Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1880-10-13
Skin Grazing,

Some Remarkable Operations Ter
: formed BY DR., GIdasr Of Bsllevu
, Hopital-How tho Skin % psHH
After Death,
The wonderful degree Of perfection
Ia which the science Of surgery ha
attained iu the United States within
tho past year, and the practical bene
fits which daily result from the e,per'
imenls made in our hospitals, ARE at
tracing the attention Of scientific cir
cles throughout the world, One o
the latest aud most unique opeiallon'
which has been called into genera
use Is that Of skin grating, Although
q number of successful cases are OF
record In which French surgeons have
performed this operation, there has
been little confidence fvlt In the meth
ID until recently. The iurore caused
by an account OF such an operation
published 10 the Herald few days
ago, proves how little Is known about
skin grating by 1.-The public But by
far the nest astonishing OF all eSper'
iments has been tried, proved aud Is
now included in the regular treatment
Of Bellevue hospital by the house sur
geon, DR.. j. II. Girdner, who has act
ually succeeded in keeping patient
alive 10 a dead mans skin Learning
that DR.. Grdner had made exception.
al advances in this branch Of surgery
u Herald reporter called at Bellevue
hospital yesterday and obtained an in.
terview on the subject.
Il have been experimenting about
a year on the operation Of skin graft.
ing and lave obtained some very fiat
tering results" he said. III had sew
eral patients in my wards who had
chronic ulcers of the leg which no
ordinary treatment could cure. I read
one day Of the grating experiments
performed by French surgeon, and
fearing that one of The patients would
die, decided as q last resource TO graft
skin OH the surface Of the ulcers. The
patient on whom proposed to per
form the operation refused to allow
any Of the skin 10 be cut from his
arms or body for the purpose, claim
lug that the pain was too great l
determined to try the skin OF corpse,
as it would have been unjust TO expect
any OF the other patients to make the
sacrifice to save a man who refused 10
suffer himself. cut a piece Of skin
from a patient who died in the wards
a few hours before, first taking care
to inquire whether the cause of death
was due to poisonous disease or not.
I then cut the cutic.e into small
pieces, which I laid on the granulated
surface of the ulcers, and bandaged
the leg up very firmly. In three days
the graft began to show signs Of life,
q perfect union hav ing taken place.
and in week splendid skin, smooth
and elastic, had grown over the ulcer.
ated part, making complete cure
end leaving no scar behind. Since
that time I have treated upward of so
cases with invariable success. / have
grated the skin Of negro on an
Irishman, an Irishman on negro,
with ease. In both cases the skin
lost its original cclor and changed its
hue to suit the wearer. The great
value in skin grating is to prevent
ugly scars. When a mans face is
burned the elastic portion Of the skin
is destroyed, and in healing it con-
tracts, twisting the countenance out
of shape in q hideous manner. A
new skin given to the patient heals
the affected parts in several days and
leaves mark which is hardly notice
able.
"The theory OF grating up to the
present time has been that the pres
ence OF granulations of the raw flesh
to form similar growth and thus
cicatriza,ion proceeds. l am in a
position to deny the correctness OF
the theory, while l have no explana-
tion to offer as a substitute. / have
taken pieces of muscle from the arm
and grated a skin from the fragments
quite as readily as from pieces of
skin, thus proving that epidermic cells
form no part in the induction ef cica-
trlzation. One of the most wonder.
tul results of the research which is
being msde in the direction OF graft
ing is the feasibility Of removing scars
from the body entirely and filing the
place with handsome skin. One