[Laveran, Marchiafava and paludism]

Abstract

The discovery in 1880 of the malaria parasite by the French investigator Alphonse Laveran found for almost ten years the obstinate refusal from the italian Ettore Marchiafava, who saw in the parasitic elements only degenerative forms of the erythrocytes. The acknowledgement for Laveran came in 1889 with the Bréant Prize and later the Nobel of 1907, half of which he gave to the Pasteur Institute. By his side, Marchiafava demonstrated the transmission of malaria man to man by the blood of the sick, through experiences to day inadmissible for any ethical committee. From the classic textbook of Laveran Du paludisme et de son hématozoaire, published in 1891, the history of this discovery is revised in the author's words.