The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1891-02-13
A MAN WITH A NEW SKIN.
How Ho Suddenly Lost the Old and
Slowly Grew the Now.


The press dispatches recently gave the
particulars OF n serious accident to
Wesley Kellar. of indianapolis. Ind
| kellar became known as "the man who
was skinned alive, and he is now WELL
with a whole skin, and is going about
, his work as usual
His case is curious As an illustration
of the nice powers Of modern surgery it
will be talked about from one end of the
country to the other.
Kellar fell into 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 was
blistered to the shoulder Huge blisters
pulled up all over the mans body, and
the fluid which had exuded from the
flcsh to fill them had been cooked to a
jelly. In removing his clothes great
strips of the outside or scarf skin came
off, leaving exposed the true skin under
meath. cooked until it looked like par
loilrd lobster His toes and ankles were
so blistered and swollen as to lose nearly
all resemblance to human members.
AS soon as his fellow workmen got
Kellar out of the vat they telerhoned
for the company's surgeon, DR. Ralph
Perry. "There is, perhaps one chance
in a thousand of saving this man., " said
the surgeon when he looked at the
burns He set to work. however, and
creased Kellar from top to toe with n
mixture OF linseed oil and lime water
Then he swathed the bo ly in cotton
wadding from which all possible i'm
purities and disease germs had been re-
moved by chemicals
For two days and nights the case hung
without loss or gain. A teaspoonful of
brandy was given every few hours
Then change came Kellar seemed to
he 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 Kellar 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:
II guess we'll win this fight, for man
who can eat pie with no skin on him has
life enough left to grow new one.
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 be-
ing spent with the forceps, scissors, and
scalpel removing the skin layer by layer.
Not piece as big as dime was forced.
Kellar's pluck was marvellous The raw
surfaces were dressed with an idoform
mixture and bandaged with soft stuffs.
Meanwhile the swamps of South Bend
were being secured for two pound frogs.
A bushel basket Of these were cleaned
with germicide mixture and fed on
pure food The raw surfaces Of Kellars
body were tenderly washed with clean
warm water then with peroxide of hy-
drogen. which destroys pus. The ut
most cleanliness and wholesomeness was
insisted upon. Just before applying the
frog skin the raw surface was washed
with weak solution of corrosive subli-
mate Everything ready, the first frog
was brought out With a quick snip Of
the scissors its spinal cord was severed
at the back of the neck. Then the loose
pearly white skin from over the abdo-
men was quickly taken out and thrust
into a dish of water which had been
boiled, but which was now merely warm.
In the water had been dropped a little
OF the corrosive sublimate solution.
Being cleansed, the skin was cut up into
bits about tenth of an inch square and
applied to Kellar's body-inside in, out
side out. Powdered iodoform was
busted over the graft, which was sealed
tightly from impurities.
DIR. Perry made gratis on AZ occasions.
Thirty-two operations were unsatisfac-
tory; 10 were satisfactory. From each
OF the 10 centers healthy skin radiated,
until now Kellar is "as good as new"
So Kellar went back to work-the
only man in the world who has been
boiled and skinned alive, and who has
frog skin where he once wore his own.