A NEW FACE TO ORDER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8240, 12 June 1905, Page 4

A NEW FACE TO ORDER.

O REMARKABLE CASE RELATED.

The hibt business taken by the Dental Conference in Wellington on Tuesday was a paper by Mr A. Ji. Smith, of Invercargill,. on "Facial Restoration." The opening of the address referred to the various means resorted to for improving the appearance of Ihe features of people with distorted faces, unnaturally hollow cheeks, blemishes, etc. But, after all. the speaker went on, it is the personal experience that is the most valuable, "and I want to give you some notes on a case in which I put a" now faco on a man." Laughter was the first response. .Mr Smith got to this astonishing statement (says the Wellington, lost), and there was not a little incredulity upon the facps of his audience when ho slated the preliminaries °f bis really remarkable case.

Mr Smith stated that, some fivo, years ago tlicre came to his surgery a man who wanted to know whether he could be made a presentable object to mix amongst his fellow creatures. The man was a farmer, and lie had been the victim of a gun-acci-dent, the charge of shot having gone off so close to his face that the nose had been blown off and an aperture left at tho base of the iio.su (through which the man had since fed himself on soft foods only), the left eye had been destroyed, a part of his cheeks had suffered, and 2^in of the right jaw had burn, lost. Up to this point of tho story the .gathering was sceptical, but when the speaker produced an enlarged photograph aiid quietly observed, as he held it up, that the picture would explain tho difficult case better than his words, an exclamation of wonder was wrung from a now .eager and interested audience. For the appearance of the face shown in the photograph was a thing to haunt beholders.

Mr Smith went on to explain how he had taken the case in hand, and explained in detail . the various stages of the construction of a mask that was to so closely resemble the original face as to make it possible for the wearer to mix amongst Ivis fellows without remark. "Why," said Mr Smith, "the lirst place that man visited with the mask on was a newspaper office, which he inspected without any remark being raised." There were some laughable incidents in connection with the patient work of the face-restorer. "After 1 had fitted in a glass eye," said Mr Smith. "I set to work to find a- man who had a beard that matched the red of my patient. People in Invercargill thought I was mad, for I would rush out of the surgery and accost every redbeard I saw passing by. At last I got the very hair I wanted, and, strange to say, it was on the face of a man who came into my surgery to have his boy's teeth attended to. I rushed at the man and cried : "You're the very man — I want your beard !" Of course ho was astonished, and refused, but he happened to be a man with some compassion, and when I stated the case for tho other fellow he agreed to sell the trimmings off his beard ' for £1. I took him to the barbers, and he got a close clip, and that hair was patiently worked into the mask as side-whiskers, which the man now combs every morning to make it mix with the natural hair growing on ,liis chin." Mr Smith also had a difficulty about providing a new nose, which he eventually constructed of silver. He was diffident about his ability to model a suitable nose, so he paraded his four assistants before thn patient, and the latter selected one of tho four .as the sliape he preferred. And tho assistant, for a consideration, allowed a plaster cast to be taken of his nose. Mr Smith's account of how that cast was taken evoked shouts of laughter, for in their excitement over the event they had forgotten to grease the organ before the' plaster was moulded upon it.

In addition to the photograph, the demonstrator exhibited casts which ho took of his strange patient's faco during the course of his experiments, and finally presented for inspection photographs of the man as he goes about his farm to-day, wearing the mask and a pair of glasses. The result showed a remarkable achievement, and Mr 3mith_j3licited prolonged applause from an audience which enthusiastically acknowledged his triumph. Continuing his narrative, he said that the man now had two masks, as it was found that the original soon got dirty, and it had to be sent u» Invercargill to be cleaned. The masks had been constructed with the utmost patience, and were painted to resemble the real tiling. On one occasion tho man was working at a haystack, when a piece of timber fell from the top and struck him on. the nose, cutting it in. two. "If," said Mr Smith, "that had been a natural instead of a silver nose, the blow would have killed that man!". Concluding, he said that by this successful experiment he had been able to make what- was previously an intolerable existence bearabte. Other cases "were quoted by Mr Smith) one being tho putting of, a lip and false moustache upon a man .who had lost his upper lip through cancer, and the oilier concerned a L woman who was bting supplied with a cheek-pad. V . • ' < Mr Bond said he had seen the, case demonstrated by Mr Smith, arid had taken photographs of the jnaiT to" England. Whilst in London: he had talked tho case over with one of; England's. experts, Mr Farmar, and could not find any case in London fchafc had been bo successful as Mr Smith's. Mr Hunter (Dumedui) stated his expen- 1 ence In the making of a nose for tho man.

He had modelled and fitted it, and the patient, "who was a bit- of an artist," bad painted it himself. One nighi. tlieiv was a big fire, and tho man with the false nose rushed away to help at the fire. Presently tlu: paint on the nose began to blister, and a fireman advised the man lo see a doctor about it ! The man got- in ad and wanted to fight the fireman, who was apparently averse to doing any other fighting than that which he had in hand. Some time later 11V Hunter was visiting his harbor, and the laller told him ihe adventure of the nose at the fire. "I'm rather proud of that noso." remarked llic dentist, "fov I made it!" "Oh. did you!" oxclnimed the barber, and the discussion on lwth the nose and the Smith case ended iv laughter.