AN ASTONISHING CURE.
HERE is something remarkable. A woman in New Haven was recently bereft of
her scalp by the idiosyncrasies of a shaft and belt. The doctors saw, that,
to remedy the evil, they would have to have recourse to transplanting; and
so they actually succeeded in getting a sufficient number
of pieces from
other people's heads to give this unfortunate woman a new scalp. We hope
those New-Haven doctors used more discretion than did he who attended a man
named Finlay, who met with a similar accident in Oriskany, N.Y., some thirteen
years ago. Bits of scalp from seventeen different persons were secured by
this doctor, and adroitly stitched to the head of Mr. Finlay. When it was
done, people came miles to see Finlay's head; and Finlay himself, with his
checker-board cranium, was the happiest man in Oriskany. But when the capillary
glands got in working-order, and the hair commenced to grow, the top of that
man's head presented the most extraordinary spectacle on record. The doctor,
who was about half the time in liquor, had consulted expediency rather than
judgment, and secured that new scalp without any reference to future
developments. We never saw any thing like it. Here was a tuft of yellow hair,
and next to it a bit of black, and then a flame of red, and a little like
silk, and more like tow, with brown hair, and gray hair, and sandy hair,
and cream-colored hair, scattered over his entire skull. And what a mad man
that Finlay was! and nobody could blame him. He would stand up against the
barn for an hour at a time, and sob and swear. It was very fortunate that
the doctor was dead. He went off two weeks before with blue ague, which is
a mild sort of disease. Finlay kept his
hair cut short; but that didn't make
any difference. Then he tried dyes; but they only made matters worse. Then
he got a wig, and this covered up the deformity; but sometimes at church
he would get asleep, and the wig would fall off, and make the children cry.
Once, at the county fair, he fell asleep, and the wig dropped off; and the
committee on domestic goods, when they came around, stood in front of Finlay's
head for some five minutes rapt in delight. They then immediately decided
that it was the most ingenious piece of patchwork in the list, and never
discovered the mistake until they attempted to pin the premium card to it,
At that Finlay awoke, and knocked down the chairman of the committee, and
chased the others out of the building. We hope those New-Haven doctors have
been more particular, as it is not a subject to trifle with.
