The Washington herald., 1917-11-19
BY JOHN L. BALDERsroN.


London. Oct. 15.-Private Casey, on
the FIRST day Of the battle Of the
somme, July 1. last year. was stzpek
by a piece Of shell which carried &vky
his lower Jaw. leaving a vacant Hbrror
where half Of his face should have
been. Casey walked i've miles 10 q
dressing station. without assistance.
This is the story Of what has hap
pened to him since.
Discussion of the most horrible
wounds in the newspapers Is most un-
common, but the desire to spare the
feelings Of the public does not pre-
vent soldiers, and the wives and moth
ers of soldiers. from thinking. some
times, about what q bit Of shrapnel
can do to the human face.
II Is this sort Of injury. and not
death, that men fear at the front.
Just before the war, / remember
seeing a grewsome little one-act play,
THE Black Mask" a French thriller
which turned upon the. terror inspired
by a miner, his face mangled by an
explosion, who was forced to wear,
in his own home. a covering to spare
those about him from a constant hor-
ror. Today, IN Europe. such wounds
as that suffered BY Private Casey
are common.
That is why / am telling this story;
for It has q happy ending. No rea-
son now exists for that morbid fear
OF facial disfgurement that 30 many
men dread more than death. more
than the loss Of limbs.
! talked to Private Casey today. IN
a ward Of the Queens Hospital at
Sidcup. In Kent And he talked to
me. He came 10 the hospital q man
without a face, from whose photo
graph. as he was when he arrived.
had turned away with q thudder.
Now he Is well on The way to re-
covery; and when he leaves the hos
pital. he can walk down the Strand,
without q mask, and nobody will look
at him twice.
He has been given Q face; not an
artificial face, but . real one; and
after what the wonders OF the new
science Of manipulative surgery have
done for Private Casey, the miracle
working surgeons feel safe in saying
that there IL no face wound which
leaves the patient alive that can pre-
vent them from sending the sufferer
out into the world again with . whole
face.
The surgeons at the hospital, by
constant experiment on mangled
faces. have built up the new science
during the war. One Of them is the
man who gave Casey back his face
He took some portions OF q rib, and
live cartilege from the body. A curl
Gus fact that experiment has shown
is that. IN these operations. the bons
and sinew and skin TO be transplanted
must come from the patient himself
to give the best results.
Out Of the pieces OF rib. the sur
geon constructed the skeleton OF 9
new lower Jaw. which he attached bS
the transplanted cartilege to the mus
away. Stfll. OF course. there was nc
means OF support for the new jaw.
The next step was TO cut a broad
strip across the scalp. This was de.
tached from casey's skull, and
brought down over his head at the
ears. so that the blood circulation
in the transformed mass Of flesh
should be continued. The piece OF
Casey's head was then placed around
the rib fragments which served as
the Jaw skeleton; when the grating
had been completed, and the scalp
section was attached to its new sup
port and growing as IL it belonged
there. the surgeon cut OF the flaps
OF hesh which still Joined the new
jaw to the ears. and restored the