ENDURED FOR HUMANITY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 14 April 1908, Page 6

ENDURED FOR HUMANITY.

DOCTOR'S MARTYRDOM TO SCIENCE.

ARM LOST IN EXPERIMENTS WITH EX-RAYS.

That "Peace hat>h her victories no lees renowned than War" has become a commonplace. The fate of Dr. Hall-Edwards ol Birmingham, reminds us that campaigns of life-saving have their "Killed and Wounded" lists as well as those other campaigns which have for their object the cLestruction of life. J?or several years Dr. Hall-Edwards has suffered what he himself described as "excruciating, ever-present pain, 1 ' caused by his constant work with <the healing Xraye. At last the agony became so unbearable, and his left arm so useless, that «n. Sunday he had it out off. Now ft is a question whether he can save the right arm or whether that will have to go too. This brave man, who has shown himself ready to face not only death, but what is worse than death, constant suffering, in, the interest of humanity and knowledge, was one of the pioneers of the X-rays treatment. It ,was he who <took the Rontgen-ray photograph (or radiograph) of the first case in which am operation was made possible by such means. Now such operations are every-day occurrence. He went to South Africa as radiographer during "the war and did valuable ■work. It was soon after he returned to England and began to deal with the rays in their directly curative action that he first felt the ill-elects of Kis frequent exposure to the mysterious light which iB so helpful in some circumstances and so hurtful in others. DUMB TORTURE. Warts began to appear on his fingers. Gradually they spread and caused continuous sores. He could only get snatches of sleep. Constantly he would be obliged to get up and, wander about the house in dumb torture. In a letter to a medical paper he spoke of the pain as being of a neuralgic character. "It never ceases, and is intensified from time .to time by sudden stabs and jumps of such severity as to make one cry out.' At that time he had on the back of each hand from fifty to sixty warts. He could get no relief from drugs, and the warts were so sensitive and painful that they could not be sand-papered. His only remedy was to soften them by means of a lead lotion and opium poultice, and then to scrape them off with a knife. This caused him intense agony, but he persisted in undergoing it so that he might be able to get on with his work. "For two or three days after such an application the pain is increased, .but the fingers are rendered much more pliable and mobile.' That was all he thought of. "How can I continue my investigations and experiments? I must have my fingers supple, no matter what the cost in suffering. I cannot give up now." PROTECTION FOR EXPERIMENTERS And here are many more who have suffered and are suffering in the same way. "I know a <narmbcr of such cases," Mr Alfred Dean, one of the best-known makers of X-Tay apparatus, said, "both ' here and on the Continent. There is a doctor in London now who has had several fingers taken off." » "There iB now no reason at all why anyone should be affected who takes precautions. As for the ordinary operator, he is as safe as his patient. The apparatus is so largely automatic that there is no risk to patients at all. Unfortunately Dr. Hall-Edwards did not protect himself until too late." The one cheering thought in the mind as one contemplates t^e martyrdom of so nrnn^ of those who h&ve brought tne xrays to their present uses is that they have their (reward in the knowledge of the suffering . they have relieved. Set Tiheir pains against the thousands of cases which are treated and cured y«arly by the healing rays and they are but as a drop compared with an obeam. . . Think of all those whose lives are no longer made' a burden to them by lupus or rodent ulcer. Think of the children cured of ringworm, and the men with blotchy faces who have got rid of that dreadful disfigurement known as "barber's rash." Think of ?he oamcer cases •which have been alleviated and even cured. And these are only the beneficial results of the direct use of the X-rays. •The tnfe of those who have profited by radio-photography is even, longer still. Numberless homes bless the men whose patient, courageous handling of this unknown and dangerous a^ent fins turned it to the service of mankind.