Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-11
BRAIN SURGERY.
A Remarkable Case That Alone Ought
to Silence the MISUNDERSTANDING


to Silence the Anti-Vivisec tiOnists.
While the Bishop of Oxford and Prof
Ruskiu were on somewhat intangible
grounds denouncing vivisection at Ok
ford recently, says the London lines,
there sat at one of the windows of the
Hospital for Epilepsy and Paralysis, in
Regents Park, In an invalid chair,
prOpped up with pillows, pale and care
worn, but with q hopeful smile on his
face, man who could have spoken a
really pertinent word upon the subject
and told the right reverend prelate and
great art critic that he owed his life and
his wife and children their rescue from
bereavement and penury to some of these
experiments ON living animals which
they so roundly condemned. The case
of this man has been watched with in
tense interest by the medical profession,
for it is of unique description and inau-
gurates a new era in cerebral surgery; and
now that it has been brought to a success
ful issue, it seems desirable that a brief
outline OF il should be placed before the
general public, because it illustrates WV
idly the benefits that physiological eXplo-
ratiOns may confer on mankind, shows
how speedily useful fruit may be gather
ed from researches undertaken in the pur'
suit of knowledge and with no immediate
practical aim and reveals impressively
the precision and veracity Of modern med
ical science.
This case, then-this impressive and il
Illustrative case-is that of a man who,
when admitted to the Hospital for Epi-
lepsy and Paralysis, presented group OF
symptoms which pointed to tumOr of the
brain-a distressing and hitherto neces-
sarily fatal malady, for the diagnosis or
re ccgnItion of which we are indebted to
bedside experience and pOst-mortem eX-
animation. But while clinical and path
illogical observations have supplied us
with knowledge which enables us to de-
tect the existence OF tumors of the brain,
they have not afforded us any clue to the
situation of these morbid growths in the
brain-mass, and it was not until Prot.
Terrier had, by his experiments on anil
mails, demonstrated the lOcaliZation OF
sensorY and motor functions in the cere-
bral hemispheres that the position of any
diseased process by which they might be
invaded could be definitely determined.
By the light of these experiments it is
now possible in many instances to map
out the seat of certain pathological
changes in these hemispheres with as
much nicely and certainty as if the skull
and its coverings and Innings had become
transparent, so that the surface OF the
brain was exposed to direct inspection.
And thus, in the case to which L am re-
ferring, DIR. Hughes Bennett, under
whose care the patient was guided by
Terriers experiments, skillfully inter-
pretcd the palsies and cOnVulsive move
ments which the man exhibited and de-
duced from them that a small tumOr was
lodged at one particular point in his
dome of thought and was
silently and relentlessly eat
ing its way into surrounding textures.
Not more surely do the fidgetings of the
electric needle intimate their origin and
convey a meaning to the telegraph clerk
than did the tWItchings of this mans
muscles announce to DR.. Hughes Bennett
that tumor of limited dimensions was
enscOnced at a particular point of a par
ticular fold or cOnvOlution of the brain
the ascending frontal convolution on the
right side.
Very brilliant diagnosis this, it may be
and nothing more. A cOnclu-
sion has been arrived at which, should it
prove correct, will crafty professional
pride; but as it cannot beconfirmed or re-
futed until the poor patient is no longer
interested in the matter, and cannot be
made the basis of any active interfer-
ence, no great advance has been made at
ter all and vivisectiOn has yielded only
some barren knowledge. Until quite re-
Gently criticism of this kind would have
been justifiable in sense, but now it is
happily no longer possible, for another Sc
ries of experiments on living animals,
by Profs. Terrier and YeO,
have proved that through our power of
localizing brain LESSONS we may open
gateway for their removal or relief. The
old notion that the brain is an inYiOlable
organ with noli me tangere for its motto
"a mysterious and secluded oracle OF
God that simply falls down and dies when
its fame is desecrated by intrusion-has
been dissipated by these experiments,
and we now know that under punctilious
antiseptic precautions the brain, in the
lower animals at any rate, may be sub
mitted to various operative procedures
without risk to life or fear of permanent
injury. Emboldened by this knowledge,
DR.. Hughes Bennett devised a way of
helping his patient whose disease he had
diagnosed with such remarkable exacti-
tude, and gave him one chance, if he had
the courage to embrace it, of saving his
life and recovering his health.
The patient had the position in which
he stood faithfully explained to him. He
was told that he labOred under malady
which medicines were pOwerless to touch,
and that if left unassisted he must die in
few months at latest, after prolonged
sufferings similar to those which had al
ready brought him to the verge of eXhaus-
ton and which could be only partially al
leviated by drugs, but that one outlet of
escape, narrow and dangerous, but still an
outlet, was open to him in an operation
of a formidable nature and never before
performed on a human being, under
which he might, perhaps, sink and die, but
from which he might, perhaps, obtain COM
pleta relief. The man, who had faith in his
doctor and no finC-spun scruples about
avalling himself of the results of vivisec-
tional discoveries, eagerly chose the OPP
Grafton. On Dec. %, accordingly,
Mr.. GOdlee, surgeon to University Col
lege Hospital, in the midst of an earnest
and anxious band of medical men, made
an opening in the scalp, skull and brain
membranes of this man at the point where
DR.. Hughes Bennett had placed his divin-
ing finger, the point corresponding with
the cOnyOlution where he declared the
peccant body to be, and where sure
enough it was discovered. In the sub
stance of the brain, exactly where DR..
Hughes Bennett had predicted, tumOr
the size of a walnut was f0und-a tumOr
which MIR. GOdlee removed without diff
Guilty. The man is now conValescent, hav-
ing never had bad symptom and flu of
gratitude for the relief afforded him. He
has been snatched from the grave and
from much suffering, and there is good
prospect that he will be restored to a life
of comfort and usefulness. In that case
he will be a living monument of the value
of vivisection. The medical profession
will declare with one voice that he owes
his life TO Terriers experiments, without
which it would have been impossible to
lOcslize his malady or attempt its remov-
al. and that his case opens up new and
far-reaching vistas of hopefumess in
brain-surgery. Many men and women
will henceforth, there is reason to an
ticipate, be saved from prolonged torture
and death by kind OF treatment that has
been made practicable by the sacrifice,
under an@sthetics, of few rabbits and
monkeys.
GASTRONOMIC WONDERS.