Newspaper Page Text
Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company.
Groat Britain Rights Reserved.
5
Taking “15 Insults” to Women
Out of the Marriage Service
F OR a long time brides have now and then
confessed that their responses in the
marriage ceremony were made with
"mental reservations”—for instance, respect
ing the promise to "love, honor and obey.”
It now appears that such subterfuges are
distasteful to English militant suffragists.
They purpose having "insults” to women cut
out of the marriage service. To that end the
Suffragists’ Spiritual Military League is send
ing protests not only to every clergyman of
the Church of England, but to all persons
whose forthcoming marriage is announced in
The first two indignities complained of are
the daily papers.
the words “Obey him and serve him,” which
the bride is required to repeat, and the ques
tion put by the minister, “Who giveth this
woman to be married to this man?”
One of the remedies suggested for both is
the omission of the words. The alternative
is that the bridegroom should be required to
promise to “obey her and serve her,” and that
the minister should also ask: “Who giveth
this man to be married to this woman?” The
present “giving away,” it is argued, is a “hu
miliating survival of a status for woman
which will not become wholly extinct until the
nation no longer allows its religious formula
to misrepresent and belie the highest prac
tice and insight of our own day.”
Other indignities and the remedies sug
gested for them are as follows:
The giving of a ring to the bride as a sym
bol of the marriage bond, and the bride
groom’s words: "With all my worldly goods I
thee endow.” The latter words “never have
been true,” yet undoubtedly they have fre
quently created a false sense of independence
in the heart of the bride. The ring ceremony
and its formula could be dropped, or there
should be an exchange of rings and the same
formula for both parties—a formula to con
tain “no economic falsehods.”
The prayer which asserts, among other
things, that “out of man woman took her be
ginning.” This is “not only a foolish and un
scientific myth, but one degrading to women,
and flattering to an already excessive self
esteem on the part of men.” It could be
omitted, or replaced by a statement of biologi
cal fact as to the differentiation of the sexes.
Three insinuations in the homily as to
woman’s spiritual inferiority and moral subor
dination. Omission of the simile as to the
moral cleansing of the wife, due -to the puri
fying power of the husband’s love, which ap
parently has no equivalent in the influence of
the wife upon the husband—a simile which is
“an insult to women and a temptation to
men.”
The warning to brides against “outward
adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing
gold”: “But if woman, as well as men (says
the manifesto) had been priests when the
Prayer Book was made, it is inconceivable
that no equivalent warning should have been
inserted in this homily as to the vices pe
culiar to men, which are probably as perni
cious as plaiting the hair and the wearing of
gold.”
The league demands legislation to remove
from the marriage rite all the fifteen indig
nities. “In our judgment,” says the manifesto,
“this marriage rite . . . clearly betrays
the method, not, it is true, of brute coercion,
but of spiritual disparagement, which has a!
wqys been brought to bear against women.”
New Hands Made Out of Back Pockets inOupSkin^
How a Mew
Miracle of
Surgery Per
formed on
a Fire-With-■
Mearer the Artificial Reconstruction of Many Parts of the Body
T HE newest miracle of surgery is giving a
crippled man a new hand. This feat
calls attention to the astonishing fact
that every part of the external structure of the
body and most of the vital organs have now
been repaired by surgical operations,
j All the bones, the eyes, the ears, heart, kid
neys, stomach and intestines can be replaced or
mended by the manipulations of the surgeon.
In the latest case young La Four Raymond,
son of Dr. J. U. Raymond, of Washington, D’. C.,
suffered from a crippled left hand. He burned
the hand terribly when a child. The flesh on
the palm was almost totally destroyed, causing
a tremendous contraction of the hand, which
rendered it useless for any important kind of
•work. The fingers were also badly injured, and
all of them except the middle and index were
drawn up to the shrivelled palm.
He could not hold onto the rail of a street car,
bold the left end of his necktie with this hand
or perform any of the many acts in which the
left hand is ordinarily used. As a boy he was
greatly distressed because his crippled hand
prevented him from playing any games properly.
When he went to work he found himself still
more seriously handicapped.
One operation was performed and proved a
failure, because the contraction due to the ab
sence of tissue returned. Many consultations
were held and methods of treatment discussed.
Finally it was decided to take the young man to
Dr. Robert H.* M. Dawbarn, of New York, a
noted expert in plastic surgery. He held out
hopes of favorable results from the newest
methods of operation.
