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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1950-07-06, Page 3It Used To Be Operations today are not like they were a century ago, when snore than half tile victims (lied of shock within a few hours. Many who survived succumbed later front gangrene, and ultimately only two its ten recovered. Of these, onie usually euded.up a permanent ner- vous wreck through pain and shock. John of Gaddesden, who was physicians to Edward 11, in a book ,cf advice to surgeons of his period, writes: "The requisites for a doctor are an ability to lie in a subtle man- ner, to show all outward honesty, and to kill with audacitv," Chances of recovery were so slinn that an- other surgeon wrote: "Let him (the patient) prepare his soule as a ready sacrifice to the Lard by earnest prayer; craving nterele and help unfainedlie." Apart' from strong drink, there .ere ere no anaesthetics. And when a limb teas amputated, the stump was thrust into boiling oil or roasted with red hot irons before bandages were tied on, Rabbits' fur mixed with aloes was sometimes applied to stop bleeding. No wonder gan- grene followed! Ilow different today. Your faul- ily doctor lays the history of your case before the surgeon who is thus armed with every relevant detail about you. As he sterilizes his hands, cases them into rubber gloves and selects his instruments, he has be- fore him a clear picture not only of your trouble but of any weaknesses you may have inherited. You often hear it said: "Sur- geons don't care. They're always cutting people up; they think about as much of you as a butcher does,, a joint." Don't believe that. A butcher works with portions of lifeless car- case; a surgeon on a live, delicate instrument pulsating with life. No callous man, however skilled, ever became a successful surgeon. When you're on the table the surgeon ceases to think of you as rich or poor; as successful or a failure, You are then his most important patient. He will use all his skill to snake you well again. He works in the presence of assis- tants, nurses, an anaesthetist, and sometimes.visiting doctors and stu- aents—all highly critical people. And now, for the first time, an operation has been televised! How different from eighty years ago when the surgeon was usually a bewhiskered gentleman attired in a frock coat. He made no prepara- tion except to exchange this for a blood-stained smock. Often he did not bother to wash his hands, work- ed with unbolted instruments, and while operating shook a mixture of germs and snuff from his beard all over the patient. Today, not only the instruments sterilized, but masks, rubber boots and gloves are worn. The three main risks of an op- eration are: sepsis, shock and loss of blood. Sepsis, or blood poisoning, is avoided partly by the precautions outlined. But doctors also found that wounds are difficult to heal if they remains open too long. So rap- id—not careless—operating is the result. Dr. Lawrence, proved by experi- ment tlsat much time is lost it: reach- ing for and handing back instru- ments. He designed special tables which enable the surgeon's hands to fall easily on the instruments need- ed. Surgeons also spend many hours "operating" on lumps of beef wrap- ped in silk, using either hand to make rapid, accurate incisions, and have found that by this method not only has operating time been re- duced by more than a third, but that their patients heal more rapidly. Where loss of blood is unavoid- able, it is countered by transfusion, and hospitals maintain stocks of every type of blood. A great ad- vance, too, is the radio knife which ensures virtually bloodless surgery. Attached to one end is a current - carrying cable. As the blade severs, Pigeons eget Play Tunes, Ping- Pong, catch Cdoys And Coes Off Seconds If Dr. B. F. Skinner of Harvard cents if,he cleans up tine back yard. "< y3s , ," i int his ta•111 let you 0 psychological When they learn that reward fol laboratory, you will find some s likely pigeons playing ping-pong, a 'k lows iuceis'.fve gird perforinallce, ai will work their heads off. 1 f� eons as not, or flecking out oil a seven- ,• overGt`',i' 011e pigeon pecked away keyed piano such simple tunes as 35,000 times in five hours for one- ttOver the fence Is Out,. Boys" and t1111'd of all ounce Of f00C1. E >�, � s ���hh �Nx?q5�y "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." To teach the advantage of co -M. � The pigeons p•'�eons know no more about 1 O operation in obtaining food, Di; ,,,y , ,¢s¢:, !lcx%s/ •.