1960-09-24 — Page 14

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THE HANDS

THAT

GAVE HOPE

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1960.

THE HANDS of sin HAROLD

GILLIES

WITH THEM

AN ART WAS GREATED

TO THE HOPELESS

IR HAROLD GILLIES, the plastic surgeon who died recently, aged

SIR

78, was the Michelangelo of the art which sculpts, in skin and bone instead of in stone and clay.

Except in w far as all great men stand on the shoulders of Their predecessors, The whs un- questionably the father Af Jus splendid profession,

Plastic surgery-

back 500 years before Chilst when Hindu Hrvus svelalised In building new nurses for women whose husbands had cut them if La a punistunent for misconduct, But the art as it how exists - in Britain stems directly from the day in the 1911-18 war when New Zealand-born, Ur Harold Dolf

began treating faglal wounds at Aldershot.

In a series of ingenious inno- vations Gillies developed TI method of grafting skin on 10 burned and distorted faces frum remote parts of the body.

נונן

Until then only nearby Baps used becaus - er of skin could be one side of the graft had 10 remin Lilacted while the other work

hold nd developed in blood supply.

Gilles developed the tamqus pedicle," a length of skin sown into a tube which can be 'swung to wherever it is needed. He was able to claim that if all the pedicles be, anci his ossistants made were laid end to end they would streich from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, and right un Nelson's Column, I

Morale

!

le devised a new method for constructing eyelids and ears und for ning the mouth.

He developed special stitches and knols for the delleate Burgery.

Gillies, known to his pul.. leagues is "Giles," was the first

Why take

to realise the importance of moulding faces good enough to realore morale.

He took the bold step of con- verting a patient who had been

1

AFTER THE NEWS OF A MAN SOARING IN A ROCKET...

HOW FAR AHEAD

IS RUSSIA IN

THE SPACE RACE?

wrongly brought up and been NOTHING can stop the Russians put- ting a man into orbit round the earth and bringing him back alive.

Before his day piastle opera- Into a man masioline enough to tions simply converted a patient marry a former's daughter, when looked horrible into one He even foresaw the day when who kaited ridiculous.

cosmetic surgery 10 improve The stream of mutilatims a woman's beauty would Le medically worthwhile for psychologient reasons,

from the Battle of the Somme was the chilienge which spurred Gillies and his hand of plonvers 10 become virtuosos of the scalpel.

an

wat

But recognition was slow. When the 1030-45 began there were only about six full-time plastic surgeons

Britain,

He treated each cuse us artist approaches a new sitter, establishing the vital principle Sun, by 1940, techniques and that routine methods inust anellary discoveries such as *VIT become the surgeon's penicillin which prevented master.

wound infection - a grafter's Good doctorlug is not all pills worst enemy-were avullable to and scalpel.

cope with the mass of terrifying mutilations resulting from the Arst major war in the air.

As chief consultant to the military forces, Gülies's own contribution, mainly made at Auksdown House, near Basing- stoke, was tremendous.

His zest

1

Giles's own astonishing zest for he was a competent artist, superb

sherman, keen midorbst and front-rank golfer made incredibly mutilated people feel it was worth while holding on.

Giles cumpaigned after the 1914-18 for the recognition of plastic surgery as a speciality,

in 1923 he showed by a single brilliant case that the plusile art has immense application to orditory surgery.

At St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, a young man was 10 have his leg umpitated because of a knee wound which refused to heal.

Gillies made a pedicle from the man's wrist and eventually grafted it over the wound.

It

healed first time and the man has been able to lead a normal ustive life on (wo legs since.

ever

the HARD way?

Take the PHILIPS way!

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But, in addition, like all gival prtists, he attracted out- tea standing men who, learn men ke the late Sir Meindoe, whom Archibald Gillies affectionately called "The Chlef Skinner,"

medical history.

Buth men have a place in

.But Gilles will be more prominent in the brood tapestry.

His major two-volume work

of

The Principles and Art Plastic Surgery," though written the story of his own life. with modesty, was essentially

Humanity

After more than 50 years of active practice he has left his arl covering every form of

The successful achievement of thia great adventure may be announced any time

now.

It seans, in any case, utterly impossible that the Americans will be able to do it first,

Chopinan Pincher disclos- ed in the China Mail recently that Russian Delronauts live

already buen rocketed 10 heights of 30 miles in straight up and down flighta.

Next step

Consider the record.

