Year: 1872

eiiiS ic5ediUu aS tilIt WHICH HOW iICS
open before them.


s!rin-Grafsing.
From the New York Tribune.


Bellevue Hospital, in this city, is
the most important school of sur
gerry in the country. 1t is the only
hospital here where the ambulance
system has been adopted. From
every police station there is teIe-
graphic communication with the
hospital, and each accident occur
ring in the city is telegraphed to
the hospital, when one of the four
or five ambulanccs in waiting i'm
mediately starts for the place. The
result is great saving in time,
suffering, and often in life. On the
arrival Of the ambulance the patient
receives prompt attention from the
surgeon who accompanies it, and
the sufferer is then removed on
comfortable bed to the hospital.
The ambulances do quick work;
and OH recent occasion a work
man employed at the Roosevelt
Hospital, who had fallen from it
and injured his back, was taken, on
the receipt Of a dispatch from a
policeman who had observed the
accident, to Bellevue Hospital be-
fore the attendants at Roosevelt
knew of his suiferings. Occasion
ally the public hear through the
newspapers and the medical jour
nails Of "slSin-grafting." This is a
curious surgical operation, but it is
now not uncommon in the hospitals
and in private practice. Professor
4. B. Mott, Of Bellevue Hospital,
has introduced q novel practice.
Some time AGO al Irish woman Of
this city was severely injured by
the explosion Of a Kerosene lamp,
by which her clothing was set on,
fire, and her right arm and her
right breast down to the stomach
were frightfillly burned. She was
removed to Bellevue Hospital, and
placed IN DR.. Motifs ward. Her
case was under treatment for months
and the patient appeared incurable.
At the same time man named Nc
Clenahan was in the hospital whose
leg had been amputated at the
thigh. Dr.. Mott considered that he
might use the healthy skin from the
Ia, l. -, r,a ,,nra oH,nrt ~ o,,ra +bo
disabled woman. He resolved to
test tho operation Of grating"
Eghtynine pieces Of integument,
each about l-lG of an inch square,
were cut from the amputated limb
before the natural warmth had
passed out of it, and by gentle pre-
sure applied to as many points of
the great open sore on the woman's
breast and arm. OF these eighty
nine pieces eighty adhered and
became part Of her system. The
cnrc is now perfect, and the man
who gave his body to heal the wo-
man is also well.


The practice of grating" is
looked upon with favor by eminent
surgeons. Sometimes the skin is
obtained for the purpose from the
body of a person willing to render
so much service to another, but
more frequently it is cut away from
the healthy parts of the patients
own body. In this case, however,
DR.. Mott used skin from an ampu-
tated limb, and thus effected a cure.
Old and obstinate ulcers and burns
will yield to this treatment when
they will not to any other. After
the "sloughing" from q surface
wound has taken place, nature pro
ceeds in the work of restoration, by
q granulating process over the
whole area Of the wound. \ thin,
delicate pcllicle Of skin growing
around the healthy border of the
wound covers the granulations; and
if the process is perfect, the cure
is also perfect. But the border Of
the wound may moi have sufficient
vitality to form the cicatriN which
is necessary to healing, or it may
be that the wound is too large to be
covered. Ii is in these cases that
"gratting" is Of avail. Every sep
arate fragment of skin grated into
the system is q center of vitality
from which the necessary process
of cicatrization begins and spreads
until the eicatriX covers the sore.
\ man with Il malignant tumor,
leading under the eye and occupy
ing the floor Of the orbit, recently
was placed under Professor Motifs
care. The carotid artery was tied
on the side of the tumor, so as to
starve it out by depriying it Of the
nutriment which it had obtained and
then the tumor itself was cut away.
The man has recovered.
Summer Naanocs--A New Housel1oep-


cr's Gnide.