�� 6' ay H% r in circus seals music than theta ed Skinner puts his pigeons in a boar 11 / .c•4!?,F%0:.: :v>:.. 5.: , s,<.� � � �; ^~'""�•�",:r'"�'�swfi�; that manage to blow'a few bars of with a glass partition in the middle.- u•> "" , "My Country 'Tis of Thee"'ort a A pigeon is placed on each side of specially constructed mouth organ the glass, At the rear of the box ;:.. to. recceive a fish as a reward. is a panel witlic three pairs- of The pigeons are used by Dr, button's in a vertical row, one row Skinner to find out the role of re- on either side of the glass partition. ward or punishment in performing T receive foots' both pigeons o i P tasks. It may be that when he has must simultaneously strike match- >�y,w.3.H��. iyr+� �p�� ,,,.,, x�y �{Js�>;•., ,� 1K toceeded far enough Dr. Skinner ing buttons in the separated cages, will know whether or not, for ex- When this is done a light flashes;',:;)%.>:: �� n s g ample, a child can be.trained more a buzzer sounds and the door to. effectively by encouraging good be- the food chute opens. Only one' a H, '•J,.z,;,t, havior or by punishing misbehavior, pair of food -producing buttons will writes Waldemar Itiaempffert in the work each time, but the two birds A'ew York Times. have little difficulty in exploring the So far as the experiments have pairs together and selecting the cor- gone it seems that .reward is more sect "pair. s effective than punishment. To test Colors Distinguished this tentative conclusion, Dr. Skin- A shall brown and yellow pigeon iter has taught his Pigeons not only has demonstrated- that pigeons can to work for food, but also to co- -distinguish colors. In this case the operate in matching colors and apparatus is a semi -circular cage playing ping-pong. ?,with bulbs in a box at',the .top to +> Pigeons and humans project a green, blue, red or -yellow All this is mere classroom work light. The bird faces four small Pi eon Pin Pon The pigeons pictured here are playing g g- g — 1 g A 1 Y g for the benefit of students, Dr. Skinner's real purpose is to discover squares on which are printed "YELLOW," "GRERN," "BLUE'° "RED " Ping-Pong. They're pros, too, because they only dQ it for gain. The birds, flock belonging to Physchology Prof, B. F. new ways of studying human be- havior in various situations, aril When a red light is turned on in the box, the bird' will part of Skinner, also play tunes on a toy piano, push buttons to get Pigeons turn out to be ideal sub- peck at the sign which reads food, tell time and differentiate between changing colors—like jects, because they live as long as "RED", whereupon the food door traffic lights. Dr. Skinner uses the pigeons to discover the re - fifteen years (rats only two or three at the bottom of the panel opens lationship betjveen human behavior and the prospect of reward years), because they have a reaction and he is rewarded with, a bit of for Nvork. Pigeons bat table tennis ball back and forth with their time comparable to that of human grain. Another light then. automati- 'blue, beaks, as - at top. Nelsen bird at left missecl the hall, which rolled beings, because they have good (ally glows, If it is the into trough in front of hien, it automatically opened feeding sta- color vision and, lastly, because they "BLUE" sign receives a peck. Pro- tion at right. Lower picture shows winner at right, collecting are less susceptible to disease than perly trained birds are able to peck his reward of grain. most laboratory animals, at the pertinent sign as fast as the In all of Dr. Skinner's experi- lights are turned on. So it is with four shots but -most of the shots are Like human beings, pigeons seem ruents, the purpose is to persuade a playing a tune on a piano of seven "aces." The winner is rewarded to be superstitious, if you can call pigeon to earn a reward for doing keys. with food after each shot. it that. They tend to repeat any something. The reward is always a Pigeons can also be taught to Pigeons in some experiments de- action that was successful in the chance to peck at a bit of food for a compete. For this purpose Dr.