EFFECTS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 369, 25 February 1937, Page 3

EFFECTS

DARING TESTS. Experiments of London Scientist. Professor J. B. S. Haldane, the | scientist, Who went to Madrid recent- j ly to advise the Spanish Government on civilian protection from poison gas, wai reported to have been taken ill in a Madrid gas chamber while experimenting with Spanish-made gas masks. His wife, Mrs Charlotte Haldane, who is recovering from an attack of pleurisy in her London home, was not in the least alarmed at the news. “I have the mot't complete confidence in my husband, and I am not a bit worried,,” she said. Mrs Haldane is used to her husband’s experiments on himself—and she trusts his judgment. In 1930 he shut himself in a steel chamber With a Mount Everest explorer to study the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, and subsequently | expressed regret that his observa- | tions could not be continued to the point of unconsciousness. He has performed on himself experiments which the law would not allow him to perform on animals. He gave himself convulsions (faring hit research into tetanus. When he was only 14 he experimented with fire damp by standing with ~his head in it and reciting “Friends, Romans, countrymen” until he collapsed. Son in Spain. Mrs Haldane said that her hutband had written from Madrid suggesting she should go out to Spain. “My 17-year-old son Ronnie is driving a lorry for the International Column, and it Was partly his decision which led Professor Haldane to go out there. The International Column is- putting up a grand show, ahd we were proud to have him go. “There is no question of my helping my husband in his scientific work —I know nothing about poison gas. I have helped him occasionally in his experiments, turning a lot of taps while he said ‘On—off! On —off!’”