GROWING SKIN WHOLESALE

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13488, 19 May 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

GROWING SKIN WHOLESALE

I hat ne« skin may be grown over w-n urge sunaces iioui wiuch it lias been burned away is deruoiiMiau-d bv •' < - uie fur burns used .succe.-tullv iii i-ieiicii armj hospitals b\ Lh Barthe de *andtort. .v similar cure is said to be '" use ,n Germany. 1 lu- treatment is -lie essence oi simplicity,- Unug mere.lv an extension of that used by * boy «vhen he hU ,ks court-plaster over a burned hnger. The air, with its troublesome genu., i, thorougl.lv excluded 'anil .Nature has had time to grow a •'«"•;• coating, which she does thoroughlv and qmckly when she b, net interfered »Uh Notwithstanding its extreme simplicity, the method uas cost u.s inventor twenty-two years of experimentation. Ihe temporary coating used la special mixture of paraffin and resinami there are yet few who can prepare it effectively, .\| r Aino Dosch-Fleurot thus describes the treatment in The World's Wdrk (.New York): 'The cure is simple and easv to understand. 1 had best describe it as I first saw it applied. "A young .soldier with his hands and forearms bundled was led in bv an orderly and seated on a stool. A nurse removed the 'bandages and the burnc! skin hhe washed off the pu> with a small rubber hose, and dried the flesh .vitn an electric hot-air drier. Then she brought an atomiser tilled with a hot liquid. J his she sprayed careiullv over the hand and forearm, *o that they .vere soon entirely covered with a soft white, wax-like covering. 'While it was still hot, she laid strips or tlun cotton batting over it and painted this with the same liquid until the .yhole wound was sealed in under the drying liquid. Then she wrapped it up m thicker cotton batting, and went to work on the other hand.

•Whatever the victim mav have felt ihout it, this was a verv simple case t saw the hands a week later and they wore covered with new, suppl,- skin. It is not quit* so simple a matter whoi tile hums are deeper, hut as the process is always the same and does not vary on account of the degree of the burn, More going on to desert other cures. I bad perhaps b'ttcr describe the process.

"The liquid which does the work is nothing more than a. combination of paraffin and resin. It makes an airtight covering over the bum and at the same time, soothes the wound 'and illays the pain. "Laid on with a brush, it would be painful, but as it drops in tinv globules. the patient does not even feel the fall Tf the spray on the flesh, and it is ■Miieklv covered with a waxy surface 'that becomes air-tight as soon as the strips of cotton batting are laid over it ind painted evenly with more of the same liquid. •

"The temperature of this liquid, when applied, is 7f)deg centinrnde, or 175deg Fahrenheit. Mv attention was called to the heat first Hy the fact that a drop "•f it fell on the sound skin of one of the patients so ; that he cried, 'lt is burning me!' As he had just had seve--nl cans of it- sprayed and painted on 'us back, this seemed curious to an amateur in medicine until it was explained to me that he did not foe! the heat on the flesh as he would on the skin.

"Great care is always taken to see that none of it touches the sound skin, •ind this, as a matter of fact, was the >nly occasion on which I saw anvone squirm.

'The whole thing seems s<> simple it strikes one .it once as remarkable that :t is not the common process for healing hums everywhere. Ami when yon see the size of some of the hums it .•tiros, a whole back, fo r instance, the wonder at It glows. 1 said something to tins effect,to the medical thief, Dr Barthe-de Sandfort. and he replied that it would probably lie more widely usee if it were not for the difficulty of preparing the paraffin and resin just right. "'I have been working at it °i'oi twenty-two years,' he said, 'and 1 have a good deal Mill to learn about- the varieties and qualities of the paraffin ind resin. 1 have been abb- to train me other man to do it as I do, but it is a long, slow process of edueation--1 cannot train many workmen to do it and at the present time I am producing .lardiy more than enough to supply this hospital and th e children's hospital in tans." ...

'"On further inquiry, J found that Dr Harthe de Sandfort has named his product 'ambnne,' and, naturally, his sue cess with it has brought ' imitators I lie most successful of these, I learn, are Germans, who are usuiji a somewhat similar preparation for their badh burned soldiers.

"With all due respect to Dr Barthe Ide Sandiort's personal ability in manufacture, what interested me 'most about ins process is that the cure lies in the method rather than in the particular product. Doubtless his preparation is the most successful, and, cm that account, deserves special recognition, hut the greatest benefit he has done the world is to do it at all. He told me 'ie would like,to produce his 'ambrine' on a commercial scale, and if he does Mt and makes a fortune from the sale of it, 1 for one would say it was one of the most justified fortunes ever amass--I. I saw him spare terribly burned enough pain during a Uw mornings' work to justify him in, becoming it least a millionaire. . .

"It is not necessary to go into all the distressing details that frequently attend the arrival of a new patient, but pieces of shell, burnt powder, and dirt must usually be picked from the burns, especially if on the face. It is not always possible to get the burns free from contamination without causing the patient great immediate pain, so the •inrses do the best they can and let it go at that. , 'ln any event, the dressing remains onlv twenty-four hours, and comes off freely the moment the bandages are removed. Tudor the mask the flesh working its own cure has usually produced a layer of secretion, and as this is washed away the dirt comes with it. "Suppose, as is frequently the case at Si. Nicholas, the patient's entire face and head have been badly burned. f saw one such man who was burned f o the third and fourth degree. There was harl.v any flesh over the tendon>. Hut the treatment was the same as for first-degree cases. Each day, as the accumulation of secretion was washed off, his entire head was dried with the electric drier, it was sprayed over with the little waxlike globules, the cotton butting was laid on, and painted with tiie preparation, and ovorythng but the mouth was sealed up. For twenty-four hours the man lay tranquil, without on in, and iho process was renewed. Each dav I could see where the very flesh was being renewed, and where the burns wfvo the shallowest skin beran to appear. The deeper the burn the slower w,u the healing, but in the end 'lie man bad a new normal s] c j n ovor his face. head, and neck. Within a month from the time he entered the hosoital. the skin was entirely remade and, after a dav or so. with oxide of 7.iiic snrepd over the new < utirle, he \. "•- 1 foith whole. . . .

"The process also Ins frown skin where thorn never was skin before. One yA 'i.>r his biceps .sboi away and. •nsteid of baling a scar, he has an "mi - ".-moI w ;, h an even layer of skin. ••■"is his biceps." The writer onoros*T)r V. O. •nan. surjTOon-in-eh'of of ilu Pamorrio