The Minneapolis journal., 1903-01-17

can. He found that in every child under
Is years on whom he operated there was
always found some remaining socket,
however defective, He thought that II the
there a joint could be formed without cut
ting. He went to work on that hypoth-.
esis, and at last evolved the present
| "bloodless'' method. Some idea Of the
| Importance Of this step may be gained
| from the fact that .Lorenz alone has
operated by it,, he says, 1000 times IN
Vienna He gave it to theA world, and
went. to Paris to-. exhibit. it. at clinics,
from which 1t spread quickly to- America,
and it has been used many times here
An insight Into His Methods. f: 4: &:
! This, then, was the operation which:
was to be performed on; the little Armour
girl. It consists Of kneading and tearing
the muscles Of the hip and thigh until
| they are virtually stripped from the bone:
The thigh is then given a. powerful down
ward wrench :il5t axis of the body, and
the head thrust: into the, socket. Then
| the Les is twisted out to an angle in which
1t cannot escape. the socket; and, there it
is bound in plaster bandages. For six.
months the child must walk with these
on, every step driving the thigh bone
deeper Into the. acetabulum and helping
to round out the joint By that time the
muscles have grown into their new posi-.
|
patient. should be we'll. The stages of
the work are first the tearing loose of
| the muscles and second the fastening, Of
the leg in a certain position. The opera
ton can be performed by many sur
geons; but Lorenz, by virtue Of: those
great farmer muscles and hands, asa oles
| to do it more quickly more skilfully,>:
more speedily than any one else. # =. ~. -
Every surgeon knows that the fear Of
the knife, felt to some extent by every
one, is greater among the poor than
among the well-to-do. Persons ignorant
! of the methods of modern surgery had
| often rather suffer slow torture and death
from deformity or wasting disease than
submit to cutting operation. For this
! reason they keep away as much as poss1-
| BILE from the free wards of the county
hospital, where they believe the doctors
are constantly seeking opportunities for
cutting them open. Here and there
through Chicago, and all through the
country, were homes sheltering children
| suffering as Lolita Armour was, and their
| parents, not knowing that they could be
cured without cutting, probably not know
ing that it could be done without expense,
hid them, grieved over them, and believed
them shopelessly deformed. =. 90
! Wonderfully Welcome News.
4 So when an enterprising city editor
:, picked out the news Of the coming Of
Lorenz and featured it as the ..story of
the day." with an account Of what the
surgeon could accomplish, he conveyed
wonderfully welcome news to many
homes. When the papers, on the day
) on, the following day the famous foreigner
would conduct a. clinic at a local hospital
: and operate free Of charge on a poor little
girl afflicted just as the s1nilionaire's
daughter had been, to show Chicago sur
geons how he worked, there was rush
I,So
torium hotel were besieged from daylight
, to dark by fathers and mothers carrying
their cripples. The hospital at which he
appeared was surrounded. His appear
ance on the street was the signal for the
gathering Of a crowd. The: newspapers
made his features-or rather his beard
and his enormous fgure-faIntliar to the
: public, and he found no place in Chicago
where he could escape the crowd.
The amazement Of the Chicago surgeons
hip dislocation within their city was i'm
mense, but it did not equal that Of
Lorenz. r.1 4s.9 -. ,- . j
''where do they come from?" he ex--
claimed on beholding the throng that met
him at his first clinic. II did not know
that any city inethe world had SO many
4 Later the puzzle was in some way ex-
plainedswhen 1t was found that a farmer
near Delavan, Wis, had mortgaged his
farm and with the money brought his
crippled child to Chicago to Lorenz; that
a resident Of Nebraska had come 600 miles
bringing his little girl; that from Mem
phis gentleman had brought his only
son; that from all the Mississippi valley
they were focking to Chicago. And Lor-
enz, when he saw how they came, seemed
to feel that his knowledge had been given
him in trust for them. He held clinic
after clinic at the county hospital, at Wes-
ley,, at Mercy and at other institutions
working endless hours over them.
A Typical Clinic.
Typical Of these occasions was his ap-
pearance at Mercy hospital at the regular
clinic of DR.. J. B. Murphy. The big am.
phitheater was crowded with medical stu.
dents and doctors, and with others wht
had been able to obtain admission. Some
& Of the best known surgeons Of the coun.
+ try were gathered on the front benches
watching with absorbing interest the worl
of the master. One by one. the tiny chill
dren--some only 2 or 8 years old-wer'
+ brought in and held up in the arms of the
u surgeon, while he examined the joint ane
showed to the audience what the defec
was. Tenderly he handled the little ones
He quieted their fears and sent them bacl
to be. given the anaesthetic. Then, a.
they were brought back to him and placed
on, the operating table he would lay hi.
I enormous hands on the affected thigh
land. with a running explanation, inter