Medicine: An Open Skull

The skull of Henry A. Brown, a patient in the Beth Israel Hospital, New York, was opened under only a local anaesthetic (cocaine) by Dr. K. Winfield Ney and assisting surgeons, and a large brain tumor successfully removed. Brown was fully conscious throughout the operation, was able to answer the doctors' questions, and coöperated cheerfully. He is now convalescing and is thought to be on the way to full recovery, though his life had been despaired of before the operation. His condition was such that he probably could not have survived such an operation under a general anaesthetic.

The tumor was of the benign type, four inches long by two inches wide and three quarters of an inch thick. This is believed to have been the first operation for brain tumor under, a local anaesthetic.