RELATIVE VALUES.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17465, 27 July 1928, Page 6

RELATIVE VALUES.

The interest that is being evinced in a gladiatorial contest scheduled to lake place in New York to-day would indicate that the civilisation of the twentieth century does not much eclipse that of ancient Rome, when men gloried in spectacles of carnage and brutality. It is a strange commentary upon our sense of values that the eyes and thoughts of the civilised world should be directed towards a special stadium in one of the largest cities of the modern world in which two men are to meet for the purpose of pounding each other into a state of insensibility for filthy lucre, and that all the resources of science are to be utilised in order to convey intelligence as to which of the twain can give the most pounding. The victor will be acclaimed as a hero and applauded as an- idol. Upon him the crowds will shower adulation and worship. But how little honour will they bestow upon those who sacrifice themselves for the benefit of humanity. How many, for instance, have devoted one thought lo that Japanese hero Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, the bacteriologist, who sacrificed his life for the benefit of his fellows. He died in a feverstricken seaport of the Gold Coast of Africa, a victim of African yellow fever, just as he had identified the cause as a result of studying his own case while suffering from this dread disease. Another case was that of Dr. Sidney Rawson Wilson, a distinguished English surgeon and anaesthetist, who was found dead in his laboratory before a machine with which he was making experiments in the administering of gas mixtures. For years lie had investigated the action of anaesthetics with, the idea of developing one that would be free of defects, and with success apparently at hand, the only way to provide, a test was to experiment oil himself. Perhaps no single act of heroism during the war surpassed that of Aliss Alary Davies, a Welsh bacteriologist, ts.ho died in Franco a month or two ago, where she had deliberately inoculated herself with gas gangrene germs lo test a remedy for the terrible ill which killed thousands of soldiers in the early days of the war. The list of ttiesc martyrs in the cause of humanity could be extended almost' indefinitely. At this moment Sir Henry Hind, the world’s greatest authority on Parkinson’s disease, is slowly dying in London, a victim of this mysterious creeping paralysis, which through his own experiences as a sufferer he is devotedly investigating. Fortunately many of the experiments that scientists make upon themselves are not followed by disastrous results, and the value of the contribution they make to medical knowledge cannot be estimated. But there are those who, in their attempts lo extend the horizon of human knowledge and to mitigate human suffering, and knowing the price likely to be paid, willingly offer themselves as sacrifices for humanity. A brief announcement of their death and perhaps a few lines concerning the particular work they were engaged on, often is tiie only ihformation that cornes to the outside world, hut between the lines may be read the heroic stories of men of science who gladly give their own lives that others may live. They are, however, not generally accorded mucin public honour. It is tile pugilist who is pelted and feted.