The Yukon Sun (Yukon, Okla.), Vol. 14, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, November 9, 1906 Page: 5 of 8
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NEW ACHIEVEMENTS
OF GREAT SURGEONS
Operations That Almost Seem Incredible Now Suc-
cessfully Performed as a Matter of Course.
Most Rccent Is the Work of Dr. Karl Garre of Berlin, in Which
Devoted Mother Gave Part of Her Own Throat to Convert
Her Idiot Daughter Into a Bright Litlle Girl.
New York.—Medical men here and
abroad are awaiting with considera-
ble interest a report from Berlin giv-
ing complete details of a most daring
and unusual surgical operation per-
formed there a. few weeks ago.
An idiot child, the six-year-old
daughter of Mrs. Louis Wolff, a resi-
dent of Berlin, has been converted
into an intelligent being by the proc-
ess of grafting part of the mother's
thyroid gland upon the child's pan-
creas. Reduced to plainer language,
this means that part of the mother's
throat has been transferred by the
grafting process to a gland, or tissue,
lying directly at the back of the stom-
ach. By this operation the dull, in-
active brain of little Lena Wolff has
been awakened so that it is now per-
TMY/50/O OF KMC tf
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An Idiot From Birth.
forming the duties for which Y, was
intended.
This, in the history of medical
science, is without a parallel, not only
because such an operation was never
attempted before, but also because
of its seeming vagueness. The idea
of grafting part of the throat of a
mother to the pancreas gland of her
child with the expectation of convert-
ing the child from idiocy to a normal,
mental condition would seem at first
glance unworthy of serious consider-
ation. But Dr. Karl Garre, professor
of surgery in the medical faculty of
Breslau university, to whom the oper-
ation is credited, did exactly what has
been described above, and recent de-
spatches from Berlin declare that the
operation has been pronounced a com-
plete success.
Professor Garre is an eminent Ger-
man surgeon whose success in the
transplanting of organs from one ani-
mal to another and even from the
lower animals to human beings, has
attracted the attention and admira-
tion of surgical men all over the
world. When his report, of how he
changed Lena Wolff from an idiot into
a bright and intelligent little girl is
completed it will form a valuable ad-
dition to the list of modern miracles
of surgery.
From the details of the case al-
ready received from Germany it ap-
pears that Lena Wolff was born an
idiot six years ago, says the New
York World. Reason never dawned
for her as in other babies. She had
come into the world without one ap-
parent spark of intelligence and
seemed doomed to pass her whole life
without kpowing the joys and sorrows
of living.
Her case was called to the attention
of Professor (liirre, who was inter-
ested from the very beginning, be-
cause in it he saw a possibility of te-
ing able to prove the correctness of a
theory on which he had been at work.
This involved the probable action or
influence that certain substances or
secretions found in the ductless
glands of the human body have upon
the blood.
It is the blood, as everybody knows,
that feeds the brain, keeping it active
and clear and in good working order. |
If the blood is thin or sluggish the [
brain is first to record that fact. The
great German surgeon knew that the
reason Lena Wolff's brain was dull j
and inactive was because the blood
was not feeding it as it should.
One of the principal duties of the
pancreas, situated just behind the
■tomach, Is to superintend the regular
feeding of the brain with good blood,
according to the theory of tho Ger-
man surgeon. In the case of Lena
Wolff he believed the pancreas was
minus one very important digestive
essential, without which it could not
do its work properly. That very im-
portant essential had to be supplied
by grafting a portion of a ductless
gland from another living person.
The child's mother readily offered
herself as a sacrifice. She was per-
pectly willing to undergo the neces-
sarily painful and tedious operation of
having part of her throat grafted on
the body of her little daughter if only
it would give Lena her reason.
The operation took place in one of
the large hospitals in Berlin, and by
the grafting process one end of the
mother's thyroid gland was released
and stretched over to the exposed pan-
crease of her idiot daughter.
