The Sun

How the Skull of a Girl who was Scalped by a Spindle Got a New Covering.

An interesting surgical operation has been successfully completed in St. Catherine's Hospital, Williamsburgh, by Dr. Samuel J. Brady, the President of its faculty. By it Dora Conrnd, a young girl of 16 years, was supplied with a new scalp from the arms of the Sisters of St. Dominick, who have charge of the hospital.

Dora, who was a helper in the jute house of Waterbury & Co. Bagging factory in Bushwick, allowed her long hair to hang loose while at work, notwithstanding the warnings of her workmates. On the 3d of August, 1876, Dora's hair caught in one of the spindles, which was making some 1,400 revolutions per minute, and in an instant she was thrown to the floor senseless, and her scalp on the left side of her head was torn off, the skull being entirely denuded over a space eight inches by four.

She was taken to St. Catherine's Hospital, where at first no hope was entertained of her recovery. Dr. Brady saw her on the third day, and on making a close examination, found that the periosteum was not totally destroyed. He therefore thought a recovery possible by transplantation of skin. He ordered carbolized oil dressing to be used until sufficient granulation had begun to make feasible the starting of the grafting.

Sisters Dolorosa and J. hanha allowed the skin needed to be taken from their arms. Sister Dolorosa especially was frequently called upon to endure this operation during the seven months that Dora remained in the hospital under Dr. Brady's care.

The girl was in excellent health at the time of the accident, and the flesh granulated rapidly, especially as here and there on the fringe bits of the periosteum small particles of flesh remained, which fed by the veins used of that membrane took root and granulated thus.

The first grafts were made from the patient's own arm. The pieces of skin cut out were divided into small particles, and then carefully laid in a line parallel with the lower edge of the wound and a quarter inch from it. A quarter of an inch space separated each graft. They were then sewed with narrow strips of plaster, and in a few days they sent out ramified fibres in all directions. Those from each graft and from the sound skin, uniting and growing, bridged over the intervening spaces, and thus formed a perfect new skin.

The Sisters' arms were the collection, the death operation was limited until the entire denuded space was covered with a new scalp. Every graft took with the periosteum growing within until it also covered the skull save the one or two spots, where the death of it took place through the denudation of the data and of the nurses in keeping the dressing to it. The girl is to-day in good health, and has resumed her work in the factory.