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Obituary Professor Jérôme Rodhain Honorary Fellow, 1933. Manson Medallist, 1953
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OBITUARY
PROFESSOR JI~ROME RODHAIN Honorary Fellow, 1933. Manson Medallist, 1953. At the age of 80, in full possession of all his brilliant faculties, and still actively engaged in research, Professor Rodhain died at his home at Tervueren on 26th September, 1956. He had only just returned from his last trip to the Belgian Congo whither he had first gone in the service of the Free State in 1903. A graduate of Louvain University in 1899, he grew up with Tropical Medicine and became in Belgian and wider circles, its Grand Old Man. In the old laboratory at Kintambo, overlooking the Congo rapids, he was a pioneer in the treatment of sleeping sickness with atoxyl and tartar emetic, and he studied the meningeal reaction along with that of relapsing fever. In 1910 he joined the Mission headed by J. Bequaert to the Katanga where he demonstrated the transmission of metacyclic trypanosomes by Glossina palpalis and G. morsitans. At the outbreak of the first World War, as Mfidecin Inspecteur for the Middle Congo and director of the L~opoldville Laboratory, he was called to organize and direct the Medical Services for the troops and served in East Africa, gaining among other distinctions the D.S.O. Returning to Congo in 1920 he was promoted M~decin-en-Chef, and paid special attention to the organization of medical assistance for the African populations and the training of auxiliary medical personnel. In 1925 he returned to Belgium and took up teaching as Professor at Ghent and also at the Colonial University of Antwerp. On the death of Dr. Broden in 1929 he succeeded him as Director of the School of Tropical Medicine, a post he occupied through the second World War. It was due to his international reputation, his wisdom and diplomacy that he succeeded in maintaining the integrity of the School during the German occupation. Perhaps his most fruitful years of research followed his official retirement in 1947. Altogether nearly 300 scientific papers appeared under his name, on human and veterinary pathology. He proved that the chimpanzee Pan satyrus verus was susceptible to sporozoite inoculation of P. malariae, thus hinting at an animal reservoir for malaria. Eight years after this work he re-examined the liver of one of his experimental animals and found, in chimpanzee Jules, the typical exo-erythrocytic schizonts in the liver. This fact is laconically reported in his last paper to these Transactions (50, p. 291) without even a hint that, had he recognized them at the time, he would have anticipated the work of Shortt and Garnham. His honours include the Laveran, Nocht, Manson, and Mary Kingsley Medals, and he was life secretary of the Soci6t6 Belge de M6decine Tropicale. His gentleness, kindliness and charm endeared him to all and made him universally loved and honoured, as well as admired, for his great and painstaking scientific achievements coupled with outstanding administrative ability.
OBITUARY
PROFESSOR JI~ROME RODHAIN Honorary Fellow, 1933. Manson Medallist, 1953. At the age of 80, in full possession of all his brilliant faculties, and still actively engaged in research, Professor Rodhain died at his home at Tervueren on 26th September, 1956. He had only just returned from his last trip to the Belgian Congo whither he had first gone in the service of the Free State in 1903. A graduate of Louvain University in 1899, he grew up with Tropical Medicine and became in Belgian and wider circles, its Grand Old Man. In the old laboratory at Kintambo, overlooking the Congo rapids, he was a pioneer in the treatment of sleeping sickness with atoxyl and tartar emetic, and he studied the meningeal reaction along with that of relapsing fever. In 1910 he joined the Mission headed by J. Bequaert to the Katanga where he demonstrated the transmission of metacyclic trypanosomes by Glossina palpalis and G. morsitans. At the outbreak of the first World War, as Mfidecin Inspecteur for the Middle Congo and director of the L~opoldville Laboratory, he was called to organize and direct the Medical Services for the troops and served in East Africa, gaining among other distinctions the D.S.O. Returning to Congo in 1920 he was promoted M~decin-en-Chef, and paid special attention to the organization of medical assistance for the African populations and the training of auxiliary medical personnel. In 1925 he returned to Belgium and took up teaching as Professor at Ghent and also at the Colonial University of Antwerp. On the death of Dr. Broden in 1929 he succeeded him as Director of the School of Tropical Medicine, a post he occupied through the second World War. It was due to his international reputation, his wisdom and diplomacy that he succeeded in maintaining the integrity of the School during the German occupation. Perhaps his most fruitful years of research followed his official retirement in 1947. Altogether nearly 300 scientific papers appeared under his name, on human and veterinary pathology. He proved that the chimpanzee Pan satyrus verus was susceptible to sporozoite inoculation of P. malariae, thus hinting at an animal reservoir for malaria. Eight years after this work he re-examined the liver of one of his experimental animals and found, in chimpanzee Jules, the typical exo-erythrocytic schizonts in the liver. This fact is laconically reported in his last paper to these Transactions (50, p. 291) without even a hint that, had he recognized them at the time, he would have anticipated the work of Shortt and Garnham. His honours include the Laveran, Nocht, Manson, and Mary Kingsley Medals, and he was life secretary of the Soci6t6 Belge de M6decine Tropicale. His gentleness, kindliness and charm endeared him to all and made him universally loved and honoured, as well as admired, for his great and painstaking scientific achievements coupled with outstanding administrative ability.