In November 1957 the Russians put the dog Laika into orbit round the earth. For seven days this historically famous nan lived in its little capsule as it Burtled through the heavens Russian scientists gathered much physiological Information

by HUGH DUNDAS

and PETER FAIRLEY

up and down shots of animals

into space. Including dogs.

Two weeks before that Rus- alan triumph, the Americans succeeded in recovering from the It is not known exactly how Pacific Ocean a cupetile separ- many of these flights have been, afed from an orbiting Discoverer

made. But the experiments satellite.

Only a few hours before the have been going on since 1957, some animals have made retum to earth of the Russian several trips, arul successful Live re-entries have been achieved after flights up to 280 miles.

space animals the Americans caught a similar capsule in mid- nir as it descended from arbit after re-entry from space at a precisely pre-determined time programme of But the size of the capsules straight up and down flights recovered by the Americans was carrying live animals. But these many limey smaller then the experiments have been made Russian "flying 200,"

The

Americans have also and place.

carried out

with tiny Rhesus monkeys weighing only about five pounds, And with even smaller animals, such as mice.

The key

The key to Russia's ascendancy

ON

NE of America's soven trained astronauts, woars the latest In Amorican-designed spacewear, who sits in the cockpit of a spaos' capsule simulator during a prose de- monstration at Cape Canaveral.

It is a sad but incontrovertible fact that when Russian and American progress in the race to The altitudes reached in these in the space race has been the

contrast in size and an entirely new era in accurate into space

matter of size. are con- American-flights have not been put nin

The Russians, stark sidered side by side, America's comparable with the maximum after the war, concentrated on weight, Russia still has a most long-range weather forecasting! "Midas" equipped with infra- achievements appear, at least to Russian achievements.

of ane basic commanding lead as a weight- the development

lifter.

red detection Instruments, will the general public comparatively Last month

the Russians rocket of very grent power.

Scientists, however, aro provide the Western Powers They have achieved more end puny.

dramatically demonstrated their

warning system thus

the inclined to take the view that with an carly ability

thrust and bring large capsule more containing living animals safely ablity to shoot off bigger and the Americans may have adopted against hostile rocket launchings back to earth..

the long vastly superior to the existing or bigger londs by developing and the right course for

land-based radar the other 1216-d

Two dogs-one weighing 111b., clustering this one basic power term that they have been con- projected centrating on brains rather than systems. a small unit,

brawn.

"Echo," a 100ft. balloon and menagerie of lesser animals and The effects of this policy. The Americans have already the biggest object yet put into Insects were brought back after compared with the American collected a vast amount capace, la orbiting the earth and orbiting the earth 17 times at an pdlley of experimenting with a scientife Information from their is the first practical step towards

ititude of 200 miles in a 44- wide range of rockets, has been space probes.

space communications system evident from the moment when tone space ship.

Now they have quickened the which may cut the cost of a tele- the first Sputnik went into orbit

and dis- phone call from Britain to in October 1957, to be followed pace of achievement

"Transit" ia the first Australia to a matter of pennies. in January 1958 by the first U.S. covery.

navigational satellite, ploneering To Russia will go the glory The Sputnik 'weighed satellite.

a system which will enable ships and the prestige of early and 24owl,

and aircraft

the to obtain more spectacular success. But The U.S. satellite was no accurate fixes In any circum- period of Russian ascendancy in bigger than

football and stances than has ever before space may be short-lived.

been possible.

Somewhere weighed only 301b.

around the Although the Americans have

"Tiros" has transmitted many middle of the decade the. made much progress in narrow- thousands of television pictures Americans couk soar ahead. ing the

kap revealed by this of cloud formations, opening up

-(London Express Service},

about the effects of space travel on a ilving creature before Laika

reconstruction from rebuilding died. entire faces to slicing a bump off a girl's nose,

Always intensely human. Gillies almost went too far for ethical safety when he performed an operation on a man who was anatomically normal vel had a psychological desire to Hve us a

The Americans have not to far put any animal into orbit, But it has been announced that for a monkey will be sent up such a fight within about six weeks.

The landing was effected exactly when and where it had been planned. The two dogs gave a "press conference" the day after returning from their space flight and appeared fit and cheerful.

And Russian doctors conarmed that all the stresses they had The next Russian step was undergone were well within the Though the case became a programme involving straight range of human behaviour.

woman.

national sensation, his part in it remained secret outside his profession.

In spite of the self-protective shelf which every surgeon develops in daily contact with mutilation, Gillies never ceased to wonder at the durability of the human spirit in the face of seemingly insupportable suf- fering.

