Grey Highlands Public Library Digital Collections

Flesherton Advance, 5 Jul 1950, p. 3

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Of xh(:<c. one usually ended up a permanent ner- vous ^ reck through pain and shock. loliu of Gaddesden, who was physician to Edward 11. in a book cf advice to surgeons of his period, writes: "The requisites for u doctor are an ability to lie in a subtle man- ner, to show an outward honesty, and to kill with audacitv." Chances of recovery were so slim that an- other surgeon wrote: "i.et him (ihe patient) prepare his soule a.s a ready sacrifice to the Lard by earnest prayer; craving mercie and help unfainedlie." Apart from strong drink there were no anaesthetics. And when a limb was 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! How different today. Your fam- 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 butclier 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 siirgeoK ceases to think of you as rich or poor; as successful or a failure. You are then his most miportant patient. He will use all his skill to make you well again. He works in the presence of assis- tants, nurses, an anaesthetist, and sometimes visiting doctors and stu- dents â€" all highly critical people. .\nd 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 unboiled 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 remain open too long. So rap- id â€" not carelessâ€" operating is th^ result. Dr. Lawrence, proved by experi- ment that much time is lost ir. 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 hsive found that by this melliod not only has operating time been re- duced by more than a third, but that their patients heal more rapidJy. 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 That Play Tunes. Ping- Pong. Mlatch Colors And Count Off Seconds If Dr. B. F. Skinner of Harvard will let you into his psychological laboratory, you will find some pigeons playing ping-pong, as likely as not, or pecking out on a seven- keyed piano such simple tunes as "Over the Fence Is Out, Boys" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The pigeons know no more about music than the trained circus seals that manage to blow a few bars of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on a specially constructed mouth organ to recceive a fish as a reward. The pigeons are used, by Dr. Skinner to find out the role of re- ward or punishment in performing tasks. It may be that when he has proceeded far enough, Dr. Skinner will know whether or not, for ex- ample, a child can be trained more effectively by encouraging good be- havior or by punishing misbehavior, writes Waldemar Kaempffert in the New York Times. So far as the experiments have gone it seems that reward is more effective than punishment. To test this ftntative conclusion. Dr. Skin- ner has taught his pigeons not only to work for food, but also to co- operate in matching colors and playing ping-pong. Pigeons and Humans .All this is mere classroom work for the benefit of students. Dr. Skinner's real purpose is to discover new ways of studying human be- havior in various situations. Pigeons turn out to be ideal sub- jects, because they live as long as fifteen years (rats only two or three years), because they have a reaction time comparable to that of human beings, because they have good color vision and, lastly, because they are less susceptible to disease than most laboratory animals. In all of Dr. Skinner's experi- ments, the purpose is to persuade a pigeon to earn a reward for doing something. The reward is always a chance to peck at a bit of food for a few seconds. In some experiments, pigeons must learn to co-operate or to compete to win the privilege of pecking at the food. A pigeon behaves very much like a small boy who is promised ten cents if he cleans up the back yard. When they learn that reward fol- lows incentive and performance, pigeons will work their heads off. One pigeon pecked away over 35,000 times in five hours for one- third of an ounce of food. To teach the advantage of co- operation in obtaining food, Dr. Skinner pputs his pigeons in a box witli a glass partition in the middle. A pigeon is placed on each- side of the glass. At the rear of the box is a panel with three paars .'of buttons ill a vertical row,-.one row â-  on either side of the glass. partKion. To receive food both pigeons must simultaneously strike match- â-  ing buttons in the separated cages. When this is done, a light flashes, a buzzer sounds and the door to the food chute opens. Only one pair 01 food-producing buttons will work each time, but the two birds have little difficulty in. exploring the pairs together and selecting the cor- rect pair. Colors Distinguished A siuai! brown and yellow pigeon has demonstrated that pigeons can distinguish colors. In this case the apparatus is a semi-circular cage With .biilbs in a box at the top to project a green, blue, red or yellow light. The bird faces four small squares on wbicii are printed "YELLOW," "GREEX." "BLUE" and "RED " \\'hen a red light is turned on in th.e box, the bird will peck at t!ie sign wliich reads "RED", wliereupon the food door at the bottom of the panel opens and he is rev.-arded with a bit of grain. Anotiier light then automati- cally glows. If it is blue, the ''BLUE" sign receives a peck. Pro- perly trained birds are able to peck at the pertinent sign as fast as the lights are turned on. So it is with playing a tune on a piano of seven keys. Pigeons can also be taught to compete. For this purpose Dr. Skhincr ha*; them play a modiiied game of ping-pong. The court is about two feet square and it has no net. One pigeon tries to bat the ball with his beak past his opponent. Rallies souK'tinies go to three or I.*-*- Pigeon Fmg-Pong â€" The pigeons pictured here are playing^ ping-pong. They're pros, too, because they only do it for gain. The birds, part of flock belonging to Physchology Prof. B. F. Skinner, also play tunes on a toy piano, push buttons to get food, tell time and differentiate betw-een changing colors â€" like traffic lights. Dr. Skinner uses the pigeons to discover the re- lationship between huinan behavior and the prospect of reward for work. Pigeons bat table tennis ball back and forth with their beaks,, as at top. W'hi'n bird at left missed the !