The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-27
WHAT GENIUS HAS DONE.
Extraordinary Achievements Of Mod
ern Surgery.

ern surgery.
In the Lancet for Dec. 20, 1854, DR.. Ben
nett and Mr.. Godlee published an article
which startled the surgical world, says DIR.
W. w. Keen, in Harper's Magazine for
October. d.. Bennett had diagnosticated
not only the existence, but the ex set local
ity of tumor in the brain, of which not
the least visible evidence existed on the
exterior of the skull, and asked Mr., G dice
to attempt its removal The head was
opened aud the brain exposed. No tumor
was seen, put so certain were they of the
diagnosis that Mr.. Godlee boldly cut
open the healthy brain and discovered a
tumor the size of a walnut and removed
it. After doing well for three weeks
intla nmation set in, and the pa
tent died on the twentv-sixth day. But,
like the failure of the first Atlantic cable, it
pointed the way to success, and now there
ave been twenty tumors removed from
the brain, of which seventeen have been re-
moved from the cerebrum with thirteen
recoveries, and three from the more dan
gerou' region of the cerebellum, oil
of which proved fatal. Until this recent
innovation every case OF tumor of the
brain was absolutely hopeless. The
size of the tunors successfully removed
has added to the astonishment with waicn
surgeons view the fact 1T their ability to
remove them at all. Tumors measuring as
much as three I'd four inches in diameter,
aud weighing from a quarter to over a
third of pound, ave been removed, and
the patients have recovered.
Another disea q formerly almost invaria
bly, t ital is abscess OF the brain. In the
majority of cases this comes as a result of
long-sta ding disease of the ear. whicl l,
after while, involves the bore and fin ally
the brain. So long ago as 1879, Mr.. Mace
wen Of Glasgow diagnosticated an abscess
in the brain, and wished to operate upon it.
The parents declined the operation, and the
patient died. After d ,ath Macswel oper-
ated precisely as he would have done during
life, fou d the abscess and evacuated the
pus. thus showing how he could probably
have saved the child's life. Since then the
cases treated in such a manner amount to
scores, and more than half Of then have
recovered without a bad symptom.
In injuries of the skull Involving the
brain the la ger arteries are sometimes
wounde |, and the blood tn 1t is poured out
between the skull and the brain produces
such pressure as to be speedily fatal. In
some cases. even without any wound, the
larger arteries are ruptured by blow or
fall, and a similar result follows the
hemorrhage. Nowadays, in both Of these
injuries, any well instructed surgeon will
open the head, secure the bleeding
vessel, and turn out the clot
with good chance of rec lvery
in large number of cases. Even gunshot
wounds of the brain are no longer neces-
sarily fatal. Among a number of other
successful cases one has b recently re-
ported in which the ball went all the way
from the forehead to the back of the head
and after striking the bone rebounded into
the brain. The back of the skull was
opened, the ball removed aad a rubber
drainage tube of the calber of q lead pen
Gil passed IL the track of the ball COM
pletelv through the head, and the patient
recovered. So little danger now attaches to
opening the skull, with antiseptic precau-
lions similar to those already described.
that the latest writer on trephining (Sevde
estimates that trephining per Sc is fatal
ly in 1.6 per cent of tue cases. Mr..
Horsley has recently published most re-
markable paper, including ten operations
on the brain, in which, without ANYTHING
on the exterior to indicate its ituation, tine
site of the disease was correctly located in
all, and nine of them recovered after op-
Grafton.
Almost equally astonishing are the re-
suits OF brain surgery in certain cases of
epilepsy; for the surgical treatment of the
cases justifying such Interference has been
ate lded with the most brilla 1T results l l
these cas- IS the spasns begin IN a particular
part of the body; for ex ample, the hand or
the thumb, or it is limited to one arm or to
one side of the b pdy. Some of them have
been operated upon without any benefit
but a large number of other cases
have been operated on aud either b ne
fited or, in not few casss, have been com
pletely restored to health. That the words
brilliant resultsn are not inappropriate
will certainly be granted when We look at
Mr.. Ho sley's table Of cases. One patient
had 2,S70 epilepuc commissions in thirteen
days, and Imuletsly reco Sered, not only
fro the operation but also from his ter
rible malady, after the removal of a
diseased portion Of the brain, the result of
an old depressed fracture of he skull.
Bss des this. few ca es of headache so
inveterate as to make ordinary occupations
impossible, and life itself burden, nave
been cured by trephining the skull. Even
insanity itself has been cured by such an
operation, IN cases 10 which it has folio wed
injuries t the head. w at ultim tie
result of thess recently inaugurated opera
{ ons will be it is impossible TO tell as yet,
but thus far they have beel so benefcsnt
and wonderful as TO arouse not only
our greatest establishment, but also our most
sanguine hopes