The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-23
THE NECESSITY OF THE HU-
MAN STOMACH.
SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES
BY GERMAN SAVANTS SEEM TO
HAVE BEEN ANTEDATED IN
ST. PAUL.
SIX YEARS AGO A WOMAN HERE
Suffered the Removal of Nearly All
That Organ and Survived 1t
Successfully.

The recent press reports of the total
removal of a mans stomach in New
York city, and another case last No
vember in Switzerland, together with
the articles which have appeared In
the medical journals of the country,
asserting that the human stomach can
be removed and the patient get along on
the proper diet very we'll without It
and heralding the achievement as a
new departure in scientific medical re-
search, is exciting considerable com
ment among local physicians, from the
fact that similar operation was per-
formed In ST. Paul six years ago, and
there has recently been a number Of
operations where portion of the
stomach has been removed. Just yes
terday morning DR.. Wheaton perform
ed an operation at the city hospital,
removing a portion of a mans stom-
ach for some cancerous affection.
The operation performed by DR..
Ohage. assisted by Drs. Nelson and
Boeckman. six years ago was even
more remarkable than the cases which
have recently been the topic of discus
sion by physicians throughout the
country, as nearly the entire stomach
was removed, besides another very vi
tai organ at the same time. The OPP
Grafton took place in st. Luke's hos
pital, and the patient was a German
woman who lived on Pennsylvania ave
nue.. Only a very small portion was
left; in fact, the part of the stomach
which was not removed at the sitting
was not larger than the oesophagus
and fitted closely the lower intestine.
At the time Of the operation Dr. Ohage
did not have the improved appliances
which have since been in use in opera
lions of like nature. The Murphy but
ton, used to connect the oesophagus
and the lower intestine, which has
made the operation less formidable in
late years, was not heard of at the
time. The attending doctors had to
join the bowels and the oesophagus by
sewing, which made the operation more
difficult than the one which is just
awakening the medical world. The pa
tient recovered wholly from the opera
ton and lived for four years after
ward, and when death occurred it was
from pneumonia. The patient expert
enced little inconvenience from the alb
sence Of that most essential organ of
the human mechanism, which is often
q
the inner man.
There is a difference Of opinion among
local physicians as to whether life can
be sustained after there has been a
total removal Of the stomach. The first
experiment in this lire was made upon
q dog some years ago. The stomach
was removed and the dog lived for
four months after the operation. The
majority of the physicians think that,
although the bowels will digest certain
sterchy foods and albuminous SUBJ
stances, life cannot be sustained fer any
considerable length CT time through the
agency Of the digestive powers of the
bowels. The first man to bring the
operation before the public was the cele-
brated German physician, DR.. Billroth,
Of the university of Vienna, in 1881
Since then many attempts have been
made in the leading medical institutions
Of the East and Europe to prove that a
man could get along without a stomach,
having met with only partial success
Usually when the patient Is submitted
to an operation of this kind it has been
after a long wasting sickness, and he
dies from the shock of the operation
Where the operation has been perform
ed on a healthy person, as rule the
patient has lived for short time and
died
From this fact the operation perform
ed in st. Paul by local physicians six
years ago, was doubly difficult and re-
markable case, as the patient not only
survived the almost total removal Of the
stomach but lived for several years aft
er it, and finally died of a disease en-
tireIy foreign to the cancerous affection
for which the operation had been per-
formed.
The G | o b has secured the opinions
of several of ST. PauPs most prominent
surgeons on the subject which shows
considerable difference of opinion of the
practicability of the operation, and ex-