Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1918-01-13
H?Ruin
Surgical Science Which N
Saved a Child His Sanity,
By DR.. Leonard Keene Hirshberg,
IA, M. D. Uohns Hopkins University

y
the Johns Hopkins Hospital by Dr. William H
Dandy, the young brain surgeon who has taken the
place OF DR.. Harvey Cushing with the Harvard
Base Hospital American Expedtonaiy Forces in France
This most remarkable operation was carried out upon
little Harry Nice Jr, the eeveny earod of Harry W.
Nice, of Baltimore's Assistant States Attorneys
The operation consisted of two parasitic removal of
number of tumors which had formed in the meninges
membrane covering the boys brain, partly parayzing
him and threatening in time his sanity and the replace
ment of the destroyed membrane by tissue from the
patients leg muscles
The mennges is complicated formation consisting of
three parasitic dura Cor hard outside layer) the
arachnod membrane and the soft nnermost layer called
the pia mater. The of this intricate arrangement
protect the corex or gray layer of the BRAIN which lies
just within the mennges and where the control of Speech
movement and of the most important body functions
is to a certain extent localized.
No less than six small tumors had formed the
right half of the boy brain Why they had formed is at
present mystery If medicine discover the of
their org it will have made importance advance in
knowledge of the brain The boy had suffered dis
ease or accident far is known, which could have
started the trouble
The pressure of the multiple cyss " they called
the right half of the boys brain produced paralysis
OF the left This would probably in time have pro-
crossed to general paralysis and premature death.
The cysts III the mennges pressed upon the soft gray
matter of the cortex of the BRAIN which located cells
that direct arm movements and other body functions al
ready explained.
Pressure, injury disease affecting one side of the
brain always paralysis of the opposite side Of the
body The brain may be compared to double telephone
central from which wires-he fbres-radate down
ward and in great number of Ks above and the
knob at the top OF the spinal column called the medula
oblongata The crossing start from cell units in the
cOrex matter the surface of the find their
way to the side of the spinal column opposite their starting
point and thence to the corresponding side of the body
Thus we understand that if any abnormal condition
arises in the cortex the mennges certain group Of
muscles organs the opposite side of the body
will be parayzed weakened according to the of
injury or disease present
The surgeon prepared the boys head in the manner
customary in brain operations The hair shaved away
and the scalp treated with antseptics for three days. An
bull
Uranium upon the right side lifted up. 1t then found
that six small tumors has fused with the meninges in
such that certain important brain cells the cortex
squeezed together and injured The bres among
those which to the medua obongata and
the associated bres which supplied the left side of the
face trunk and neck and the left leg had escaped the
of the six tumors but diagnosis suggests that this
could not long be
The delicacy and inesse of this radical operation can
scarcely be conveyed the aynan The slightest devia
ton of the instrument might have caused insanity general
paralysis DEATH The Of the brain tissue is such
make surgical conditions entirely different from those
found in other parts of the body Huge blood channels
enclosed arteries veins flow through the folds of
the mennge If the surgeon pcs one of these
folds with his instrument there is remedy known to
science which will check the fatal hemorrhage.
To dssect away the tumors long and tedious
operation It occupied three hours grave difficulty be-
apparent in the of the operation The tumors
had grown closely into the tissue of the mennges that
necessary considerable portion of this It's
It the dura mater hard part Of the
inges that was removed.
Without the complete protection of the mennges the
corex will not long remain unnjured and injury to the
c0rtex means permanent paralysis.
The elimination of the tumors produced almost
mediate of the paralysis Of the chds left arm So
necessary to replace the tissue removed from the dura