The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-08-24
Performed In the Removal of
a CancerouS Tumor
INVOLVING A VITAL NERVE
And Two Arteries--How the
Wonderful Thing Was Done.

| has ever been attempted was succeSSAolAS
performed at st. Mary's hospital, in Lon
don last week.
practically dead. Respiration had to be
maintained by means Of a machine.
The very centre of life had to be In
vaded. To plan the operation was equiv
olent to declaring the belief that watch
would 90 without a main spring; that q
IocomotIv; would travel without steam
that a man would exist without heart or
lungs.
And vet the surgeons succeeded.
They had to cut through the carotid
artery: they found it necessary to remove
a. niece of the juglar vein; they were
obliged to divide the pneumogastic nerve.
The carotid artery Is the one whicn
supplies the brain with blood. The jugu-
lar vein Is that which takes ca re OF the
circulation of the rest of the head. The
pneumogastic nerve, Is the impulse-oearins
nerve which takes the heart beat, which
preserves the involuntary movement OF
The lungs and sends motor branches to the
tongue and throat.
Without the pneumogastic nervs
mnn cannot breathe, for there is no means
of carrying the impulse to breathe from
the breathing centre in the brain to the
lungs. For the same reason the heart
stops beating and swallowing Is impos-
sible
It is not so long ago that It was taught
as a surgical law that the slightest prick
of the carotid artery meant death. A
wound of the jugular vein, also. was re-
gsrded as usually fatal. AS for injury to
were taught to keep as far away from 1t
as possible.
Whenever experimenting with animals
It was desired to kill one quickly and
painlessly, all that was done was to sever
the vagus nerve. Death was then insoan-
taneous.
And now come e surgeon bold enough
to set asfd etradition, progressive enough
10 attempt the operation and sufficiently
skilfull to be able to transform what had
been believed to be impossible into the
possible and successful.
stansfield Collier, house surgeon Of the
st. Mary's hospital Is the daring man
who performed the operation. The patient
was John.Fellows, a railroad conductor.
Fellows is now well and stronger than
ever.
When Fellows first went to the hospital
he complained of loss of voice and OF a
swelling on the left side o fthe neck, which
| hurt him when he caughed. He had been
under the care Of the country doctor, who
| had sent him to London to consult Dr.
Scanes spicer, the celebrated specialist in
diseases of the throat.
Dr. SpIeer made a careful examination
Of the man, and so much puzzled by MS
symptoms that he presented the patient
before the Iaryngological Society. The
swelling in the throat was about the size
of hens egg. and was situated just un-
der the ear. II the swelling was touched
the patient always began to cough viol
entity. Fellows preferred to speak In 8
whisper, but when he was asked to try
| to talk he was able to speak a little
louder, though very huskily and pain
fully.
There is an instrument called laryn-
igoscope. by which 1t Is possible to see
down the throat and observe the condition
of the vocal cords. This instrument waE
used upon Fellows, and it was seen that
the left vocal cord LAY motionless and In
| the same condition and appearance as il
it belonged to a corpse. The right vocal
cord was natural. Absolutely nothing else
| could be seen. There were slight signs OF
! injury to the nerves OF the face, but only
such as might be due to the slight pres
sure of the swelling.
Because of the pain and suffering which
Fellows had undergone, he was advised to
submit to an operation. so that the ma
ture of theswelling could be positively de-
| termined. The surgeons hsd no reason to
suppose that there was any thing danger
Gus in the undertaking. and they told Eel
| lows so. He readily abreed ii allow the
operation to be performed.
Ether was the first anasthetic admins
| tered. The patient. however, took ether
rather badly, mainly because OF the throat
| trouble and change was made to chloro.
| form. DR.. Stansfield Collier who operated
made small exploratory cut just at the
angle of the jaw and dissected gently
down until the swelling was reached.
Then for the first time the surgeon
understood and appreciated what a ire
mendous task lay before him.
The swelling was no mere glanduiar en-
| largement as had seemed probable. but
was, instead. a malignant tumor. Wheth-
! er or not il was a cancerous tumOr the
! surgeon could not, at that time determine
! 1t is frequently necessary to make care
fIl microscopic examination OF such
growths in order to determine their exact
character but from the position Of the tu-
NOR and its shape. Mr.. Collier decided
| that the growth was probably a cancer.
This was not the worst little mor'
dissection showed that the tumor was in
extricably involved with the sheath of tn,
carotid artery and that the growth aisc
| surrounded the jugular vein and the bis
pneumogastic nerve.
Many surgeons. confronted with such
condition as this. would have promptly
closed the wound and returned the pa
tient to his bed as incurable. Mr.. Collier
| with hardly an instant's hesitation, de
cided to attempt the operation.
As Il was necessarily impossible to in
else THE carotid artery or jugular vein
without in some way checking the Cow o
the blood there was consultation as 4
how this should be done. There is an in
strument which Is sometimes usd by sur
geons which presses on both the carot!S
artery an dthe jugular vein and checks I'll,
flow OF blood sufficiently to prevent dan
gero0s hemOThage In operations on tn,
head, but Mr. Golfer thought this woult
not be safe enough for the purpose Of tn,
work he had in hand
He determined 20 ligate both the csr