BLIND SCIENTIST

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 106, 7 May 1931, Page 15

BLIND SCIENTIST

DEATH OF WOMAN DOCTOR

Dr. Florence Buchanan, who for 30 years carried out highly specialised scientific resoareh work in spite of the handicap of almost total blindness, died recently at Oxford, states a. London writer. =_.A daughter of the ■la'to, '.-Sir ■George- .Buchanan, Chief Me'dicaf Officer of- the Local -Government Board; her sight began to fail soon after she left University College, London. As a means of chocking the development of her :eyo trouble, Dr. Buchanan had to lie on her back for three months. Unable to write during-: that time,., she dictated a paper on "T,he Electrical Besponso of Muscle in Different Kinds of Contraction," and for this, she received the degree of D.Sc. from London University, and University College elected her a Fellow. With great courage and enthusiasm she continued her scientific work. Not only "did she refuse to abandon her experiments, but made careful notes of the progress of her own eye trouble. She continued her'studies to the end and contributed numerous valuable'articles to ■ scientific periodicals. A short time before her. death, Dr. Buchanan delivered . important lectures on electro-physiological subjects. She was the first woman to be elected a member of the.Physiological Society.

"Everyone in Oxford had the greatest respect , :md affection for . Miss Buchanan,'' said Professor ' Winifred Cullis, of the London School of Medicine for Women. "She was a remarkable woman. I was often afraid she might come to some harm in the streets, so.I used to offer help, but she.always replied, 'No, I mnst. got used to going about by myself.'" -■ .