The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1873-12-18
A Pair OF Remarkable Surgi.
cal Operations.

The Maysville Ry.) Republican Of
a late date says:
On last Saturday morning DR..
Dawson, of Cincinnati, assisted by
several physicians of this city, per-
formed an operation for the relief OF
Mr.. Joseph ]. Meford, an old citizen
of this county, who has been suffer
ing for some time from an abdominal
tumor. The occasion was remarka-
BILE as being the first instance of the
employment in this part of the coun-
try of an instrument known as the
pneumatic aspirator, the invention of
French physician by the name of
Dieulefoy. This instrument, as de
scribed to us, consists essentially of
a strong syringe, communicating by
valves or taps with q fine tubular
needle. A vacuum being produced
by the means of the syringe, the
needle is carefully introduced, and
the abscess or tumor is exhausted of
its liquid contents with the least pos
sible risk to the patient. The inven-
ton of this instrument is one of the
benefits conferred upon mankind by
that science which does so much
(and notably in the last fifty years.
to mitigate suffering and prolong life.
Though the date of the invention is
very recent, it is already numbered
among the greatest triumphs of mod
ern medicine, since it places in the
physicians hands the means of pene-
trating, for remedial purposes, the in
most recesses of the living body.
The operation performed on Mr.. Mef-
ford was entirely successful. The
disease from which he suffers is said
to be incurable, but the operation has
secured to the patient no small de-
gree of immediate relief At last ac-
counts he was in a comparatively
comfortable condition.
A Philadelphia paper gives the fol-
lowing account of still more re-
markable operation, recently perform
ed in that city:
An operation requiring great sur
gical skill was performed one day
last week at the Philadelphia hospital.
There were present class of four
hundred and fifty students, and the
operation, which was rare as it was
and delicate, was for the
relief of venerable sufferer, aged
seventy years, afflicted with what is
called painful neuroma. The pa
tient had suffered exquisite and in
cessant torture for the last ten years
from his af1iction, which had it's con-
nection with the nerves distributed
to the shoulder and arms, and he was
though of strong frame,
to break down under the tax. In the
hope of saving the patients life and
ending his pain, the object was CON
ceived of dividing all the nerves di-
rected to the part of the body which
was afflicted, thus cutting off the
nervous supply. This object was
successfully accomplished. The
nerves divided are by the anatomist
called the brachial plexus, portion
Of which, one fifth of an inch, was
aiken out, since which time the man
mas suffered no pain whatever, having
gained entire relief.
The operation was performed by
one of the surgeons of the hospital,
Dr.. F. F. Maury, and, it is said, was
never before performed successfully
or this particular affliction. A sim
lar operation was performed for a
affection in New York, and
lhese two cases are alone in the an
halls of surgery. Nothing of the
lind has ever been accomplished
lbroad, and this fresh achievement is
mother evidence of the superior skill
If American surgery.