DOCTOR'S HEROIC DEATH.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 August 1915, Page 8

DOCTOR'S HEROIC DEATH.

A DISINFECTING INCIDENT. I have obtained (says a special correspondent of the Daily Chronicle) an interesting narrative concerning the heroic death of Dr. Chaillon, head of the antirabies department of the Pasteur Institute, and one of the most brilliant young scientists in France. On April 27 last he was cited in the order of the day for "having demanded and obtained the perilous mission of disinfecting a battlefield near the enemy's trenches, where lie was killed in fulfilling his service." On April 21, writes a friend of his. Dr. Chaillon motored out to the wood behind the advanced lines close to the enemy's trenches, and during the night went out alone to reconnoitre the position and estimate the difficulty of his work. Between the French and German trenches lay a mass of corrupting flesh which had been there for many months slid gave forth most poisonous and deadly vapours. To disinfect them thoroughly under cover of darkness would take at least 12 nights. Dr. Chaillon insisted upon performing the task alone, but on the night of the 24th lie was accompanied by two stretcher bearers named Bailby and Vion, who were to remain at some distance away in order to prepare the disinfectants. At first the scene was very quiet, and the Germans did not fire a'shot, so that, encouraged by this silence and by the darkness of the night, Dr. Chaillon went -uithin seven yards of the enemy's Irencii, sprinkling the dead bodies with his disinfecting powder. Presently, however, the tin in which this was contained began to fiash in the light of the moon, which had now come from behind a cloud, and gp.ve the alarm to the German snetries. A shell burst over Dr. Chaillon's head,and killed a corporal and eight men some distance behind. Dr. Chaillon himself endeavoured to get to shelter, and rejoined the stretcher bearer Bailby, but another shell 1 burst close to them and buried them w i deep in the earth that it took five hours to disinter them.