For days neither motherr nor child
was permitted to move. To insure a
successful grafting operation they
had been tightly bound together, the
child's body against her mother's neck,
and there they remained until the
severed end of the thyroid gland had
knit firmly to the pancreas, forming a
living, pulsating link between mother
and daughter. Then the link was cut,
leaving a portion of the thyroid gland
grafted successfully to the child's
pancreas. It is believed now that
both mother and child will recover.
The complete success of the opera-
tion, cannot, however, be announced
yet, as too short a time has elapsed
since the operation was performed.
First Dawn of Reason.
But it is known that the dawn of
reason came to little Lena Wolf al-
most immediately after the thyroid
gland began to knit. For the very
first time the idiotic stare gave place
to a look of intelligence. She may
grow up to be a very bright young
woman.
Dr. Swale Vincent, professor of
physiology in the University of Mani-
toba, at Winnipeg, Canada, has pre-
pared an extremely interesting article
on the duties of the thyroid gland, the
pancreas and other ductless glands,
which appeared in a recent issue of
the London Lancet.
"It is believed," he says, "that these
ductless glands manufacture and pour
directly or indirectly into the blood
stream some substance or substances
which are of aerrlca to the economy,
either by aupplylng a need or by de-
stroying other substances which are
needless or positively harmful. This
last function is usually prescribed to
the thyroid and parathyroid glands.
"It is obvious that, In the broadest
sense of the expression, all tissues
and organs of the body may be said
to have aa internal secretion—i. e.,
the blood which leaves by their veins
contains different chemical substances
from that which enters by their ar-
teries.
"The most usually quoted example,
however, of a gland which has both
an external and an internal secretion
is the pancreas. A relation between
diseases of the pancreas and diabetes
has long been suspected, but Minkow-
ski and Mehring first definitely
showed that complete removal of the
pancreas in the dog, cat and pig is
followed by diabetes, having the usual
symptoms of that disease in man.
That this is caused by the absence of
an internal secretion is proved by the
fact that it does not occur if the gland
be left in situ and the duct tied, nor
does it occur if a portion of the pan-
creas be grafted in gome situation re-
mote from its normal position. How
the internal secretion of the pancreas
normally prevents glycosuria is not
clear. We can only say that it exerts
some influence upon the carbohydrate
metabolism, either by favoring the
formation of glycogen in the liver
from the dextrose taken to it by the
portal vein or by furthering the oxida-
tion of dextrose in the tissues gener-
ally."
Sight Restored to Child.
Equally remarkable and interesting
is the operation by which sight has
been restored to the blind eyes of lit-
tle Margaret Huber, aged ten years,
of No. 524 East Eighty-fourth street,
New York city. She has become the
subject of widespread interest among
optlialmologlsts by reason of her "pin-
hole camera" eyes. Eye surgeons
who have followed the case at the
German Poliklinik declare it to be, so
far as their observations have gone,
without an exact parallel.
Nobody knows exactly how Mar-
garet became blind. The liquid mat-
ter constituting the lens of the eyes
became atrophied and was entirely
absorbed, leaving the lens a thick
apaque, fibrous cap, which shut out
every glimmer of light. This was
three years ago, when the little girl
was only seven.
Several operations were tried, but
with no good results. The membranes
of the eyes were punctured, but they
immediately closed again over the
openings like sheet rubber when a
hole is made in it.
Dr. John A. Price, chief surgeon of
the ophthalmic department of the
German Poliklinik, took charge of the
case, performing three operations in
February, March and April, 1894. . The
third one restored the sight to the left
eye. The right eye remained stone
blind until two weeks ago, when he
performed a most unusual and suc-
cessful operation upon it.
He first made a peculiarly shaped
pair of scissors, the under blade
pointed and the upper blade blunt.
