The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-10-25
Proof Of Death.

|
If most people are afraid of anything !
it is of being buried alive. That cases
do happen where it is very difficult even
for the experienced physician to de-
termine whether person is really or
but apparently dead without his having
recourse to means while they would at
once settle the dispute, would place
life if it really still existed in jeopardy,
may be Judged from the fact that the
French Academy some ten or fifteen
years ago offered prize of 10000
francs for the discovery of some means
| by which even the inexperienced may
at once determine whether in given
case de%th had ensued or not A ply
! sician obtained the prize. He had dis
covered the following well-known phe-
nomenon: If the hand of the suspect
ed person is held toward the candle or
] other artificial light, with the fingers |
stretched, and one touching the other,
and one looks through the spaces be-
4 tween the fingers toward the light,
4 there appears scarletred color where
4 the fingers touch each other, due to the
/ still circulating fluid blood, as it shows
itself through the transparent,
not vet congested tissues; but when life
is extinct this phenomenon at once
ceases. The most extensive and thor
ouoh trials established the truth of this
observation, and the prize, was awarded
to its discoverer.
When electricity, or rather its applt-
cation in medicine, came in vogue, 1t
was first thought that it would be
means of deciding whether a person
was dead or not This assumption was
based upon the fact of electro-muscular
contraction But experience soon
proved that for one to three hours after
death has taken place, and in some
cases where ngidity but slowly ensues
for still longer period, the muscles of
a dead individual respond as well to the
, electric stimulus as those of the living
being.
. DR.. Max Buch now publishes in the
Central, f. Neuenhlkd., 2, 'S4, modii-
cation of the above, and what promises
to be reliable and scientific proof OF
death, for thus far no scientific test eX-
| listed.
= While in the living the temperature
? of the surface over muscle in the act
of or Immediately after contraction de-
/. cidedlv increases, this increase is utter
! lyi wanting in the dead, and even dur
: inc the time (one-haIf to three hours) in
= which alter death the muscle still re-
q tains its contractlity. Having placed
!, therefore, surface thermometer on the
- skin. and having waited until the tenn
4 perature has continued at one and tin
n same HEIGHT for about five minutes, The
muscle lust below the bulb of the Their
"a mometer is made to contract by cleo
= trio irritation, If, then, the column O
r mercury does not rapidly ascend we have
4 the most definite and the scientific
a. proof that life is extinct in the body
- while if the temperature increases it i
ot lust rs certain that there is still life
Il Under normal condition the skin for
n considerable distance increases by sew
10 eral degrees in temperature If in tn
u muscle below is caused powerful cleo
Of trical contraction; and this phenome
~ non is also observed in paralyzed limbs
i while in the dead nerves the produotio
~ OF heat, as induced by motion, has fol
to ever ceased.
x The method, it is true, has not ye
v been tested in the cataleptlc case IT
d. sembling death; but it is TO be suppose
to that as long as there is the fainte;
trace OF circulation SO long will IL
10 creased activity in any part of the bod
he produce corresponding increase {
We heat. Apropos, this observation leae
as us to another interesting fact. 1t
nix well-known that all over in natnl
I'M rapid motion calls forth heat, and tn
at is the more apparent the more frictio
lat attends to motion. Two stones or tw
nd metals rubbed together will soon indut
warmth, and the Indians are said to
me able to start nre by the violent fri
on ton of two pieces of wood with eat
Ike other 1t is said that no law of natu
1ut knows an exception, as no amount
motion or friction will elicit the lea
rk, warmth in the decomposing tissue. B
a that some mysterious PROCESS of he
rto regulation is still active within the dei
h body may be seen from the fact that,
ris, matter what the temperature of Il
the surrounding atmosphere, the surface
wv, the body will go on decreasing its oy
ace temperature until the state of rigid
lth. is ended and active decomposition col
lole menees. - Medical and Surgical l
~, Il s1na,fp1r