Show QUEER SURGERY bis big antil ant are arc made to take the mace of ne callo cc die llo anil 1 I I 1 ahr e ad science has made vast st strides during the last half ot of the century and in no branch of knowledge Is this progress more marked than in that of 0 surgery many an operatic i is now performed with facility and safety that was not dreamed of fifty years ago and many an operation that we now consider trivial and beneath the remark was waa then considered as next to impossible the introduction of aesthetics an and the researches of lord lister in antiseptic surgery account largely tor for this state of things lings ti indeed before the introduction tro of antiseptic methods in tho the operating theatre as many lives were lost from those bugbears of all surgeons and septicemia as resulted from the operations themselves the method therefore of securing a wound which Is still prevalent among tho the brazilian indians may be looked upon as at least strictly antiseptic the materials required tor for performing the operation are found handy almost anywhere in a brazilian forest these are a species of a very large ant which has mand mandibles lles that can bite through almost any substance the mouth is furnished with transversely sely movable jaws and does docs not possess a sting A bits bite from one of 0 these ants is perfectly harmless and Is followed by no swelling or other evil results the lower lip of the ant instead of being a simple cover to the mouth Is developed into a strange jointed organ which can be shot out much farther than the upper tipper lip or when ullen at rest can be folded flat over the face ind and can be rapidly protruded or withdrawn it is furnished at its extremity with a pair of forceps and is able to grasp objects with the strength and firmness of a small pair of pincers nothing unless eased cased in metal a can resist those jaws what the brazilian indian does when he or one of his patients receives a gash is this he catches some of these ants and holding them to the wound which he has previously closed together lets them bite they fix their mandibles on each side of the wound and then he pinches off of the rest of the b ody body leaving the mandibles and jaws to close up tip the wound A row of these ants heads keeps a wound together quite as effectively as the needle and thread of a surgeon but the pain given to the victim of this rude style of surg surgery ery must lie be considerable rudo rude as this method may seem however it has its advantages in being strictly antiseptic and causing no evil effects the jaws of the ant are extracted with a pal pair r of 0 forceps after the wound has satisfactorily healed new york herald |