Most of us have seen the decoration on the wall, but just preferred to overlook it. It is on a busy way, frequented by thousands during the day, but nobody cares to give it an inquisitive look. The ignored memorial is located on AJC Bose Road, on the northern wall of the Presidency General (SSKM) Hospital. The arch shaped memorial was dedicated to Ronald Ross, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria.

Ronald Ross was born in Almora in India on 13^th May 1857 and at the early age of eight, he was sent to England for his studies at the early age of eight. After completing his school education, he passed the examination for the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1879. He also obtained the Diploma in Public Health from the Royal College of Physicians and took a course in Bacteriology.

He embarked for India on 22 September 1881 and was variously posted in different places in India, Burma, Baluchistan and Andaman Islands, till 1894. On 20th August 1897, while working in Secunderabad, Ross discovered that malaria was transmitted by a particular type of female mosquitoes. He confirmed the presence of the specific parasite inside the gut of that particular type of female mosquito, which he originally identified as ‘dappled-wings’, which finally turned out to be a species of the genus Anopheles.

Finally, in 1898, working at the Presidency General Hospital (SSKM Hospital), Calcutta, Ross and his assistants traced the life history of the malaria parasite. He proved that malaria is transmitted by the bite of a special type of female mosquito, and the discovery laid the foundation for the method of combating the deadly disease.

The small and unimpressive memorial on the walls of SSKM Hospital commemorates the revolutionary discovery of Ronald Ross, which created history in medical science. Ross was further awarded with the honor to unveil the memorial himself, in the presence of Lord Lytton, on 7 January 1927. The central part of the arch contains the image of Ross, designed in the shape of a big coin or a medal, flanked by two marble plaques on either side.

Ross was a polymath, he wrote a number of poems, published several novels, and composed songs. He had the aptitude to write poems on most of the important events in his life. The plaque on the right side of the image of Ross contains a few lines of a poem, written by Ross himself, about his feelings on his discovery.