* velop all ability to "tell time." If past in producing food. Some may few seconds. In some experiments, Skinner has thein play a modified an apparatus will pay off only ten go through complicated move - pigeons must learn to co-operate game of ping-pong. The court is seconds after a signal they learn merits, just as a poker player may or to compete to win the privilege about two feet square and it has no to wait, killing time by turning walk around his chair for luck The of pecking at the food. net. One pigeon tries to bat the ball around once or twice, hopping from routine will be repeated even A pigeon behaves very much like with his beak past his opponent. one foot to another, or pecking at though it has no, effect on the de - a small boy who is promised ten Rallies sometimes go to three .or other parts of the box. livery of food. the nerve ends are "cooked" and )3 . "'£' �. ' Giant Atomic Tulips I The Perfect Loaf? automatically sterilized; the ,natural proteins are clotted and dried. The radio knife reduces bleeding to a minimum. There are two kinds of shock: mental and physical, The surgeon does all he can to minimize phy- s;cal shock, And mental shock' is almost a thing of the past. The pati- ent is wheeled into the anaesthetic room where an expert, while con- versing naturally to him, gives hila a gentle jab in the upper arm and sends him off to sleep. He sees nothing of knives or fearsome instruments when wheeled into the operating theatre, where the anaesthetist administers a fur- ther dose of suitable anaethetic, suf- ficient to keep him under for the entire operation --possibly a small affair lasting minutes, or a brain operation which sometimes takes eight hours. The patient knows nothing about it. Ile wakes'to find himself ' back in bed. Few people realize how deft a surgeon is with his fingers. He not only cuts with accuracy, but sut- ures (sews) with skill. He is far removed from the ordinary liam- fisted male trying to sew on a but - tots. Needlework is part of his training and despite the rubber gloves that encase his hands, lie is an• artist with sills thread, nylon, catgut, tine wire, stainless steel and platinum. He must sew flesh, or fat which does not hold stitches easily. He must knit bones. He must sew speedily and tie knots with his gloved left y Harold Arnett III �' \��tuW •�'�i,`A�F. ,:ti.: •GdF:i:iXf6;i..•iwi•„i111i' �,- of , EN IN LENGTH, WI IH LAv SCREWSJURN SCREW INTO LOWER F_ND OF LEG UNTIL BENCH IS ADJUSTED -A HOLE FOR THE SCREW 15 DRILLED FiRST. DON'T USE SCREWS TOO LARGE AS THEY WILL SPLIT THE WOOD. PROTECTION SHOVEi. USED WHE ERE M A CC) tiCRE TE Honors Author — This new stamp honoring the great French satirical writer Fran- cois Rabelais is being, issued ` by. the French. postal system. The stamp is dark redand has a value of 12 francs—about 3% cents. , hand, or with two. hairs of forceps. Inside the body space is restricted . and often he cannot see :what he does. He works then by that extra sense which all good surgeons de- velop. To ensure your comfort and safe- ty surgeons spend endless hours sewing—in gloved hands—liandker-, chiefs together. They practise tying knots with the left hand, and with instruments. If ever you are in hospital, take a good look at the surgeon's long, strong—seldom pointed—sensitive fingers, which do their bit—every bit as much as his brain—to bring you back to health. Every surgeon must be able to do the glover's stitch, running stitch, mattress and cobbler stitches, hid- den stitches for facial surgery, stitches that go over one edge and under the other, and'sutures that look like the stitches on a quilt. The cutting out of diseased or- gans; the stitching up of lacerated walls—these are only part of the surgeon's many problems. llii: job begins when your family doctor interviews him, It ends anis' wheal you are ryggfit pagain. -- '- - A giant tulip, five inches in height and four inches wide, with a stem no thicker than a man's finger, is the sensation of Lisse, center of the Netherlands bulb -growing industry. This giant tulip and other flowers are the offspring of mother bulbs that were bombarded with X-rays or with neutron^ by Dr. Willens E. de Mol, director of the Laoratory for Ornamental Plant Research in Amsterdam. After years of experimentation with irradiation, Dr. De Mol has produced tulips with flowers that vary .in .form from large smooth cups to small blooms with fringes like those of a Chinese fan -dancer. These last are variations brought .,about by treating the mother bulb, a white and flame -red flower, with X-rays. The first experimental plant of this kind was achieved two years ago; now there are five plants , each worth about 1,000 guilders. The mother bulb of the atomic tulip, the Utopia, was subjected to bombardment with neutrons. The result was a scarlet tulip five