SKIN GRAFTING FROM THE DEAD.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 62, 13 November 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

SKIN GRAFTING FROM THE DEAD.

Db. J. H. Gibdnee, house surgeon at Bellevue v Hospital, has obtained seme t rem&rkable and valuable results in skin grafting during the past yeat. One patient who requited such treatment refused to furnish grafts from bis own arms or body, owing to the pain involved; and, unwilling to ask another to subject himself to a pain wbioh the person to be benefited was unwilling to submit to, Dr. Girdner tried the experiment of taking .skin grafts from a corpse. The doctor says: ' - *; I cat a piece of eiin from a patient who died in the wards a lew hernia before, first taking care to, inquire whether the cause of death was due to a poisonous disease or not. I then out the outiole into, small: pieces, whioh I laid on the granulated surfaoe of the nloers/and bandaged the leg ap very firmly. In three days the graft began io show signs of life, a perfect onion having taken pjaoe, and in a week a splendid skin, smooth and elastic, had grown over the ulcerated part, making a complete cure and leaving no scar behind. Sinoe that time I have treated upward ot &tty eases with invariable sacoess. I have grafted the skin of aa Irishman on a negro, and I have wafted the skin of a negro on an Irishman with ease. In both oases the skin lost its original colour and obaoged its hue to suit the wearer.— Scientific American. ■