The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-30

thick and yellow troth exuded from the
mouth; the eyes were open, fixed, and mo-
tionless; the limbs limp and dropping. No
pulsation of the heart nor trace of respiration
was perceptible. The body had remained
under water for a considerable time; the
search after il, made in DIR. Bourgeois pres
ence, lasted fully twenty minutes. That gen
teman did not hesitate to incur the derision
OF the lookers-on, by proceeding to
attempt the resurrection of what. in their
! eyes, was mere lump of clay.
! Nevertheless, several hours afterwards.
! the supposed corpse was restored TO
! life, thanks to the obstinate perseverance of
! the doctor, who, although strong and eniov-
ing robust health, was several times on the
point OF losing courage and abandoning the
! patient in despair.
But what would have happened if DIR.
Bourgeois instead of persistently remaining
STOPPING over the inanimate body with watch-
! tul eye and attentive ear, to catch the first
rusthng of the heart, had left the drowned
man, after haitian hours fruitless endeavor
ms often happens? The unfortunate young
man would have been laid in the grave
! although capable of restoration to life To
! this case, DIR. Bourgeois, in the Archives de
Medicine, adds others, in which individuals
who had remained under water as long as six
hours were recalled to life by efforts which a
! weaker conviction than his own would have
refrained from making These facts lead
DIR. Londe to the conclusion that everyday
drowned individuals are buried, who, with
greater perseverance, might be restored to
life.
Nor is suffocation by foul air and mephiti-
cal gas rare form of death in the United
Kingdom. 1t is possible that suspended ami
nation may now and then have been mistaken
for the absolute extinction of life. DIR. Londe
gives an instructive case to the purpose. At
the extremity OF large grocer's shop close,
narrow corner, or rather hole, was the sleep
in9-place of the shopman who managed the
night sale till the shop was closed, and who
opened the shutters at in the morning.
On the 10th of January, 1925, there were
loud knocks at the grocers door. AS nobody
stirred to open it, the grocer rose himself,
grumbling at the shopman's laziness. and
proceeding to his sleeping-hole toscold him.
He found him motionless in bed, completely
deprived of consciousness. Terror-struck by
the idea of sudden death, he Immediately
sent in search of a doctor, who suspected
case of asphyxia 10y mephitism. His suspi-
ciOns were confirmed by the sight of a night
lamp. which has gone out although well sup
piled with oil and wick; and by portable
stove containing the remains of charcoal
partly reduced to ashes
In spite of g severe frost, he Immediately
had the patient taken into the open air, and
kept on a chair in position as nearly vertical
loose and dropping, the pupils were notion
less. with no trace either of breathing OF pull
salon Of tia heart Or aftefies in short, there
were all the signs of death. The most ap-
proved modes of restoring animation were
persisted in for long while, without success.
At last, about three in the afternoon, that is
after eJ6UeH hOulS continued eXertiOn, a slight
movement was heard in the region of the
heart. A few hours afterwards the patient
opened his eyes, regained his consciousness,
and was able to converse with the spectators
attracted by his resurrection. DIR. Londe
draws the same conclusions as before;
namely, that persons suffocated by mephi-
tism are not unfrequently buried, when they
might be saved,
1t has been judiciously remarked that it
would be a good plan to spread the know
ledge Of the sure and certain characteristics
which enable us to distinguish every form
of lethargy from real death. 1t cannot be
denied that, at the present epoch, the utmost
pains are taken to pOpularise every kind of
knowledge. Nevertheless, it makes slow
way through the jungles Of prejudice and
vulgar error. Not long ago, 1t was over
and over again asserted that an infallible
mode of ascertaining whether person were
dead or not, was to infict a burn on the
sole of the foot If a blister full of water
resulted the individual was not dead; if
the contrary happened, there was no further
hope. This error was unhesitatingly accepted
as an item of the popular creed.
The Council of Hygiene, applied to by the
Government, indicated putrefaction and
cadaverous rigidity as infalible signs OF actual
death In respect to the first, putrefaction,
professional man is not likely to make mis-
take; but nothing is more possible than for
non-professionals to confound hospital rot
tenness. gangrene, with true pOst-n10rte0
putrefaction. Nj. de Paryllle declines TO
admit it as test adapted for popular appl-
cation. Moreover, in winter the time re-
ouired for putrefaction to manifest itself Is
extremely uncertain.
The cadaver0us rigidity, the stiffness OF a
corpse. offers an excellent mode of verifying
DEATH but its value and importance are not
yet apprecable by everybody, or by the first
conner. Cadaverous rigidity occurs a few
hours after death; the limbs, hitherto supple,
stiffen; and it requires a certain effort to
make them bend. But when once the faculty
of bending a joint is forcibly restored-to
the arm, for instance-it will not stitfen
again, but will retain its suppleness. If the
death be real, the rigidity is overcome once
for all. But if the death be only apparent,
the limbs quickly resume, with a sudden and
Jerking movement the contracted position
which they previously occupied. The stiff
ness begins at the top, the head and neck,
, and descends gradually to the trunk
3 These characteristics are very clearly
t marked but they must be caught in the fact,
= and at the moment of their appearance: be
f cause, after a time, of variable Duration they
t disappear. The contraction of the members
e no longer exists, and the suppleness of the
tl,o,,