| Summary: | Northern Hero. Northern Hero HPHE decision of Dr. Henry W. Griest, medical missionary at Point Barrow, Alaska, to remain at his post instead of accepting a long overdue vacation, is in keeping with the best traditions of religion and medicine. Dr. Griest's almost single-handed battle against the epidemic of "flu" at Point Barrow is an example of great heroism. His terse message to his brother in Chicago, "We remain two years more," was characteristic of the man. For fourteen years he has ministered to the physical and spiritual needs of the^natives in the Far North and he has come to regard them as his personal charges. The literature of medicine contains many outstanding examples of unselfish devotion to duty. Although the lay public has all but forgotten the service of Dr. Walter Reed and his commission of army surgeons who established the fact that yellow fever was transmitted by a particular species of mosquito, the name is still honored in the annals of medicine. Dr. Jesse W. Lazear, who accompanied him to Cuba, permitted himself to be bitten by infected mosquitoes and died of yellow fever. Dr. Leed died a year after returning to Washington, D. C, frcW! the effects of his arduous work. Dr. T. B. McClintic of the United States Public Health Service, who had been assigned to study spotted fever in Montana, succumbed to the disease in 1912. The sacrifice of Father Damien, who devoted his life to the afflicted people on Molokai Island, is known to every resident of Hawaiian Territory. The list of sacrificial deeds could be greatly extended. Sometimes the heroes have given their lives without hope of grateful remembrance. Dr. Griest will take his vacation when his charges are safe from danger. Seattle would do itself great credit by giving him a hero's welcome when he passes through here for his well earned rest.
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