This instrument he inserted through
an tncliton la the cornea made at the
top. Pushing the points down through
the pupil, with the sharp blade he
punctured the opaque membrane of
the lens capsule and cut it squarely !
in two. The task of the surgeon was J
to cut so delicately and precisely as
to divide the obstruction and ipt the j
light into the eye again.
The operation was entirely success-
ful. The dead lens matter remains ic j
the eye and on either side of the pupl) ,
a speck of the opaque substance can
yet be seen. This in time may be ab-
sorbed.
Some Surgical Marvels.
Philadelphia and Toledo, Ohio, have
recently contributed to the list of
marvels of surgery through .derations
on the brains of incorrigible and men-
tally defective boys. A still more re-
cent case is that of Carl Fredericks,
aged nine years, of No. 200 Clinton
street, Hoboken. He is under observa-
tion at the Rahway Reformatory prep-
aratory to the practical reconstruction
of his brain.
The doctors say the boj's brain is
so peculiarly constructed that it pre-
vents him from being good for more
than an hour at a time. The head is
of abnormal shape, the skull coming
to a point.
Tests made a few days ago showed
that the boy had no sense of right or
wrong. This Is attributed to an ab-
normal brain growth. As a result of
the operation, which includes the cut-
ting out of certain parts of the brain,
it is expected to relieve the boy of his
wicked tendencies and transform liim
into a model youth.
Scientific surgery is gradually solv-
ing the problem of making us over
BEAUTIFY THE CITY
REMODELING AND BUILDING AT
WASHINGTON.
All Sorts of Improvements Noted if
the Various Sections—Ante-Bel-
lum Structures Are Rapidly
Disappearing.
"There is one form of city improve-
ment going on here which, when con-
sidered in the aggregate, constitutes
an element which is generally over-
looked, or not considered, though it
has a very important bearing upon
the structural make-up of the city at
large," said a gentleman actively en-
gaged in building operations In
Washington.
"I refer to the very gratifying ac-i
tivity on the part of owners andl
builders in the remodeling of oldl
buildings in the various sections of
the city, but more particularly in the
northwest and in the business sec-
tion. These individual instances of'
remodeling are scarcely noticed when
compared with the great and larger
improvements in the way of entirely
new and modern buildings, but it is
astonishing how certain blocks andi
sections have been and are being im-
proved.
"With this thought in mind In my
rides over the city I have some men-
ial notes to the end that this method
of the city improvement might be
called to notice, as it will serve as
an incentive to other owners to like-!
wise improve their holdings, as in-
dividual improvements like these
will go a great way in the develop-
ment of the greater city we are striv-
ing for. It is possible for a small
owner to allow the main walls of his
building to stand, and with the ex-
penditure of a comparatively small
sum transform it into a building
which will be a credit to the particu-
lar neighborhood. In the business
section these improvements invite
rentals which could not otherwise bo
obtained, yet the individual owner,
who often cannot afford the expense
of an entirely new building, contrib-
utes his share to the rebuilding of
the city.
Old Buildings Torn Out.
"Another improvement in the build-
ing line which passes unnoticed in
isolated cases, but counts to a re-
markable degree when tabulated and
considered in the aggregate, is the
demolition of old frame houses ami
stores, many of them eyesores by rea-
son of age and lack of repair, and the
erection of brick dwellings, apart-
piecemeal. Raymond Moore, aged 20, ment houses of the smaller class and
of Baltimore, lost the sixth and sev- smaller business places in their stead,
enth ribs on the right side. Dr. Ham- , Citizens interested in civic improve
ilton Brown replaced them with ar- ment, when riding on the cars
tifieial ribs of hard rubber tubing. throughout the city, should observe
Ry an operation at Fordham Hos- ! this style of Improvement with in-
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pital, Joseph Reicher was supplied
witli a silver windpipe to replace the
original, which had been damaged be
yond repair by a hard fall.
Restored to Rationality.
