The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-06-14
MIRACLES OF MODERN SURGERY.

How the Human Body Is Illuminated
Like a Chinese Lantern--Sewing
Up a Wounded Notwithstanding
the Living Brain.
Writing from Washington to the
Providence Journal Rene Bache SAYS:
The wonders talked about in the Medi-
cal congress, which has lately been in
session here, would furnish material
for a new volume of Arabian Nights,
published as a scientific appendix.
From what they said one might get
notion as to why the average dura-
tion Of human life in civilized coun-
tries has been heightened since the
middle of this century by more than
ten years. All sorts of feats of sur
gerry, which were deemed impossible
only a generation ago, are now per-
formed without great danger to the
patient, and the physician iS able to
oXplcre with an electric light the in
most 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 grey
observation-disclosures for causes of mis-
chief.
This, indeed, is one of the greatest
of new surgical marvels The exact
situation of tumor on the brain is
located by observation of bodily symp-
toms, and then the skull is opened
and the morbid growth is removed 1t
may be that the sufferer loses the
nearing of one ear, and the physician
looks for the cause in the auditory
area of the cerebral cortex. Or an in
fammation 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. OF late the surgeons have
been trying to cure epilepsy by trephin-
ing operations, to remove the pressure
on the brain which, according to ac-
cepted theory nowadays, is the cause
of that dreaded disease.
SEWED UP THE HEART.
From time immemorial il has been
considered that a wound of the heart
in a physical and not sentimental
sense-was necessarily and Immediate
~ fatal. Nevertheless, only the other
day DR.. Rehm, Of Frankfort on the
Main, seWed up mans heart, which
had been stabbed through with a knife,
and the patient Is alive and we'll 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 instruments, germ
killing solutions, and absolute cleanli-
ness form the whole sum and sub
stance of this new departure in medi-
cal treatment. All germ being killed,
no blood poisoning or Inflammation
follows the operation. and the wound
made by the surgeons knife heals i'm
mediately. In old times it would have
heen out of the question to sew up a.
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 it's inside
works is one of the most interesting
of latter-day achievements for thera-
peutic purposes. Some time ago a
French scientist named TrouVe made
experiments with view to contemplat-
ing the internal anatomy of living
fishes. He would cause a fish in an
aquarium to swallow a small electric
light bulb, which was mistaken for a
dainty, on the end of a wire. Thus, by
illumination from within, every bone in
the fish could be seen distinctly. This
idea was taken up by an ingenious ply
sician, who persuaded dyspeptic. pa
tients 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 dis
ease. In this way the cancer was found
in the stomach of the Comte de Paris.
The doctors thought OF removing the
organ and substituting the stomach of
a lamb but the operation was deemed
too hazardous.
The tissues Of the body become trans
lucent to a considerable extent when
placed between the eye and brilliant
light. Thus, by the aid of the bulb
aforesaid, it was practicable not to see
into the stomach exactly, but to find
out If anything was wrong. This plan
has been adopted in cases where per-
sons have swallowed false teeth or 9TH
an event the foreign body would make
it's presence palpable by a distinct
opacity, as observed from the front
outside. There is a contrlvance, con-
sitting of sort of box, in which a man
stands, with very bright light behind
him, the result being that his entire
body is rendered translucent. Under
such conditions the state of his inward
parts can be ascertained with a good
deal Of accuracy, something abnormal
being indicated by an Opaque spot
where there $ no bone.
ILLUMINATING THE BLADDER.
Nothing is thought nowadays of ex-
arpining 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 throwing a searchlight into
the windpipe and monkeylng with the
Vocal cords as he pleases, seeing mean
while just what he Is doing. Thus he
is enabled to remove from the cords
any abnormal growth, such as might
occasion the greatest distress and even
death If II were permitted to remain.
The instruments used for this sort of
purpose are necessarily of the utmost
delicacy, one of them, for cutting, be-
ing like little guillotine on the end of