IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 4 January 1928, Page 5

IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY

HEROIC DOCTOR’S SACRIFICE CO XT R ACTS CREE PING PARALYSIS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYEIGUT. LONDON, Jan. 3. Henry Head, a famous physician is now victim of Parkinson’s disease, a form of creeping paralysis, of which he had made a lifelong study. When the first sympton’s appeared, 18 months ago, he retired to Dorchester. He cannot write, though doctors throughout the world still consult him on abstruse problems of neurology. Dr. Head dictates his replies to his wife. Twenty years ago Dr. Head deliberately risked 'contracting paralysis by seveiing the nerves of his left arm near the elbow for the purpose of studying the problems of deep sensibility. He prefaced his experiment by a life of rigorous self denial. The arm healed perfectly. The present complaint is apparently due to later overwork. Dr. Head used to tell his patients that they must resign themselves to sleeplessness. He says: “‘I am sorry now that I did not quite appreciate how hard life was tor them.”