The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-29
AN ADVANCED THEORY.
s.BRAINs CAREFULLY CLEANED AND
OILED WHILE you WAIT.

student Commits Suicide As n Re-
suit of His AudaciOus Experiment..
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
New York. Aug. 2O-The latest agita-
tion among scientific men who WELD the
scalpel is whether brain grating is posi-
BILE The results OF recent vivisection show
great chances of success in transplanting
the tissue from the skulls OF lower ami
mails to those of human beings. Every
where the men OF medical science congre-
gate it is the principal topic Of discussion,
arguments being advanced for and against
the reigning matter of interest
1t is the firm belief of some of the fore
most practicing surgeons that some day
mans inner cranial shortcomings, result
ing from accidents or disease, will be made
up by animal brain tissue. 1t is their opin-
ion that when transplanted into the hui
man skull the lower animal intellect mat
ter will undergo mental changes. Just how
soon this new theory will be brought to
perfection. however, they are not prepar-
ed to state, and are inclined to be reticent
when approached on the subject.
The existence of the agitation is in no
case denied. but an apparent dread of the
first trial of the operation which has given
such satisfaction, in its animal tests seems
to forewarn them to be non-cOmmittal AS
a result they resort to the much abused
method of confdentia1ly referring TO an
other who is supposed to be more familiar
with the details of the experiments and
possibilities of success when applied to
human beings.
Brain grating, or rather its theory de-
rives its origin from the success in ortho-
paedic surgery of certain ideas of DR.. A.
NJ. Phelps, of boy-dogbone grating fame,
the result of which is now well known to
the 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 a plaster of
paris cast to the bones of the ankle of lit
tie Johnny Gethins, in which there was a
hiatus caused by congenital malformation,
there can now be no doubt.
The result of this novel and intensely in
teresting experiment has been eagerly
watched by the world of science. as well
as by the general reading public 1t has
given rise to the question of how far, If at
all, brain grating is possible, and whether
wounds of the brain may be repaired and
diseases of the brain cured by introduce
ton into the skull of the human animal of
portions of the livins brain tissue of phys
ically perfect brutes or other healthy hui
man animals. 1t is noW the important fea-
ture of medical progress, which might I'M
til recently have been deemed impossible.
The discovery of a lymph which can
check, If not cure, tuberculosis would have
been considered, before Dr. Kochs an
nouncement, even more impossible than
this still hypothetical method of grating
health and perfection on the human brain
But is it hypothetical purely?
There are well authenticated cases of
eye grating, the eye of a rabbit having
been transplanted alive and induced to
tnl ra ho1d ~
tons or areas of the brain which have to
do with eyesight and speech and the mo-
tons of the extremities may be cut away
by the surgeons knife, and very consider
able portions have been carried away by
accidental injuries, according to DIR. Will
liam Tillinghast Bun, TIE American sur
geon, singled out for special mention at
the International congress in Berlin some
years ago, and again at the next meeting
in Rome last summer, without interfer-
ing, apparently, with the subsequent re-
storatlon of the victim to health and the
full enjoyment of all the human faculties
before possessed.
Has brain grating been successfully
performed?" asked Dr. Bull
The father of American laparotomy
shook his head. mot that know Of"
said he, '"but DR.. G. w. Thompson knows
about that. 1t has been said that he sue
ceeded in grating brain matter"
ever been introduced into the human skull
and left there with favorable results?"
Never, / believe. The silver plate used
to cover a fracture of the skull rests on
and not within the latter. AS to what por-
tons of convolutions of the brain sub
stance would have to be operated on, re-
moved or added to effect any given result,
say, in the nerve of motion, you would
better ask DR.. Allen McLane Hamilton"
And DR.. Bull, who is one Of the busiest, as
well as one Of the handsomest, surgeons
In the world, climbed into coupe and was
driven to the Pennsylvania railroad sta
tton to operate in life-and-death case at
Princeton, N. J.
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, "braing grating may be
a discovery of the not distant future, If 1t
has not already been done, and the atten-
ton directed to 1t now, when medical pro-
gress seems specially wonderful. may but
foreshadow the accomplished fact. Would
the 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 re-
moved? Quite possible.
Il 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 AS
reply to your question whether the con-
volutions of the human brain are the same
In different individuals you may satisfy
yourself that they are by examining these
models in plaster of paris. The general
lines and folds are the same, the more
minute conformation differing, of course
with each individual. No matter how per-
fectly any two twins. for example, may re-
semble each other as to the eye and in
their apparent tastes studies and general
environment, the convolutions of their
brains would never be exactly similar and
their thoughts and desires would really
differ to that degree.
1T seems impossible to imagine any two
people with brains the exact fac smile one
Of the other. Two such people. however
did they exist and had their whole envir-
onment education and breeding been the
same, would no doubt think the same
thought, and In short, be mental Dromios.
The brain of the chimpanzee and the orang
outang are, as you see by the casts here,
..~f =.