The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-06-20
Death Never instantaneous.

Death Never instantaneous.
In thoughtful, well Uniformed article
upon the proposition "that man does
not die all at once that one or more
members live, and one or more func-
tions retain their vitality after all appar-
ent life is gone," the Cincinnati Gazette
says: 1t seems at first sight that death
beat, because the circulation being
thereby arrested, it is impossible to
keep up supply of nutrition to the
several organs. But modern researches
have shown that this is very far from
being actually the case. There are hun
dreds of nervous energies which retain
certain living activity long after the
heart has lost its own proper vitality. 1t
has been conclusively proved that the
hair and nails have in many cases grown
long after death, and Spallazani has
added yet more important fact
He fed crow, Immediately killed it,
and placed it in a temperature equal to
that of the body of the bird when alive.
Six hours afterward he opened its
stomach, and discovered that the food
had been thoroughly digested. Another
physician, M. Robin, Frenchman, ex-
perimented upon victim of the guillo-
tine, and found that the heart continued
to beat for nearly an hour after the loss
of the head, and that the removal of the
liver, the stomach, and the intestines
had no apparent effect in destroying its
action. In 1853, Nj. Brown-Sequard,
one of the ablest psychologists of the
day, carried this experiment yet further,
He carefully decapitated dog, and ten
minutes afterward applied the galvanic
current to the heat. No movement was
perceptible. He then placed to the four
arteries found mt the section of the neck,
clyster pipes communicating by tubes
with reservoir of fresh oxygenated
blood, and observed the penetration of
this blood into the vessels of the head.
At once there were irregular movements
in the eyes and the muscles of the face,
regular contractions apparently directed
by the will succeeded, and for quarter
of an hour, during which the injection of
the blood in the cerebral arteries was
continued, the head to all outward
semblance was restored to life. The
tubes were then removed, motion ceased
with an agonized shudder, and death
ensued. The question was ut once
asked whether such a resurrection were
not applicable to man also, and Mr..
Robin entreated NJ. Brown-Sequard to
make the attempt. SO convinced was
he, however, that the functions of life
were thoroughly restored by the pro-
cess, that he refused to experiment
upon the head of any man executed after
the French mode, upon the ground that
he could not consent to be party to the
fortunes either head or trunk would I'M
dergo when by this means temporarily
restored to life Another Psychologist,
M. Paul Bert, has pursued the same
train of investigation by another
method. Reasoning from Brown-Se-
guard and Robins experiment, and
upon the well-known fact that after APP
parent death the muscles became rigid
by degrees only-frst those of the jaw
bone, then of the abdomen, then of the
neck, then of the breast-and convinced
that organic death is a matter of more
prolonged graduation than is generally
| believed he cut off the tails of two old
rats and grated them, one upon the
head and one upon the back of two
others The tails speedily united with
the new organism, and became as full of
life as when attached to the body of
their first possessor. NJ. Bert intends
again to cut OFF these tails when they
grow old again to engraft them and
ascertain whether life thereby cannot be
indefinitely prolonged We are not
physicians, but it certainly would seem
feasible if such experiments are success
full in the case of the higher animals,
upon whom they will certainly be tried,
to remove an arm or a leg from "a man
recently dead and grated them upon n
one-armedor one-legged veteran from the
wars as better substitute for the limb he
has lost than any which the skill of man
or art can make. Almost every one has
heard of the attempts to restore ANNA
ton by the electric battery made from
time to time since Adm first tried it at
Boulogne, in 1902, and every physiolo-
gist will recollect the famous case in
Glasgow, when, an hour after execution
by hanging, rage, horror despair, agony
and terror were distinctly seen portrayed
upon the countenance of the dead when
submitted to the battery. But by this
means no man has hitherto been re.
stored permanently to life. The French
Academy of Sciences, in 1913, thought
it, however, of such Importance that
they refused to recognize the cessation
of the action of the heart as a conclusiv,
proof of organic death, and considered il
established only by the setting in OF
putrefaction or muscular immobility un
der the battery.
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