Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1902 — CUT CANCER FROM HIS TONGUE. [ARTICLE]

CUT CANCER FROM HIS TONGUE.

Rather than Go on the Snrgeon’a Table -» He Operated on Himself. The friends of Andrew Murray, a vellknowu Brooklyn veterinary surgeon, are anxiously awaiting the outcome of a remarkable experiment and exhibition of nerve on his part. He is a tall, strong man of 50 years whose health has been uniformly good uptil very recently. A few months ago a back tooth began to ache and he had it pulled. Shortly afterward his tongue and neck became affected. He was a heavy smoker, so he stoppl’d using-tobacco, but the growth in his mouth increased, until he could scarcely eat. Meantime the glands in his neck swelled ominously. Mr. Murray consulted a specialist and was 'advised that he had cancer in pronounced form. Mr. Murray was told that he must submit to an operation or succumb within eight months. Rather than take his chances on the operating table, under ether, Murray resolved to operate on himself. With a veterinary surgeon’s knife in hand he stood up before a mirror and, pulling out his tongue, cut into the underpart and side of it, where the growth protruded.. His tongue shows the marks of the keen knife, and the growth seems removed. Mr. Murray declares that he never felt better tn his life. Whether or not the cancerous growth is entirely removed or whether it will agrfin appear so<>u in more virulent form is the question upon which surgical opinion is divided. Mrs. Alexander Small, sister of United States Senator Shelby ,M. Cullom, died at her home in Chicago. She was 74 years old. * A statement just published by a British journal says that the national debt of Great Britain is $4,000,000,000. It has Increased $500,000,000 In the last three rears.