Following medical studies at Glasgow University, William Boog Leishman (1865-1926) joined the Army Medical Service and went to India where he studied enteric fever and kala-azar disease. In 1897 he moved to the Victoria Hospital (Military) at Netley, Southampton, and by 1900 was Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Army Medical School. There, a soldier from Bengal suffering from kala-azar gave the first evidence of the causative blood parasite; although this was protozoan rather than bacterial, it susceptible to similar methods of investigation. Leishman's stain, employing methylene blue and eosin, became well known. In 1903, with Charles Donovan (1863-1951), Calcutta-born of Irish parents, Professor of Physiology, Madras Medical College and Indian Government General Hospital, Leishman confirmed the causative microbe, Leishmania donovani, a trypanosome. He also worked with Almroth Wright on anti-typhoid treatments, and in 1911-12 became President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. Leishman's colleagues in the study of non-bacterial parasites included Carlos Chagas and Ronald Ross (1857-1932).
Created 2 February 2023