FINGERS AS NOSES.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1413, 19 November 1904, Page 4

FINGERS AS NOSES.

SOME OF THE MARVELS OF SKIN GRAFTING. There is a man in Philadelphia, United States, who has the strangest nose in creation, it is not a nose at all, but the little linger of his left hand which has been amputated and secured to his face by the wonderful skin-grafting process. This young man, named Oscar Leonard, had the misfortune to be born witiiout the usuul nasal organ. Suffering in secret until he had reached manhood, he at last persuaded the surgeons of the University Hospital, Philadelphia, to make him the best possible substitute. Accordingly, one day he was put under chloroform, the nail and part of the skin of the fourth linger of his left hand removed, and the hand fastened to Mr Leonard's face at the spot where the nose should have been by means of a plaster mould. For threo weeks the young fellow held his hand to his face, never once removing it, asleep or awake. Then when it was seen that the circulation of the blood had taken place, and that the finger was really growing as a nose, the patient was again subjected to an anaesthetic, and the hand and the nose were separated. A fortnight or so later Mr Leonard was delighted with a Roman nose that was in no way remarkable from that of his more fortunate neighbors. Little less wonderful was the operation performed on a boy whose nose had been torn off by a bite from a horse. The nose on this occasion, however, was constructed from a strip of llesh taken from the boy's arm. With this strip an eminent French surgeon formed the lobule and other parts of the organ, and completed tho operation by covering the flesh with skin taken from the br.-nv A nine-year-old New York boy, 'Hto Trammer by name, lias a large natch of dog's hair on the top of his head. The little fellow was playing in the street when he was caught by an electric ear, which dragged him along J for fifty feet before being stopped. Picked up insensible, with an arm, a leg. a collar-bone broken, and several ribs fractured, it was also noticed that the child had lost his scalp. The bones were soon set, and the scalp restored to its place, and secured, but then remained the difficulty of .replacing tho missing patch. Eventually little Otlo. who hail become very attached to the hospital dog. startled tho surgeon by asking if part of the dog's hair coiild not be applied to the bald patch. The experiment proved completely successful, the dog's long, black, wavy hair blending neely and growing admirably on ihe boy's head. Pigskin was not long ago graue.l on the arm of a nogrcss, alary Grant, of Richmond. Virginia, who hail been terribly burnt in a lamp e - iplosion. It was necessary that a certain amount of skin should be grafted on the woman's arm to save her life, and os none of her relatives would consent to be operated upon, the surgeon. seized by a bright idea, sent for ■> pig two months old. This was chloroformed, and deprived of sufficient skill to cover the burnt part of ihe patient's body. The operation was entiiely satisfactory. Frogs' skins have been similarly used- also on the arm of a patient who had lost twentv live square inches of skin liirmgh bloodpoisoning. Four days after the operation the frogs' skin had takju hold, forming a red. healthy epidernis. A much more extraordinary feat, of course, was that .vhioh restored the sight to a air Stride l!. of Clinton, Ohio. Tho creature use 1 this time was a rabbit, whose eye' no-.v enable.-: the mincowniT to read and to see evervlhing just as well as if lie hud never lost his sight. Mr Strich.'l, who hud lost his eye in a mine accident two years previously, had given up all hope of ever again bting able to see, when l)r Paul Walter determined - to try a bold experiment. Though the patient's right eye was entirely sightless, ami "the le r t eye had only sufficient power to detect a lighted candle placed before it, ]Jr Walter was of opinion that a healthy rabbit's eye would provide a solution to the mystery. Selecting a fine-look-ing rabbit, he took a piece of bunny's cornea (similar to the white purl surrounding the iris and pupil of your eye), and with wonderful skill grail ed it on the sightless eye of air Strichcll. The grafting being successful, tlnpatient was again able to see. and in a very short time, as his health improved, was with glasses enabled to see as well as ever he could. Not long ago. jlr Henry Blase, a member of the Second Regiment, National Guard, of New Jersey, was severely burnt in a naphtha explosion ; the regiment's colonel called a meeting of his men and asked for volunteers willing to provide a portion of the skin for their comrade. "Willi one accord the whole of the regiment stopped out of line, and eventually twen-ty-two of them were operated upon. The subsequent grafting on to the body of air Blase was entirelv successful.