FROG SKIN FOR WOUNDS

Lake County Press, Issue 2737, 6 June 1918, Page 7

FROG SKIN FOR WOUNDS

A successful method of skin grafting a which frog skin is used instead ol /luinan skin as a covering for slow-heal-ing wounds is described by Captain H. W. M. Kendall, R.A.M.C. Wounds in which the skin has been destroyed heal naturally with a contracting scar which is often unsightly and inconvenient, but this method leaves a neat and supple scar. Frog skin can be obtained in abundance at tho Front. Tho loose skin of the inner side of the frog's leg is snipped off with scissors, spread out, and applied bv its under surface to the wound, which has been cleansed without antiseptics. It is fixed in place by a covering of gutta-percha tissue and a dry dressing. In three days the site of the graft appears as a spot branching outwards towards the edges of the wound. After the fifth day the wound is dressed until healing is completed, all contraction being avoided. Captain Kendall claims for this method that it has the advantago of transplanting a skin free from hair and also free from any disease which might bo convoyed in human skin. Twelve cases are described in which the frogskin grafts were quite successful.

WORLD'S YOUNCEST ADMIRAL. Admiral Kolchak's Distinguished Career. The newly-appointed Commander of the. Russian Black Sea Fleet. Vice Admiral A. V. Kolchak, who replacei Admiral A. E. Ebergard, is not only tin youngest vice-admiral in Russia, but it the whole world. He was born in 1874. entered the naval service in 1891. and three years later was promoted to officer's rank. In 1903 Lieutenant Kolchak organized the expedition for the relief of Baron Tod and his companions from the yacht "Zaria" (Dawn), who had wintered in Bennet Island, and here in a simple whale-boat with a crew of seven men lie accomplished the crossing of the Arctic from the mouth of the Lena to Bennet Island and back. Having satisfied himself that Tod had perished, re removed part of his collections and memoranda. For his labours in exploring the ice of tho Kara Sea and Arctic Ocean, Kolchak was awarded a prize by tho Academy of Science. After receiving a series of military distinctions during the Russo-Japanese; War for his share in the defence ot Port Arthur, Kolchak from 1906 to 1912 worked on the Naval General Staff, only just instituted, and took a most active part in the organisation of the I resuscitated Russian Navy, but in 1908 I and 191 L ho interrupted his Stall actiI vity to take command of tho transport "Vaigach." For the last two years before the war Vice-Admiral Kolchak commanded successively tho torpedo-boats "Ussuriets" and "Pogranichnik." During tho present war the distinguished military gifts and gallantry of this i young 'officer attracted general atten--8 tion and won for him a series of martial I awards, including the Fourth Degree l of St. George. On April 10th, 1916. i Captain Kolchak was promoted to rearadmiral and confirmed in a high indcl pendent command in the Baltic, and ) two months later ho was promoted to j vice-admiral and Commander of the Black Sea Fleet. DEFYING THE DOCTORS. Doctors may err, even in the stillness of the sick room. How mush more, then, are they likely to make mistakes in the uproar of the battlefield, lliat this is so is shown by tho experience of the famous Russian General Dragomiroff, who once narrowly escaped losin<r both legs. He commanded a division during the Russo-Turkish War, I and fell in the fighting at the Shipka [ Pass, wounded in several places. He was carried unconscious to a field hospital, and came to himself just as the doctors were about to amputate both legs.