The Portland daily press., 1897-05-19

| 1ilumlnaieu Like u Chinese Lantern
Sewing Up a Wounded Heart-search.
ing the Living Brain-Other Marvels.
Correspondence of Boston TRANSCRIPT
Washington, May 1.-The wonders
talked about in the Medical Congress.
which has been in session here for the
last week, would furnish material for n
new volume of Arabian Nights, published
as scientific appendix. From what they
said one might get a notion as to why
the average duration of human life in
civilized countries has been heightened
since the middle of this century by more
than ten years. All sorts of feats of surg
cry Which were deemed impossible only a
generation ago are now performed with
out great danger TO the patient, and the
physician Is able to explore with an cleo
trio light the inmost recesses of the body,
looking for whatever may be wrong.
he does not hesitate even to invade the
temple OF the mind, prying amid the
gray thought-substance for causes of mis-
chief
This, indeed, is one of the greatest of
new surgical marvels. The exact situa-
ton OF tumor on the brain is located
by observation of bodily symptoms, and
then the skull is opened and the morbid
growth is removed. 1t may be that the
sufferer loses the hearing of one ear, and
the physician looks for the cause in the
adltory area of the cerebral cortex. Or
an Inflammation of the ear will bring
about an abscess on the brain, through
the introduction of disease germs bred in
the pus, and the simple thing to do is to
open the skull and empty the abscess.
vi late the surgeons have been trying to
cure epilepsy by trephining operations, to
remove the pressure of the brain, which,
according to accepted theory nowadays,
Is the cause of that dreaded disease.
From time immemorial it has been con-
| sldered that wound of the heart-in a
physical and not sentimental sense-was
necessarily and Immediately fatal New
e1theless only the other day, DIR. Rehm,
of Frankfort the Main, sewed up a
mans heart which had been stabbed
through with knife, and the patient is
alive and well now. Of course this could
not have been accomplished without the
aid of those antiseptic methods which
have fairly revolutionized surgery within
the last twenty years. Boiled instru-
| ments, germ killing solutions and abso-
| lutte cleanliness form the whole sum and
substance of this new departure in medi-
cal treatment. All germs being killed, no
blood poisoning or Inflammation follows
| the operation, and the wound made by
| the surgeons knife heals Immediately.
In old times it would have been out of
the question to sew up mans liver
which had been cut almost to pieces, as
was done recently in Washington by DR..
James Kerr. That man is in first rate
| health at present, by the way.
The illumination of the human body
for the purpose of studying its inside
works is one of the most interesting of
latter-day achievements for therapeutic
purposes. ONE time ago, French sci
enlist named Trouve made experiments
with view to contemplating the in
ternal anatomy of living fishes He would
| cause fish in an aquarium to swallow a
small electric-light bulb, which was mis-
| taken for a dainty, ON the end Of a wire.
| Thus, by Illumination from within, eve
| ry bone in the fish could be seen distinct
| ". The idea was taken up by an ingeni-
Gus physician, who persuaded dyspeptic
patients to swallow a similar apparatus.
The result, in dark room, was that the
stomach was lighted up with sufficient
| clearness to enable the observer to see if
| anything serious was wrong with it. If
there was an opacity it signified disease.
In this way the cancer was found in the
stomach of the Comte de Paris. The doc
tors thought of removing the organ and
substituting the stomach of lamb. but
the operation was deemed too hazardous.
The tissues of the body become trans
lucent to considerable extent when
placed between the eye and brilliant
light. Thus, by the aid of the bulb afore-
said, it was practicable not to see into the
stomach exactly, but to find out if any
thing was wrong. This plan has been q
dopted in cases where persons have swal-
lowed false teeth or other objects hopeless
OF digestion. In such an event the for
elgn body would make it's presence palpa-
Bile by distinct opacity, as observed
from the front outside. There is contri-
vance, consisting of sort of box, in
which man stands, with "A very bright
light behind Him, the result being that
his entire body is rendered translu cent.
Under such conditions the state Of his
inward parts can be ascertained with a
good deal of accuracy, something abnor-
NAL being indicated by an opaque spot
where there is no bone
Nothing is thought nowadays of exam
lining the interior. of the bladder with
an electric light, actually looking into it
to find out if anything is amiss with that
important organ. In like fashion the
throat is inspected, the operator throw
ing a searchlight into the windpipe and
monkeying with the vocal cords as he
pleases, seeing meanwhile just what he is
doing Thus he is enabled to remove