The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-06-29
KNIFE CURES DROPSY PROVED BY JAPANESE
First Case in America Sue cessfully Treated In
 Boston
PUTS WASTE FLUID BACK
Saphenous Veins Inside the Legs Turned Into Drain age Pipes, Helping Cir
 culatiOn

Boston, June 29.-Dropsy, one of the most dreaded diseases to which human beings are subject and hitherto con sidered incurable, has at last yielded to the knife, so it is reported by the surgeons of the Massachusetts General Hospital. In proof of the truth of their statement they point to Henry Lemay, a shoemaker of Marlboro, Mass, who, after having undergone an operation. has SO improved. under the constant operation of the experts, he is now reported cured.
 The operation on Lemay was the the sixth in the world. It was per- formed by Dr. William A Brooks, Jr., of the hospital staff. The operation resorted to in Lemay's case was orig mated by Dr. Y. Soyesimi of Japan, who has lost two out of his three ports three cases. of which two are still living. The results so far lead to the belief dropsy eventually will yield to the knife as readily as appen- dicitis or other ailments which for merly proved fatal in the overwhelm- ing majority of instances.
 The operation which has saved Le- may consists in providing a perma- nent drainage system by means Of which the dropsical fluid, which comes from the blood, is returned to the blood. Dropsy is not a disease. but symptom, and has varying forms. de- pending on the disease of diseases causing it. It is a condition charac-. terized by an excess of the natural fluid in any of the serious cavities of the body or in the aerolar tissue. Le- mays trouble was diagnosed by the doctors as chylous ascites. Dropsy is known as ascites when the fluid col lects in the abdominal cavity. Chyle is a milky fluid containing emulsion ized fat and other products of diges- tion. The fluid in Lemay's case was of this character and collected in the abdomen.
 Ascites may develop without assign able cause. but comes most frequently from cirrhosis of the liver. The doctors told Lemay that they could not deter mine definitely the cause of the drop sical fluid in his case. They said it was a tropical disease. But he had never been in the tropics. It might come from excessive drinking, but he had always been temperate. It might be caused by a cancerous growth. If peared. the experts say.
 Dr. Soyesimi's theory. so successfully worked out in Lemay's case, is the apparently simple drainage of the fluid back into the blood. It comes from the blood and contains life-giving ele- ments which ought to be assimilated by the body, and would be assimilat- ed if all the bodily organs were doing their work. Why not put it back? Such was the idea of the Japanese surgeon. That was what was act ually done with the Marlboro man by Dr. Brooks.
 The saphenous vein. which runs from the foot on the inside of the leg to the femoral or large vein, near the abdo men, has been turned into a drainage pipe. The vein was severed, or tied off, at the knee. whereupon the DOT tion above the knee became a hollow tube. This tube was then doubled back upon itself, and the end inserted into the abdomen. forming a direct connection between the abdomen and the big vein.
 The same operation was performed on both legs. though not at the same time, and when Lemay left the hos pital he had two drainage tubes through which the dropsical fluid was being drawn from his abdomen and emptied back into the blood When the wounds of the operation had heal ed the only visible evidence of what had been done were the scars left by the knife The tubes were under the skin where the veins are in their nat ural condition.
 The net effect of the operation was to make an addition to the natural