Dr. Dawbarn dissected away the scar tissue
from the palm so that it could be opened up. The
tendons of the fingers were lengthened with
little strips of new tissue. The great prob
lem was then to supply the missing palmar
surface, for without this the opened up hand
would have been useless and would have quickly
contracted to the previous condition.
Then came the remarkable part of the opera
tion. Dr. Dawbarn raised a flap of flesh in the
form of a pocket from Mr. Raymond's back just
above the hip. The raw, skinless palm of the
crippled hand was then placed against the under
side of the flap. The edges of the flap were
sewn to the palm of the hand, but the flap was
left connected with the back.
The hand was then fixed in this position by
means of a plaster cast and left in that condi
tion for four weeks. The vitality and circula
tion of the flap were thus maintained by the
body while the section of tissue was growing in
its new position. At the end of the period men
tioned the cast was removed and the flap com
pletely severed from the body. The freshly cut
edge was sewn to the palm.
The wound in the back was bandaged and
allowed to heal by contraction, which it did
satisfactorily, as there is an abundance of skin
and flesh in that region.
Further grafting operations had to be per
formed. There were injuries on the back of the
crippled hand less extensive than on the palm,
but still interfering with the 'use of the hand.
These were repaired by transplanting small areas
of skin from the thigh.
At the completion of the operation the hand
worked well for the customary purposes of life.
The extension and flexion of the fingers and
How
Young
Raymond’s
Hand
Wa.
Fattened
Into
a Hip
Pocket
Cut in
Hit Own
Skin,
Afterward
It Wat
Held in a
Platter
Cait
for Four
Weekt
While
the
Flesh of
Hit Back
Grew in
Place of
the Mitting
Palm and
Finger
Tittue.
One of the Most Notable Grafting Operations on Animals.
The Left Foreleg of This Fox Terrier Was The Corresponding Leg of the Second Fox The Second Fox Terrier, After the Operation.
Terrier Was then Removed and the Leg of It Skipped About Happily on Its New Leg.
Removed and the Animal Killed.
the First Grafted in Its Place.
How La Four Raymond’s Hand Dr. Dawbarn Dissects Away the
Was Crippled and Contracted by Scar Tissue from the Palm and
His Early Burn. Fingers of the Crippled Hand.
The Hand, Freed from Its Con
tractions, Is Held Extended in the
Natural Position.
The Missing Tissue of Palm and
Fingers Is Replaced by the Flap
from the Young Man’s Back.
ered Hand
Brings
the remains of the natural wall gradually adhered
to the artificial support.
An epoch-making operation consisted in fur
nishing a crippled girl with a new and workable
knee joint. This was performed by Dr. Erich
Lexer, of the University ofj Koenigsberg, Prus
sia.
The girl, who was eighteen years old, had
ankylosis of the right knee joint, which made it
absolutely impossible for her to bend the joint.
All treatment had failed to improve it. In his
hospital Dr. Lexer had an old man of eighty
suffering from gangrene of the leg, a condition
necessitating its removal. The bone was in per
fectly good condition.
He made a vertical incision in the girl s knee,
carefully dissecting the tissues away from the
bone and then sawed out the stiff joint. Pre
viously he had removed the corresponding part
from the old man’s leg. In order to make it lit
the smaller knee of the girl he pared it down to
the necessary size. The bones that were to be
brought together were prepared with peculiar
indentations that fitted into one another.
Dr. Lexer placed the old man’s joint in the
cavity in the girl’s knee and closed the'Incision
quickly with a dozen sutures. The old man’s
bone appeared to derive youth and elasticity
from the tissues of the young girl. In a few
weeks she was able to use her knee just as well
as before she was crippled. She danced grace
fully and performed her home duties success
fully.
Dr. A. L. Nelden, of New York, excited great
interest by offering $5,000 for a man who would
give up an ear to replace that of a patient who
had lost his own. Many hundreds of offers were
received from those willing to sell their ears-,
and finally one of them, named John Pierce,
was selected.
It was necessary for the person giving the ear
to lie alongside the one to be fitted with the
new ear, each having his head in the opposite
direction to the other. The upper attachment
of the good ear was slit and sewed upon the
earless patient. As the cut healed and circula
tion started, more of the ear was slit and sewed
upon the earless man, the ear being twisted
half about so that it would set properly in the
end. Little by little the ear was cut front the old
owner and sewed upon the new until the final
separation was made.
