It would be well for physicians to have a camera for use in the operating room, and those who can manipulate one will find that taking a 5 × 7 negative the most suitable.
Stencil Record.—For those who cannot provide themselves or bother with a photographic apparatus, the stencil record is recommended.
For this purpose a picture of a normal eye and its lids, a nose, lip or ear, is drawn upon a piece of oiled or stencil paper, or upon any thick, stiff book board.
The paper is laid down upon a plate of glass and the outlines of the picture are cut out, wide enough to allow the sharpened point of a pencil to pass. Where the lines are long it is advisable to allow connecting links to remain at various intervals as desired to keep the stencil stiff and to prevent cut margins from slipping or rolling up. (See [Fig. 521].)
Fig. 521.—Nose Stencil.
The stencil thus made is laid upon the record card and a tracing is made upon the latter by passing the lead-pencil point along the cut outline.
The stencil is now lifted and the defect sketched into the picture of the normal organ.
If this should be the anterior nasal line, a perfect sketch can be made of the defect by placing a card alongside of that organ and drawing the outline upon it as the pencil is made to glide over the nose, the point facing the card in such a way that a true profile outline is obtained. The card is then cut along the pencil line.
The nasal section of the card is now placed upon the stenciled nose and its outer border traced into or over it, as the case may be, by drawing the pencil point along the outer margin.