-a!l. \'b;ch ro'led into trough in front of him, it automatically opened feeding sta- tion at rigliV. Lower picture shows winner at riq'ht. collecting his reward of grain. four shots but most of the shots are "aces." The winner is rewarded with food after each shot. Pigeons in some experiments de- velop an ability to "tell time." If an apparatus will pay orl only ten seconds after a signal they learn to wait, killing time by turning around once or twice, hopping from one foot to another, or pecking at other parts of the box. Like human beings, pigeons seem to be superstitious, if you can call it that. They tend to repeat any action that was successful in the past in producing food. Some may go through complicated move- ments, just as a poker player may walk around his chair for luck The routine will be repeated even though it has nc effect on the de- livery of food. the nerve ends are "cooked" and 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, g.ves him 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 â€" possibly ?. small affair lasting minutes, or a brain operation which sometimes takes eight hours. The patient knows nothing about it. He 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 ham- fisted male trying to sew on a but- ton. Needlework is part of his training and despite the rubber gloves that encase his hands, he is an artist with silk, thread, nylon, catgut, fine wire, stainless steel and platinum. He mu't sew flesh, or fat which does not bold stitches easily. He must knit bones. He must sew speedily and tie knots with his gloved left â€" By Harold Arnett BENCH LEVEL LEVEL BENCH OR TABLE, IF ONE OR MORE LEGS ARE UNEQUAL IN LENGTH, WITH LKG SCREWS.TURN SCREW INTO LOWER END OF LEG UNTIL BENCH IS AD JUSTED. A HOLE FOR THE SCREW IS DRILLED FIRST. DON'T USE SCREWS TOO LARGE AS THEY WILL SPLIT THE NMGOD. t SHOVEL PROTECTION A SHOVEL OSEDV^HERE THERllS A CONCRETE FLOOR MAY BE PROTECTED FROM ABRASION FROM CONCRETE BY TWO FLAT \RON PJECESRWETEOTOTHE BOTTOM Honors Author â€" This new stamp honoring the great French sa'.irical writer Fran- cois Rabelais is being issued by the Frencli postal system. The stamp is dark red and has a value of 12 francs â€" about o'^ > cents. Land, or with two pairs of lorceps. Inside the body sp.ice is restricted and often he cannot see what he does. He works then by that e.xtra sense which all good surgeons de- velop. To ensure your comfort and safe- ty surgeons spend endless hours sewing â€" in gloved hands â€" handker- chiefs together. I'liey practise tying knots with the left hand, and with instruments. If ever you are in hospital, take a good look at tlie surgeon's long, strong â€" seldom pointed â€" sensitive fingers, which do their bit â€" every bit as much as his brain â€" to bring you back to health. F'very 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 â€" these are only part of the surgeon's many problems. His job begins when your family doctor interviews him. It ends only when you are ht again. Giant Atomic Tulips A glani tulip, tive inches in l:eight and tour inches wide, with a stem no thicker than a man', linger, 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. \\ illem E. de Mol, director of the Laoratory for Ornamental Plant Research in Amsterdam. After years of experimentation with irradiation. Dr. De Mol has produced tuiips with flower, 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 buib, a white and tlanie-red tlower, with X-rays. Tlie first experimental plant of this kind was achieved two years ago; now there are tive plants , each worth about 1,000 guilders. The mother bulb of the atomic tuhp. 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 nger. The leaves resemble those of a succulent plant. Tulip growers are particularly interested in the fact that ten years after X-ray treatment new variations still appear, proof of the powerful effect of irradiation on tulip bulbs. Geneticists are not as- tonished. They have long known that X-rays will bring forth new species of fruit flits 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-breeding is neces- sary before an acceptable com- mercial producct is obtained. It takes from twenty to twenty-five years, for e.txamplc, to prepare a new tulip for the market. HEALTH HINTâ€" Diabeies runs in 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. The Perfect Loaf? M«Mre Courtesy In Night Driving .Now that warmer weather has ar- rived, more and more driver., will be jMiluag to the highways in the even- ing. We hope they will remember that a road is not a one-way affair, but two-way, with cars coming from each direction, often at speeds ex- ceeding the legal limit. In the daytime, even when traffic is running beyond .tbfe speed limit, there isn't too much danger so long as the driver has his mind on his driving and hfs eyes on the road. In the evening and at night added consideration must be given to the matter of glaring headlights. .\ re- cent study has .found that "at speeds of fifty miles an Iiour a driver blinded llj- 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 oflfenders in neglecting to dim their lights on passing other cars, becacuse they are accusiomed to drive with parking lights on in the city. On tlie open road they forget that th.ey are using their brights and Jience disregard the ordinary courtesy of using passing lights. .Ail drivers are entitle! to their driving pleasure, but at the same time the individual driver must remember that a little bit of courtesy on his part will make night driving safer for himself and others. What is the ideal loaf of bread â€" and how is it made? Because he believes he has found the secret, 76-year-oId Lord Teviot has been advocating the claims of the whole- meal loaf (.made his way) in the House of Lords. And at his home, .\dbury 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 tablespoonfuJs pf salt and one pint of water. Mix and knead well. Then bake for exactly one hour. Says healthy-looking Lord Tev- iot: "My digestion is perfect and I've had only four teeth out in all my life .Mucii 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. 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 ti'e his- tory of the long war against 'hat 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 youiseif and family against Infantile Paralysis, better known as polio. 1. Avoid crowds, especially con- tact with strangers who may carry the infection. Keep 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 poho's early symp- toms so you can call your doctor promptly. Symptoms include head- aches, sore throat, nausea, fever, muscle stiffness. A Clip To Remember â€" Peter Edson, correspondent for NEA Service and this newspaper, gfot a shock wlien he had his hair cut by Lee Dynes, a hotel barber. Using a technique he learned from a Frenchman, Dynes did the complete job with an old- fashioned, straight-edged non-safety razor. Reported Kdson ; "There was no bloodshed." i-^wttpaauB*. ,

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