SURGICAL MARVELS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2020, 22 December 1888, Page 3

SURGICAL MARVELS

» A atartliog advanoa m aurglcal aolenoa has bean made by Dr. Maxmllian Klein, a German military Burgeon. The parti* oulars are given by the professional I journal " Memorabllien." A man acolI dontly cut off bla left great toe In the middle of the first joint. The severed pleoea remained hanging to the foot ; but the connecting akin waa soaroely thloker than a thread. Dr. Klein aewed on the fragment, dressed it with lodoform, and bad the satisfaction, m twenty-two d»ys, of finding the wound healed and tho toe peifeotly sound and flexible. Encoaraged by the unexpected result m thla case, Dr. Klein was Induced to apply tho tame treatment again. A reorult, In order to disable himself and esoape from military service, deliberately out off his forefinger with an axe at the second joint. The finger-end wat lost, and could not be found until half an hour had elapsed, It was then cold and blue, Nevertheless Dr Klein sewed on the severed end and bound It up m lodoform gaDza, As early as the second day it waa evident that circulation had been partially re-estab-lished throughout the finger, and In six weeks the man not only left the Hospital but waa doing the very rifle drill whlofe he had hoped to shirk. The finger was, m faot, as serviceable as It had ever been. These stories read almost like extraoti from the exploits of Baron Manohansen That they are chronicled m Jfitmorabilier is, however, evidence of their truth English surgoous will not be so unwilling to credit them as they would have been ii ths days before the marvellous dlsooverj of the properties of lodoform.