Richmond Palladium

CURIOUS SURGICAL OPERATION.

We have often heard of supplying artificial noses—we daily see teeth furnished more natural than life, but the following, a new face, artificially, exceeds all these. Dr. George Smilie, dentist, corner of Broadway and Chambers street, performed the following operation:—Miss (.. now aged 17, was attacked at the age of 10 with bilious fever, and was attended by Dr.—, of this city, (since deceased,) who, in consequence of an extensive use of mercury, or it may be its moderate administration under a peculiar idiosyncracy of constitution, produced an ulcer on the left cheek, which gradually sloughed away, leaving entirely exposed the whole of the teeth on that side of the face, and also destroying one half of the nose. At this period the disease seemed to abate in a measure, but in a short time returned, producing necrosis of teeth and maxillary bone, the greater portion of which was broken away in extricating some of the molar teeth with a view to arrest the progress of the disease. This, however, was far from being the case, for the consequence of the fracture was a complete anchylosis of the jaw, from which it can never recover. She receives her food through a small aperture of about half an inch in diameter, situated in the centre cheek; and although necessarily deprived in a great measure of the more solid kinds of food, she is, notwithstanding apparently in robust health, under the enjoyment of an uncommonly high flow of spirits. A medical gentleman who furnishes this statement, thus describes the mode in which Dr. Smilie supplied the artificial face of Miss

The whole operation is highly creditable to his skill and proficiency in his profession. He (Dr. S.) first took a plaster cast from her face and having remodelled the defective portion of it, cast from the plaster face a brass die, and from the brass die a leaden one, between which two he struck the silver cheek, with half the nose and upper lip complete, which were painted to imitate the natural ones. The mode of fitting the artificial cheek was as follows:—He fitted accurately a small gold plate to cover the aperture in the cheek leading to the mouth, and secured the plate to four of the teeth by means of clasps. Soldered to the small plate is a loop through which the point of a spring passes, which is attached to the artificial cheek, drawing it up tightly and uniting its edges with the rest of the face, and thereby producing such a change in the appearance of the young lady as to defy detection at a distance of eight or ten feet.

Cin. Commercial.