Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1906-11-15


the large hospitals in Berlin, and by
the grating process one end of the
mothers thyroid gland was released
and stretched over to the exposed pan
crease Of her idiot daughter.
For days neither motherr nor child
was permitted to move. To insure a
successful grating operation they
had been tightly bound together, the
| child's body against her mothers neck,
and there they remained until the
| severed end of the thyroid gland had
knit firmly to the pancreas, forming a
| living, pulsating link between mother
and daughter. Then the link was cut,
leaving portion of the thyroid gland
grated successfully to the cbilds
pancreas. 1t is believed now that
both mother and child will recover
The complete success of the opera
ton, cannot, however be announced
yet as too short a time has elapsed
since the operation was performed.
First Dawn of Reason.
But it is known that the dawn Of
reason came to little Lena Wolf al
most Immediately after the thyroid
gland began to knit. For the very
first time the idiotic stare gave place
to look of intelligence. She may
grow up to be a very bright young
woman.
DR.. Swale Vincent, professor of
physiology in the University Of Mani
toba, at Winnipeg, Canada, has pre-
pared an extremely interesting article
on the duties of the thyroid gland, the
pancreas and other ductless glands,
which appeared in a recent issue of
the London Lancet.
at is believed" he says, that these
ductless glands manufacture and pour
directly or indirectly into the blood
stream some substance or substances
which are of service to the economy,
either by supplying a need or by de-
stroying other substances which are
! needless or positively harmful. This
last function is usually prescribed to
the thyroid and parathyroid glands.
1T is obvious that, in the broadcast
sense Of the expression, all tissues
and organs of the body may be said
to have an internal secretion|. e.,
the blood which leaves by their veins
contains different chemical substances
from that which enters by their ar
teries.
"The most usually quoted example,
| however, of a gland which has both
an external and an internal secretion
Is the pancreas. A relation between
diseases Of the pancreas and diabetes
has long been suspected, but Minkow-
ski and Mehring first definitely
showed that complete removal of the
pancreas in the dog, cat and pig is
followed by diabetes, having the usual
symptoms of that disease in man.
That this is caused by the absence Of
an internal secretion is proved by the
fact that it does not occur If the gland
be left in stu and the duct tied, nor
does it occur If a portion of the pam
creas be grated in some situation re-
mote from It's normal position. How
the internal secretion of the pancreas
normally prevents glycosuria is not
clear. We can only say that 1t exerts
some influence upon the carbohydrate
metabolism, either by favorlng the
formation of glycogen in the liver
from the dextrose taken to it by the
portal vein or by furthering the oxida-
ton of dextrose in the tissues gener-
ally"
Sight Restored to Child.
Equally remarkable and interesting
is the operation by which sight has
been restored to the blind eyes of lit
tie Margaret Huber, aged ten years,
of No. 524 East Eighty-fourth street,
New York city. She has become the
subject Of widespread interest among
opthalmologists by reason Of her pin
hole camera" eyes. Eye surgeons
who have followed the case at the
German Poliklinik declare 1t to be, 30
far as their observations have gone,
without an exact parallel.
Nobody knows exactly how Mar
garet became blind. The liquid mat
ter constituting the lens of the eyes
became atrophied and was entirely
absorbed, leaving the lens a thick
opaque, fibrous cap, which shut out
every glimmer of light. This was
three years ago, when the little girl
was only seven.
Several operations were tried, but
with no good results. The membranes
Of the eyes were punctured, but they
Immediately closed again over the
openings like sheet rubber when a
hole Is made in 1t.
DR.. John A. Price. chief surgeon OF
the ophthalmic department of the
German Poliklinik, took charge Of the
case, performing three operations in
February, March and April, 1894. The
third one restored the sight to the left
eye. The right eye remained stone
blind until two weeks ago, when he
performed a most unusual and sue
cessful operation upon it.