Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-07-12
WI SKIN-GRAFTING.
6casas Remarkable Surgical Operations.
from Chambers Journal

From Chambers Journal
Tho patient, pretty girl of s, was
admitted into the Wellington 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, severely.
After years treatment the left thigh
had healed up; but the right had
never got better, and presented terri
bic ulcer, extending all down the outer
side. She was bright, intelligent
little thing, and her sad condition ex-
cited much sympathetic interest. For
four months she laid there without any
signs Of improvement. Though nour-
ishing food, with wine and strengthen
ing medicines, was freely administered,
and all manner of local remedies APP
piled, particularly that most excellent
dressing, carded oakum, all was in vain:
and when, on the 9Th of May, the child
was brought into the operating theater,
and placed under the influence of
chloroform, it certainly appeared to us
to be as unlikely case to afford fair
criterion of new treatment as could
well be imagined. Fwo small pieces of
skin were then shipped from the back
with a pair of sharp-pointed scissors,
and imbedded-planted, in fact-in the
granulations of proud flesh" of the
wound-two tiny atoms, scarcely bigger
than pins head, and consisting of lit
tie more than the cuticle or outer skin
which we raise in blisters by rowing or
exposure to a hot sun. Five days later
no change was visible; and, by-and-by,
the operation was considered to have
failed, since the pieces Of skin had dis
appeared, 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
dignifed as Islands of new tissue"
The most wonderful part OF it is that,
not only did these islands grow and in
crease rapidly in circumference, but the
fact of their presence seemed to stimu-
late the ulcer itself, which forthwith took
on healing action around its margin.
Several more gratis were implanted
subsequently, including morsels from
Mr.. Pellock's arm, from my own, and
from the shoulder of 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-grafting is now performed daily
in surgical practice, and special in
strument- combination of knife and
scissors has been invented for the pur-
pose. 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 years a
burden on their parish, OF inmates of
warehouses and asylums, will now again
resume their places in the great toiling
hive, from whose daily work is distilled
the prosperity of nation. Won CRATES
operation of irideotomy, whereby hun.
dreds Of people, who were formerly con-
sidered lrremediably blind, are now re-
stored to sight by simple proceeding,
IS said to have exercised a very appre-
| ciable effect on the poor-rates of the
country. AS an instance of true trans
plantation, John Hunters celebrated
experiment of causing a human tooth
to take root and grow in the comb of a
cock IS a well-known instance. Dentists
nowadays often remove teeth, and, hay
ing eXcised diseased portions, replant
them IN their sockets with frequent,
though not invariable, success; and
cruel plastic operations have been per-
0hA1AOi Oh 1"uo, ny WHICH IiSy udV0
been joined like Siamese twins, or their
tails. caused to grow from their shout
ders, or between their eyes. The late
Mr.. Frank auckland, in his "Curiosities
of Natural History" gives an amusing
account Of an action-at-law brought by
NJ. Triguel, French naturalist, against
Zouave who had sold him what was
termed "trumpet-rat for 100 francs;
the said trumpet-rat proving to be an
ordinary "varmint," with the tip of an
other rats tail planted in its nose, and
growing there.
SCENES IN CAIRO.