MEDICAL MARTYRS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6870, 14 July 1909, Page 3

MEDICAL MARTYRS.

A' collection made by a writer in “Chambers’s Journal'* of cases of medical men sacrificing themselves in tho interests of science would have greatly interested Stevenson, who held tho physician to be tho noblest of mankind. Certain cases, snob as those of tho men who permitted themselves to be bitten by infected mosquitoes to prove that yellow fever was a mosquitoborne disease, are world-famous. Others, less widely known, aro not less interesting. There is tho heroism of Signor Teodoro Scribante, of Turin, who, being desirous of determining tho amount of carbon dioxide which, mixed with atmospheric air, formed an atmosphere dangerous to life, allowed himself to bo confined in a chamber, the air of which was mixed with varying proportions .of tho deadly gas. At tho end of tho third experiment he was found unconscious, and it was only by tho use of oxygen that h© was restored to consciousness. To investigate the terrible habit of taking cocaine, Dr. Winner, an American doctor of repute, took large doses of the drug, and, seated before a mirror, calmly made notes of his condition. Before long h© became furiously insane, and was discovered smashing tho furniture of his room. He died tho following day. Ono of the American “poison squad” —men who 1 volunteered to eat various adulterated foods seized by the Government—died as a result of tho test. Risky and painful was the self-impos-ed test undergone by Dr Head, England, who had tho sensory nerves of one of his arms divided, and noted tho disappearance of tho various sensations. Then he had tho nerves Reunited, and watched the progress of recovery. This e'xperiment mad© an important addition to our knowledge of tho nerves. A great amount of quiet heroism, of which the public never hears, £aust be shown by doctors all over the world.