The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-19
:, ~spLANT1NG RABBIT EYES.
ut the Partially Blind May Now Be
~" Made TO See.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer

.n,eriCan MedcsI ASsOSi@SiOli I'm F0ii0iOn'
an W.. Il was who performed in that city the
LOST and most difficult operation known
sh+balmic surgery-dhat of transplant
% H. coruea or rabbits We to that of
Ls L,,p,sn eve, an account OF which ap-
he or rdi in these columns few days ago.
Pa is unite young man, not more than
Oh oars of age, tall, handsome, and the
W. nict,lre of good health. This morning
y, yyii' read paper before the section ON
baInic surgery, explaining in detail the
G ii.acr of the wonderful operation re-
@nII performed. and to facilitate knowl-
GU! ~ the subject, he has brought with him
cay ,.trenhine,6 Prof. Won Nipples great
uP.-,,n,ent. with which the marvellous OPP
l ls.i WA was accomplished. DIR. Webster
ea,- saan last night by reporter, and very
| '"leasantly gave an account of the opera
nG MTbA oneration," he said, twas the first
.s;ts kind ever attempted in this country,
nd the third in the history of the world.
'tTbe first two were performed at Giesen,
cornany. by Prof. Won Nipple, and l was
| an eyewitness Of the fact that they were
| successful
..,,1r,er Travelled on the continent, partly
sor Measure and partly for scientific in
il,astigation, and in the month of August
mas in the city of Giesen, Germany, where
prof Won Nipple occupies the chair on
1daStbalmic surgery. j saw him for the OK
vrass purpose of learning all about his
iprenione in the details of his wonderful
onarafons of transplanting the cornea of a
rssbbit's eve to the cornea of a human eye.
was satisfied on this point, and at the
e,re time was enabled to test the success
| of the first operation he had ever performed,
which was about a year and half ago. The
| enccass was simply marvellous. The patient
q Young woman, before the operation was
,orformed. was hardly able to discern the
action of a hand or the location of the
fingers at a distance of five feet. When
saw her last August she was able to dis
earn objects fifty feet away. The opera
| zion will be useful in corneal affections
| only such affections as are caused by in
Nammation. irritation, etc. If the posterior
mart of the eve the retina and optic nerve
are affected, the operation is of no value
whatsoever. There are cases of total blind
ness. and no restOratlves can be applied
thereto. But there are great many cases
where the operation will prove of inestima-
HE value. Where the vision has been so
obscured that blindness is the practical re-
suit. and the posteriOr part of the eye is not
affected, the operation may always be sue
When / was at Giesen / induced Prof. Won
Hiupe to order from Liebenrich, the famous
instrument manufacturer of that city, a
duplicate set of the instruments used in the
operation.
The principal one of them is the trephine.
It is an instrument about four inches in
length cylindrical in shape and operated
by a clock-work spring motion. 1t is grad
uated so as to cut circular piece of the
cornea 7-l00ths of an inch in depth and
about four kilometres in diameter"
"What, then, is the special merit of Prof.
Won Nipples discoveryW
ut has been known to the medical frater-
nifty for several years that the structure of
Il the cornea Of a rabbits eye is nearly the
same as that Of the human eye, but this
knowledge did not facilitate the matter of
transplantatiOn. One main difficulty was
to be vercome-namely, that of adhesive
ness and assimilation with the human eye.
For ten long years Prof. Won Nipple ex-
perimented in all sorts of ways on different
animals in order to settle this
matter, and he finally accom-
plished his object. His great merit as a
diScoverer in the medical scientific world
lies therefore, in two directions: First, he
settled as an indisputable fact that the
Cornea OF rabbits eye will adhere to and
aSSimilate with the surrounding matter of
the human eye; and secondly, he invented
the machine, or rather apparatus, without
which the operations could not be accom-
plished at all Diefenbach, in 1924, expert
mented in regard to this very subject of
transplantatiOn on animals and human
beings, but without success. 1t remained
Tor Won Nipple, in 1885, to accomplish this
most difficult operation in ophthalmic sur
gerry. simply claim the credit of having
performed the first experiment i'll this coun-
try successfully"
What will be the substance of the paper
you Will read this morninggn queried the
reporter.
We'll, l shall simply explain the process
OF the operation in detail, with the aid of
my trephine. The first operation, as you
may nave read, was reformed last Sunday
week ago on Mrs. Annie Scnick, a wo-
man ABOUT 40 10 years of age, at the German
Town Hospital Philadelphia. The opera
ton embraces three processes-the removal
Oh the cornea from the patients eve, the re-
moVal OF the cornea from the rabbits eve
anu t9e insertion of the graft. The tire
pune plays the principal part in all of
tuehl Alter the incision in the patients
Eye tne cornea has to be removed and the
Ieuconatous or matrical tissue is dissected
from the pupil. This is done by grasping
tne lower lip of the incised tissue, removing
vuown to the basement membrane The
c .I IN The rabbits eye is made not only
ttnIougn the cornea, but also through
s sne Pupll. The graft is next inserted in the
llgSlon made in the patients eye In
,I 70 facilitate this fine probe runnings
.nlQugh the cylinder of the 'trephine' is
i piIsleu downward, forcing the graft into
p inpSt AFTER the removal OF the 'trephine,'
, Will IS very delicate operation, the
upper 10 Is drawn forward and downward.
e enu carefully pressed against the inlaid
Issue Issue The eye is covered with a slight
euin Dandage, and the patient for a week
no. t%o must remain quiet in a reclining
1901 ene, IL Is not necessary that he should
rra oUniiled TO his bed. The operated eye is
rvas 5uenliy Dathed with mild astringent
plsbed A"' "e0n "0oolh-
Operationm '~ 0'
NJ could not have wished it better. On
NNonday evening last examined INV patient
a. D. ochlck. found that the graft was IN
wv clear and distinct. The surrounding
r, souo nad taken on a healthy Inflammation.
t,ot5lg mat nature was doing everything
rsn a5u IN The process that is, in assisting to
sbs , u Vue cornea transparent. Moreover.
fast "ae aple 10 discern large objects several
Gstina"ay whereas before she could not
bess S Sish anything, save light from dark
dScs,,o ~ was also able when left her to
''''h the movement Of my hands,
rr,n --------------------
h4e SKIN Is NOW DARK RED.
"nn core May Recover from the
hattlosnake's Bite