SACRIFICED TO SCIENCE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18367, 28 April 1925, Page 6

SACRIFICED TO SCIENCE.

HEROES OF THE LABORATORY. To the roll of those who have given their lives in tho cause of scientific progress there has just been added two more names, those of Dr. Demenitroux, of Paris, and Professor Bergome, or Bordeaux, who died as a result of experiments, unflinchingly pursued, with X-ray. Their death tragically revives the memory of other victims in this sphere of investigation, says Jon n o London's Weekly," notably Dr. Iron-, side Bruce, of Charing, Cross Hospital, London, and Dr. Adolphe Leroy, of fat. Antoine Hospital, Pans. But while no line of medical research has engendered greater heroism, it is to be remembered that investigations in other directions have prompted seltsacrifice equally inspiring. Think or yellow fever, one of the most terriWo scourges of mankind, and tho comparative immunity which is ours to-day. What we know of the disease and its prevention stands almost entirely to tho credit of a handful of experimenters whose names are all but unknown outside medical circles. Nurse Clara Mead was one of the first to give, her life in the course of the experimentsshe volunteered to be inoculated with the deadly germ—and her death was almost immediatly followed by that of three other workers. Leprosy, now a curable disease, nas taken a heavy toll of valuable lives. The tragedy of Dr. George Turner m this connexion is remembered by too few. An English medical officer of health, he went to South Africa thirty vears ago to tackle the problem of rinderpest, the devastating cattle plague. In the course of this work he became interested, in leprosy, and spared no effort to find relief for those so afflicted. Some time later, after he had returned to this country, Dr. Turner found that he himself had contracted the disease, a casuallv noticed mark on his left hand being the clue that led to the terrible discovery. With characteristic unselfishness he at once made arrangements to be isolated, although he refused to discontinue his expert-] ments. Gradually he was bereft of the power of using his limbs, until there was almost no personal service that he could render himself unaided. On the King's own initiative he was knighted, but, unhappily, he did not live long to enjoy the honour. ' The evolution of poison gases in the war resulted in the loss of a number of lives made doubly valuable by their contributions to science. One martyr in this category, Colonel Harrison, of the Royal Engineers,- was warned time after time that his health was imperilled by his efforts to find an antidote to certain of the more virulent gases, .but he refused to abandon the taak. Finally, he succumbed to pulmonary disease, directly attributable to his experiments. Another worker for science, Dr. Fox, of Melbourne, lost his life in the course of experimenting with snake-bite serum. While examining some snakes in the Calcutta Zoological Gardens be received four punctures in the wrist from a venomous snake. He applied some of his serum to three of tho wounds, but overlooked the fourth. A few hours later he was found dead in bed. where he had gone to rest after his fateful experience.