The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1915-10-29
REDlJCED
To Minimum Are Dangers
From The Knife
New York American)

New York American)
You ought not to fear the surgeon
and his knife any more. They are less
dangerous than crossing crowded
street when you are well, or riding in
a trolley car. Many more people suf.
fer injuries and accidents from street
cars, automobiles or trains, than meet
with mishaps from operations.
The reason some people are still
afraid to save their health and their
lives by submission to the knife is be-
cause they are hidebound with men,
cries of 20 and more years ago, when
surgery was far different from what It
Is today.
| Although Lister. the ingenious Eng
lish physician, had discovered as ear
ly as 1867 that the blood poisoning"
and other Ill effects of surgical opera
tions were due to germs and dirt, the
enmity, bigotry, Jealousy and opposi.
tion of the medical profession kept
Lister and his humanitarian discover
les hidden and suppressed for 20 years
! more.
1t was not until 1902, 25 years later,
that his medical colleagues in London
ceased to revile Lister and call him
names, and began to give him due
credit for his marvellous discoveries
DR.. w. w. Keene, the distinguished
American surgeon, says that in five
years preceding the introduction of
ether at the Massachusetts, General
Hospital in Boston the entire hospital
staff performed in all only 1874 opera
tions, or three operations a month!
Today operations are so safe and
painless that single surgeon per-
forms thousands of them in a similar
period without loss of life.
You may now with confidence go to
almost any good hospital for any kind
of an operation. In the days when
the patient was not protected from
bacteria and pain, only one person in
two escaped with his life.
DR.. Larney, Napoleons great sur
geon, according to Prof Keene's re-
searches, in the Russian campaign per-
| formed not less than 200 leg and arm
amputations. Nowadays of 200 exact
ly similar cases, with deep wounds of
the joints, thanks to antisepsis, the
mo iarttu xxytfh
tation. ..n .
Erysilpelas was formerly the cause
of blood poisoning during operations.
Tumors or wens, so-called simple
cysts, were touched only with great
danger to life at that time. Thousands
upon thousands of these are now cut
out without interfering with days
work.
The Doctors Mayo, of Rochester,
Minn., who just gave $2,O00,00O to the
University of Minnesota. for Medical
Foundation, show mortality rate of
eight tenths of 1 per cent in one of
the most serious of internal operations
on women.
Tens of thousands of hernias or rup-
lures are now cured by operation with
out death. So successful, indeed, is
this operation that trusses are begin
ming to be considered out of date.
Those strongholds of vitality, the
heart sac and the skull chamber, are
now opened with impunity. The cavi-
ties of the brain itself are emptied,
foreign bodies are extracted, convul-
sions and facial neuralgia are cured,
large goitres are cut away, the heart
is stitched, the lungs sutured, the kid
neys cleaned out, nerves transplanted;
joints, bones, skin and ligaments are
criss-crossed with the aid of the knife.
All of tn is made possible by antisep-
sis. which destroys germs.
DIR. Almoth E. Wright, the Lord Lis
ter of today, is now at work on the
battlefields of Europe with even newer
discoveries. These include methods
whereby wounds already infected with
poisons can be rendered "aseptic" or
"antiseptic" without further weaken
ing the victims.
When his researches are given to
the world it will be found possible ev-
! en- to save by the knife those timor-
GUS persons who now commit suicide
by postponing until too late operations
in cases of cancer, appendicitis. etc,
where blood poisoning has already be-
gun.
| ry,n No,x,o1 nhfo TTuivorcitv IF