Manson, Patrick, Sir, 1844-1922

Patrick Manson was born in 1844 and studied medicine at Aberdeen University, passing M.B. and C.M. in 1865. In 1866 he became medical officer of Formosa (Taiwan) for the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, moving to Amoy in 1871. His light duties allowed him to work in local missionary hospitals, in contact with Chinese patients and their diseases and he became aware of the shortcomings of British medical training when faced with tropical diseases. While working on elephantoid diseases in Amoy, he discovered in the tissues of blood-sucking mosquitoes the developmental phase of filaria worms. Seminal papers were published in 1878 and 1878.

In 1883 he left Amoy to set up in private practice in Hong Kong, where he was joined in 1887 by James Cantlie. Together they established a medical college to train young Chinese men in western medicine. This school, which opened in 1887, developed into the university and medical school of Hong Kong.

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