The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-16

- hurry Call came one Jay LOT LII
Green to go down TO the docks. I1e
was too busy to go, and sent me.
found cabin boy lying senselesS on
the deck of vessel Just about to sail.
The lad had been helping to hoist sail.
and had fallen from the mast. break
ing his thigh and staving in his left
frontal bone. His face was covered
with blood, and he presented a terrible
sight. knew instant action was nee
essary: seized an oyster knife and
pried uD the depressed edges of. the
removed to the hospital without loss
OF time. 1 went along myself and ex-
planned the facts. and had no difficulty
in getting the lad admitted. Then
was invited to come back and see his
skull treDanned. When 1 left the suf-
ferer he was swearing in Swedish. en-
tirely unconscious of his surroundings.
But no sooner had DR.. Gurdon Buck
picked up the broken bone and relieved
the pressure on the brain. than the lad
began to speak English, saying: What
are you doing there?" We all know
now that the third convolution OF .i:e
left side of the brain is the seat of the
faculty of speech; but the functions
Of the brain were not localized in 1899
The next development of interest in
the operation was hernia cerebri. the
swelling out of the brain through the
wound So, to overcome this. DR.. Buck
cut From a sheet Of thin lead a circu-
lar piece large enough to cover the
wound, and bandaged it over the aper-
ture. As Jus formed in all wounds in
those times, long before antisepsiS was
known, DR.. Buck provided for the
draining of the wound by cutting a
narrow slit in the middle of the 0iece
Of lead. large enough for the edge Of a
siZpeEce TO get into.
1 was greatly interested in this oper-
alton, which proved entirely sue
cessful, and by the time the lad had
DR.. Buck and the other sur
geons knew me. and saw how willing
1 YVES. and by and by, when the reSu-
lar internes went away on their va
cations, I was allowed to substitute for
them, and was about the hospital prac-
ticaliy ell the time.
There was another incident which
exercised a powerful influence on my
career. One day Dr.. Green took me
with him on q call to an old house in
Watts street. near Canal. There We
found the foreman of a fire company.
whose knee had been badly injured
by his being thrown from his engine.
DR.. Green concluded that the leg had
been neglected SO long that amputa-
ton was the only remedy. So he asked
me, as 1 had the run of the hossital
by that time. to take the Door fellow
UP and see that he was treated Iro0-
erly. L got him in all right. and be-
fore operating Dr. Post gave a very
full and explicit explanation. the sub
ject lying on the operating table all the
while and drinking it all in, of the
the stoppage of hemorr-
hage by hot irons, the fiat ligature
and the round ligature, and the various
kinds of amputationS. This was all
specially gratifying to me. as 1 had
10 my preceptOr in anat-
omy at the college, DR.. Watts. that the
operators at the hospital didn't make
clear enough to the students Just what
they were doing.
A SUBJECT WHO RAN AWAY.
Unfortunately, DR.. Post had made
himself only too well understood by
the subject. AS he advanced. catlfn
in hand, the big fireman, to my con-
sternation, bounded from the operar-
ing table, and yelling: Get me
on" disappeared through the door.
When l told Or. Green what had Oc-
Cured, he was so angry at the fire
mans behavior that he said he'd have
nothing more to do with the case. I'd
have to attend TO it myself.
Before going to find my man, heard
4 lecture at the college from DR.. Will
ara Parker, the lecturer on surgery
He told the class all about the tactus
aruditus, the touch of experience. and
now to apply il in detecting pus. The
operation at the hospital that same day
was By DR.. GGrdon Buck. and he
promptly applied the tactus erudituS
We had just heard about, showing how
he detected the pus in the subjects
groin, operated for the bubo by open
ng the swelling, and then put in a
drainage tube.
With my head full CT the mornings
ecture and the monday demonstra-
ion, 1 went to Tiernan's and bought
1 new case of surgical instruments
ny own having been stolen-and went
eagerly around to see my fireman. I
'ound the Dus by the tdctus eruditus,
opened the swelling as l had seen DR..
Buck do, bound UP the wound with
int, and went hons and told DR..
Green what I had done. Heavens.
( entuck." he said to me, go butt your
brains out against a stone wall and fill
your head with snavings. You are the
irst surgeon in the world who ever
opened a joint"
TOW FROM SOFA FOR LINT.
Next morning DR.. Parker lectured
IN chronic assesses and laid down the
aW that no surgeon must ever cut
nto a swollen joint. That afternoon 1
hurried back TO my poor patient, feel
ng little short Of q murderer. I had
spent all my money for the instru-
nents, and had none left to buy lint
With. l was at my wits end to know
What to do, and seeing tow sticking
Tut Of a rent in the old sofa on which
he fireman lay, / seized some of that
rev out and smoothed it and laid it
With many misgivings in the longi-
udinal cash l had made in the swol-
en- knee. The next day, when l went
o dress the wound, it was clean and
Whatever pus had
ormed had been siphoned out by the
ow, by capillary attraction, and the
nan was feeling a great deal better.
This success with an operation for
hidden by the canons Of surgery, with
ut lint, set me thinking. I learned
0 rely on myself. I discovered that
n surgery personal experience was
worth all the lectures in the world, and
hat every practitioner must learn all
le can from books and then work out
IS correctness by his own hands. And
What is more, this accidental useFof
ow in dressing the fireman's broken |
nee led me to the discovery that tow |
tipped in Peruv D balsam, and what !
found to be be.,er yet. tarred hemp, |
T oakum, not only drained but disin- |
ected wounds.
My fireman got well, and for twenty |
ears sold apples from stand at the |
oTner of Broadway and Prince streets !
had practiced antiseptic surgery on |!
i'm without knowing it-for antisep- |
ic was not discovered until the los, |
ut that very discovery of oakum as |
dressing for wounds saved thousands |
lives in our own civil war, when
was as ct unknown.
DIR. SAYRE'S MAXIMS.
Self-reliance, study, work-these, it /!