Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-08-26
MAY GRAFT BRAINS.
DOCTORS THINK IT POSSIBLE, BUT
IT Is HORRIBLE.


Successfully Implanted In Humans Post
humous Confessions of Medical stu
dent who Made m Aadacious Experiment
The latest agitation among scientific
men who WELD tho surgeons scalpel IL
whether brain grating IL possible The
results OF recent vivisections show great
chances OF success In transplantipg the tis-
sue from the skulls Of lower animals To
those OF human beings. Everywhere tho
men Of medical science oongrcgate IL IL
the principal topic of discussion, argu-
ments being advanced for and against the
reigning matter OF interest.
It IL the firm belief Of some OF the fore
most praoticing surgeons that some day
mans inner cranial shortcomings result
ing from accidents or disease will be made
up by animal brain tissue. It is their
opinion that chen transplanted into the
human skull the lower animal intellect
matter will undergo mental changes
Just how soon this new theory will be-
brought to perfection, however they arc
not prepared to state and are inclined TO
be roticcnt when approached on the sub
ject.
Brain grating, or, rather, It's theory,
thopcdic surgery OF. certain ideas of DIR.
fame, the result of which Is now well
known to tho world. That the second
joint of the lower leg of female dog was
actually grated by an aluminium peg,
sutures OF silver, fine rods of iron and
plaster Of paris cast to tho bones of the
ankle OF little Johnny Gethins, In which
there was n hiatus caused by congenital
malformation, there can now DO no doubt.
There are well authenticated cases of
eye grating, the eye OF rabbit having
been transplanted alive and induced to
take hold of tho human orbit. Those por-
tions or areas Of the brain which have to
do with eyesight and speech and the mo-
tions of tho extromities may be cut away
by the surgeons knife, and very consider
able portions have been carried away by
accidental injuries according to DR.. VIII
liam Tillinghast Bull, the American sur
geon singled out for special mention at
the international congress In Berlin some
years ago and again ut the next meeting
In Rome last summer, without interfering
apparently with the subsequent restoration
of the victim to health and the full enjoy
ment of all the human faculties before pos
sessed.
HAS brain grating been successfully
performedp' asked DIR. Bull.
The father of American laparotomy
shook his head. "Not that know Of"
said he, "but DR.. w. G. Thompson knows
about that. 1t has been said that he suo-
ceeded In grating brain matter"
Has any foreign substance, doctor,
ever been introduced into the human skull
and left there with favorable resultsp"
Never, / believe. The silver plate used
to cover fracture Of the skull rests on
and not within the latter"
DR.. Hamilton who was government ex-
pert In the Guiteau case, and who, since
the precedent then established, Is now Of
ten called In this city, not as an expert
witness, but as medical counsel for the
state in criminal cases where insanity is
the defense declined to speak Of cases in
his own practice.
"But," said he, "brain grating may be
q discovery of the not distant future, II 1t
has not already been done, and the atten-
tion directed to it now, when medical
progress seems specially wonderful, may
but foreshadow the accomplished fact
Would tho subject Of such an operation,
were the operation successful develop
mental traits and tendencies characteristic
of the person from whose brain the graft
had been rcmovedY Quite possibly.
II understand DR.. Thompson has been
successful in certain experiments In graft
ing portions of the brains of dogs on cats,
and vice versa. You had best see him."
DIR. w. G. Thompson is professor of
physiology In the medical college of the
University Of the City Of New York. The
laboratory in which he punches and
pounds away at his queer looking plaster
casts is block below the famous Carnegie
laboratory.
"Tho grating Of q portion of the brain
of one human being into the brain of an
other has never been done, and believe
never will be DONE" said this brown eyed
and almost boyish looking young man.
GAS to what may yet be the outcome Of
certain experiments as regards tho brains
Of animals don't wish to be quoted"
Iu the light of the foregoing the reader
must draw his own conclusions from the
following paper, now In possession Of ia
nous specialist of this city, and which
was mailed to him the night before bril-
liant young medical student was found
dead in his apartments last summer
There was an inquest at the time, but
this paper, which might have thrown
light on the tragedy which tho coroncr's
jury found to be accidental DEATH" was
not discovered then, and indeed it lay in
its envelope many months unopened In the
mailbox Of the medical man referred to,
who was away In attendance on the inter
national congress In Rome, and who after
ward extended his travels:
"MY DEAR FRIEND AND PRECEPToR-
The horror and remorse which overcame
inc this afternoon when 1 again saw tho
poor match girl Mary Lindsay in the
street car seem to weigh upon me tonight
more heavily than ever. Not even the
cause Of science, for which did not hcsi-
tate to attempt IA startling experiment, and
In which WAS almost completely success
full, may ever profit by my experience un
less you sec fit To make this public at some
time when It's authorship can no longer ho
connected with my sudden doath. But
the circumstances by which 1 was led TO
attempt what had hitherto been regarded
as an impossible feat of surgery and the
strange consequences of my audacity may,