DUCHESS DIES FOR SERVICE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 2 July 1936, Page 8

DUCHESS DIES FOR SERVICE

LIVING DEATH IN X-RAYS EXPERIMENT ( By Air Mail—From A Special Correspondent) LONDON, 6th June. To the list of those who have given their lives 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 women’s heroism in medicine.

Beginning at an early age in one of the leading X-ray centres in Paris, she rapidly gained a reputation as a radiologist. After 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 was taken ill. The rays had burnt 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, in a letter. “We must ail die sooner or later. I am a trained radiologist, and to give up my work would be to deprive a large number of people of vital aid.” The duchesse 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 her hand had to be amputated. Then her arm was poisoned and was also amputated. Still she kept on at her post. “Hers was a living death” a friend said. “For the last six months she has been slowly sinking, and last night she died.”