The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-09-27
THE DEAD ALIVE.
Latest Scientific Test for the Prevention OF
Premature Burial.

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 tC
determine whether a person is really
but apparently dead without his having
recourse to means which, while they
would at once settle 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
a prize of 10000 francs for the discov-
cry of some means by which even the
inexperienced may at once determine
whether in given case death had en-
sued or not. A physician obtained the
prize. He had discovered that the fol-
lowing well-known phenomenon exists !:
If the hand of the suspected person is
held toward the candle or other artifi-
cial light, with the fingers stretched,
and one touching the other, and one
looks through the space between the
fingers toward the light, there appears
scarlet red color where the fingers
touch each other, due to the still circu-
lating fluid blood, as it shows itself
through the transparent, not yet con-
gested tissues; but when life is extinct
this phenomenon at once ceases. The
most extensive and thorough trials es-
and the prize was awarded to its dis
coverer.
When electricity, or rather its appli-
cation in medicine, came into vogue, it
was at first thought that it would
be the means of deciding wheth-
er person was dead or not. This as
sumption was based upon the fact of
electro muscular contraction. But ex-
perience soon proved that for one to
three hours after death has taken place,
and in some cases where rigidity but
slowly ensues for still longer period,
the muscles of dead individual re-
spond as well to the electric stimulus
as well as those of the living being.
DIR. Max Buch now publishes modi-
fcation of the above, and what prom
ises to be reliable and scientific proof
of death, for thus far no scientific test
existed.
While in the living temperature of
the surface over muscle in the act of
or Immediately after contraction de-
SiuOuiJ ihSi iOdoOoS ehio ihSlO OeioO 10 upuCl- |
ly wanting in the dead, and even dur
ing the time (one-half to three hours)
in which after death the muscle still re-
tains its contractability. Having
placed, therefore, surface thermomt-
ter on the skin, and having waited un-
til temperature has continued at one
and the same height for about five min
utes, the muscle just below the bulb of
the thermometer is made to contract by
electric irritation. If then the column
Of mercury does not rapidly ascend we
have the most definite and the scientific
proof that life is extinct in the body;
while if the temperature increases it is
just as certain that there is still life.
Under normal condition the skin for O
distance increases by sew
sral degrees in temperature if in any
muscle below is caused powerful
electrical contraction; and this phe-
nomenon is also observed in paralyzed
limbs; while in the dead nerves the
u oduction of heat, as induced by mo-
ion, has forever ceased.