User talk:Dwaipayanc/Kolkata trivia

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[edit] Ronald Ross's mosquitoes!

• In 1897 Ronald Ross discovered the link between mosquitoes and malaria in Kolkata. - No... he discovered that working in Secunderabad. There is a even a Lab and the Villa he lived in here.... --hydkat 06:56, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Of course Ross stayed in Secundrabad and also carried out many of his experiments, as pointed out here. However, we should remember his discovery was not a Archimedes-Eureka type discovery, that is, it was not that he thought of the mosquito-malaria connection one fine morning. The discovery was the result of relentless research, carried out not only in Secundrabad and Calcutta, but perhaps in many other locations. Read the article in malaria site where it is described how he collected specimens thanks to an assistant in Calcutta. As the several article [1], [2], nobelprize, Britannica, WP, [3], American digest, [4] and many more suggests, he probably first became sure that Anopheles mosquitoes had parasites within them in 1897, while in Secundrabad. He established the complete life cycle and further proved the relation later in 1898 in Calcutta. Anyway, I again emphasize, monumental works like this is usually done in a continuum, rather then piecemeal. I do not think the line has to be changed in the article, whereas Secunderabad or trivia on the city should mention that the initial clues were discovered there, even better, it was discovered that probablr parasites (not sure till then) was found for the first time inside the Anopheles mosquitoes. Thanks.--Dwaipayanc 07:36, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for the info.... and wow! you did research this throughly didn't you? Well Ronald Ross is important to Secunderabad, the maintenance of the villa he stayed in, his lab (which was a responsibility of Osmania University) came up in a newspaper article some years ago. (sorry I don't have a reference...) --hydkat 09:13, 13 April 2006 (UTC)