THE MARTYRS OF SCIENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2913, 12 January 1910, Page 83

THE MARTYRS OF SCIENCE.

The heroic story of the death of Dr John Herbert Wells (says the Daily Mail), who recently succumbed to glanders aftetf 18 months of suffering, adds another name to the ever-growing list of men who have faced martyrdom in the cause of scientific knowledge, for the welfare of their fellow men.

Early scientists, like Galileo, suffered persecution for their enlightenment, and various seekers after the secret of the transmutation of metals or of perpetual motion are said to have blown themselves to pieces in their search for scientific truth. But with the vast strides which science—and, in particular, medical science—has made in more recent years, the roll of martyrs in the cause of knowledge has rapidly increased. Nowadays, every research student in a hospital carries his 'life in hip hands, and here and there science is claiming her sacrifice. Less than three months ago the death was recorded in Paris of Dr Jacques Antoine Eegnier, son of a leading member of the Academy of Medicine, who contracted bleed poisoning while conducting a post mortem examination in the. Neckcr Hospital. On his death-bed he urged his friends not to grieve, "for," he said, " I die like a soldier on a battlefield; wkei? you take up the medical career you are aware of the dangers, and must be ready ever to face them." Such are the sentiments which animate most of the men who devote their lives to-day to the cause of science, which is the cause ot mankind.

Eighteen months ago a patient in quarantine at Singapore died, and a postmortem examination became necessary to determine the cause of death. Two doctors—Dr Raikes and Dr Wray—both Government KRsdical officers, and therefore bound by duty as well as by the call of .science—discharged the perilous task. Both men contracted plague. Both men died. Death on a battlefield might seem more merciful.

The death of Dr Allan Macfadyen, the bacteriologist, in London, two years ago, was due to a combination of the two diseases which be contracted in the course of his search for a preventive of disease. Dr Mac/*iidj-v:i was with the

Lister Institute, and was conducting a series of experiments with the bacteria of typhoid and Malta fever, with the view of discovering a vaccine to prevent these diseases. By an accident, it is believed, he contracted both, and his name was added to the roll of martyrs of the laboratory.

Within a few months of Dr Macfadyen's death occurred the death of Mr W. H. Brown, one of the leading members of the medical profession in Leeds, and a specialist in the treatment of cancer. - Two years earlier, while operating, he contracted blood-poisoning, and this, it was believed, led to the* cancer which caused his death.

A fortnight afterwards Dr Seneca Powell, one of the best-known professors of medicine in the United States, and a teacher in the New York Postgraduate School of Medicine, became a vicJfini to his daring investigations into carbolic acid on J>oisoning, after three years' illness. Beieving that pure alcohol could be used as a,n antidote" for carbolic acid poisoning, Dr Powell made repeated experiments on lirmeelf to t**\ his theory for tlu benefit,

of the world. His heroic experiments were said to. have undermined his constitution, and he died a martyr to science. Professor Curie, who, with his wife, won a place in the history of science as the discoverer of radium, was perhaps saved from ? martyr's lingering death by the street accident in Paris which cut short hie life. His journey to London, with the first, tube of radium ever exhibited, resulted in a wound in the chest which took months to heal, for the radium emanation passed through his waistcoat, and underclothes and burned his chest to the bone. His experiments with radium scourged his hands and arms, which were practically paralysed to the elbows and rendered unpresentable to the eyes of strangers.

In America the early history of the" Rontgen rays was marked by the death of two men. One was Clarence Dally, chief assistant to Mr Edison, and the other was Dr Louis Weigel, of New York. For seven years Mr Dally was a martyr to dermatitis, caused by the exposure of his hands and arms to the rays. A cancerous growth develops. 1 on his left »xxa^

the lower part of which had to be amputated. His hair died off. Four fingers of his right hand had to be taken off, and finally his right arm followed. But it was of no avail, and in September, 1904, his life paid the penalty of his devotion to science.

The sufferings of Dr Hall Edwards, of Birmingham, who has had both hands destroyed by the Rontgen rays; of Mr Cox, who in February of this year underwent a second operation in consequence of his early experiments, and of other X-ray experimenters have been described during the past three or four years. Dr Cecil Lyster. of the Middlesex Hospital Finsen light department, is one of the men who have been maimed for life as the price of his work in the cause of science.

