HEROISMS OF SCIENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 23325, 22 July 1939, Page 14

HEROISMS OF SCIENCE.

The causes of the wreck of the British submarine Thetis, and the failure, after many hours, to rescue the ninety-nine men who were lost with her, are the subject of an exhaustive inquiry which still continues, and of which no one will wish to anticipate the findings. No reserve, however, is needed in expressing admiration for the self-sacrificing experiment by which Professor Haldane, who holds the chair of biometry at University College, London, strove to throw light on the conditions in which the men met their end. Professor Haldane had himself locked in an airtight steel chamber for 14j hours. After 10i hours the air in the chamber contained 4.7 per cent, carbon dioxide, rising in less than three more hours to 5.35. The distinguished man of science was then panting heavily and suffering from a headache. In three-quarters of an hour more his symptoms were worse than those of the Thetis men when Captain Oram escaped 17 hours after the dive. When he left the chamber, with a racking headache and vomiting violently, his condition corresponded with that of the Thetis men who might have tried to escape after Captain Oram got to the surface. On a second occasion Professor Haldane and four assistants were locked in the chamber and stayed there till the dioxide was 6 per cent. It was considered that, in the plight to which they were reduced, in calm weather they might have escaped from a submarine by means of the Davis apparatus, but there was danger of a panic with such mental and physical distress. Most readers will feel of one mind with the judge who paid tribute to Professor Haldane’s fortitude. The prof fessor would probably say that his experiment was all in the day’s work. Science has its heroisms, more numerous than the layman is aware of, and in an essay ‘ On Being One’s Own Rabbit ’ this scientist has described an earlier experiment to which he once subjected himself, which the average non-scientist would prefer to shun. The story, as it is told in his entrancing book, ‘Possible Worlds,’ does not lend itself to a summary, but the experiment was in over-breathing, and the scientist got the results he wanted when he had reproduced in himself the type of shortness of breath which occurs in the terminal stages of kidney disease and diabetes; when, moreover, his blood had lost about 10 per cent, of its volume, his weight dropped 71b in three days, and his liver refused to store sugar, which is one of its normal functions. An immense number of experiments, he remarks, are being done on human beings, especially in the United States. For rough experiments one uses an animal, but when accurate observations are needed a human being is preferable—hence the description of “ being ope’s own rabbit.” Such experiments, Professor Haldane declares, are not dangerous if they are done with intelligence. The expert in his particular branch of science knows what he is doing. “ Experiments in which one stakes one’s life on the correctness of one’s biochemistry are far safer than those of an aeroplane designer who is prepared to fall a thousand feet if his aerodynamics are incorrect.” Not all scientists, however, in taking their risks for humanity, have known without a wide margin what they were doing. There is the classic story of Simpson, the discoverer of how chloroform could be used as an anaesthetic. A bottle of the fluid was tested when two of Simpson’s colleagues had been invited by him to supper. Dr John A. Hayward has written: “ The three agreed to make the trial at the supper table, and filling their glasses began to inhale the vapour. We can imagine the scene that ensued—the gradual confused incoherence of their talk, the thrumming in the ears, the loss of control of limbs as the subtle effect stole down arms and legs, the inconsequent wandering into dreamland, and then the crash as they fell from their chairs and Mrs Simpson came rushing in to find all three unconscious on the floor. Fortunately for them the inhalation stopped when they fell and before the danger point had been reached, or a tragedy rather than a discovery would have been the consequence. Simpson was delighted with the result.” When W. Haffkine introduced a vaccine which has proved a great protective against plague he first tried it on himself, knowing that the result might be fatal. Pierre Curie deliberately exposed his arm to radium, and received a severe burn which took months to heal. Examples of such heroism probably would fill a book.