The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1882-10-18
Skin Grating.

The patient, a. pretty little girl of
eight, was admitted into the Yelling
ton ward of st. Georges hospital with
the history that, two years previously,
her dress had caught fire, burning both
legs from the hips to the knees Sc
verely. After a years treatment the
left thigh had healed up; but the right
had never got better, and presented a
terrible ulcer, extending all down the
outer side. She was a bright, intelli-
gent little thing. and her sad condition
excited much sympathetic interest. For
four months she lay there without any
signs of improvement. Though nour-
ishing food, with wine and strength
ening medicines was freely admins
tered, and all manner of local remedies
applied. particularly that most excel
lent dressing, carded oakum, all was in
vain; and when, on the 9Th OF
May, the child was brought into the
operating theatre and placed underline
influence of chloroform, it certainly
appeared to us to be as unlikely a
case to afford a fair criterion of a new
treatment as could we'll he imagined.
Two small pieces Of skin were then
shipped from the back with a pair OF
sharp-pointed scissors, and imbedded-
planted, in fact-in the examinations
of proud "nesh" of the wound
two tiny atoms, scarcely bigger than a
pins head, and consisting of little more
than the cuticle or outer skin which
we raise in blisters by rowing or eX-
posure to a hot sun. Five days later
no change was visible; and by-and-bye
the operation was considered to have
failed, since the pieces of skin had
disappeared, instead of growing, as
had been expected. But twelve days
after the operation two little white
cicatrices appeared where the seeds
had been sown; and in my notes | find
that a week later these were big
enough to be dignitied as islands of
new tissue" The most wonderful
part of it is that, not only did these
islands grow and increase rapidly in
| circumference, but the fact of their
presence seemed to stimulate the
ulcer itself, which forthwith took on a
healing action around it's margin.
Several more CRAFTS were implanted
subsequently, including morscls from
Mr. Pollock's arm, from my own, and
from the shoulder of a negro; the last
producing a white scar-tissue like the
rest. In two months the wound was
healed and the little patient was dis
charged cured.
Skin grating is now performed daily
in surgical practice, and Il special in
strument-a combination of knife and
scissors-has been invented for the
purpose. 1t is impossible to estimate
the immense benefit of this discovery
to mankind in many different aspects.
Poor people, hitherto incapacitated
from labor by "incurable" ulcers, and
for ear a burden on their parish, or
inmates of warehouses; and asylums,
will now again resume their place in
the great toiling hive, from whose daily
work is distilled the prosperity of a
nation. Won Crates operation of iri-
deotomy, whereby hundreds of people
who were formerly considered IRE
medically blind, are now restored to
sight by a simple proceeding, is said to
have exercised very apprecl-
able effect on the poor rates
of the country. AS an
instance of true transplantation, John
Hunters celebrated experiment Of
causing a human tooth to take root
and grow in the comb of a cock is
a we'll known instance. Dentists now
adays often remove teeth, and having
exercised diseased portions, replant
them in their sockets with frequent
though not invariable success {; and
cruel plastic operations have been per
formed on rats, by which they have
been Joined like Siamese twins, or their
tails caused to grow from their Shout
ders or between their eyes. The late
Mr.. +. auckland, in his "Curiosities
of Natural History" gives an amusing
account of an action-at-law brought by
NJ. Triguel, a French naturalist, against
a zouave who had sold him what was
termed a trumpet rat for n hun
dred francs; the said trumpet rat
proving to be an ordinary varmint,
with the tip of another rats tail
planted in it's nose and growing there.
Chambers Journal.