A MARTYR TO SCIENCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 184, 30 April 1919, Page 7

A MARTYR TO SCIENCE

DISCOVERER OF THE INFLUENZA GERM? (London "Times" Medical Correspondent.) Major H. Graeme Gibson, R.A.M.C., who died recently at the No. 2 Stationary Hospital, Abbeville, was a martyr to science. Almost at the hour when, in company 1 with two other workers, Major Bowman, Canadian Army Medical Corps, and Captain Connor, Australian Army Medical Corps, he had completed the discovery ot' what is very probably indeed the causative germ ot this inltuenza epidemic. A preliminary note regarding this germ was published by these doctors on December '14, ltilii, in tho "British Medical Journal," and thus Major Graeme Gibson's work takes precedence over later publications At tiie titi;c. however, the proof oj tho discovery was not complete. It has now been completed, as we understand; and Major Gibson's death furnishes a part of the evidence. His eagerness and enthusiasm led him to work so hard, that he finally fell a vict:m. to the very virulent strains of the germ with which lie was experimenting, Ho himself caught tho iuliucnza, and pneumonia followed. "The germ belongs to the order of fil; ter-passers, and is grown by the Noguchi method. It is reported that monkeys have been infected with it quite easily, and have developed attacks producing small haemorrhages in the lungs, a sou quite suitable for the reception of the piioumococcus. Tho chain of evidence thus seems to be very strong, l'urther, we understand that the germ closely resembles that described by Captain \\ ilson in the 'British Medical Journal' a lew weeks ago. Thus Captain Wilson's work seems to confirm the work of Major Graeme Gibson and Ills colleagues. "Nor is this the only direction in which science has placed the public in its debt with regard to influenza. Recently it was observed that persons working nt gasworks seemed to a degree- of immunity from the disease. While it ra:;ed around them they themselves escaped in large measure. At tho same time it was noted that in a certain room of a munitions factory i»lluenza did not develop, though persons working in the other rooms got it in numbers. All analysis of the air in these places was made, and it was found : that this air contained \ concentration of fumes of sulphurous acid