EYE-CRAFTING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXII, Issue 8312, 28 February 1912, Page 8

EYE-CRAFTING.

. '■ ■ '. ■ — '■ «»»' ' ■'"'— : — r H OPE FOR TH £ 81 1 SSI Dv Slowly but surely the alliance of science and human skill are enlarging theboundaries of the possible-in surgery. Not so many years ago the chief aim of operative surgery was the removal of a,damaged limb or the excision of a malignant growth. To-day the surgeon's horizon is much wider, and the era of. what may be called creative surgery when the object is restoration instead of destruction is with iis. "Wonderful operations hare already been performed in the way. of repairing or replacing damaged or useless organs, flesh and skin grafting, etc., but if the report from Paris can be relied upon it has remained for a. French ophthalmic surgeon, Mons. Magitot, to succeed in grafting a human cornea and so' giving sight to a young man whose vision had; been destroyed by lime. . . The, transparent cornea, of the eye is one of thY most delicate of all the organic tissues. Very soon after death it becomes opaque, but under certain cqnditions it can be preserved in a transparent or "live" condition for several days. Dr. Magitot had been experimenting with corneas of animal origin for a long time with a view to grafting the human cornea, But failed to -ot any specific results of a satisfactory, nature. About seven months ago, however, he determined to experiment on human beings. He had under his care two patients. One was a youth of 15 who had lost the sight of one eye which had been burnt by hot lime. An opaque film completely-covered the cornea" so that light made no impression, -whatever on the retina.; Dr. •Magitot's other patient had lost his sight • through glaucoma, but the cornea remained intact. It had to be removed; however, owing to the pain it; caused /him. \; * The surgeon therefore cut a small rectangular "window" in the cornea of his lime-blinded patient and inserted therein a portion, of the transparent tissue taken from the other sufferer's eye. The results of M. Magitot\s daring operation were described at the Academy of Science by Professor Dastre a short time': ago; "The adherence of the tissues," said M. Dastre, "was compete, in.eigbt days. A transparent "'."itklow' had been placed in the sspaqtio wall. A few weeks fFitrr tljf" bn^'.lHjff's wevv. removed, and the young man was :ib> to 'see- suifu'ieiitiy to, walk-about without assistance. <■•'.<' "For seven months this condition of things has persisted, and the sight of the damaged eye has reached onetenth of. the normal, which is enough to enable him bo see and move about." "These facts," M. Dastre continued, "are in accordance with those, presented to the Biological Society by the French surgeon, Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute of New York, on the'possibility of preserving living tissues outside tho human organism arid afterwards transplanting them on other living organisms.. Received with much reserve and amidst general incredibility, these statements have now been "at least partially .confirm--ed." ; , ■■;-. -f^ ...■^..■.., ■■;;.,.,..'■.■ „:^:; v