A TRANSPLANTED BRAIN.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1400, 28 March 1912, Page 5

A TRANSPLANTED BRAIN.

DARING OPERATION. By relcgrapfi—PrcßS Association—Ocovricbl ' New York, March 2G. Baltimoro doctors are marvelling over a recent operation. A portion of tho brain of a man suffering continually from drowsiness, duo to an abnormal condition of the brain, was removed,' and part of the brain of a stillborn infant inserted. Tho man is living, and it is believed will recover. SURGICAL TRIUMPHS. Dbtails of remarkable operations in the domain of transplantation were given before the German Surgeons' Congress in Berlin last year. The transplantations reported were of skin, meinbrnnees, tissues, nerves, bones, and even of articulations. Profesor ICuettner, of Breslau, reported that ho had replaced part of a femur, including tho joint, with similar parts taken from a corpse. The patient died from a tumour somo timo later; and a post-mortem examination showed that (lie united bones had grown together perfectly. In two other similar eases' the patients were alive and well. Professor luiettner expressed the opinion that it will henceforth bo regularly possiblo to transplant sound articulations from corpses. Professor Lexer, of Jeni, who is described as inventor of the above-mentioned method of transplantation, gave an account of another triumph in this domain. He introduced to the Congress a lndy patient who had attempted suicide by diinking sulphuric acid, and who hail seriously burned and constricted tho oesophagus. Dr. Lexer constructed an entirely now oesophagus out of intestine and a pieco of outer skin, and grafted it on instead of tho injured orean. It renchcd from tho pharynx to the Mtomach, and proved completely successful, (he patient being able to swallow solids and fluids without difficulty. This is apparently the first time this operation has been performed, as several other surgeons present gave accounts of unsuccessful attempts. Professor Lexer summed up the achievements attained ill transplantation. No complete organ or entire limb has yet, 110 said, been successfully Iransplanfed. Dr. Laewen, of Leipzig, reported that lie had cured the falling of the underlip which resulted from facial paralysis by implanting free bones into the lip. Another ease rojiorled was the replacing with ivory of tho damaged parts of an undorjaw.' Experience, it was stated, shows "that the horn of animals is specially suitable for replacing bone-parts.