4 MEDICAL HERO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11872, 25 January 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

4 MEDICAL HERO.

HOW DR. SMYTH NOBLY LAID DOWN

HIS LIFE. Under the auspices in Dublin of the president of the Royal College of Physicians (Sir C. Nixon), Dr. Myles (president of the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin), and others, a fund is being raised for the widow and eight children of Dr. William Smyth, of Burtonport, Donegal.

In their appeal the distinguished doctors tell in simple language the history of their humble colleague's splendid devotion to duty: —

"Dr. William Smyth was the medical officer to the Burtonport dispensary district, which includes the island of Aranmore. On the island an epidemic of typhus fever made its appearance. Here, owing to the poverty and ignorance of the people and the insanitary state of their houses, it found a fruitful breeding ground, and it was in combating this epidemic that Dr. Smyth laid down his life, a martyr to his sense of duty.

" Alone each day he rowed his boat across the stormy waters of the Sound to the island, a distance of four miles. Into the cottages, devoid of sunlight and ventilation, reeking with foul air, lie daily made his way. In many cases he had to carry a lighted candleto enable him even to see his patients, lying sometimes three or four in one bed.

" Alone he tried to be at once a nurse and a doctor to these poor stricken people in their miserable homes. When at length he succeeded in persuading them that their only chance of recovery lay in their removal to the mainland he was confronted with the difficulty that owing to the terror of the contagion no one would help him or even lend him a boat. ■ "Fortunately the arrival on the scene of Dr. Brendon McCarthy, the medical inspector to the Local Government Board, brought him at least one willing helper. Without any other help these two devoted men brought the typhus patients down to the beach, embarked with them in a crazy boat, and rowed them across the Sound. So defective was the boat that she was only kept, afloat Jay the continuous bailing of the strongest of the patients, and she sank live minutes after reaching her destination. "Happily, all the patients were safely transferred and, we are glad to say, arc all now on their way to recovery. But of the gallant men who, without a moment's hesitation, faced not merely the dangers of the pestilence but the added risk of drowning, one, alas! has gone to his last account, having himself died of that typhus from which ho saved others.