The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-25
FEATS OF THE SURGEON
MUCH OF THE BODY ONE MAY
 LOSE AND STILL LIVE.
Practically No Organ of Which Man May Not Now Spare Part. Creation of New Bone and
 Fleshy Structure.

iOSS anu Stih suTNlNe are Sbcduity iH-
 creasing. thanks to the progress of surgery. though the surgeon is unable to tell the laymen the exact point where living body would lose its desirability as human tenement. That. the sur geon says. varies with the person, life, meaning more to one than to another.
 Bret Harte's story of the unfortunate
 young woman who remained faithful
 to her young man" through a long series of accidents involving the loss
 of various members. and her agonized
 question as to how long she ought to
 remain clinging to the hapless youth.
 amused people who read it a quarter of
 a century ago; but if the young man had lived in these days he could have
 made a very respectable appearance at
 her side. and the question ofs matri money might have been less doubtful for his lady love. For nowadays the hu-
 man body may be variously cut down.
 built up. and substituted. Mans framework is truly a mass of connect
 ing tissues. which separately and in- trinsically have no vital function. but
 merely serve to hold the vital and other organs fixedly in place and in
 their proper relations to each other.
 There are practically none of his or-
 gans from which he cannot spare a
 part to the surgeons kntfe-and many
 he can spare entirely and comfortably
 It is not that man is not just as well
 off without part of his body as with 1t he is more perfect. anatomically, with
 his full possessions. and his functions
 more<perfect physioiogically-but his
 special blessing Is that he has discov-
 cred himself to be endowed by nature
 with the ability to adjust himself to
 many losses. It Is the surgeons power
 t,.k4 ..fn
 fically to weigh the patients condition
 in the light of experience-and it is dis
 tinctly the role of the modern, progress sive and conservative surgeon. working
 in the best interests of humanity. to
 conserve every part rather than need
 lessly sacrifice any portion of the hu-
 man anatomy.
 Viewed by the surgeon, the body, as
 whole. is an aggregation of tissues,
 which may be grouped into three
 classes-Connectivet tissues. which con-
 meet. or bind together its various sup porting parts into a framework; organs which occupy various positions and perform various functions while held in fixed relationship in this supporting framework: and external covering of
 skin and internal lining of membrane. In order of importance to life come, first. those nerve centers in the upper portion of the spinal cord. which con- trol the action of the heart and lungs,
 whose destruction is followed by inn
 mediate death; secondly, the vtscera.
 or organs. death following the destruc-
 ton of the organ with a rapidity de-
 pendent upon the importance of the special organ involved (the three most important organs being the brain, the
 heart and the lungs); thirdly, the con- | nective tissues, which rank lowest i'll the scale of importance to life. Tfhs only bones which cannot now be re- moved are some of those of the head
 and spine. Not only may any of the | other bones of the body be removed, but in very many eases, where the bone Is removed by taking 1t out of its fiber ous covering, after cutting through the overlying muscles. the bone is repro | duced by a deposit of new bone from | its periosteal covering. the latter form ing a mold in Nhich the new bone is shaped into a useful form.
 One of the most brilliant fields of | modern conservative surgery involves treatment of diseased joints. Formerly
 many a limb whose joint was badly in- jured was sacrificed by amputatiop of the entire limb: now the injured or dis
 eased joint is simply cut out, the sawn ends of the bones put into splint
 
 formed by subsequently, practicing l movement at the site of the original joint. A joint Is often reproduced capable of almost the full range of
 movement; at the knee alone a nov | able joint is not sought, as 1t would
 hardly support the weight of the body.
 Rarely is it necessary to remove an en- tire muscle. though in many instances
 it may be done. The same Is true of arteries, though it may be safely done, if 1t be an artery of secondary import | ance. An upper extremity may not only be removed at the shoulder joint, but the collarbone and shoulderblade and the muscles covering these bones may all be removed along with it. Lower extremities may be removed at the hipjoint, constituting the largest and most important pure amputation of the body.
 Ones scalp may be entirely removed. contrary to the usual impression. de- rived from tales of Indians. Then one
 may lose both eyes. both ears. the nose, lips, teeth, upper .and lower jaw, palate. tongue tonsils, salivary glands, larynx, one lung. stomach, gall, bladder. spleen, appendix, one kidney. one ureter and
 male and female generative organs. All these structures are also removable in part; nowadays, too, one may lose a very large quantity of blood, it's place
 being speedily and satisfactorily re- placed by siphoning into the system up to several quarts of tepid, boiled water. weakly impregnated with salt. If the surgeon thinks it best. one may have one of his limbs short
 ened Especially in the lower extremi- ties. where they may be of different
 lengths), by removing cross section of the bone or bones of the longer part sufficient in extent to equal the amount necessary to correspond with the shorter limb There are other things the surgeon will do for you. As many as eight or nine consecutive ribs may be successfully removed from one side; comparatively large portions of | the skull have been removed from the underlying brain, with no other cover | ing than the soft parts left as a protec- | tion. More than this, relatively large
 areas of certain portions of the brain | may be safely removed. One of the
 most remarkable instances on record of | the non-surgical removal of a consider able portion of brain substance, with a successful termination, is what is
 known as the American Crowbar case
 where a workman in the act of blast ing had a crowbar blown completely through his skull and bSain; not only was he not killed. but he recovered with a useful brain. His skull is now | in the Harvard museum.
 l Parts of the vertebrae making up the
 spinal canal may bNAEemoved, but no
 complete cross section of the column | surrounding the cord can be safely | made No cOmnlete cross section no