Abstract
THE award by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine of the Manson Medal to Sir Leonard Rogers will be felt by all to be a fitting recognition of outstanding contributions not only to tropical medicine in general, but particularly and almost uniquely to the practical application of therapeutic measures in the treatment of some of the most important major tropical diseases. As a result of his studies of biochemical and other changes in cholera, that most dread and dramatically fatal of all tropical diseases, Sir Leonard Rogers introduced the use of hypertonic saline injections at a time when such forms of treatment were little used. Further, to his untiring energy in directing attention to the necessity of taking active steps to combat the critical stage of the disease by this and other methods, many advances in the treatment of cholera owe their origin. The introduction by Rogers of antimony treatment of kala-azar in India, and his early efforts to improve the form of administration of the drug as well as to extend its application, was very largely responsible for later great advances in the treatment of this disease by organic antimonial preparations and for the remarkable developments which were later introduced for combating kala-azar on a large scale in India. By his insistence on the value of emetin in amoebic dysentery and by his introduction of the soluble salts of emetin, he very greatly stimulated the use of this valuable drug in the treatment of amoebic dysentery in all parts of the tropics. It was also his unflagging interest and insistence on the treatment of leprosy that led to so much attention being directed to the gynocardates, now widely used. Among contributions of a more academic type may be mentioned the discovery of the flagellate stage of the parasite of kala-azar, early researches on malaria and studies on the epidemiology of cholera. To the energy and initiative of Sir Leonard Rogers must also be ascribed the establishment of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, the first large institution of the kind in the tropics.
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Sir Leonard Rogers, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., F.R.S. Nature 141, 864 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141864a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141864a0