Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-07-29
LIVING EYES TRANSPLANTED.

Experiments ON Rabbits That Have Proved
SucceSsful-Ihe Dangers of the Operation
Possibilities for the Future.
The transportation of healthy vital
organ to take the place of one diseased
in the human body has been the source of
much discussion in the medical profess
sion says the New York Tribune, and Civ
en- rise to much good-natured ridicule. It
has always been looked on as visionary
by practical anatOmists, but the expert
ments which have been and are now being
carried out in this city by DR.. Charles II.
May, of the New York Polytechnic, bring
up the question again, and demonstrate
the feasibility of the idea. The subject
under consideration is the eye. Anyone
dissatisfied with the organ of sight that
nature has given him, need walk no longer
on the barren island of despair. If any
one has blind eye at all, or feels as if a
black eye or a blue one would be more in
keeping with his style of beauty, few
hours in the repair shop will set all things
straight, and he will come out fitted up
to his taste. The small squint eye, which
is said to Indicate deceitful heart, can
be thrown away, if the possessor SO de-
sires, and the sockets filed with the large,
lustrous orb of innocence and truth,
which physiognomists point to as a sure
sign of poetical spasm. DIR. May has
proven that the eyes of animals can be
exchanged without great difficulty, and
believes that the same can be easily done
in the human, being under the proper
conditions.
DIR. May began his experiments in
transplanting eyes in january last. His
attention was called to the subject by
the efforts of Drs. Chibret, Tirrier, and
Rohmer, of Paris, and DR.. Bradford of
Boston, who reported in thelatter part of
| 1885 that in five cases attempts were
made to transplant the eye of dog or
rabbit into the socket of human being.
| Four of these cases were unsuccessful,
the dogs eye turning out worst of all,
while the final report in the fifth case has
not been made public. These failures
were due to lack of experience, and as
the field had never been trodden before
| it was only natural TO expect that mis-
| takes would be made, and all of the sur
geOns recommended that before any fur
Their attempts were made on a human be-
ing the most favorable conditions and
| treatment should be definitely establish
ed by practical experiments with ami
mails. Rabbits were selected by DR.. May
as the animals best suited to use for the
experiments. Twenty-four of them we're
operated upon, and careful and minute
records were kept of every change and
condition. The method of operating in
each of the cases was the same, with the
exception of few trivial changes. Two
| rabbits of about equal size were always
used, and selections were made at times
SO that after the operation one of the
eyes would be blue and the other black.
Ether was always given. The rabbits
took to it kindly, and though occasion
| ally it would be necessary to practice
| artificial desperation and keep up the ad-
mlnlstration of the ether for three hours,
| they speedily recovered and there was no
evil after effect. After they had become
unconscious, the eyelids were dlstended
| by spring speculum. Fixation forceps
were used to keep the eye in position,
and then the conductive and rectus SUI
| per1or muscles were cut into with blunt
pair of scissors. They were held togeth-
| er with piece of thread, and the mus
eles wers also cut with the scissors and To-
Gated in position by threads. A knotted
thread was run through the conjunctive
near the center to give the relation of
the .eyebal after removal. The eye being
BILE, the optic nerve was exposed and 1T
was severed with pair of curved scissors
about one-eighth of an inch from its en-
trance to the brain. This severed all the
attachments; and the eye was taken out
and wrapped up in cotton saturated with
carboric acid.
One eye of each rabbit having been en-
| ucleated the work of transplanting was IN
order. This could not be done until all
hemorrhages had been stopped. Then
an exceedingly delicate needle curved at
exposed optic nerve of one of the rabbits
| and piece of thread drawn after it. The
needle then being attached to the excised
nerve of one of the enucleated eyes, the
thread was frightened and the points of
the nerve were united. A suture was
made to hold the nerve in position. The