The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-10-30
A Man Skinned Alive.

a dispatch to western paper from
Indianapolis says that Wesley Keller,
s'the man Who was skinned alive," re
turned to work to day. His case is curl
GUS. As an illustration of the nice pow
ers of modern surgery it will be talked
about from one end of the country to the
other.
On Wednesday, July 80, Keller fell in.
to steam vat at the Indianapolis veneer
works. He was taken out as quickly as
possible, but he had been scalded
from the soles of his feet to the middle
of his chest. One arm was all right, but
the other arm was blistered to the shoul-
der. Huge blisters puffed all over the
mans body, and the fluid which had
exuded from the flesh to fill them had
been cooked to jelly. In removing his
clothes great strips ofthe outside or scarf
skin came of, leaving exposed the true
skin underneath, cooked until it looked
like boiled lobster. His toes and
ankles were so blistered and swollen as to
lose nearly all resemblance to human
members.
GONE CHANCE IN A THOUSAND
AS soon as his fellow workmen got
Keller out Of the vat, they telephoned for
the company's surgeon, DR.. Ralph Perry.
"There is, perhaps, one chancein thou.
sand of saving this man." said the sur
geon, when he had looked at the burns.
He set to work, however, and creased
Keller from top to toe with mixture of
linseed oil and lime water. Then he
swathed the body in cotton wadding
from which all possible impurities and
disease germs had been removed by
chemicals. - e
THE SHOCK WITHsTooD.
For two days and nights the case
hung without loss or gain. A teaspoon
full Of brandy was given every few hours.
Then change came. Keller seemed to
be choking. The throat became swollen
but this swelling was checked. The
mans temperature rose little. Fever
set in. This gave great hope. The next
morning Keller asked for something to
eat, and actually ate piece of pie and
drank some coffee. The news of this
shocked the surgeon at first, but he said:
"I guess we'll win this fight, for a man
who can eat pie with no skin on him
has life enough left to grow new one."
''oFF WITH THE OLD"
When suppuration began great care
was taken to let out the pus at every
point. The first dressing took three
hours the second still longer. Five
days were consumed in taking off the
bits of old skin, four hours each day
being spent with the forceps, scissors
and scalpel removing the skin layer by
layer. Not piece as big as dime was
forced Keller's pluck was marvellous.
The raw surface were dressed with iodo-
form mixture and bandaged with soft
stuffs.
"oN WITH THE NEW"
Meanwhile the swamps of South Bend
were being scored for two pound frogs.
A bushel basket of these were cleaned
with q germicide mixture and fed on
pure food. The raw surfaces of Keller's
body were tenderly washed with clean
warm water; then with peroxide of by
drogen, which destroys pus. The utmost
cleanliness and wholesomeness were in.
sisted upon. Just before applying the
frogskin the raw surface was washed with
q weak solution of corrosite sublimate.
Everything ready, the first frog was
brought out. With quick snip Of the
scissors its spinal cord was severed at the
back of the neck. Then the loose, pear!y
white skin from over the abdomen was
quickly taken out and thrust into dish
of water which had been boiled; but
which was now merely warm.
In the water had been dropped little
of the corrosite sublimate solution. Be-
ing cleansed, the skin was cut up-into
bits about tenth ian inch square and
applied to Keller's body-inside in out.
side out. Powdered iodoform was busted
over the graft, which was sealed tightly
from impurities.
DR.. Perry made gratis on forty two
occasions. Thirty.two operations were
unsatisfactory ten were satisfactory.
From each of the ten centres healthy skin
radicated, until now Keller is as good
as new"
So to-day Keller went to work-lhe
only man in the world who has been
boiled and skinned alive, and who has
frog skin where he once wore his Owl.