SURGICAL MARVEL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1509, 3 August 1912, Page 5

SURGICAL MARVEL.

HEART BOUND IN GOLD WIRE. REMARKABLE OPERATIONBy Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright New York, August 1. An operation has been performed by Dr. Lusy on tho heart of a man named Osear Neilson. Thirty-six feet of gold wire'was wrapped around the aorta. Electricity was sent through the wire, which reduced the swelling sufficiently to allow the heart to' perform its functions. No anaesthetic was administered. The incision was made between the'fifth and sixth ribs, the part being sprayed with cocaine. Dr. Lusy is satisfied with tho result, though he does not expect to cure the patient entirely. The operation might prolong life.

This is tho second operation, of this character performed* in the United States. Henry Griffin, the previous case, was operated upon five months ago, and is thoroughly well. Neilson is showing improvement.

AMERICA'S DARING SURGEONS, '. LIVING ORGANS TO ORDER. American surgeons havo of late become particularly daring. The New York correspondent of the London "Telegraph" stated a few weeks ago that surgeons in tho United States can now order and receive within a few hours practically every part of the human body, the same to I;delivered in a living and growing condition. As a housewife in New York can be supplied on demand with daily necessities, so can American surgeons be supplied with parts of the human heart, nerves, blood-vessels, spleen, 6ome of the sraallei glands of the body, tho cornea of the eye, parts of the various bones, cartilages, etc. These remarkable statements were made by Dr. Alexis Carrel, of New York, who is in charge of the research work at the Rockefeller Institute, to a gathering in Atlantic City of members of tho American Medical Association. Dr. Carrel start-, led the meeting by a unique offer of supply, and went on to declare that it lias bocomo possiblo to mako" such parts live after they havo been removed from the body. Ho said he could mako parts livo and grow nine months after life had ceased in tho human body from'which they had been removed. I For six years these experiments have been going on, and now that they have been completed and verified the world of medicine has an opportunity to avail itself of the discovery. Dr. Carrel began to experiment on the lower orders of animals. A piece of the heart of a chicken pulsated aud was alive for as long as 101 days after it had been removed from the fowl, " and microscopic examination revealed the fact that connective tissue was growing from it five months after removal. Dr. Carrol uses nine mediums in which to preserve the lifo of structures removed from the body, and ho declares that ho obtains his parts forVpreservation by removing them from dead bodies. It is possible, ho says, t transplant after death tho tissues and organs which compose a body that has ceased to live into other identical organisms. In this transfer no death of the tissues occurs, and after they have been made part of another bodv lifo in them continues as though it had been thero from birth. '

Clinical reports, said Dr. Cane], show conclusively that his system of transplanting is successful, so that with the experiments completely verified it was possible to inform tho profession that the institute was prepared to supplv them on short notice. Tho institute, said Dr. Carrol, is quite Capable of carrying out rush orders, and only recently they had occasion to rush an order "from Chicago to New York, for cartilago which was wanted for use in a case of knee disease The cartilage was sent by express in 'a tiny refrigerator, arrived safely, and was used. Tho patient recovered tho use of his le«and is walking about as though ho hall never had any trouble with it. This advance in surgery simplifies tho methods of transplanting skin-and bone, Surgeons here used to graft skin from one living creature to another. They used to scrape the leg of a dog, and strap the animal to tho patient. Now science has given the surgeon living skin, living bone, and the living glands that are most essential to life, and all he has to do is to break tho seal of the refrigerator, place the part in position, and it grows