ouch

Just found this hidden in August 1901 Etude (from Musical Items, pg 279).

Mrs. H. J. Sayler, of Philadelphia, submitted to an extraordinary surgical operation in order to reduce the width of the tips of the fingers of his left hand, which were too wide to make perfect intonation of the semitones in violin-playing.  A diamond-shaped piece was cut out of the finger near the tip of the flesh drawn together by stitches.  He expects to go to Germany for three years' course of study when the wounds are healed.


The Etude actually suggested a very painful operation for pianists so that they could play fast passages more accurately (see here for more details on the procedure).  That operation was, in fact, undergone by both Theodore Presser and one of his writers James Huneker, in the mid1880s while attending a music teachers' conference.  But this thing above might just be even more awfully painful.