The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)(about) |
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Tuesday 14 September 1920
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DR. HERSCHEL HARRIS.
DEATH AFTER PROLONGED
ILLNESS.
Dr. Laurence Herschel Harris, M.B., Ch.M. (Sydney), a radiographer of world-wide repute, tiled at his residence, 215 Macquarie-street, Sydney, yesterday, after an illness extending
over 15 months. He was 48 years of age.
The loss of Dr. Harris will be severely felt by the medical fraternity in Sydney. His skill and learning in radiography was exten- sively availed of, and had been freely placed at the disposal o£ the great hospitals of the city. During the war his services in France, and later at Lemnos, were of great value. He was regarded as the pioneer of radiography in Australia, and one of the last surviving active world-pioneers of this branch of
science, to the literature of which he had widely contributed. He is quoted in almost all text books on the subject, and maintained an active connection with experts in all parts of the world, being a member of the Roentgen Society of England, and an hon. life member of the Roentgen Society of America. At the medical congress in New Zealand in 1913, he read the first paper of note of its kind on the opaque meal for the examination of gastric and intestinal diseases, and he was the first radiographer to treat keloid scars with the rays, in which process he was very success- ful.
Dr. Harris was a native of Sydney, and was educated at the Sydney Grammar School and the Sydney University. After establishing his practice in Sydney he became director of the X-ray department of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, hon. consulting radiographer of the Sydney Hospital, and hon. radiographer of the Free Tubercular Dispensary. He was also for some time radiographer to the West- ern Suburbs Cottage Hospital,and the Royal North Shore Hospital. Dr. Harris was travel- ling in Europe when the war broke out, and he and Dr. Eames, now Principal Medical Officer in the New South Wales military dis-
trict, were the first Australian medical men
to enlist for service with the forces. At first he held the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps, but shortly afterwards was transferred to the Australian voluntary hospital at Wimereux, in France, with the rank of captain. Subsequently, at the re- quest of the Commonwealth military authori- ties, he and Sir Alexander MacCormick pro- ceeded to Lemnos, where they joined No. 3 Australian General Hospital, Dr. Harris hav- ing then the rank of major. During his ac- tive service Dr. Harris obtained a very fine collection of photographs, which he had con- verted into lantern slides. These he pre- sented to the committee of the Edith Cavell Memorial Fund, of which he was a member. Their display in the interests of the fund yielded a useful sum of money.
Two sisters, Mrs. H. C. Moxham, wife of Dr. H. C. Moxham, of Macquarie-street, and Mrs. Bernard Michael, of Melbourne, survive Dr. Harris, who was unmarried. Dr. S. Harry Harris, of Beanbah, Macquarie-street, is a cou- sin. The funeral, which will be attended with military honours, will leave the deceased's late residence in Macquarie-street at 1.20 p m. for Rookwood Cemetery, proceeding by special
train leaving at 2.25.