Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-07
Japan's Great Scientist.
BY HERBERT COREY.

Ever hear of Hideyo Noguchi?
I'm! Likely not You probably think
that he is a mountain peak. Or else. if
you're close student Of history. you
think that he is a Japanese general who
once tied ribbons all over himself and
then committed hara-kiri. But you've
heard OF DR.. Simon Flexner the head Of
the Rockefeller Institute. and of DR..
Alexis Carrel, who has the Nobel prize
for 1912 at home in the safe.
''Hideyo Noguchi,' said scientist, lis
the equal in scientific attainment of either
Flexner or Carrel'
7 1t just happened that he shut himself
up in the laboratory Of the Rockefeller
Institute digging into problems that are
discussed mostly by the medical profess
sion. While the others were fortunate
enough or acute enough to select subjects
that might be found on any parlor table.
DR.. Noguchi. for example, is the world $
authority on snake venom. Calmette Of
Paris used to have the last word in that
unpleasant branch Of research. Noguchi
! carried Calmette's inquiries into new ter
ritory. He has a refined little room at.
the Rockefeller Institute lined with dried
and bottled snake venom. But few peo-
ple-except the snake and the party Of
such things. Wasserman of Germany
devised a means of detecting the pres
ence OF the most dangerous constitutional
disease. But the Wasserman reaction
did not always work. Noguchi improved
it. so that it is now used by physicians
everywhere. 1t was Noguchi who first
pictured the germ of the disease and who
proved that paresiS Is in all cases trace
able directly to it. With Dr. Flexner, he
discovered the germ of infantile paraly-
| to the lay public.
| 1t isn't any ones fault When Noguchi
| isn't in the laboratory he is apt to be
with other scientists. And the average
versation such men hold as soon as he
can. Or else he is in the company Of
other Japanese. He is a quiet, reserved
matter-of-fact sort OF man, who regards
| newspaper attention as a thing to be
avoided when possible, and to be depre-
Gated when it can't be lodged. One Of
these days, so the story goes. he will re-
| turn to Japan. II he were commercially
| minded he could make a fortune a year
| here. In Japan he'll make living and
| little more. But that's the way Of the
Japanese. When they learn what the
| western world has to teach they return
| to the orient to pass that knowledge on.
There is not an exception to the rule
Flexner found him. With DR.. Barker
| of Johns Hopkins University, DR.. Flexner
| was sent to the Philippine Islands some
years ago to inquire into the cause OF the
| epidemic Of dysentery then raging in our
army. On the way tney stopped III Japan
| to consult with bacteriologists and there
became acquainted with Noguchi. No
guchi was then but a young man, but his
elders were watching him with interest
Noguchi accompanied the Americans to
the Philippines. and there assisted in
| their Investigations, which resulted in
| the discovery Of the bacillus of dysentery.
Later he accompanied Flexner to this
country and became his assistant at the
| University Of Pennsylvania.
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell was then studying
snake venom in the light OF the modern
conception of the action OF toxins. No
guchi got interested in the subject. For
a time he fairly lived with the snakes
when he wasn't prying into some other
! form of dangerous life There's a story
| Of the time that nine monkeys. each Of
which had been inoculated with dan
gerous disease. got loose in the animal
quarters Death = in the most hdeous
form that death could come-would al
most inevitably have followed a bite
from any one Of the vicious little brutes.
Noguchi helped to cage them. But that's
another story not to be talked about
without permission. When Flexner be-
came the head of the Rockefeller Insti-
| tute Noguchi followed him. One Of these
DAYS he, too, may win the Nobel prize.