In 1878, Sir Patrick Manson demonstrated that a parasite that causes human disease could infect a mosquito. In 1895,Sir Ronald Ross began his quest to prove the hypothesis of Alphonse Laveran and Manson that mosquitoes were connected with the propagation of malaria.

On Aug. 20, 1897, in Secunderabad, Ross made his landmark discovery. While dissecting the stomach tissue of an anopheline mosquito fed four days previously on a malarious patient, he found the malaria parasite and went on to prove the role of Anopheles mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria parasites in humans.