Study Of Malaria - An Example Of Biological

Method

We know malaria is a common disease in many

countries including Pakistan. We will go through the history
of this disease to know how biology solved the biological
problem concerning the cause and transmission of malaria.
In ancient times (more than 2000 years ago), physicians
were familiar with malaria. They described it as a disease of
chills and fevers with recurring attacks. They also observed
that the disease was more common among people living in
low, marshy areas. It was thought that the stagnant water
of marshes poisoned the air and as a result of breathing in
this “bad air”, people got malaria. This belief led to the name
of this disease. The Italian words “mala” means bad and
“aria” means air. For further clarification of the
observation, some volunteers drank stagnant water from
the marshes. They did not develop malaria.
In the 17th century when the New World (America) was
discovered, many plants from America were sent back to
Europe to be used as medicines. The bark of a tree known
as quina-quina was very suitable for curing fevers. It was so
beneficial that soon it was impossible to carry enough bark
to Europe. Some dishonest merchants began to substitute
the bark of another tree, cinchona which closely resembled
quina-quina. This dishonesty proved much valuable for
mankind. Cinchona bark was found to be excellent for
treating malaria. We now know the reason: cinchona bark
contains quinine that is effective in treating the disease At
that time, physicians treated malaria with cinchona without
understanding the cause of malaria. Two hundred years
later, it was found that some diseases are caused by tiny
living organisms. After this discovery, it also became a belief
that malaria, too, might be caused by some microorganism.
In 1878, a French army physician Laveran began to search
for the “cause” of malaria. He took a small amount of blood
from a malarial patient and examined it under microscope.
He noticed some tiny living creatures. His discovery was not
believed by other scientists. Two years later, another
physician saw the same creatures in the blood of another
malarial patient. Three years after the second discovery,
the same creatures were observed for third time. The
organism was given a name Plasmodium.
In the last part of nineteenth century, many different
causes of malaria were being suggested. By that time,
there were four major observations about malaria.
 Malaria and marshy areas have some relation.
 Quinine is an effective drug for treating malaria.
 Drinking the water of marshes does not cause
malaria.
 Plasmodium is seen in the blood of malarial patients.
We know that a scientist uses whatever information
and observation he has and makes one or more
hypotheses. The hypothesis made in this case was;
“Plasmodium is the cause of malaria.”
Scientist does not know whether his hypothesis is true or
not, but he accepts it may be true and makes deductions.
One of the deductions from the above hypothesis was;
“If Plasmodium is the cause of malaria, then all person ill
with malaria should have Plasmodium in their blood.”
The next step was to test the deduction through
experiments which were designed as;
“Blood of 100 malarial patients was examined under
microscope. For the purpose of having a control group, the
blood of 100 healthy persons was also examined under
microscope.”

The results of experiments showed that almost all

malarial patients had Plasmodium in their blood while 07
out of 100 healthy persons also had Plasmodium in their
blood (now we know that Plasmodium in the blood of
healthy people was in incubation period i.e. the period
between the entry of parasite in host and the appearance
of symptoms). The results were quite convincing and
proved that the hypothesis “Plasmodium is the cause of
malaria” was true.
Next biological problem was to learn about “How
Plasmodium gets into the blood of man”. Biologists were
having following observations;
 Malaria is associated with marshes.
 Drinking water of marshes does not cause
malaria.
 From these observations, it can be concluded that
Plasmodium was not in the marsh water. But it must be
carried by something that comes to marsh water. In 1883, a
physician A. F. A. King, listed 20 observations. Some
important observations of King were:
 People who slept outdoors were more likely to get
malaria than those who slept indoors;
 People who slept under fine nets were less likely to get
malaria than those who did not use such nets; and
 Individuals who slept near a smoky fire usually did not
get malaria.
On the basis of these observations King suggested a
hypothesis:
“Mosquitoes transmit Plasmodium and so are involved in
the spread of malaria.”
Following deductions were made considering the
hypothesis as true i.e. If mosquitoes are involved in the
spread of malaria then;
“Plasmodium should be present in mosquitoes.”
“A mosquito can get Plasmodium by biting a
malarial patient.”
In order to test the above deductions, Ronald
Ross: a British army physician working in India in 1880’s;
performed important experiments. He allowed a female
Anopheles mosquito to bite a malarial patient. He killed
the mosquito some days later and found Plasmodium
multiplying in mosquito’s stomach.
The next logical experiment was to allow an
infected mosquito (having Plasmodium) to bite a healthy
person. If hypothesis was true, the healthy person would
have got malaria. But scientists avoid using human beings
for experiments when results can be so serious. Ross used
sparrows and redesigned his experiments. He allowed a
female Culex mosquito to bite on the sparrows suffering
from malaria. Some of the mosquitoes were killed and
studied at various times. Ross found that Plasmodium
multiplied in the wall of mosquito’s stomach and then
moved into mosquito’s salivary glands. He kept some
mosquitoes alive and allowed them to bite healthy sparrows.
Ross found that the saliva of the infected mosquito
contained Plasmodia (plural of Plasmodium) and these
entered the sparrow’s blood. When he examined the blood
of these previously healthy sparrows, he found many
Plasmodia in it.
In the end, the hypothesis was tested by direct
experimentation on human beings. In 1898, Italian
biologists allowed an Anopheles mosquito to bite a malarial
patient. The mosquito was kept for a few days and then it
was allowed to bite a healthy man. This person later became
ill with malaria.