The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-05-10
SURGICAL LIFE SAVERS
A REVELATION OF NINETEENTH CEN
TURY GENIUS AND SKILL.
Graphic Description of Scenes OBJ
served I'm q Hospital Operating
ROom-Scientifc Triumph.

G.. w. Stevens. in London Mail.
The theater was full of the piercing smell
of iodoform. About its lowest tiers lounged
a dozen students On the floor stood a doc
tor. gray-bearded. motionless, hands thrust
into his overcoat pockets. Everybody else
on the floor was all strained attention and
swift movement-the two elder students be-
hind the tables with bright steel instru-
ments in small tanks of water-made anti
septic: the nurse at the table with the
sponges and basins Of water-some clean,
some pink. some scarlet; the probationer at
the sink and tap; the nursing sisters hand
ing things to the surgeons; the two surgeons
themselves. shirt-sleeved. arms bare to the
elbow, covered up in big white aprons.
Between their swift movements you could
see lying on the slab in the center a human
body. Man or woman you could not say, for
over the whole face was a large leather cap.
and growing out Of 1t a brown bladder like
an empty football: the chloroformist held 1t
tight over mouth and nose. Suddenly the
baldheaded surgeon, stepping aside. let's in
a glimpse Of an amputated arm.
There hung from 1t a bunch OF what
looked like little steel skewers. These were
the clips with which they catch up and close
the ends of the severed vessels. The arm
was off from above the elbow, and the Sec
ond half of the operation was in rapid. al
most stealthy, progress.
You could hardly follow the surgeons
hand as he took a bit of salmon gut from
the watching attendant: before you saw ii
was whipped round an artery and had tied
IL up. The clip was of and passed back to
the hand waiting to receive 1t. One after an
other the clips came back into their tank.
Then the surgeons brisk word of amman
broke the dead silence: Hot lotion" he
said, without looking up. 1t was there,
ond, as by jugglery, il was in the surgeons s.
and being passed over the wound. Then the
flaps of skin were drawn.
"1odoform"-and by another hardly per-
ceptible piece of legerdemain a pepper cas-
ter was shaking yellow powder on the
wound.
Bandages"-and they had sprung up in
the sisters hand, and i'm a second the light
colored antiseptic dressings were being
strapped on hastily. firmly. with exact pre-
cision. Now you saw the leather cap was
of the face; 1t was a young man. beardless,
very pale. rolling his head over on the pill
low, with a twitter of returning life. very
Ill from the ether.
SWIFT AS MAGIC.
But before he had time to realize what
had happened the MANNED arm was strapped
to his side; a door had opened noiselessly,
and a bed had trundled in; the bundle of
oiaihCNo was ittCa II "a 6Chtis-bJ
two attendants catching him up on the
same side so as not to jar the shattered
body-back on its bed. In an instant the
bed was away and the door was shut. And,
looking round. you saw that all the para
phernalia, the tables and instruments.
sponges and basins, had disappeared too.
1t was like a dream of magic, a fairy tale
Of the end of the nineteenth century to come
in from the everyday hustle of London and
find such wonders being wrought in the
midst of it. The work was so silent, so
by itself smoothly. infalIibly, as if those
engaged in It had ceased to be separate men
and women. No hitch, no hesitation, no
pause; everything in its exact place. every
thing at it's exact time.
Almost before you have had time to Won
der another bed has come in by another
door. The patient on 1t is a woman, white
haired. seventy years old. But her face is
placid and quite unafraid as she is lifted on
to the operating table; indeed. there is
laid down the noiseless miracle begins again.
Suddenly the instruments and attendants
are all in their places again. The patient
the cup and bladder. The surgeon, tall,
gray, bushy-browed, his long hands a model
of delicacy linked with strength. is explain
ing the case to the students. II is cancer
and he has authority TO cut II away. 1t is
part IF the m~iracle-only by now you have
his explanation exactly at the moment the
patient is ready for him. He steps up to
the body; gives a keen glance at the stain
without looking up. and the keen blade is
instantly in his hand.
His hand is travelling over the rm-bu
divide before it. SO exquisitely edged is the
knife. so firm and true the fingers and
wrist. Little streams suddenly well up and
sponge has appeared and swept them away.
Clip and a clip has giided from its tank,
and has stopped the cut vein. Gradually
the interest of hours-there grows a deep
red cash behind the e~ver-moving scalpel.
1t moves a shade more slowly now: 1t Is
breadth to left or right may mean death.
No sound. but the sharp orders. and the
perpetual gush of water from the tap where
the probationer Is emptying the REDEEMED
water and refilling the bowl for the clean
sponges. There remains the crimson chasm
fringed with slips. Now comes what We
have seen before: the clips come of one
by one as the blood vessels are tied up; the
lotion washes all clean, the cash. which
looked as if half the arm had been cut out,
closes up to a natural form and size. And
as that dimly waking woman is whisked
away the surgeon, calling for the basin.
and passing 1t around, resumes his remarks
on the cancer.
ARoUsES ENTHUSIASM.
The next case is cancer, too. only II is
cancer in the mouth and jaw. Cheek and
jaw are TO be cut away; to keep the man
alive yet insensible the while he must have
chloroformed air pumped into his lungs.
The chloroformist has got a long tube with
a bladder at the end. The sponges in this
case are small. and held on long clips. He
is an obscene-looking old man, his face dyed
with drink. and two front teeth gone. As
he Is strapped down, the wet, sticky smell
of chloroform begins to conquer the iodo-
form; Ii Is being sprinkled on to the cloth
over his face. AS IL gets hold of him he
starts muttering in a thick. drunken tone.
then struggles, and tries 10 sit up, while the
mutter swells into a half-articulate curse.
But now he Is ready. and .Scalpel" calls
the surgeon. He bends over. and you see
the blade CLEAN.
Again II is not like cutting. The man is
and falling as II with the violence Of the
pain. though he cannot really feel anything.
As the moan rises louder TO a muff1ed veil
the surgeon pauses 10 let the chloroformed
cloth lie over the mouth for a moment: then
comes the time tn cut the bone. The long
keen saw is so fine that but for the grinding
OF the bone you might have thought IL a
simple steel rod.
Everybody is working now for the mans
life: the 1.-THE swiftness of movement is al
most dazzling. Left hands and right hands
seem each to be thinking for themselves.
the sponges are handed with breathless
haste; the sister slips them In. now over a
shoulder. now under an arm to the ready
hand that must not wait half a second:
surgeon. assistant or chloroformist. who.
ever has a hand TO spare. nips IL up and
plunges IL down the subjects throat. Then
the shining shears plunge in too. and grin
the bone: the veins stand out on the sur
geon's hands as he forces the sharp blades
together with every ounce OF his Strength.
C~aok- from, Srp,auhoxa ,,SsSo