Manson, Patrick (1844–1922)

Scottish physician who showed that insects are responsible for the spread of diseases like elephantiasis and malaria. He was knighted in 1903.

Manson was born in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, and studied at Aberdeen. He spent 23 years in practice in the Far East. Returning to the UK in 1892, he founded the School of Tropical Medicine in London in 1899, and taught there until 1914.

In 1876 Manson began studying filariasis infection in humans. Having gained a clear idea of the life history of the invading parasite, he correctly conjectured that the disease was transmitted by an insect, a common brown mosquito. He went on to study other parasitic infections; for instance, the fluke parasite, ringworms, and guinea worm. He developed the thesis that malaria was also spread by a mosquito in 1894; the work that proved this was carried out by Manson and British physician Ronald Ross.