Omaha daily bee., 1886-11-08
MOST WONDERFUL SURGERY,
Heroic Treatment of Patient in New Y
York Hospital.
ALL THE iNresrlNes REMOVED
And a Tumor Cut From within the
Abdominal Cavitv-Thc suffer
cr's Queer HaIiucination
and Final Death,

NEW YORK, Nov, 4-[Corrcspondenc
of the BEE. IA furiously dclirious negro
died in Mount Sinai hospital. That in.
stitution is Jewish charity, but its bene-
factions know no color line. The black
man had for several days prior to his
death almost constantly insisted that only
his skin and bones remained and that all
the rest of him had long before been
taken away to be buried. 1t was II curl
Gus hallucination, and yet not altogether
unreasonable. His wild belief was based
on something Notwithstanding less
than one of those wonderful surgical
operations that are nowadays undertaken
in desperate cases, Tho doctors of
Mount Sinai had taken out his intcs-
tines, put them into IN artificial abdomen
made out of rubber shirt and some hot
towels, and left them there until through
with investigating, cutting and sewing,
when they turned him inside in and out
side ont again. His trouble was n tumor
on one of the arteries DIR. William p.
Fluhrcr, visiting surgeon to Mount Sinai
and Bellevue hospital, who performed
the operation, had the man prepared for
it by giving him II thorough scruhbng
with soap, and keeping the abdomen COW
cred with towels wet with II weak solution
of carbolic acid. After putting the
patient under tho influence of ether, the
surgeon made an incision extending six
inches downward along the middle line
of the body. A sheet of this rubber
was placed over the abdomen,
slit cut into it from one
side, and the small intestines were drawn
from the abdomen through the slit and
punched upon the sheet, which was then
quickly folded over them, holding them
as if IN bag. To keep them warm they
were covered with towels out of Il warm
solut on of carbolic acid.
A ligature of fine silk thread had bcen
prepared by boiling 1t two hours in car
bolc acid, and then soaking it during
the operations in weak solution OF the
acid. With two pairs of forceps, the
operator tore slit half IN inch long in
the lining of the back of the abdominal
cavity, directly over the diseased artery.
There the tumOr was found to be OF the
shape and size of mans fist. With
blunt curved needle tho surgeon
tho artery threc-fourths OF
where it was firmly tied and the ends cut
short. The intestneS, which had been
kept in their artificial cavity about
twenty minutes, were then trans
ferred to their natural resting place and
the wound was closed by stitching the alb
domcn lining together with cat-gut and
the skin with silk. 1t was then dressed
with rubber tissue and i0dOtorm, over
which were placod layers of sublimatcd
Sauze and borated cotton.
The patient awoke after having been
kept inscnsiDlc two hours, and ut first
he gave Indication that he wou ID recover
For the first live days he was given hypo.
dermic injections of morphine TO quiet
restiessness. On the first day he was al
lowed to eat cracked ice, then to drink
mil k and lime water, and on the fifth
small quantities of whisky. The
healing of the wound progressed ia
vorabIy, but the acute inllamma-
ton began telling on him. He lost his
strength rapidly and on the seventh day
after the operation he died. Drs:
Fluhrer and Purrov bciiGye that he would
have recovered if his system had pccn
otherwise sound.
Now, with this operation in view, the
reader may think it perfectly reasonable
that the negro should, in his delirlum,
have imagined that his interior had been
robbed Of all contents; but the fact is
that he never knew the nature or extent
of what the surgeons had done to him.
IL was deemed best not to inform him rs
to the liberties taken with him while he
WAS under etherization, and he simply
knew that an operation OF some sort had
been performed The interesting scien.
tilic question therefore arises, how a hal
luclnatlon SO evidently caused by the
truth took possession of his mind. Is
there such thing as physical memory,
wholly aside from mentality?
ID. M. WHITROw, M. ID.