OXYGEN TESTS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 155, 27 March 1926, Page 22

OXYGEN TESTS

LONDON DOCTOR’S TINY GLASS' WARD

Death has claimed in Dr. G. H. Hunt, of Guy’s Hospital, London, a young physician who carried on research work of great 'promise while himself suffering from an illness winch proved fatal. ' ■ ' , . Dr. Hunt, specialising in lung and heart troubles, has experimented with a tiny glass’ward of three beds at the hospital. His object was to continue experiments, in which he had taken part with Professor Barcroft at Cambridge, on the effects of oxygen treatment for “poison gas’’ and other chest complaints. During the war he was a pioneer in the treatment of trench fever. “One of the keenest men and one of the most charming personalities Guy's has known.”

Thus was summed up at Guy’s Hospital recently, to an “Evening Standard” representative the character of Dr. Hunt.

Apart from his profession he was a •ingularly gifted musician and a golfer and lawn tennis player of much more than ordinary merit. But it. was, of course, his devotion to medical science which dominated his life and not the least tragic feature of its close was that in his later years while untiring in his work to save others he was battling with a disease which could have but one end. Almost up to the time of his death—at the early age of 41—he devoted himself to his private practice and to his work at Guy’s Hospital. Here, at one end of the Addison Ward, he had installed a glass chamber containing three beds, in which he could continue the work in which he had specialised during the war. In this miniature glass hospital—on the left as you enter the ward—selected patients live for two or three days, while the effect of the oxygen treatment are observed in cases of heart gnd lung trouble. One who was closely associated with Dr. Hunt said that Dr. Hunt did not regard this particular experiment as his main interest. As a heart specialist he was most proud of his “pulse ratio” form of treatment, which involved graduated physical exercises for the patient. ..... To aid him he did not hesitate tc make use of the Guy’s Rugby team in the cause of science By studying these hefty fellows and ascertaining the state of their pulse when at rest and again when they were undertaking strenuous exercises he knew exactly what the physically fit man was capable of standing and the physical effect produced.

Then when a patient came to him he would test his pulse at rest and again after some very mild exercise. By comparing the effect of the heart with" the results obtained' in the case of the ’ “Rugger” plaver he was able to prescribe’ the nature of the exercises which he wished the patient to carry out. It is no exaggeration to say that it was largely owing to Dr. Hunt’s acute perception during the war that the disease which came to be called trench fever was recognised as an affection requiring special treatment. He was one of the first to notice that troops at the front were going down with symptoms which indicated a new type of disease, and the committee was appointed which became known as tlie Trench Fever Committee. This clever voung doctor belonged to the Barcroft-Haldane group, and during tile war joined Professor Barcroft at Cambridge, where there were conducted the experiments of existence in a glass chamber which have recently been continued with such striking results bv Professor Barcroft. In a tribute to his former colleague to-day, Professor Barcroft said to a Press representative 1 “He had—had he lived—a very proraising career as a physician in front of him. I must stress the extremely lovable nature of the man and his extreme caution in all scientific work. He was highly critical of his own performances, and he could be absolutely depended upon. “It was for the last two years of the war that he collaborated with me at Cambridge, Hjs work really begun m France with an investigation of the effects of gas upon the heart and lungs, and specially of the advantage ot graduated exercises as a form of treatment in convalescence. “One of the most interesting plmses of this treatment was the administration of oxygen to gassed patients, and his investigation proved that in a fair proportion of cases the oxygen treatment produced results which were at all events temporarily good, and in many instances so far as they could be followed permanently so. s“We put the gas patients m a glass chamber which contained an atmosphere very rich in oxygen. It contained three beds, and was indeed a sort of glass home. A patient would be there as long as ten days, only coming out for a little exercise -each day. Many other kinds of cases were tested as control cases to see whether the type of injury caused by gas ran parallel to lung and heart troubles of other kinds.”