Manson showed that Wuchereria bancrofti, the cause of filarial elephantiasis in man, develops in, and is transmitted by, the Culex mosquito. This was the first proof that infective diseases are spread by animal vectors. See also his later paper in J. Linnean Soc., 1878 (Zool.), 14, 304-11.

On p. 36 of this paper Manson first described nocturnal periodicity in Filaria Bancrofti, an adaptation to the nocturnal biting habits of their mosquito vector. 

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Manson made a fundamental contribution to knowledge on paragonimiasis with his description of its etiology and of the parasite. He named it Distoma ringeri after Dr. Ringer, who recovered it from the lung at necropsy; it was later named Paragonimus ringeri. Reproduced in Kean (No. 2268.1), p. 603.

A collection of several papers written by Manson.

Manson reported that the changes he had observed in ingested filariae took place in the mosquito thorax, not in the stomach as previously thought.

Manson’s mosquito–malaria hypothesis. See also his Gulstonian Lectures in Lancet, 1896, 1, 695-98, 751-55, 831-33.

Manson has been called the “father of modern tropical medicine”. He had vast experience of disease in the Tropics and himself made many valuable contributions to the knowledge of this subject. He described tinea nigra and tinea imbricata, found fllaria in elephantiasis and discovered Filaria hominis. In 1898 he founded the London School of Tropical Medicine. The 16th edition of his book, edited by P. H. Manson-Bahr, appeared in 1966.

In a classic demonstration Manson allowed infected mosquitoes from Rome to bite a volunteer (his son) in London, who developed malaria 15 days later with tertian parasites in the blood, and who was cured by quinine.