ཀྭ།
SIR PATRICK MANSON. G.C.M.G.
12
Sir PATRICK MANSON, G.C.M.G.
The Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company, Limited, Hong Kong, as it is called to-day, owes its inception to Sir Patrick Manson, G.C.M.G., the distinguished parasitologist and first to enunciate the hypothesis that the mosquito is the host of the malarial parasite and thus an active agent in diffusing the disease. Born in 1844, the son of Mr. John Manson, of Fingask, Aberdeen, he took his degree in medicine at Aberdeen University and as a young man came to Hong Kong as a practising physician. The Colony at that time was a fruitful field for the study of parasitical diseases. Many areas were notoriously unhealthy; there was much turning over of virgin soil; the water supply was inadequate; food supplies corresponding to those at home were lacking, and the conditions of life generally were anything but healthy for the growing European population. Dr. Manson set to work, and the founding of the Dairy Farm was not the least fruitful product of the fertile brain which has made him famous as a specialist in tropical diseases. When he left Hong Kong the Dairy Farm was a toddling baby, passing through the anxious stages of infantile growth. It is to be regretted that the Father of the Company has never seen for himself the sturdy development of his inordinately backward child. Sir Patrick Manson left Hong Kong in 1882. Since then honours have showered upon him, the greatest compliment of all being his appointment as Physician and Medical Adviser to the British Colonial Office, His alma mater honoured him with the degree of Doctor of Laws, while Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science, He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians (London). In 1900 Queen Victoria conferred upon him the Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. In 1908 King Edward created him a Knight of the same distinguished Order, and in 1912 our present King elevated him to the Grand Cross (G.C.M.G.) the highest rank in the Order.
13
323