The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-05-31 00:00:00

THE Fr..4.OTIRETI •-"'r
.IDCE OBSFRVER.

A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.

The Times of Mnnday gives the following from the
Brisbane Courier of January 11 :

"We gladly give publicity to a discovery that pro-
mises to revoltitionhe all previous theories of meat
exportation. If the narrator of the following extra-
ordinary facts is not too sanguine as to the success of the
marvellous experiments he informs us he has witnessed,
the squatter who to-day is puzzling over the future
prospect for his surplus stock has opportnnites before
him that may be termed golden. All the most
startling discoveries of the age at the first hint have
been received with incredulity, which their after suc-
cess has turned to the discredit of the early sceptics, so
that in matters of science it would appear unsafe, no
doubt, to look upon any result as beyond the limits of
the possible. For this reason we venture no opinion
on the following process' an accoant of which we give
in the writer's own words : •

" ' Many of your readers who know Sydney Harbour
will "retuetilbei the long inlet opposite the Heads
known as Middle Harbour, which, in a succession of
land-locked reaches, stretches away like a chain of
lakes for over 20 miles. On one of these reaches,
made more than ordinarily picturesque by the bold
headslands that drop almost sheer into the water, stand
on about an acre of grassy fiat, fringed by white beach
on which the clear waters of the harbour lap, two low
brick buildings. Here in perfect seclusion and with a
careful avoidance of publicity is being conducted an
experiment the success of which, now established be-
yond any doubt, must have a wider effect upon the
future prosperity of Australia than any project ever
• contemplated. The gentlemen engaged in this enterprise
are Signor Rotura, whose researches into the botany
and natural history of South America have rendered
his name eminent, and Mr. James Grant, a pupil of
the late Mr. Nicolle, so long associated with Mr.
.Thomas Mort in his freezing process. Next to the
late Mr. Nicolle, Mr. James Grant can claim pre-
eminence of knowledge in the science of generating
cold, and his freezing chamber at Woolhara has long
been known as the seat of valuable experiments
'originated in Mr. Nicolle's lifetime. It appears
-that five months ago Signor Rotura called upon
Ur. Grant to invoke his assistance in a scheme
for the transmission of live stock to Europe.
Signor Rotura averred that he had discovered a
South American vegetable poison, allied to the well-
known woolara, that had the power of perfectly sus-
pending animation, and that the trance thus proinced
continued till the application of another vegetable
essence caused the blood to resume its circulation and
the heart its functions. So perfect, moreover, was
this suspension of life that Signor Rotura had found in
a warm climate decomposition set in at the extremities
after a week of this living death, and he imagined if
the body in this inert state were reduced to a tempera-
ture sufficiently low to arrest decomposition, the trance
might be kept up for months, possibly for years. He
frankly owned he had never tried this preserving of
the tissues by cold, and could not confidently speak
as to its effect upon the after restoration of the
animals operated on. Before he left Mr. Grant he had
turned that gentleman's doubts into wondering
curiosity by experimenting on his dog. He injected
two drops of his liquid mixed with a little glycerine
into a small puncture made in the dog's ear, and in
three or four minutes the animal was perfectly rigid,
the four legs stretched backward, eyes wide open,
pupils very much dilated, and exhibiting symptoms
very similar to those of death by strychnine, except
that there had been no previous struggle or pain.
Begging his owner to baveno apprehension for the life
of his favourite animal, Signor Rotura lifted
the dog carefully, and placed him on a shelf in a
cupboard, where he begged he might be left until the
following day, when he promised to cal at ten
o'clock and revive the apparently dead brute. Mr.
Grant continualiy, during that day and night, visited
the cupboard, and so perfectly was life suspended in
his favourite—no motion of the pulse or heart giving
any indication of the possibility of revival, the frame
being perfectly rigid—that he confesses he felt all the
sharpest reproaches of remorse at having sacrificed a
faithful friend to a doubtful and dangerous experiment.
The temperature of the body, too, in the first four
hours gradually lowered to 25 degrees Fahrenheit
below ordinary blood temperature, which increased his
fears as to the result, and by morning the bedy was
as cold as in actual death. At ten o'cleek next morn-
ing, according to promise, Signor Rotura presented
himself, and, laughing at Mr. Grant's fears, requested
a tub of warm water to be brought. He tested this
with the thermometer at 32 degrees Fahrenheit,
and in this laid the dog's head under, To Mr. Grant's
objections Signor Rotura assured him that, as anima-
tion must remain entirely suspended till the adminis-
tration of the antidote, no water could be drawn into
the lungs, and that the immersion of the body was
simply to bring it again to blood heat. After
ten minutes of this bath the body was taken
out and another liquid injected in a puncture
made in tho neck. Mr. Grant tells me that the revival
of Turk was the most startling thing he ever witnessed;
and having since seen the experiment made upon a
sheep I can fully confirm his statement. The dog first
showed the return of life in the eye, and after five and
a half rninutee he drew a long breath, and the rigidity
left his limbs. In a few minutes more he commenced
gently wagging his tail, and then slowly got up,
stretched himself, and trotted off as though nothing
had happened. From that moment Mr. Grant became
aware of the extraordinary issues opened by his visitor's
discovery, and promised him all the assistance in his
power. They next determined to try freezing the
body, and the two first experiments were discouraging.
A dog, not Turk, his master declining to experiment
any further on his favourite, was put in the
freezing-chamber at Mr. Grant's works for four
days, after being previously 'suspended' by Signor
Rotura: and although the animal revived to far as
