AN AMBIDEXTROUS SURGEON

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2906, 19 July 1882, Page 3

AN AMBIDEXTROUS SURGEON

In an interesting obituary notice of Dr Pnncoast, the celebrated surgeon of Philadelphia, the “ Times ’’ of that city says:— _ The great point in his career was his skill as an operator. He was arabidexter and could perform operations of the most delicate intricacy with his left hand which were beyond the skill of otters using the right hand only. It was, in part, the extraordinary facility with which he could employ both hands at one time which made him successful in the department of plastic surgery. By the removal of strips of flesh from the forehead and elsewhere he has formed no less than a dozen noses for persons who, either through accident or disease, were without them. Thera is a woman standing in tho Callowhill street market for whom he inode a nose

twenty-two years ago, and no one can detect it now from Nature’s own best r handiwork. He was the first to show that after the eyebrow has been destroyed a good-looking substitute can be iiiado by raising a flap of the scalp with the soft, drooping hairs of the temple, and giving it what is termed a •< long pedicle ” to run into a bod cut for it in the brow. He also furnished maimed humanity with eyelids and ears. So far did his fame as an operator extend that one of the things which visiting foreigners marked down as of # the greatest interest m Philadelphia was to see Dr Pancoast operate.” His bands looked clumsy, but he could take up a large knife as on the /occasion of the visit of the Japanese party some years ago to see him per- ' form ampotatatioa at the hip Joint, and the next moment he could take the

finest needle and operate upon an eye. He was among the first to resort to the section of the facial nerve for the relief of neuralgia. He was remarkably successful in operations for cataract, and early improved npon the operation of “ couching ” by complete extraction. In the treatment of strabismus, or squint, he was in his day unrivalled. At the same time the record of his largest operations from lithotomy to amputation at the hip joint, is one of extraordinary brilliancy. He was never systematic, and was not at all particular about his selection of instruments. On several occasions he performed delicate operations with an ordinary penknife, because other instruments were not at hand.