This edition of chronicles of medical history in Africa will focus on the first published report of malaria by Alphosus levaran in 1880. Before extolling this great contribution to medical knowledge let us examine briefly the proper place and role of history, arts and humanities in the development of human societies.
Science has a long and interesting history. Sadly the medical scientist has little time for history and the historian knows little of medical science. History, Arts and humanities make learning smoother and more pleasant than when the hard facts are studied in isolation. The arts and humanities have long been associated with great men of science. Girolamo Frabcastro was a physician who made important contributions to our knowledge of contagion and contagious diseases. He was also a humanist who wrote poetry and whose range of interests was extraordinarily wide. Paracelsus was also a physician who wrote theological and philosophical works. Here at the University College Hospital, Dr Kunle George (dermatologist) has written great books of poetry. At the level of great genius the boundary between science and the arts and humanities is blurred and the soul of the gifted is restive with ideas from every field of human endeavour.
Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777, Swiss physician, botanist, and poet, considered one of the greatest modern physiologists), entered the literary scene with a volume of poems which exerted a very strong influence on German literature and in some ways even anticipated Goethe. Besides writing enormous works of students and colleagues and writing innumerable letters on scientific subjects, Haller also wrote three novels and several theological books. The great French philosophers of the period of enlightment- men like Diderot, d’Alembert, Rousseau, Voltaire- were philosophers, poets, historians and were all keenly interested in science.