REMARKABLE SURGICAL OPERATION.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 199, 3 May 1878, Page 3

REMARKABLE SURGICAL OPERATION.

The Times' (January 18) records a remarkable, application by Dr Foulis, of Glasg-ow, of an artificial larynx. J.amea Houston, a. cloth-worker, 29 years of age, a native of Oampsea, near Glasgow, had a malignant sarcomatous tumor in his larynx, which obstructed respiration. It had twice been removed by opening the larynx and taking it out, but it had recurred, and from its malignant, character would hnve produced death if the operation which Dr Foulis desciibed. had not been performed. The' larynx had been entirely taken, out, and an artificial one substituted. The patient was produced at the meeting of the' Medical Society ; he conversed with the members, and read to the meeting a passage from the Prayer-book. The operation of removing the larynx was first performed by Billroth, of Vienna, in 1873, and the first attempt at supplying a new- larnyx was made for Bilhoth's patient by Gussenbourg, whose' original instrument was shown at the meeting. - The ' instrument now worn by James Houston is an improvement of Gussenbourg' s by Dr Trvine, of Glasgow. This' is the first time the; operation has been performed in. England,. It has been. .'ten times tried on the continent, with varying success. The present- is the most successful, case, the patient: being in better' health than he had experiencedfor many month's^ The deliberate and careful manner in which, the : opera tibrr was performed in this case probably' .accou'urs for the successful result. Care was taken to introduce a "tube, into the windpipe ; as-soon 'as "iV was cut across ; and.belp.'wr the seat -of disease^ so" that ii'o blood could get.into the -lungs during" tlie further i steps ! . of. the - operation '!; JDr . .IJoulis had "thus ample time ;'* to thoroughly accomplisK the rSmovaT bf the^ai-ynx. The .whole of- the operation opcupied 't^o hours and a half," the .patient beirigrr-under . the influence of choloroform.. Recovery -has been .uninterrupted, an^ vwha tey &£pt >recu rrehce^; vlsfo^sTiia^is'

quite fit for light office work. The larnyx supplied to hirh consists, of two tubes, one of which goes downwards to the trachea and the other upwards to the mouth. The patient can ,ta}k in a whisper without these tubes, but when a reed-plate is slipped into a groove in the lower tube a resonant sound is produced which is modulated .into lettera and words by the mouth.' The articulation with or without reeds is perfect. The reeds are m.f,de of me.tal, vujcanite, ivory, horn, etc., and the patiVh't himself is fond of making reeds which give liis voice new and surprising ./tones. The voice is a monotone, varying in timbre according to the re'ed 'u's : 6d?