When he realised his own lie

11

THE GOOD LIFE-IN A

SOLOV was a particularly skilful and successful

Russian burglar. In a little over 18 months must soon be closing, he wrote he stole property worth about £3,000.

of his prize pallent, a woman

who endured scores of severe Finally, he was caught and a certain and paradoxical society Moscow court jailed him for two

operations: "When I am un my

is that the one person who can.

RUSSIAN

JAIL

last ride in my little box she years. By any legal standards, rely on a fair deal is the cri- po make a long journey over farm. Prisoners are paid at the inbour camps, where they often

potential escapers would have will run alongside calling in her

virgin territory. distorted voice, Please, sir, just one more operation before you 20.'"*

by CHAPMAN PINCHER

the length of sentence was not a hard one; in many courts it would have been much longer.

Often it is a gorge collective criminals were sent to forced mina!.

standard State rate for the work became the elite, bossing the It is st dangerous to be a Western

If they didn't die of starva- they do. Some of this goes to for more numerous political de- Conservative in Russia, but for non-political crimes there Is tlon, the wolves or the bears pay for their accommodation and tainees in the campa considerable leniency..

would get them. An unpleasant lood, sume is given to the pri- Even for murder there is no prospect, but no more so than suner for pocket money to use death sentence. And

battlements in the prison shop, some is sent there the great arim are no walled Jalls like Eng- which form the landscape of to his family, and some is put aside to be saved until he Is land's Dartmoor or America's many Western prisons. Alcatras.

And this type of security freed. "Maximum

The prisoners security" is means that the prison itself can achieved by locating the jalls have a more informal and less are allowed to write home regu-

larly and in some. in such

that confined appearance. remote places

cases long term prisoners are allowed to have their families living with

But jail 10 Russia What hardships, what torments Jay ahead of this poor wretch, one might think. The sentence wus only two years on paper, but in practice might it, not be a death sentence?

The answer is: No. One of the curious facts about Russla's un-

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Among the 70 Inbour sAMOS spread about the Soviet Union conditions were so rigorous that deaths ensured that there was always plenty of room for new arrivals, are well tol,

But after Stalin's death, things were different.

While the Khrushchev group was not willing to tolerate op- position -- any more than Stalin . Some of them think no well had It genuinely disliked the

them.

of the prisons that at the end use of forced labour,

of the term they stay on in the Moreover, forced labour was neighbourhood of the pricon

proved by Krushchev's

economists to be wastoful: ex-

living in their own houses and working on the prison farın, pensive to administer and pro- This evidence of enjoyment during resulta well below those of prison life has angered achieved by "incentives." some Russians,

A recent article in the maga zine Soviet Russin denounced

the "rodios in every room, the concerts and ball games, the flower beds, guitars and Ubrary."

It was also found that the th formation of any possible

political move underground ment could be prevented by detaining only a small number of potential revolutionaries.

be

Now, instead of some 12 million political prisoners in Russia, there are only a few thousand,

closed and the aim is to Many labour camps have continue this prooems. And, as it is.

no longer

It pointed out that prisonern had good clothing, soap, hair- cuts, shaves, a hospital dentist and grocer, Olms twice a week, curtains, neat beds, pillow caved and towels and all the comforts as if they were in an hotel"

The magazine demanded: "Get them on ta rigid wooden mnt-. treases, and into prisoners' out posible to bundle a criminal Ala, Instead of clothing which off to likely death in a labor free people wear!"

camp it is now important to 20 And, in fact, it does at first, form him. The "humane" a puzzle. Why does prison. Is the result of a whole Rumia provide a standard of programme of crime prevention living for its criminals which and appears to be a singular- quite obviously is better than ly successful one." that enjoyed by many of its

According to Russian furos the number of criminals who ordinary citizens?

Who is the this baster of commit a second offence after a tolerance in a country which, apell in pripon is only one in for all the reforms that have four, which in lower than that

of any Westom country, berm cafed through rince Stalin's death, is all a total

Beem

Itarim slate?t

On

criminal charges full to 700,000

The number -- of arresta

Last year.

One reason is that Xumia. Tom Ended at Immense prs minal problem. In 1865, the and murderers you could be Frar, before. Blain's domili, anzurod of tympathy,

If you were paie Mudich thieves, delinquente

Daily one milliori people

were arrested in Rumila on. non poliitoaï criminal changes. Tho

pasion and, understanding.

com

· Jues Gouʻt think you could Ko-1, Around Lowering it, that Khrushchey la a rešten Pyjnie Winlater, than milk

Peter Munro