to draw a long breath, the vital energies appeared too
exhaust d for a complete rally, and the animal died.
The next two animals, a dog and a cat, died in like
manner. In the meantime Dr. Barker had been taken
into their counsels, :AA at his suggestion respiration
was encouraged, as in the case of persons drowne 1,
by artificial compression and expansion of the lungs
D . Barker was of opi ion that, as the heart in every
case commenced to beat, it was a want of vital force
to set the lungs in roper motion that caused death.
The result showed his surmises to be entirely correct.
A number of animals, whose lives have i een sealed
up in this artificial eath, have been kept in the
freezing-chamber from one to five weeks, and it is
found that, though the shock to the system from this
freezing is very great, it is not increased by duration
of time. • Messrs. Grant and Rotura then determined
upon the erection of the works just finished at Middle
Harbour, an enterprising capitalist, Mr. Christopher
Newton. of Pitt-street, finding the necessary funds.
Arrived at the works in Middle Harbour. I
was taken into the building that contains Mr.
Grant's apparatus for generating cold, which has
already been, in Mr. Nicolle's time, too often and
fully described to require any further notice from me.
Attached to this is the freezing-chamber, a small, dark
room about Sit. by 10ft. Here were fourteen sheep;
four lambs, and three pigs, stacked on their sides in a
heap, alive,' which Mr. Grant told me had been in
their present position for nineteen days, and were to
remain there f r another three months. Selecting one
of the lambs, Sign r Rotura put it on his shoulder and
carried it outside into the other building, where a
number of shallow cemented tanks were in the floor,
having hot and cold water taps to each tank,
with a thermometer hanging alongside. One of
these tanks wee quickly filled, and its tempera-
ture tested by the Signor, I meantime examining
with the greatest curiosity and wonder the nine-
teen days" dead ' lamb. The days of miracles truly
seem to have come back to us, and many of those
stories discarded as absurdities seem to me less im-
probable than this fact, witnessed by myself. There
was the lamb, to all appearances dead, and as hard
almost as a stone, the only difference perceptible to
me between his condition and actual death being the
ab-ence of dull glassiness about the eye, which still
retained its brilliant transparency. Indeed, this
brilliancy of the eye, which is heightened by the
enlargement of the pupil, is very striking, and lends
a rather weird appearance to the bodies. The lamb
was gently dropped into the warm bath, and
was allowed to remain in it about 23 minutes, its
head being raised above the water twice for the
introduction of the thermometer into its mouth, and
then it was taken out and placed on its side on the
floor, Signor It 'tura quickly dividing the wool on
its neck and inserting the sheep point of a small
silver syringe under the skin and injecting the anti-
dote. This was a pale green liquid, and, as I believe,
a decoction from the root of the astracharlis, found in
South America. The lamb was then turned on
its back, Signor Rotura standing across it, gently
compressing its ribs with his knees and hands, in such
a manner as to imitate their natural depression and
expansion during breathing. In ten minutes the
animal was struggling to free itself, and when released
skipped out through the door, and went gambolling
and bleating over the little garden in front. Nothing
has ever impressed me so entirely with a sense of the
marvellous. One is almost tempted to ask, in the
presence of such a discovery, whether death itself may
not ultimately be baffled by scientific investigation.
" You will see at once the benefits claimed by the
discoverers of this process. Cargoes of live sheep can
thus be sent to England by large steamers, and
although a freezing atmosphere will still be an essen-
tial, a temporary breakdown necessitating a stoppage
of eight or ten days in the production of cold would be
of no consequence. When the sheep are landed in
England, any that fail entirely to rally will be per-
fectly good meat, whe-reas the others can be turned on
to pastures or driven to market. Of course the same
reeults can be achieved with bullocks, but their greater
weight makes them more difficult to handle with safety,
and the carcass is rendered brittle by freezing, making
them the more liable to injury. It sounded odd to hear
Mr. Grant aria Signor Rotura laying stress upon the
danger of breakage on the voyage.
" ' Signor Retura tells me that, though he has never
attempted his experiment on a human being, he has no
doubt at all as to its perfect safety. The next felon
under capital sentence he has requested Sir Henry
Parkes t' be allowed to operate on. He proposes
placing him in the freezing chamber for one month,
and declares that he has no fear of a fatal result. As
to whether this temporary suspension would effect the
longevity of the subject, he can give no positive infor-
mation, but believes its duration might be pro-
longed for years. I was anxious to know, if a period
of, say, five years of this inertness were submitted
to, whether it would be so much cut out of one's life,
or if it would be simply five years of unconscious
existence tacked on to one's sentient life. Signor
Rotura could give no positive answer, but he believes,
as no change tailor place, or can take place while in
this frozen trance—no consumption, destruction, or
reparation of tissue being possible—it would be so
many unvalued and profitless years added to a lifetime.
"'Signor Rotura proceeds to South America at once
for a large supply of the two necessaries for the safe
conduct of his process, and both these substances at
present remain a secret.'"
,

totAd 601

alOnel Wood, V.C., who now has a command in
Somh Africa, is well-known as a lecturer on the military art,
and has been called to the Bar. Llrd Elcho was justified in
saying, when introducing Colonel Wood to an audience of
volunteer officers at the United Service Institution: " My
gallant friend has been a sailor, a foot soldier, a horse
soldier, and a barrister ; I suppose the next thing we shall
hear of him is that t e has take:, holy orders." Colonel Wood
is a nephew of Lord I:lather*, the late Lord Chancellor,—
Court Journal.

EPITOME OF NEWS.