( Anecdote has it that Ross objected to a portrait of his 'rival' Grassi being hung next to his own and insisted on it being removed. A bronze bust of Ross is currently situated in a corridor in The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine next to the ladies toilet, a situation that's unlikely to have met with his approval).
Although he may have felt that he was never paid enough, or credited highly enough, Ross received two hefty accolades - the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902 ( the first British person to receive the prize; the financial sum awarded was 141, 358 Swedish krone) and a knighthood in 1911.
In MOSQUITO NIGHT I didn't seek to try and unravel the narrative of
Ross's discontent in respect of salary, status, etc. Instead, going through documents and diaries at the Ross Archive I sought out an autobiography of momentary glimpses as the personal, scanty diaries of his old age peter out into cryptic notes - barometric readings, the shapes of clouds, "bee in bonnet all day"...
The frustration Ross felt with the slowness with which his ideas for malaria prevention were implemented, however, forms a key strand in MOSQUITO NIGHT.
In a talk commemorating Mosquito Day in 1948, then Poet Laureate John Masefield noted
"Ross ...found that the world was not eager to admit his claims nor resolute to use his discovery. He had won at great cost the secret from Nature's close reserve, and then came up at once against the enemy of his later life, the thing he calls Nescience, the denial of light, the vast dark angry sullen apathy of the multitude of men. He could be patient with Nature; not with that."
Further investigation:
Why was Ronald Ross chosen to receive the Nobel Prize?
Tthe presentation speech by Professor the Count K.A.H. Morner, as well as
Ross's Nobel lecture and his banquet speech, can be read in full at
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1902/
Why was Ross's life dogged by feeling that he didn't receive enough reward for his discovery?
The Beast in the Mosquito; the correspondance of Ronald Ross and Patrick Manson ed. W.F.Bynum and C.Overy 1998
Ronald Ross Malariologist and Polymath by Edwin R. Nye and Mary E. Gibson
Assorted papers, diaries in The Ross Archive, London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Christine Watkins Dec 2007
Ross seems to have felt particularly bitter about the Italian scientist Grassi, who he considered was wrongly credited with some of his discoveries. ( Anecdote has it that Ross objected to a portrait of his 'rival' Grassi being hung next to his own and insisted on it being removed. A bronze bust of Ross is currently situated in a corridor in The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine next to the ladies toilet, a situation that's unlikely to have met with his approval).
Although he may have felt that he was never paid enough, or credited highly enough, Ross received two hefty accolades - the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902 ( the first British person to receive the prize; the financial sum awarded was 141, 358 Swedish krone) and a knighthood in 1911.
In MOSQUITO NIGHT I didn't seek to try and unravel the narrative of
Ross's discontent in respect of salary, status, etc. Instead, going through documents and diaries at the Ross Archive I sought out an autobiography of momentary glimpses as the personal, scanty diaries of his old age peter out into cryptic notes - barometric readings, the shapes of clouds, "bee in bonnet all day"...
The frustration Ross felt with the slowness with which his ideas for malaria prevention were implemented, however, forms a key strand in MOSQUITO NIGHT.
In a talk commemorating Mosquito Day in 1948, then Poet Laureate John Masefield noted
"Ross ...found that the world was not eager to admit his claims nor resolute to use his discovery. He had won at great cost the secret from Nature's close reserve, and then came up at once against the enemy of his later life, the thing he calls Nescience, the denial of light, the vast dark angry sullen apathy of the multitude of men. He could be patient with Nature; not with that."
Further investigation:
Why was Ronald Ross chosen to receive the Nobel Prize?
Tthe presentation speech by Professor the Count K.A.H. Morner, as well as
Ross's Nobel lecture and his banquet speech, can be read in full at
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1902/
Why was Ross's life dogged by feeling that he didn't receive enough reward for his discovery?
The Beast in the Mosquito; the correspondance of Ronald Ross and Patrick Manson ed. W.F.Bynum and C.Overy 1998
Ronald Ross Malariologist and Polymath by Edwin R. Nye and Mary E. Gibson
Assorted papers, diaries in The Ross Archive, London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Christine Watkins Dec 2007
