The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-07-25
SAVED BY ACCIDENT.
The knife of a Surgeon Brings an APP
Parentiy Dead Woman to Life.

The knife of Surgeon Brings an APP
Parentiy Dead Woman to Life.
l entered the dingy diSsecting hall
and drew near the table whereon the
corpse lay outstretched, with every line
exposed. The body was that of as per.
feet fashioned woman as | had ever
seen in flesh or marble. She was about
twenty-five years of age, with strongly
knit frame, and wealth of auburn hair
that fell about the slab in disorder The
face was handsome and serene. The
hands and feet were delicate; l noticed
that the forefinger of the left hand was
pricked, and betrayed the hard-worked
needlewoman.
During the consultation Of the chief
doctors over her case, when she was yet
alive, at which the students were all
present, l had become convinced that an
operation with the knife might have
saved her. The head doctors, however,
thought otherwise, and as l had no con.
sulting voice in the matter no surgical
operation was attempted. l impaired
my doubts to the students, who agreed
that should get her body, as wished
to verify by post-mortem how far
wrong L had been in my inference that
an operation on the living woman might
have been safely performed. The pa
tent fingered on for some time, so long,
ain fact. that began to think she would
get we'll again and defrauded of an in.
teresting pathological case.
So matters stood when the ianitor
gave me that morning the intelligence
of her death. Her ailment was a loose,
fatty tumor on the side of the neck,
which weighed over pound. got my
truss, donned my black apron and twas
soon ready. determined to operate as
conscientiously on the dead as 1 should
have done on the live woman. My
scalpels and instruments were all we'll
within reach on the table. l raised an
eye-lid, but there was no trace of life in
those dull, lustreless orbs. The jaws
were fast and the members rigid in
death. inserted the probe and piled
the knife with the utmost care, nipping
the arteries as they were disclosed,
until dozen or more held the principal
vessels of the neck. After working a
half-hour or so the ablation was COM
plete. just at that moment the demon
strator, always an early bird, entered
the hall and walked up to the table
whore l was busy. He bent over the
corpse and scrutinized with great atten-
ton the cavity in the neck.
Suddenly, as he gazed into the wound,
he started back as if he had received a
galvanic shock. L looked at him in
establishment. He once moro bent
down. distended to it's utmost the gap
ing hole in the neck, and exclaimed:
''Why, good God! man, the woman is
alive. Her carotid artery beats. Here,
janitor, lend hand to take this woman
upstairs"
in turn peered into the wound, and
sure enough, full view of the main
vessel in the neck, which conveys the
blood from the aorta to the head, could
be had inside, and it throbbed with
slow, irregular motion.
The woman was in trance. She was
at once put into a warm bed. restora-
tives were applied, and her neck prop
orly bandaged. Her life, however, was
for time in great danger; but she
eventually recovered and left the hos
pital cured.-N. Y. World.