BRILLIANT YOUNG STUDENT

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1930, Page 13

BRILLIANT YOUNG STUDENT

advanced medical work. AMAZING BOY OF FIFTEEN. Sydney, Jan. Id. Sydney is a city noted for its “disco vc.ries.” Its latest is that of a boy who, though only 15 years of age, is making an intense study of medicine, despite the fact that he is not yet old enough to attend the University, lie is one of the most familiar figures at the Sydney Hospital, and his name is John O’Donnell. “He has certainly crammed a lot into his head, and he has a knowledge of several deep subjects as intense as that of most medical men who are ten vears his senior,” said Dr. Henry, one of the hospital’s resident medical officers, the other day. “He has a strong desire to get on, and he should go far in the medical world. The acting medical superintendent said that O’Donnell was very brainy. Several doctors were keeping an eye on him, and were giving him all the advice ho sought. It is recorded that O’Donnell was only five years of age when he began to take an interest in serious subjects. On his birthday he started to read Schafer’s “Histology,” and he mastered it by the time he was seven years. He later waded through one of Darwin’s works. When he was 11 he took a night course in zoology, although the usual age for this course is 18 years. Then he took lectures dealing with the body and its ailments, and devoted a great deal of his time to the regeneration of the tissues. Young O’Donnell has carried out experiments with frogs—a common practice among advanced medical .students. Just now he is experimenting with rabbits. About six months ago ho became interested in fractures, and in this study he has been greatly assisted at the Sydney Hospital. “I have spent all my money on medical books,” said O’Donnell, “and all kinds of high-class literature. I hope to attend the University in three years’ time. If my health remains good I feel that I will succeed, though I fear that I will have to give up studying for a year and rest my eyes.”