Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1873-03-27
A STRANGE STORY.
How A Dead Mans Brain was
transferred to IA Quick subject.

count OF the TeCcnC tTauS .uSlOu vi u ueau
mans brain into living subject. The
facts are reported by the World cores
pondent, as recorded in the Gazette Hell
doneadaire, taken from Virchow's Archi;
yes, a medical journal published al
Berlin: l.a
I. was at Leipzig that the experiment
was performed. A soldier who had killed
the colonel Of lis regiment in cold blood,
and whom the severity of Prussian mill
tary discipline would have caused to die a
hundred deaths had it been possible, wos
deliberately handed over to the surgeons,
by sentence Of court>ihartial, and was con-
fined in strong room in the military hos
pital, entirely in the dark as to the tate
which awaited him. Hc was kept there
ready for emergency, which did not fail
to occur. A keeper of beer cellar in
Leipzig, a man resembling in many res
poets the condemned soldier, and who had
been seized with acute inflammation of the
heart, or rather of its investing membrane,
was brought to the hospital to die Of that
incutable and promptly fatal malady. No
sooner had the anticipated death taken
place than the dead saloon.keeper was
place than the table by the aide of another
operating table, on which was the chloro-
formed but living body of the soldier.
Two surgeons, with assistants, proceeded
alike in both cases to divide the scalp
over the summit of the skull from ear to
ear, turn lack the divisions, and remove
the skull-cap by inciSions passing around
the skull, like crown. In the soldier,
whose carotid arteries had been prepared
for compression, the vessels were clamped
so as to prevent hcmorrhage, and but few
| i
drops of blood were lost during the entire
operation. In each the dura n'ster was
incised, and the hcmispheres OF the brain
we're removed by an lcision with sharp,
thin bluded knife passing above the cera>
bcllum, or harrow portion of about two
inches in diameter called the crura cerebri.
The brain of the saloon.keeper,which was
sound, the heart disease having left it In
tact, he having been sensible to the last,
was transferred to the skull of the soldier,
and by an Ingenious cOntriyance,
the continuity Of the arterial aud
vcnous tubes we're established. The
greatest care was taken in securing the
natural adoption OF the parts to fraction
of line, and the skull, having been re-
placed simply, was held down and in po'
sition by the scalp, which was drawn over,
and its edges confined by strip of adheS'
i've plaster, and over all was tlStea ban
dage. l. was not until several days had
passed that the pressure upon the carotid
arteries was entirely relaxed, although
before the skull was replaced the flow of
blood in the vessels of the brain was
proved to be restored. The chief fear was
from the results of Inflammation, but for
tunately neither ensued and the wounded
parts healed kindly. There was from
the fret no difficulty in feeding the patient,
nor was difficulty anticipated, for it is
we'll known ths.ih puppies and Kittens in
which the entire brain has been removed
sucking and swallowing go on as we'll as
before the operation, and in this case the
nerves which preside over the deglutition
and digestion were far below the point Of
sector, The patient remained in sound
sleep for two weeks, as in case OF apo.
pleky, the circulation, digestion aud all
vegetative function of life being uninter-
rupted. The gradual union of the parts
was shown by faint but gradual increas-
ing movements of the limbs, Of the jaws
and of the muscles Of expression in the
face. Speech did not become possible
until the close Of the third week, and then
Il was hestating, stammcring, as child
learns. Although it was evident that the
patient tried to utter words and senten-
ces, it.was very gradually that the power
of Ineligible articulation fttorned.
The GazcRe contains the report in ta-
bular form Of the arms and baud as meas
urci from day to day by the dynamome-
ter,thc measurements given kilogrammes;
also the daily temperature of the limbs,
are shown by the thermometer in degrees
Of ceniigrade also the measure Of re-
returning scnsibility of the fingers and
lips, as given BY an instrument called an
asthesiometer ;but | omit these, as your
readers WIN be interested in TIE main
facts only. "a 1tLh 444
When speech became ineligible it was
found that the soldier, as he seemed, had
forgotten entirely his military training