The Hawera Star FRIDAY, JULY 27. 1928. IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 27 July 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star

FRIDAY, JULY 27. 1928. IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY.

Delivered every evening by & o’olook In Hawera. ilanair.. Normanby, Okaiawa. Eltham, MaDgatoki. Kaponga. Alton, Hurley ville Patea. Waverlev, Mo_oia, Wnakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road, and Arurata . • - •

Every now and atgaiini itbe (would is sltiiinned nrnomenfcau'ily Iby .the heroic death, of isoin-a isicieinitaisit cwh'o tsolctrii-flc-ejs ihitanself in the cause of ihiuimiandity. Siciiienido hais. newer .faliled to find voduin■toeus fot Itho rn'o-st id'espc-raite- aitfaicks in the* noble war against suffering and disease. Many of these experimenters have given their lives, otheers have taken grave risks and recovered!, but aOl have hdded to the- sum of human knowledge, and some, iby sacrificing their own livelsi, have' tsaved the lives of thousands olf their * f cUowanem. For centuries (past the neiceslsity for selfisiaierifioe has bdetn faced iby scientists, and it is recorded that iby conducting sipeetateullair experiments on ihitmiself Lazarro Spailanzami, an adventurous and inquiring Italian of the eighteenth cientury, first ireveailed the: processes of human digestion, which ■until (then bald been one of the deep mysteries of human life. Throughout the intervening years noble eOntniibuitionis have been .made by devoted men, who scorned idamg.cr in the risks they •have taken. .Recently the death (Of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, the world-famous Japanese bacteriologist, i enrolled him amlong the noble army of aiuirtyns wih,o have saicriifijced their 'own- (Lives in enideavOuming it ! o benefit bum-amity. He died dn a fever -Stricken- isetaipoTt of the Gold Const of Africa, a victim of African yellow fever, ,}ust ns Sue had idcnftnded the ; cause as a -result- of studying this own ease While suffering from this dread disease. The wealth of -tribute in the Press of the world to his devoted efforts on behladf of mankind (gave striking proof that the peoples are not unmindful of the sialerifiees of t,basic devoted men oif science. But a few months ago it was reported that the wife, of Dr. Bi-diney Rnwson Willson, a distinguished English surgeon and anaesthetist, ihaid found her husband -dead in his laboratory lying before a -machine with which he was making experiments in the administering of gas -mixtures. For years- ho had investigated the action 'of anaestheticswith the idea of developing one that would be free of the defecltis Of those used to-day, and with tsiuceess apparently at, hand, the only way to provide- a. test was to (experiment on himself. Perhaps no isLngle- -aiclt of -heroism during the War surpassed thait of Miss Maw Davies, a Welsh bacteriologist, wiluo died in France- this year, where oho had deliberately inoculated herself with gals- igam-grepe. germs to test a remedy for the terrible dll which killed thousands of Soldiers dm the -early days -of the war. The Oislt of those martyrs in the ciaiuSe of science could be e-x----tended, ailnuoslt dindiefiniltely Everyone knows, or should know, the thrillimg story of Dr. Lazetarr, the heroic Amieri-c-an m-ediieail isiei-ontisti, who, thirty years -ago, gave his life to prove that yellow fever is contagious- only because infection is carried by 'a certain- kind of mo-squito, ami it is largely through his self-sacrifice that this dread scourge- no longer threatens the human race. In another field of' Scientific investigation, if Dr. Maurice Hall had mot gambled with death by drinking -a dose- of carbon t-ettalcMUrido the -dovUstating hookworm -might tetiill have taken deadly toll in Itirrtpi-Cail and isemii-t.ropi'cal -eounfpi.es. Experiments bald proved that t-etiraehlorjdo diet mot -harm (animals, ithough it -effeotiively d-oafllt with the parasite, land to tost the effect it had on human beings he tried it on himself iain.il discovered 1 a. simple remedy for a (disease that afflicted thousands. Fortunately many -of the experiments tb-at s'ciienit-isrtis -make upou Itherms-eilves are mot followed iby disastrous results; the value of the -c-omtrilbutiion they •rninke to m-adli'ea! knowledge leammot be -ndtiitnalled. But there aire- those who, in their attempt Is- to extend itbe hwr.i zn-n of hinmam: knowledge and .to mitigate human suffering, .and kmowiing the price likely d'o be paid', wilili-ngly offer themselves nis simcriflees for hiumainlit.y. A brief nin.nO'Uin'Cemienf. of their dcalth and -pothiaps a few 'limes c'omiccmnimg Itbe rpair-t-ieulair wotrk they were engaged on, •often i's the only information that comas to the outside world, buit be--tweom the -line.s miay bo read tile heroic (-itrories- of -men of iscienc'e (who gladly give their own lives that -others may Ijivc.