TINY ELECTRIC SAW

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 506, 8 November 1928, Page 12

TINY ELECTRIC SAW

OPERATIONS ON SKULL ROBOT OF ARTIFICIAL LIMBS Press Association Amazing developments in medical science were demonstrated at a medical exhibition at Westminster Hall in London recently, says the Melbourne “Herald.” The most ingenious was a machine called a trepanning dissector, which had been perfected after five years’ research by a Gloucestershire layman, Mr. Ernest Williams. He claims it will revolutionise skull surgery, and is supported by eminent English and German surgeons. A visitor watched Mr. Williams connect the light-weight machine to a power plug. This caused a tiny multiple-sided saw to maka 2,000 revolutions a minute. The blades, applied to au old skull, neatly excised a bevelled ring. Mr. Williams cut a second and inner ring, which formed a gripping surface for the forceps. Thus he cleanly trepanned a circle of bone. He explained that a piece of skull could easily be obtained to fit the bevelled socket, and the joint could be secured by dissolvent gut. A fool-proof attachment enables students safely to operate with an absence of vibration or pressure, thus obviating risk of injuring the brain. The present method of skull surgery necessitates boring a hole and fitting a silver plate, which expands and contracts, torturing the patient. Other exhibits included text books, medicines and foods. There were numerous proprietary preparations of liver and glandular products for pernicious anaemia and cancer, where anaemia is a secondary characteristic. Thus the latest discoveries of science are accessible to the blackblocks. It was demonstrated that it was almost possible to assemble a complete robot, or mechanical man, from artificial limbs.