The pathogenic agent for malaria was discovered by Alphonse Laveran, a French military physician in Constantine, Algeria in 1880. In Algeria Laveran often performed necropsies on malaria victims. Numerous pigmented bodies and other bodies at the edge of which were moveable filaments or flagella were seen in their blood. The rapid and varied movement of these flagella indicated to Laveran that they must be parasites. He found such parasites in 148 out of 192 cases and concluded they were the cause of malaria. He called the parasiteOscilliaria malariae but the Italian namePlasmodium later won favour.

Laveran found that the …