The name of Dr Maeatier Pirrie, who made two expeditions along the course of the Nile for the study of tropical fever, is recorded as that of a victim of scientific research. Dr Pirrie went to the far ends of the Bar-el-Ghazal and to the borders of Abyssinia, penetrating some of the most deadly areas* He came home stricken with the disease which he was seeking to eradicate. Although he wrote a paper* for the British Association, he was too ill tG read it before that assembly, and he died when he was onlv 28 years old.

Dr Duttin, of the Liverpool School of Trppical Medicine, was 29 years old when he died cf tick fever, contracted while trying to elucidate its effects on man.

Many diseases have stricken down the men who fearlessly faced them. Two years ago, during an outbreak of spotted fever in Rome, Dr Zampagnani, while tending some of the victims, contracted the disease, and, with death striding towards him, be sat down and wrote a treatise on the fever which before long proved fatal to him.

At Turin Dr Giusej>pe Bosso experimented with tubercle bacilli, which he developed in the university laboratory. He became infected with the very bacilli he had grown, and his name also is inscribed on the roll of martyrs to science.

A GREAT CA\ADIAN PROJECT.

"Many indications go to show that a start in the construction of the Georgian Bay Canal —'Canada's next great national task,' as Sir W. Laurier has described it—cannot be much longer delayed," sa3's the Manchester Guardian. "Last spring the Ottawa Government resolved that as soon as their finances permitted the scheme would be put in hand. Few people realise what an enormous undertaking this canal will be. "Sir Robert Perks, M.P., is said to be the master mind behind this scheme... —The World's Longest Ship Canal.— "In the first place it will be the longest ship canal in the world. Its total length will be 440 miles. The Suez Canal is nearly 100 miles long, of which 25 is through shallow lakes • of the isthmian canals, the Panama route is 54 miles long and the Nicaraguan 170 miles, of which 121 miles is free navigation through the. San Juan river and Lake--Nicargua. The cost of constructing the Georgian Bay Canal is estimated at £20,000,000. The expenditure in the building of the Manchester Ship Canal was, roughly, £15,000,000.

"Extending from the Atlantic Ocean into the very heart of the North American continent there is a natural waterway, over 1000 miles long, consisting of the St. Lawrence River and an unbroken chain of huge inland seas in the following order : From east to west—Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior. Lake Michigan dees not form part of the chain, but is rather a southern arm of Lake Huron.

" Unfortunately this natural waterway does not run direct to the sea, but takes a huge bend to the south around the Ontario Peninsula. If a ruler be laid across the map, however, from Duluth or Port Arthur, at the head of the lakes, to Montreal on the St. Lawrence it will be found that except for the 4CO and odd miles between- Montreal and- Georgian Bay on Lake Huron the line drawn roughly east and west would pass over water the whole of the distance. In other words, the proposed canal would provide a water route of almost geometrical straightness from the heart of the grain country to Montreal, the most important of the Canadian ocean ports. —Not an Ocean Steamer Canal. —

"From a voluminous report just published by the Ottawa Government we find that the canal will not be a ship canal in the sense of the Manchester Ship Canal. Nor, on the other hand, will it be a barge canal. The peculiar conditions of navigation on the Great Lakes have developed a special type of steamer. These boats are limited to 20ft draught, as even the largest lake harbours are not much deeper than this. Their maximum length scarcely exceeds 600 ft, and the maximum tonnage is, roughly, 12,000. These vessels are quite unfitted f-or ocean passages. _ The engines use in the stern, and not in the centre, as in ocean-going craft, while the bow is reserved for the wheel-house and officers' Thus the whole 'midships section is one immense box, 50Oft long, 60ft wide, and 25ft deep. The deck is practically one big hatch, so that a boat lying along a wharf ready to unload resembles a box with the lid off. —The Question of Locks.—

"It is only when the canal is regarded from an engineering point of view that the real difficulties become apparent. Of the 440 miles from Montreal to Georgian Bay only 28 would be actual excavation, and the remaining 412 miles follow the course of some river or lak&. But the total difference of level is no less than 697ft—559ft from Montreal to summit level, and then a drop from summit level to Georgian Bay of 98ft —necessitating the construction of 27 or 28 locks, with lifte varying firom

five to 50ft. The highest single lift would be 50ft, but there would be several others of from 30ft to 35ft."