The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-03-12
TO rRY ' RllS

On a Mans Lung numas A, Edison Vill
 be asked to Locate an Embedded screw
 If Successful, an opernt on on Norman
 Barrett Will Follow tho Experiment.
 Swallowed the sorrow Yeas Ago.
 New York, March 1.-The right lung of Norman Barrett has for 20 odd years harbored a screw 194 inches long, and it's extraction has banled medical science.
 Now the screw is to be located by cathode rays, and Paquelin knife or platinum at white heat will be used to cut into the lung to the screw and eX- tract it, The New York Journal says:
 Thomas A. Edison in the course of a week or two will be asked to make probably the most important eXperi- ment with the power of the strange x rays that has been made in this sec tion of the country. This will be an attempt to locate a steel screw and inch and three-quarters long that is lodge in the right lung of a young man in this city.
 While the x rays has been frequently used as handmaiden to surgery and medicine, they have not been asl yet called upon to penetrate the human trunk to disclose therein the presence of foreign bodies or substances. Bull lets, broken bones, sprains and the like have been in many cases accurately disclosed by the aid of x rays, but no scientist or eXperimenter in this state has succeeded in penetrating the main portion of the human frame. This experiment, therefore, will be watched with the keenest interest by scientists all over the country, and sur geons, too, will be set agog by the oper- etion that is to succeed q successful ex- pertinent with the x rays. In case the rays disclose the screw imbedded in the young mans lung, the lung cavity will be opened and the lung entered by means of a white hot iron and the screw extracted.
 SWALLOWED THE SCREW. | The young man is Norman Barrett, who is now twenty-four years old, and only for the presence of the screw in his lung is a fine physical specimen. In l February, 1876, when he was a child of 1 four, he lived with his parents at No II Stark street, Boston. One day the youngster was playing about the house with an old picture frame. Attached to l It was a knob through which passed a steel screw one and dthree-quarter inches 1 long. The boy unfastened this, in some way, and throwing aside the frame be- gan playing with the knob, putting 1t in his mouth, as is customary with small children. While doing this the 1 baby accidentally worked the screw | 1,,l nI Jie, fofh fhaA, heard him choking and seeking to re- move whatever obstruction was in the ehild's throat, put his finger into the baby's mouth and down it's throat. There he felt something which he push ed downward, This at once relieved the violent coughing and choking, and lat CT physician was called He made an examination which disclosed the fact l that the steel screw had not gone down by way of the aesophagus, but had passed down the trachea or windpipe. Several physicians were called in con- sultation and they agreed upon an inn mediate operation, but young Barretts father would not allow it.
 WORKED INTO HIS LUNG.
 As the years went on the screw work ed downward from the windpipe until it passed into the right lung. It was a source of constant irritation to young Barrett, and caused much coughing and the discharge of blood The young mans general health was good and it was clear that the screw had begun to work mischief in his lung.
 A few weeks ago MT. Barrett went to pr. F. N. Brandt, of No. 3 East Forty-seventh street, and stated his case
 pr. Brandt made q careful examina.
 ton of the young mans chest, ant located the screw in the middle lobe of the right lung. There it had formed
 a pus- cavity that was slowly enlarg-
 ing. This was a dangerous alleyway
 for tuberculosis. The x rays matter
 was considered, and decided upon a.
 the best method of absolutely locating
 the screw preparatory to it's attempt
 ed removal.
 It is probable that in a week MT
 Barrett will be taken to Menlo Park
 if MT. Edison agrees to perform th'
 experiment. and placed before powerful
 Crookes tubes. When the screw ha
 been located beyond the peradventur
 of doubt, the capital operation will b'
 undertaken.
 An opening will be made in Barrett
 right side, and when the rib over tha part of the lung containing the screv
 is resected, part of it will be removed
 in order to admit of free use of tn surgical instruments. A Packlin eau
 tery will be heated to a white heat and forced into the lung tissue. Tn heat of the iron will so scar the lun: surfaces as to prevent a hemorrhage When the screw has been reached will be removed with forceps.