inches long, with a diameter of four inches. It is a splendid flower, though the stalk is no thicker than a man's ager. The leaves resemble those of a succulent plant. - Tulip growers are particularly interested in the fact that teas years after X-ray treatment new variations still appear, proof of the powerful effect of irradiation oil tulip bulbs. Geneticists are not as- tonished. They have long known that X-rays will bring forth new species of fruit flies by the hundred and also new species of plants, Even after the first new acceptable species or variety of a plant ap- pears, much cross-bree cling is acces- sary before an acceptable com- mercial producct is obtained. It takes from twenty to ttt•enty-five years, for exxannple, to prepare a new tulip for the market. HEALTH HINT ---Diabetes runs its families, Members of families in which there is diabetes both on the mother's side and the father's side are the ones who should be especially careful to avoid over- weight. What is the ideal loaf of-bread— and how is it made? Because he believes he has found the secret, 76 -year-old Lord Teviot has been advocating the claims of the whole- meal loaf (made his way) in the House of Lords. And at his home, Adbury House, Newbury, Berks., a few days later, Lord Teviot dem- onstrated the right way to make the loaf, which, he declares, is his recipe for health' and long life. Here's the recipe, Take 2 lb. of wholemeal flour, 2 oz, of yeast, 2 tablespoonfuls of salt and one pint of water. Mix and knead well. Then bake for exactly one hour. Says healthy -looking Lord Tev- iot: "Aly digestion is perfect and I've had only four teeth out in all my life .Much of the nutriment is taken out of the modern loaf. Give the children 100 per cent. bread and you would rid the country of half its stomach and dental troubles." He points out that although the wholemeal loaf costs more than the white loaf, it is more economical because it is still fresh after a week and none has to be thrown away. More Courtesy In Night Driving Now that warmer weather has ar- rived, more and more drivers will be taking to the highways in the even- ing. We hope they will remember that a road is not a one-way affair, but two -tray, with cars coining from each direction, often at rpecds ex- ceeding the legal limit. Ill the daytime, even waren traffic is running beyond the speed limit, there isn't too much danger so long as the driver has his mind on his driving and his eyes on the road. In tile evening and at night added consideration must be given to the matter of glaring headlights. A re- cent study has found that "at speeds of fifty miles an hour a driver blinded by glaring headlights often will travel as much as 150 feet before he recovers sufficiently to distinguish a pedestrian or object on the highway." City and town people are often serious offenders in neglecting to din their lights on passing other cars, becacuse they are accustomed to drive with parking lights on in the city. • On the open road they forget that they are using their brights and hence disregard the ordinary courtesy of using passing lights. All drivers are entitled to their driving pleasure, but at the same time the individual driver roust remember that a little bit of courtesy on his part will mance night driving safer for himself and others. HOW TO GUARD AGAINST POLIO As Polio began its seasonal up- swing, there are indications that last year's epidemic might have marked a turning point in the his- tory of the long war against that dread scourge. Experts think that advances in research may, before longk, break much of polio's power. But while science, girds for the nal assault on the great crippler, POLIO IS STILL DANGER- OUS. Out of long experience doc- tors, hospitals and health depart- ments suggest these basic precau- tions for protecting yourself and family against Infantile Paralysis, better known as polio. 1. Avoid crowds, especially con- tact with strangers who may carry the infection. I{eep children with their own friends. 2• Don't get over -tired. Fatigue increases the danger of infection, makes results more serious. 3. Keep from getting chilled. Swimming is safe if it is done in non -polluted waters, for not too long a time. Don't remain in wet clothes. 4. Be clean. Wash hands before eating; keep food covered, well re- frigerated. 5. Be alert to polio's early Symp— toms so you can call your doctor promptly. Symptoms include head- aches, sore throat, nausea, fever, muscle stiffness.