Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-06-06
BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH.
Or. TANNER CITES SOME CASES OF
SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
Decomposition the Only Sure Test-A
YOung Man Resurrected After
Burial for Three Years.

Decomposition the Only Sure Test-A
Young Man Resurrected After
Burial for Three Years.
DR.. Tanner, the famous faster, was in
Chicago recently. He is interested in
he question of suspended animation, and
le talked Interestingly of the case of the
Toung woman, Wilhelmina Stahl, of JEFF
ierson Park, whose body showed no signs
If decomposition when buried, though,
according to scientific tests, she had been
lead ten days.
"There is positively only one sure test
If death, " said Dr. Tanner, "and that is
decomposition, and an advanced stage of
hat. Any other test applied by a ply
ician is absolutely useless and proves
nothing. l see that the doctors who had
been waiting on Miss Stahl cut the tibial
artery to show the relatives that circula-
zion had stopped and to prove con-
,lusively, as they supposed, the death of
the patient. Well, now, if that girl hap
pened to be in a trance-as we say,
suffering from suspended animation
why, then so soon as she revived, she
would bleed to death in few minutes
and the doctors, who perpetrated the
fiendish outrage, would be virtually
murderers.
II take it that what may say on this
subject would have little weight, because
the enlightened public is aware of the utter
unreliability of the doctors decisions
that a person is dead. The cases of sus-
pended animation, in which the facts
were discovered too late, are entirely too
numerous. They speak for themselves
81 have case in mind where the body
of young man was buried in a vault,
and in three years the body was removed
and found not to be decomposed.
The physicians considered that fact
strange, and laid the body on the dis
secting table to study it. An incision
was made with scalpel, and instantly
the man arose, being thoroughly resusci-
tated. He lived for years, too. l had
the pleasure last fall of interviewing a
lady, near Indianapolis; who came to life
after fourteen days of suspended anima-
ton. Her little brother clung to her
against the will of the parents. Six doc
tors came in and made their usual tests,
and at last it was considered folly to keep
the body any longer. But the boy threw
himself on his sister and said they should
not put her under ground. Mind you,
six Indianapolis physicians had shaken
their heads and said that she was dead.
"'No, Sadie is not dead cried the
brother.
Accidentally he pushed aside the
bandage which held her jaw in
place. 1t fell and the people in the room
saw it. The brother saw it, too, and
noticed that his sisters tongue was
slowly moving.
"'What do you want, sister, asked
the boy. ...
"'Wa-ter, water came the answer
from The woman supposed to be dead.
"They gave her water and she revived
and is still living, having since married.
I had a talk with her shortly after.
am making tnls suDJect my speclal study,
and l tell you it horriies me to learn all
that is going on.
cit is impossible to tell what person is
so constituted as to be liable to fall into
trance. Therefore friends ought not to
rely on the mere word of ia physician. II
does no harm to wait few days. As
long as the body maintains a good ap-
pearance, it will hurt nothing to delay
the burial. From the beginning of this
year kept account of the cases of sus-
pended animation discovered and re-
ported in the papers. They averaged one
Il week in the United States. That is
fact which should cause physicians to be
very careful when they pronounce patients
dead. ."-NeW York World. .....