Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1895 — A SIGHT-SAVING MAGNET. [ARTICLE]

A SIGHT-SAVING MAGNET.

It Draws a Piece of Steel from a Man’s Eye. A few days ago at the New York Rye and Ear infirmary, Thirteenth street aud Second avenue, a flat piece of steel measuring % by *4 inch, that was embedded in a patient’s eye was removed by means of a powerful magnet. No knife or other surgical instrument was used, it was said at the hospital yesterday that the operation had been successful and that the patient, a skilled tool worker, would probably be able tq return to his duties within three weeks. About a week ago Joseph Rrown, 3o years old, of Plainfield, N.J., called at a Plainfield oculist's office to be treated for severe inflammation of the left eye. An examination showed that some foreign substance was embedded in the eyeball, that the cornea was badly inflamed, the iris torn, and that the pupil had become opaque. After puestioniug Brown the physician came to the conclusion that a piece of steel was the cause of the trouble. ’Three days before, while at work at a. factory in Plainfield, Brown had felt a sudden pain shoot through his left eye. He was engaged iu boring through a thin steel plate, and it is supposed that one of the chips pierced the eyeball. The piece of steel was so deeply embedded, that to use the knife iu removing it was to destroy the eye. Brown was therefore brought to the Eye and Ear Infirmary in this city, where it was decided to try the magnet.

The use of a magnet in removing small particles of iron and steel from the eye is not rare, but. the process followed heretofore had been to place the surface of the magnet in contact with (lie offending substance, when the latter could be easily withdrawn. In Brown's case, however, the exact seat of the trouble could not be located, and the physicians decided to try a new method. The patient was placed in a chair, in front of a powerful electromagnet two feet in length. The magnet, which was pointed at the ends nearest the patient, was connected by means of wires with a dynamo. TV bile one of the doctors held Brown's head firmly the operator gently pushed the patient’s chair toward the pointed ends of the magnet until they rested on a level with the injured eye. When within a few inches of the end of the magnet Brown uttered a cry and jumped from the chair. The powerful attractive force of the magnet had drawn the piece of steel out ward, cutting the eye as though with a knife. On repetition of the experiment the end of the piece of steel appeared on the surface of the eyethen resorted to, and the steel was drawn out. The eye was dressed, and Brown was assigned to one of the wards in the hospital. It was said yesterday that although the eye had been permanently injured the operation had probably saved Brown’s sight.