The transplantation of pieces of bone to overcome a defect of like tissue has been fully investigated by Ollier, v. Bergman, J. Wolff, MacEwen, Jakimowitsch, Riedinger, and others. They discovered that a graft of bone, with or without its periosteum, can be made to heal into a defect when strict antisepsis is maintained.
Von Nussbaum was the first to introduce the closing of an osseous defect by the use of a pedunculated flap of periosteum.
Poncet and Ollier employed small tubular sections of bone, while Senn has obtained excellent results from the use of chips of aseptic decalcified bone.
Hahn succeeded in implanting the fibula into a defect of the tibia.
On the other hand, cavities in the bones have been successfully filled by Dreesmann and Heydenreich with a paste of plaster made with a five-per-cent carbolic-acid solution, and at a later period by the employment of paraffin (Gersuny) and iodoform wax, as advocated by Mosetig-Moorhof.
The thyroid glands taken from the sheep, it is claimed, have been successfully implanted in the abdomen of individuals whose thyroid glands had been lost by disease or otherwise.
Protheses of celluloid compound or gutta-percha and painted to resemble the nose or ear have been introduced with grateful result. Metal and glass forms have been used to replace extirpated testicles or to take the place of the vitreous humor of the eye (Mule).
Sunken noses have been raised with metal wire, metal plates, amber, and caoutchouc. Metal plates have been skillfully fitted into the broken bony vault of the cranium.
Lastly comes Gersuny’s most valuable method of injecting paraffin compounds subcutaneously for the restoration of the contour of facial surfaces and limbs, which is rapidly taking the place of extensive plastic transplantory and the much-objected-to metal and bone-plate operations for building up depressed noses and other abnormal cavities.
And the end of possibilities is not yet reached. The successful plastic surgeon has become an imitator of nature’s beauty to-day.