The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-08


the corner of Laight and Hudson streets.
| When my uncle finally wrote-it took a
| long time for letter 10 come from Ken
| lucky in lSS9-that he wanted me 10 go to
Europe and see something of the world
| before I settled down, I had already ar
ranged TO study under Or. Green, and in
return for his medical instruction. to help
his son John along in mathematics and
the classics in which ! had been we'll
! grounded.
That decision not 10 so 20 Europe in
luxurious idleness, but to get down TO hard
work in the profession that of al others
! seemed TO me the most honorable and use
| ful-as wen as the hardest, was, I believe,
the turning point In my life. And soon
| atterward there happened an incident
| which gave me my first professional start,
| which was the entree to the New York
| Hospital which was then the only hos
| pitat in the city of New York. OF so little
Importance in comparison to the hospital,
| was the medical school, the College of
| Physicians and Surgeons, that when DR..
| Green sent me to Barclay street TO regis
| ter my name as a student, and | came
| back and told him that the college had
! been moved from Barclay street to Crosby
| street, neither he nor any Of the prominent
! doctors knew Of the change. Among them
! We're DR.. Wilkes the eminent ocuiist; DR..
| Anderson and DIR, Cameron. They had
come to DR.. Green's fine residence on St.
! Johns Park-as that part of Hudson
| street was named, to see him raise The
| cpigiotus, by pulling out the tongue, and
| sponge out mucus back of it. They didn't
believe it could be done.
1t struck me as very strange that nobody
| knew or cared where the medical college
| was IN New York. In Lexington IL was the
| pride of the TOWN Rut I soon fo1lpd aut
That 1t was the thing to set into the New
| York Hospital. That was the goal of every
! medical students hopes. Appointments TO
| it were made by the attending surgeons,
| DR.. Gurdon Buck, DR.. Richard X. Eoff-
| man, DR. Alfred C. Post, Dr. John c.
Cheeseman, DR.. j. Kearney Rodgers and
DR.. John Watson Each of these staff
| physicians had made his own appointment
| OF some young friend or pupils as an in
| terne in the hosptal-receiving Incidental
| ly, $500 for it, and there was no room for
| anybody else. But We outsiders, used to
go down from Crosby street 90 the hospital
| in Broadway al Prince street, to see the
surgeons operate. The incident which
gained me an entree into the hospital was
this.
First Operation With an Oyster
Knife.
A hurry call came one day for DR..
| Green to go down to the docks He was
too busy to go, and sent me. l found a
cabin boy lying senseless on the deck of
| a vessel just about to sail The lad had
been helping to hoist sail and had faTlen
from the mast, breaking his thigh and
| staVing in his left frontal bone His face
was covered with blood end he presented
terrible sight. l knew instant action was
| necessary; l seized an oyster knife ana
pried up the depressed edges of the frac-
ture and declared the boy must be remov-
ed to the hospital without loss of time. l
went along myself and explained the facts
and had no difficulty in getting the lad ad-
| mitted. Then l was invited TO come back
and see has skull trepanned. When l left
| the sufferer he was swearing In Swedish
| entirely unconscious of his surroundings
But no sooner had DIR. Gurdon Buck pick
ed up the broken bone and relieved the
| pressure on the brain than the lad began
to speak English asking: What are you
doing there?" We all know now that the
third convolution of the left side of the
| brain is the seat of faculty of speech; but
| the functions of the brain We're not local
| lied in 1899 The next development of in
| terest in the operation was hernia cerebri
the swelling out of the brain through the
| wound. 50 to overcome this DR.. Buck cut
| from a sheet of thin lead a circular piece
| large enough to cover the wound, and ban
daged it over the aperture. AS pus formed
| in all wounds in those times, long before
antsepsis was known, Dr.. Buck provided
for the draining slit in the middle of the
piece of lead large enough for the edge OF
a sixpence 10 get into.
L was greatly interested in this opera
ton, which proved entirely successful and
| by the time the lad had recovered DIR.
| Buck and the other surgeons knew me,
| and saw how wiling l was, and by and by
when the regular internes went away
on their vacations, was allowed 10 substi-
tute for them, and was about the hospi-
tai practically all the time.
There was another incident which eXer-
cised a powerful influence on my career
| One day DR.. Green took me with him on
| a call to an old house in Watts street,
near Canal. There. we found the foreman
of fire company, whose knee had been
| badly injured by his being thrown from
his engine DR.. Green concluded that the
reg had been neglected so long that ampu-
tation was the only remedy. So he ID
me, as 1 had the run of the hospital by
that time, to take the poor fellow up and
see that he was treated properly 1 got
him in all right, and before operating DR..
| Post gave a very full and explicit explana-
ton, the subject lying on the operating
table all the while and drinking il all in
of the tourniquet the stoppage of hemor-
| rhage by hot irons, and fiat hgature and
the round ligature and the various kinds
| of amputations. This was all specially
gratifying to me, as ! had complained to
my preceptor in anatomy at the college,
! Or. Watts, that the operators at the nos
pltal didn't make clear enough to the stu
dents just what they were doing.
Subject Who Ran Away.
Unfortunately, DIR. Post had made HIM
self only too wen understood by the sub
| ject. AS he advanced catlin in hand the
big fireman. to my CONSERVATION bounded
frer t1,a. tiaey f@l,
me breeckes. begob I'll die with me leg
ont! disappeared through the door When
l told DIR. Green what had occurred. he
was so angry at the firemans behavior
that he said he'd have nothing more TO do
with the case. I'd have to attend TO it my
| self.
Before going to find my man 1 heard a
lecture at the college from DR.. Willard
! Parker, the lecturer on surgery. He told
the class all about the tactus eruditus the
touch of experience, and how to apply it
in detecting pus. The operation at the
MAJ i.