We noted in our news columns not long ago the death of Dr. Niels R. Finsen of Copenhagen, who died at the early age of forty-three. He was chiefly noted for his successful red-light treatment of smallpox, and electric-light treatment of lupus, or skin tuberculosis. There are forty-three sanitoriums founded for carrying forward his well-begun work. He was, those who have met him tell us, of modest temperament, in love with his work, and burdened for suffering humanity. This is what the daily Vort Land, of Copenhagen, had to say of his work:—
The universal judgment of him will sound like a universal thanksgiving—thanks from the land whose honored son he was, thanks from the scientific world for which he opened up new avenues of achievement, thanks from the unfortunates from whom he lifted the heavy burden of disease.
Himself an invalid since early youth, his first and last thoughts and desires were to aid others. What he has accomplished has been indorsed by all civilized countries, and more than twenty great sanitoriums in as many cities throughout the world stand to-day as lasting monuments to his fame. But he who did so much for others was himself a sufferer from a disease which baffled medical men. A few days before his death he requested his physicians and friends to perform an autopsy on his body in order that, even in death, he might serve his profession. The dissection revealed the fact that he had been suffering from slow ossification of the heart membrane, a rare disease which generally results fatally after a much shorter period than it did in Finsen's case. His remarkable will-power no doubt prolonged his life for several years; he simply could not leave the labor he loved.