The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1909-06-03
The Everyday Heroes.

Inc Everyday Heroes.
Heroism in the medical profession
is by no means confined to the con-
spicuous cases Of those who risk life
in some world noted experiment. It is
shown in an almost equal degree by
surgeons at hospitals, who run con-
slant danger Of blood poisoning, and
by ordinary physicians, who are under
the same danger and who also are in
peril Of contagion and infection. Two
noted cases Of physicians that died
from blood poisoning contracted while
operating are those Of DR.. Charles
Thomas Hunter of the Pennsylvania
Medical school and DR.. Leslie NJ.
Sweetman of Toronto, both receiving
the deadly germs through slight
scratches in the hand. Other cases of
blood poisoning from similar causes,
many Of the attacks proving fatal, are
those of DR.. John Wilson Gibbs of
New York, who was bitten on the
hand by a raving patient; Dr. George
King. one of the most prominent ply
sicians on Long Island, who succumbed
through scratching his neck after he
had performed an operation; DR.. An
drew j. McCosh Of New York, infected
by patient through slight abrasion
on the hand; DR.. Bowling Benjamin Of
Camden, n. j., who was bitten while
trying to open the throat of a young
child with membranous Group; Dr.
Charles Carroll Lee, president of the
County Medical society Of New York;
DR.. E. W. Burnette, also of New York;
DR.. John M. Byron, the bacteriologist,
and scores of others.
The cases of heroism in the cause of
science are not confined to the medical
profession. They extend all the way
down the ages from Galilei, who went
to jail because he insisted that the
world is round, to Professor Matteuci,
who underwent grave peril to make
scientific observations Of the great
eruption of Mount Vesuvius a few
years ago. The other fine examples
are those Of Benjamin Franklin, who
r1sked his life in the famous kite ex-
pertinent by which he proved that
lightning is identical with electricity,
and William Thomas Green Morton,
the American dentist who discovered
the use Of ether in surgical operations
and who established that it is not fatal
by experimenting with it upon himself.
Happily in none Of these celebrated in
stances was the supreme sacrifice of
life exacted as the price for devotion
to an ideal.
It is the medical profession, how
ever, where the danger is greatest and
the victims most numerous. The doc
tor is always face to face with dis
ease in all its forms. Others may fee
from contagion. He must ever rush
into the midst Of it. The average man
may in most cases avoid infection
from cancer, from tuberculosis, from
blood poisoning and from the many
other agonizing shapes that death as
sumes. The doctor is constantly ex-
posed to these, and the slightest PIN
pie or abrasion Of the skin may offer
the bacteria an entrance into his own
body. Not only is he endangered in
such ways, but he deliberately invites
the most terrible scourges in order
that he may observe the laws which
govern them, discover their causes and
If possible arrive at the means Of their
prevention and cure. Nor does he call
all this heroism. He would scorn the
name as an affectation or pose. BE
faces death as a part Of the days
work. It belongs to his calling. Pos
sibly he IS right. Perhaps every man
should be ready to offer himself for
humanity, for what IS the unit, after
al, compared to the mass2