The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-26
PROFESSOR LoRENzs STRUGGLE.
For Many Years He Was Alone in Ills
 Peculiar Surgical Theory.


 Chicago Special to the New York World.
 Who is this Prof Adolph Lorenz, who performs miracles in surgery? Who is he who came to Chicago from Austria for a fee greater than any surgeon ever before received, and, after dealing successfully with most difficult case, spend the greater part of a week attending de- formed children whose parents are pen niless?
 Professor Lorenz Is a giant Teuton. with beard and an exterior resembling the impossible King Leopold of Belgium. This beard has a most familiar appear ance When first you look at it you are reminded of King Leopold; then you think of Tolsoi and the painter Verest- chagin.
 If you had visited the Auditorium An mex almost any day this week you would have found him the central figure in truly pathetic scene. Dozens of mothers with crippled children surrounded his suite, tearfully heseeching him t,j tio something for their little ones. There were children with shrunken limbs, with twisted feet and distorted knee joints. And they were as eager as their mothers to have this man. who had cared for a millionaire's daughter, try to cure their deformities.
 You want to know something about my early life?" he repeated in response to a question. "Well, in the first place. l was not born in Vienna. I was born on a farm in Northern Austria My father was not particularly wealthy, and when was lad l had to work hard, very hard.
 T did not get to Vienna until I began the study of medicine. When I entered the university there I soon became in- terested in orthopedic surgery, and have since made this study the aim of my life. was a poor student, at least so far as money goes, and had no easy time of it.
 Some fifteen years ago, when it was generally considered among surgeons that nothing could be done to effect a cure of congenital hip dislocation, Buck minister Brown, a surgeon living in Bos- ton, conceived the idea of holding the patient in extension, and by traction to stretch the tissues sufficiently to bring the head of the femur opposite the socket. This treatment met with little ap- preciation in America, but was accepted in England, and is used there today in the treatment of many cases.
 This was, however a treatment al- most as bad as the disease, and it was questionable whether or not any good resulted from such operations. At last 1t was found that the patients were not cured. But the effect of this theory s;oon the profession was to stimulate interest and research, and in Germany, Italy Austria and the United States some slight advancement was made
 Mine years ago Plea, the famous Ital- ian surgeon, and myself conceived the same idea of operation without knife by manipulation. I operated upon a child and was successful. He operated upon an adult and failed
 "The surgeons both of Europe and America were for several years quite loath to accept this form of treatment. It was a manner of manipulation and seem ingly apart from regular surgical pro- cedure, and many verbal battles were fought as to whether or not I had made There Is no longer any dispute about it. That I did make and have since made such actual reductions has been proved. not alone by anatomical dissection, which is unanswerable, but the X-ray, the func- tional result and the unmistakable phe- nomena at the time of the operation. prove that actual reductions are made"
 Dr. Lorenz is just AS years old. He looks SO. Probably his appearance of being advanced in age Is due to the fact that during his youth he underwent the keenest privations in order to follow the study of medicine.
 'I have known what it is to want bed and breakfast" he said.