IDIOT CHILD CURED.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 163, 15 August 1914, Page 2

IDIOT CHILD CURED.

NEW VISTA OF SURGERY.

: Dr Serge'; 'VoroWotf, • 'tiie'V Velt-kiowii surgeon, has, it is stated, succeeded in • grafting a monkey's thyroid gland (a gla,nd whose functions are unknown, saddled upon the larynx arid windpipe) on to a child suffering from cretinism, (cretinism is a state of imperfect mental development, or idiocy), and "effect" ing a radical cure (said a Paris mes« sage last month). Dr Voronoff described the case before the Academy of Medicine. It was unanimously regarded as opening a new path in constructive, surgery, rich in discoveries, which will diminish human suffering. The child, aged 14, was attacked when eight by myxedema (atrophy of the thyroid gland) as a sequel to scarlet fever, and ever after has presented all the symptoms of severe cretinism. Dr Voronoff, in the presence of nineteen doctors, grafted to the child's neck the right, lobe of the thyroid gland of a large baboon. <

The child has since continued to grow rapidly in body and mind. -While formerly apathetic and silly, she is now turbulent and sharp. This is the first time that grafting of an organ from an animal to a human being has been accomplished with success. A number of previous attempts were made by Dr Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute of New York, but all failed. It is believed that the operation may become common, and that numbers of cretins and imbeciles now leading -a—purely vegetative existence may be transformed into useful members of society.