The operation was entirely successful. It
lasted two weeks, and the heads of both per
sons were kept in plaster casts. Boards were
strapped across the bodies to hold them to
gether.
Dr. Harold Hays, of New York, recently re
ported having fitted a noseless man with a new
nose made from his ninth rib. He removed two
and a j half inches of bone from the rib; then split
it lengthwise. Unfortunately, during the opera
tion the doctor dropped the piece of rib on the
floor. He washed it carefully in bichloride of
mercury, and in the end this did not interfere
with the success of the operation.
The bone was neatly trimmed to make a good,
straight nose. An incision was then made from
the forehead down to the place where the tip
of the nose ought to be. The bone was inserted
and the flesh closed over it with a silk suture.
The wound healed completely in eight days, and
the patient was permanently relieved of the dis
figurement that had made his life miserable.
Another Remarkable Operation, by Which Dr. A. L. Nelden
Fitted a Patient with a New Ear Taken from a Man Who
Parted with It for $5,000.
With a circular trephine
Dr. Lesser cut down into
the cornea as far as De-
scemet’s membrane, and re
moved a circular piece of
the opaque cornea. With
the same trephine he remov
ed a piece of similar size
from the cornea of a rab
bit’s eye. This was placed
in the man’s eye. The lids
were then closed and a
pressure bandage applied.
At the end of the forty-
eight hours the bandage
was removed. The graft
appeared to be growing
well, but was slightly hazy.
A glass "conform” to pro
tect the graft was then in
serted between eyeball and
lid. This was left in position
for six days. At the end of
that time the haziness had
diminished, but there were
two tiny vessels across the
graft. These disappeared
later.
The man was able to see quite well as soon as
he was exposed to the light after having been
blind for fifteen years.
Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute,
has perfprmed many wonders in the transplan
tation of animal organs and limbs. He has, for
instance, planted the kidneys of one cat in an
other, and has taken out a cat’s two kidneys
and put them back.
There is a now famous case in which Dr. Car
rel grafted the leg of a dead fox terrier upon a
living one. In doing this he sewed the nerves
and arteries of the dead limb to the correspond
ing nerves and arteries of the living animal.
For this purpose he used needles of great fine
ness.
Dr. Carrel declared that this operation could
be more easily performed upon a man than upon
a dog, because his nerves and arteries are larger
and can be sutured with less difficulty.
These experiments are, intended to
serve as a guide in performing similar
operations on human beings, and they
have already been used to a considera
ble extent.
storage in order that they may be inserted in
place of those destroyed by disease. This is in
harmony with Dr. Carrel’s observation that ani
mal issues may be kept many months in cold
storage and then restored to the living body
and made to resume their functions.
At the same hospital in Philadelphia the re
markable operation of repairing the aorta of a
man’s heart was performed by Dr. Charles H.
Frazier. The aorta is the great artery of the
heart. The patient suffered from an aneurism,
which was on the point of rupturing and causing
immediate death.
Dr. Frazier pierced the aorta with a hollow
needle. Through this he passed a coil of fine
gold wire, ninety-six Inches long. This coil
took the place of the almost destroyed wall of
the aorta. An electric current was sent through
the wire, and this caused the blood to coagulate,
thus helping to strengthen the wall. After this
It was reported that Dr. Carrel's technique had
been employed by Dr. L. J. Hammond in re
placing the kidneys of a man whose own had
become useless from tuberculosis. This opera
tion was performed at the Methodist Episcopal
Hospital, Philadelphia. The kidneys of a man
who had just been killed in an accident were
inserted in place of those of the sufferer.
Kidneys and other organs of healthy persons
killed accidentally/are now being kept in cold
l
thumb were excellent. Mr. Raymond was able
to take part in a baseball game, using both
hands in batting. There is every indication that
the improvement will be permanent. This is one
of the most important operations in restoring a
crippled hand to use ever accomplished.
A remarkable operation in reparatory sur
gery was performed by Dr. Henry R. Lesser, of
No. 4 West Ninety-third street, New York. He
replaced the cornea of a man stone-blind from
leucoma by means of a graft
from a rabbit’s eye.
Leucoma is a very com
mon disease. A thick white
growth covers the entire
pupil of the eye. Be
neath this the rest of
the eye may be in good
condition. In the present
case the man had lost his
eyesight after an attack of
measles in childhood. One
eye the surgeon found use
less, but the other he judg
ed to be in good condition
beneath the leucoma. .