Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1898-02-17
TOOLS FOR SURGEONS.
Where the CarverS In Human Flesh Find
Their Implements.

Every great Guy mas nunuIou huC
one curious businesses and trades, facto-
ries, individual caliings and shops that
seem to bear 40 especial relation to the
commerce of every day. IL does moi
seem as if these odd business interests
had much to do with the prosperity Of
the world, or were concerned in it at
all. 1t is typically American that per
haps the most interesting of the strange
establishments in New York deals with
science and inventive ingenuity.
The building where this curious bust
ness--it is the manufacturing of every
sort of surgical instrument and device
lis lodged is itself one of the strangest
in New York. But few blocks from
the city hall, it looks as though the sur
rounding piles of brick and mortar had
squeezed it into half its proper com
pass. The first floor is a salesroom. The
hall floors above are devoted to stock,
plan and work rooms In little two
story building in the yafd It tbe back
is the Experimental and repair WORK
shop, where eight to ten nimble fin
gered mechanics are on hand.
There is here one room where remark
able ideas are born or assume form, each
one OF them concerning in some way the
physical welfare of men, Every inch Of
its wall is covered with framed photo
graphs of the most famous physicians,
past and present, of Europe and Amer
lea, each bearing an autograph sigma
ture, all in frames precisely the same,
A huge, old fashioned desk stands by
the window, piled high with foreign
scientific reviews in all languages, cata-
logues and models in cleaning metal,
hard rubber and glass. Here the present
controllers of the establishment sit all
day, porting over drawings or hall de-
signed instruments and studying the
suggestions and ideas that scientific and
medical men from all ends Of the coun'
Try pour into their ears.
The elder of these men has been at
this work for AZ years, and the establish
ment was not young then. Thousands
upon thousands Of surgical devices have
come forth from it. Four hundred or
500, perhaps 1000, inventions Of real
practical value aud utility are turned
out of this room each year Doctors
write, describing what certain medical
appliance, could it be made thus, might
perhaps, probably would, accomplish,
and forthwith plans are made, and after
much study and care the instrument is
designed ana dispatched.
No charge is made the doctors, nor,
ON the other hand, do the medical men
derive any profit, however successful
their idea may work out The establish
ment considers it an honor to be applied
to, the more times the better, and it
knows the repute Of its product is spread
ing far and wide. Thousands Of dollars
yearly go out on this continual expert
menting. Some of them never return,
Even in the event Of great success and
the discovery of a completely new sur
gicGl principle a patent is seldom taken
out The doctor inventor cannot because
Of medical ethics. The establishment
finds it hardly worth its while because
of the expense and the small number
made of any one instrument.
1t is as good as fairy story Of the old
sort to spend an hour or more in this
room and see and hear Of the curious
things being planned and experimental
with Many seem to the laymen fan
tasiic in their uses and the results az
complished with them not to be be-
heved. One instrument Of this sort is
the bullet probe telephone, with which
the modern surgeon, an ordinary tele-
phone receiver strapped to his ear, can
hear when his probe touches the bullet
far within the tissues, distinct click.
Many of the implements made here
have almost reyOlutiOnized certain
branches of surgery. IN box ON the
heaped up desk spoken of lay, the last
time the writer visited this room, n del
icately adjusted, minute instrument,
with scale marked along its length.
Its purpose was to make probing in the
brain safe beyond doubt A probe of
any required size fitted into the handle,
and as the surgeon gently inserted the
tip and went farther and farther within
the skull the scale would register the
exact energy of the pressure Beyond a
certain point there was danger in pene-
tration. If the scale registered over a
certain fraction Of an ounce, it proved
that the probe had left the track Of the
bullet and had touched cellular matter.
"The most curious thing l ever
NADER" replied the old instrument
maker, repeating the question. THAT
is hard one to answer. There have
been so many strange things. But-yes
Il think the most curious was an APP
pliance designed on the ideas of doc
tor somewhere in the southwest for
sucking snake lites. 1t was little
instrument any one could carry around
with him, and when set ON the wound
would, the doctor thought don't
know, l can't say myself-suck the poi
son out in short order. l made the in.
strument according to instructions and
the doctor professed himself we'll salts
fed. How it worked in actual practice
/ never heard. New York Tribune.
First Thug (after the hold up)-Did
de old gent come down wild de Doodle
when you told i'm you wanted some