The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-12
hIDIQDIQfO|l OI 1 Gloss
Boil m me Eye.
A Novel and Astonishing
Operation Showing the
Possibilities of
Surgery.
THE FIRST OF us KIND EVER Az
TEMPTED IN THE SOUTH.

One Of the most unique and at the same
time most successful and beneficial sur
gical operations ever performed in the
south was conducted in this city recently
by the surgeons Of the Abbo Medical and
Surgical Institute.
The patient upon whom this operation
was performed, and which is known in
eye surgery as Mules operation, receiving
it's name as a mark Of CONTAMINATION to
the eye surgeon of that name who first
devised and successfully carried It out,
was Hartman Hooker. years of age and
the son of James Henry Hooker Of COT
fee, Ga, now stopping at 223 West Broad
street During infancy he had been at
tackled with intlamma tory conjuucUvitus,
a disease of the eyes to which children
are much subject During the progress of
this disease the excretory ducts of the eye
became closed or oblterated while the
secretory glands remained In their normal
condition, depositing their secretions in the
chambers. of the eye, and from which they
had no exit on account of the closure Of
the eXcTetOry ducts.
The natural result of this condition was
that the wall of the anterior chamber of
the eye was expanded by the pressure of
the Accommodations enlarging and forcing
tllt tN0bdil utiNtl II IJiOtl bNSh ICY pilA tllN
lids to greater extent and size than
a normal eye should be in it's entirety,
making it impossible for the lids to move
and causing the little fellow a times con-
siderable suffering, The sight of the eye
having been completely obliterated the
remaining ball was but a source of mis-
cry and annoyance. This was the lad
condition when he was first brought to
the Abbo institute for treatment
OF course the removal of the eve was
the only means of relief, but there was TO
be considered the fact that with the prob
abilities of a long life before him, the pro-
lection of the features as much as pos
sible was of great importance TO the pa
tent. Merely to Enuclidte the eyes. de-
stroying the muscles and nerves and in
sorting on the remaining stump an or
binary artificial eye, would have left the
boy not only with a lifelong mark in a
fixed and instantly noticeable glass eye,
but at his age the development of the en-
tire side of the face would have been re-
tarded and in a few years would be dis
figured permanently and beyond relief.
With the thought of avoiding such re-
suit, the operation of Mule was decided
upon and carried out with the most as
tonishing and beautiful results.
First, the patient was put under an
anaestheuc thea an incision was made
through the corlrsr of the clear part of the
pupil and coming out below the iris This
flap was then pulled back ana removed
and with a curette, or spoonshaped in
strument the entire Viscera of the eye
was scraped out leaving the sac. or white
coating of the eye, attached to which were
the muscles that control the movements Of
the eye. Into this cavity or sac was then
placed a glass ball the size of the normal
eye and the sclerea sewed over it.
Instead of a buiging eyeball with strain
ed muscles and distended viscera, .immov-
able and painful. a glass bah within the
covering of a normal sized eye and with
the muscles in their normal condition and
responding to the movement of the other
eye. Then on this stump is placed an arti-
fetal eye, and while, of course, the boy
will not have sight in that eye, the eX-
preston and movement viii be SO perfect
that it viii be almost impossible to tell
one from the other, and there will not be
O particle of difference in the development
of the features as there would have been
had the eye merely been removed and an
artificial eye substituted.