MARTYR TO SCIENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 4669, 9 July 1936, Page 4

MARTYR TO SCIENCE.

CLEVER FRENCH DUCHESS

To the list of those who have given their life for science is now added the name of the clever and charming Duchesse de Broncas. The career of this-Florence Nightingale of France is one of the most amazing examples of a woman’s heroism in medicine. /

Beginning at an early age in one of the leading X-rays centres in Paris, she rapidly gained a reputation as a radiologist. Aff;er her marriage to the Due de Broncas she insisted on continuing the work of bringing relief to hundreds of patients. Nearly two years ago, she fell ill. The rays had burned into her skin and affected the tissues. Her fellow radiologists begged her to give up the work and go into hospital for treatment. “I would rather go on,” she said. “We must all die sooner or later. lam trained radiologist, and to give up my work would be to deprive a large number of people of vital aid.” The duchess invented a special type of electrically heated needle, regarded as a very important advance. The effect of the rays on her health.gradually increased. She lost one of the fingers on her right hand and then her hand had to be amputated. Then her arm was amputated. She still kept on at her post. “Her’s was a living death,” a friend said. “For the last six months she has been slowly sinking, and now she has died.”