At Stamford, Conn., a unique opera
tion on the skull of the two-year-old
son of Michael Guntlier has given the
boy rationality. The child was borr
with normal mental and physical en
dowments and began to show, wher
a year old, signs of general deflcienc
in all his senses. It was finally deter-
mined by the surgeons interested in
the case to explore the child's skull.
Dr. J. T. Higgins, of New York, as-
terest.
"I have also observed in this con-
nection that several of the few re-
maining old frame ante-bellum build-
I ings on the south side of Pennsyl-
vania avenue have recently been
; razed and new foundations dug prep-
1 aratory to the erection of entirely
new brick structures. There are but
two or three of these old frames left;
' on this side of our historic main thor-i
j oughfare in the upper business sec-!
j tion, and now that some of them'
have gone the way of old lumber, it is
to be hoped that those left will short-
ly be consigned for sale as old mate-
rial.
"Property owners also seem to have
sisted by Drs. Whitehorn and llogan, j
of New ^ ork, and Howell and Loeb, been more liberal than in past sea-
of Stamford, performed the operation sons jn having their holdings repaint-
ed, and this is particularly true inr
at Stamford Hospital a few months
ago. They removed a strip of bone
from the skull three inches long and
one-half inch wide, to give the brain a
chance to grow. Immediately on re-
covering from the anaesthesia, a look
of normal intelligence showed in the
child's eyes, proving the theory of the
dqctors that the skull had been press-
ing unduly on the brain. With the
pressure relieved, the brain was free
to exert itself. The doctors believe
the boy will soon be able to talk and
act as rationally as the brightest of
his little playmates.
Dr. Guthrie and Dr. Carrell, of the
University of Chicago, have been mak-
ing a series of remarkable experi-
ments in surgery. Hearts of dogs
have been successfully moved up into
the animals' necks and there per-
formed their functions. The circula-
tion of blood in canines has been re-
sections of town where frame dwell-
ings abound. The infection seems to
have spread from owner to owner on
some squares, with the result that
this method of minor improvement
has given a fresh and new appear-
ance to heretofore dingy blocks. In
sections of the city where owners
usually give their property regular
attention in this respect the many
newly painted buildings are also no-'
ticeable. Altogether these minor im-
provements are worthy of more than
passing notice."
New Legal Term.
Clerk David Langley, who issues the
informations against ailegod offenders
of the police regulations, was up
against a queer kind of game the
other morning that for several mo-
ments caused him to exercise his
versed without causing the animals I thinking machinery quite rapidly,
any apparent inconvenience. ! He was hard at work at his desk
"What we have learned," said Dr. ' when a colored woman came into the
Carrell a short time ago, "gives us j office and blurted out that she wanted
hope that some day we may replace J a warrant for a male friend of hers,
wounded and worn-out hearts in hu- | "For what offense?" inquired Mr-
man beings with the healthy, youthful j Langley.
and strong hearts of living monkeys." The woman stood still for a moment
Sewing Up Stabbed Heart. as if in thought, and then replied, fcor
A recent dispatch from Milan de- ) Artery* sa^-
This was a new one for Langley,
CWUSi fWCMflO TO w
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scribed a wonderful surgical opera-
tion there by Dr. Meda. A workman
had been murderously assaulted, a
knife in the hand of an assassin actu-
ally piercing his heart. He was at-
tended by surgeons who cut a way
through his breast to reach the
wounded heart. Three stltcheB were
required to close the wound, which
had almost entirely healed five days
after the operation.
but he braced himself and set to work
to solve it. *
"You must be wrong," he said.
"What did he do to you?"
"Oh, he said I was a peach, and
then he used a brick on my hald," was
the reply. The visitor was sent up-
stairs to ask Mr. Weyrick of the dis-;
trlct attorney's office for a warrant'-
tor assault and battery
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Woods, Judd. The Yukon Sun (Yukon, Okla.), Vol. 14, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, November 9, 1906, newspaper, November 9, 1906; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc126214/m1/5/?q=j+w+gardner: accessed June 29, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.