REMARKABLE INVENTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1685, 13 March 1917, Page 4

REMARKABLE INVENTION.

NEW SURGICAL APPARATUS PGR SAVING SOLDIERS’ LIMBS,

New scientific discoveries were announced at the annual meeting of the Sheffield University. Alderman A. J. Hobson, pro-Chancellor, stated that the scientific staff had concentrated on war work. One member had produced an entirely new surgical apparatus which would have the effect of saving countless shattered and torn limbs of soldiers. The inventor (Mr J. Husband, head of the civil engineering department) was called in to the assistance of the medical staff at Wharnclifte hospital. A soldier’s arm had been so shattered by a bullet that it could not be drawn into position with existing instruments because of the protrusion of a stum]) of hone, but Mr Husband invented the appjirains which enabled the arm to be drawn into position, a piece of metal inserted, and the whole arm to knit. The operation lasted two and a half hours, under chloroform, but the arm was saved, as many more will be by the same cause. Harley street surgeons consider it a remarkable invention. Another member of the staff had invented a new anaesthetic, which enabled doctors to operate on the battlefield single-handed. If injected near the lower end of the spine, the anaesthetic produced complete anaesthesia of the lower limbs, and permitted operations to be made right away.