Omaha daily bee., 1885-05-06

Ing surgeon OF the hospital, saw tnat tneI
injury could not be cured except by the
operation Of muscle-grsfting, 1t was an
nouuced, therefore, that the operation
would be attempted, and atthe appointed
hour a crowd Of students was present In
the smphitheater to witness 1t.
= The dog was put under the Influence
of ether. The skin of the wounded arm
was laid open and dissected back. The
ends OF the divided muscles were then
found and cut off 30 ss to freshen them.
Meanwhile one Of the dogs hind legs
had been shaven, and as soon as
the arm was ready q section OF
muscular tissue about four inches
long and two inches wide was cut from
the dogs leg, transferred to her arm
and fitted to the divided ends of the
muscle. The skin of the arm was then
replaced ana sewn together. The opera
ton lasted about half an hour. Three
weeks after It was performed the patient
found herself able to use her fingers with
little difficulty. Since then abe has I'M
proved 30 much that the doctors say she
will leave the hospital In q few days
quite cured. DIR. Hazelton, the house
surgeon at the hospital was very reticent
last evening In regard to the case, and
would only ssy that the girls recovery
was complete.
The New York Times INDUCES in the
following comment upon this piece of
audacious surgery;
The operation OF taking muscle from
o dogs leg and placing 1t in q girls arm
was lately successfully performed. 1t is
a rare operation, and naturallyit attracted
a great deal of attention. The assertion
that no such operation had ever previ.
ously been performed is, however, q mis-
take, as can be easily ascertained by ref
erence to the third volume of "Brald-
woods Surgical Cases., page 27l.
Braidwood reports that in the year 1S47
a young woman employed In q corset fac
tory had the misfortune to stumble
against q machine for splitting w%halebones
and before che could recover herself her
nose was completely removed from her
face. This misfortune threatened the
girl with the loss OF her beauty, and she
was 80 much annoyed by it that she re-
GREETED that the machine did not kill
her.
Soon after the accident DIR. Parsons, q
surgeon of much local celebrity, whose
son is still a practising physician In the
village, asked the girls permission to
restore her more, promising that he
would make no charge for his services,
and r%emarking that even If his proposed
treatment should be q failure she could
not we'll be made less attractive than
she was. The girl, whose name is
for obvious reasons suppressed, gladly
accepted the doctors proposal, and at the
appointed hour took her place on the
operating table. The doctor had con.
ceived the Idea of supplying the place
of the lost nose with a strip of muscle to
be taken from the tail of a large mastiff
dog. He selected the tail muscle because
his dog was a valuable one, and he did
not want to deprive the animal of any of
its really valuable muscles. Both the
girl and the dog were placed under the
Influence of ether-the use of which as an
a%nesthetic has just been di.covered-and
the tail muscle having been carefully cut
out was applied to the girls
face, the latter having been
deprived of Its epidermis In
the locality to which the muscle was ap.
piled. Great care was taken to band the
muscle into the shape of a large Roman
nose, and as the muscle and the face
united by first intention and healed rap.
Idly the girl found herself at the end If
a month with a rather large but really
handsome nose.
So far the operation was a complete
succesr, but before very long the girl be-.
came dissatisfied. The nose, owing to
its early caudal associations, had q habit
of wsgging weenever the girl was pleased
or interested In anything. This motion
on the part of the nose was purely in.
voluntary and entirely beyond the girls
control. Whenever she heard the doc
tors voice the nose wagged violently,
and whenever a young man said anything
to her which pleased her the nose ct once
betrayed the fact that she was pleased.
The girl was blessed with a good appetite
aud when she sat down to dinner her
nose began to wsg, and never ceased
wagging until dinner was over. As was
inevitable, 30 remarkable a nose attracted
a good deal of attention, and some I'M
favorable criticism. The fellow board
ers of the girl Informed their landlady
that either they or the girl must leaves as
they could not eat in comfort with a
large nose constantly wsgging in their
presence. No young man dared to make
love to the owner of the unfortunate
nose, knowing that In case her
affections should be enlisted her nose
would wag perpetually, and q stranger
who on n occasion filled the pulpit OF
the Twenty-sixth Congregational society
paused In his sermon and remarked that
the young lady who was expressing her
hatred of religion with her nose would be
sure of a very uncomfortable place here.
after, the fact being that the girl In
question was SO much interested In the
sermon that che could not keep her nose
still. Finally the unhappy girl went to
(the doctor and begged him to amputate
her nose and restore her face to Its prev.
ious level state. The doctor yielded to
her entresties and was so disgusted al
the practical failure of his brilliant opera
ton that he never after ward mentioned
it..
We thus see that the operation per.
formed the other day was not Q now one
1t will, however, be thought more sue.
~oessful than was the original operation,
sinse the transplsnted muscle was taken
from q dogs leg and not from his tail. II
was certainly q most interesting opera.
tion, but 1t was surpassed In difficulty and
n