Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-27
DIR. Coulomb Fashions Eyes
Eyelids, Cheeks and Fore
heads for French Soldiers.
An Example of His Work
BY HENRI BAZIN
Special Correspondent Of the Euenino Lcdger
in France.

makes artificial eyes of crystal and enamel
so startlngly like the living orbit that at
n distance OF twelve feet from n patient,
provided the living eye is immobile. it is
| absolutely impossible to distinguish which
can see the light Of the sun. Since his
rehabilitation as an army surgeon his
entire time could be devoted to pro-
| fession that found its clientele suddenly in
creased by several thousand per cent. Doc
tor Coulomb has also performed extraordi-
nary work in artihcially rendering face
mutilatCd soldiers OF France much like their
unharmed countrymen at more than passing
glance.
Doctor Coulomh IS n professor of oph-
thalmc surgery. graduate Of the Unit
versty Of Paris, and an oculist of rcnown
who wears the CroN de Guerrc for bravery
at the front Previous to the war, he had
been the recipient Of honors from the French
Government Two generations before him
had been manufacturers Of artificial eyes.
At the death Of his father some years ago
no abandoned eye surgery to take UP the
succession. Doctor Coulomb does not and
has not for some time performed any oc-
ulo-frontal oculo-nasal. or oculo-zymatic
surgery He receives only such soldiers as
patients as have been discharged from the
hospital with a missing eye or healthy
healed upper face wound.
"A Little German Pleasantly"
When I entered his office in the Rue
Vignon, he presented mo TO another man
in uniform, about thirty years of age, with
stripes upon one arm indicating rank as
first lieutenant OF infantry, and upon the
other, two years service against Germany.
This officer whose name 7 will not mention,
wore spcctacles, and as ! grasped his hand
| saw the left eye aS artificial and that
scar ran in irregular clliptical form around
! tho lower forehead and back again, en-
| circlinE the eye. As / looked and mentally
noted how horrid wound he must have
received as well the marvellous surgery
that had made his face so presentable,
| Doctor Couomb smiled and said to him:
You would be very amiable, Lieutenant
--, if you would undress your face for
Monsieur. whom l expressly desired you
| should meet"
with the request the Lieutenant re-
| moved his spectaCles. With them, because
| attached. came the artificial eye and, all
| I'm one piece. the eyclids, part of the lower
| forehead and cheek Before my vision was
the wickedest ccatrice ! have ever looked
| upon, and I've seen n few since l have
| been in France. For the minute before the
| Lieutenant replaced the part of his face
| he held in his hand, gazed upon n sunken
grated blank recedng over an inch within
| the head.
| "A little German pleasantly Monsieur"
| said the Lieutenant.
|
| lomb, the Germans have used and are
| still using in this war a rifle bullet that
| breaks in explosion within a wound II per-
chance it strikes a resisting bone. That
| M. lie Lieutenant is alive Is due to Gods
| providence and the good surgery in our
| base hospitals. That even among the many
| mutilated he is not stared at as he walks
| the streets of Paris is due to my work
| Since nothing existed TO support an artifi-
cial eye, We have nodded n counterpart in
rubber Of what the German bullet exploded
| away, and after painting II in water proof
paint to match skin and contour, attached
| the artificial eye and spectaclcs thereto
| The whole can be placed i'm position and
| removed as quickly as you have seen. NJ.
| lie Lieutenant has two sets. At his pleasure.
| he can change n portion Of his face as you
would change your collar"
An Artist at Work
Doctor Coulomb has produced great
| number Of like artificial face portions in
| one instance not only eye and eyebrows,
| but most of a cheek. In the case Of but q
| missing eye his method ia far from se-
| lecting a glass eve in stock Glass is not
| employed. but an Opaque crystal of pure
| quartz combined with sllicate Of lead for
| reproducing the so-caled white" of the
| eye. This white varies in individuals and
| races to n great degree of varied tone,
| having blush, graysh brownIsh grecnlsh
| and reddish hues so inflnitesmal that only
| attention called thereto would detect them.
| Through the medium of metallic oxides, as
| oxide OF cobalt for blue, or oxide of iron
| for gray the exact shade Of white is Sc
| cured.
The artist, for such he truly Is. I found
| seated in n darkened room before n shielded
| draft-drivcn gas fame. the latter being thus
| seen in all its intensity A crystal tube
| six inches long ending in n bulb of selected
! white is placed in the flame and a pencil
| of Nubi n al tpb nd
| into its center at a heat Of 500 degrees
| centgrade. This pencil point to form the
| artificial eyeball has previously been Sc
| lected from n wide range of tone, and is
| blown to IT'S counterpdrt's diameter BY a
| wide range of tone' | mean that no
| possible composition in blues, grays greens
| and browns is without the range of as
| sortment in Doctor Coulomb's establish
| ment. The tone is ntermingled with white
| enamel in Il twisted pencfr used as an
| artist would use a brush to paint within the
| fame the personal qualities of the iris
| which vary In great degree in each ndivid-
| ual. Small blood vessels if existent upon
| the "white" are reproduced in tiny touches
| on the white enamel, The circular bulb is
| then cut in half with a platinum point while
| within the fame being cemented at the
| same time upon one edge to an enamel
| pencil in support of the severed tube which
| holds the whole in the lame during the still
| few essential minutes ere it is placed in
|
| to cool gradually. A natural polish exists
through the nature of the materials EN-.
| ployed
/ watched the artist at the operation
thus specifically described, knowing he
| was making replica of my own right eye
| do not suppose many men having two good
| eyes carry a counterpart of one within g
| tiny leather case in their pockets Doctor
| Coulomb tells me he never made an artiicia
| eve before for one possessing two Twins
| ones. and that consequently he never made
| an artificial eye with so much pleasure. TIL,
| doctors office is a small museum of re-
search Bookcases contain every work upor
his profession that has been printed in any
| language. Within frame upon wall arr
| arranged in sequential order n gold ey,
from a mummy of an Egyptian noble of thu
| period of Rameses II, silver horn and leaC
mummy eyes a silver pointed eye from al
| Assyrian tomb the first type of glass ey'
| made in Venice in 1880; the first Frencl
eve made in Nevers in 1710; a Chimes
porcelain eye of 1850; an artificial eye o
wood from the South Seas; a German
celluloid eye OF 1900; examples Of moderi
French and German eyes. and finally,
Coulomb crystal and enamel eye of artist
| hnn hxr 10