Origin of the word malaria and Charles Laveran's discovery of its parasite

Malaria (mal'aria) is Italian for "bad air", as opposed to buon'aria, good air. The disease was originally thought to arise from foul miasmas in the atmosphere, so the quality of the air was the key to defining it. The malarial plasmodium, which in fact causes the illness, was discovered by the army doctor Charles Laveran in Algeria, and much later, in 1907, he received the Nobel Prize for the discovery.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Origin of the word malaria and Charles Laveran's discovery of its parasite

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s