The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-14
In A D"EATH-LIKE TRANCE.
A Woman Who Was About to Be
Dissected Comes Back From the
Other World.

When I commenced dissecting at
the hospitals | had some difficulty in
surrounding the repugnance which
the smell of "a corpse causes to every
human being, says o writer in b
Chicago Inter Ocean. But it took me
still longer to overcome the horror l
felt each time | plunged my knife
into a yet organized body, which, al
though dead, looks 10 much like a
living one. In time, however, | con-
quered this aversion, and the interest
awakened by science soon deadened
my softer feelings to the CHASTITY de-
tails of the business.
One dull December morning on ar
irving at the Hospital de la Pitie-
where, as an indoor student, l was
training for the medical professional
met one of the janitors, who told me
that a certain patient i'll whom | tool
considerable interest had died during
the night and had been placed in the
amphitheatre.
1t was, | say, a cold and dark morn
ing. The courtyard was empty. |
entered the dingy dissecting hall and
drew near to the table whereon the
corpse lay outstretched, with every
line exposed. The body was that of
a woman, as perfect q fashioned
woman as | had ever seen in flesh or
marble.
She was about twenty-five years of
age, with a strongly knit frame and a
wealth of auburn hair that fell about
the slab in disorder. The face was
handsome and serene. The hands
and feet were delicate. noticed that
the forefinger of the left hand was
pricked and betrayed the h~ardworked
needle woman. Poor, unfortunate
girl, neither mother nor sister had
come forward to claim her mortal re-
mains.
| may here state that during a con-
sultation of the head doctors over her
case when she was yet alive, at which
the students were all present, | had
become convinced that an operation
with the knife might have saved her.
The head doctors, however, thought
otherwise, and, as l had no consult
ing voice in the matter, no surgical
operation was attemptea. | impaired
my doubts to the students, who
agreed that / should get her body, as
| wished to verify by a post mortem
how far u l was in my inference
that an operation on the living wom-
an might have been safely performed.
The patient fingered On for some
time, so long, in fact, that l began to
think she would get well again, and |
be defrauded of an interesting patno-
logical case.
So matters stood when the janitor
give me that morning the welcome in
| telligence of her death. / say wei
1.~o 1oa1,cn houyorap Hnodich c1Iah
an expression of sentiment may sound
to unprofessional ears | had grown
downright impatient to verify my
coniectures. Her ailment consisted in
a loose, fatty tumor on the side of the
neck, which weighed over a pound. l
got my truss, donned my black apron
and was soon ready. l determined to
operate as conscientiously on the dead
as | should have done on the living
woman. My scalpelsand instruments
were all we'll within reach on the
table. ] raised an eyelid, but there
was no trace of life in those dull, lus-
treless orbs. The jaws were fast and
the members rigid in death.
/ inserted the probe and Piled the
knife with the utmost care, nipping
the arteries as they were disclosed,
until a dozen or more held the princi-
pal vessels of the neck. After work
ing q half hour or so the ablation was
complete. just at that moment the
prosecutor, always an early bird. en-
tered the hall and awalked up to the
table, where l was busy. He bent
over the corpse and scrutinized with
great attention the cavity in the neck.
Suddenly, as he gazed into the
wound, he started back as if he had
received a galvanic shock. looked
at him in astonishment. He once
more bent down, distended to its ut
most the gaping hole in the neck, and
exclaimed
why, man, the woman is alive.
Her carotid beats. Here, janitor,
lend a hand to take this woman up
stairs"
| in turn peered into the wound
and sure enough a full view of the
main vessel in the neck which on
veys the blood from the aorta to the
head could be had inside, and it
throbbed with a slow, irregular mo-
ton.
The woman was in a trance. She
was at once put into a warm bed
restoratives were applied and her
neck was properly bandaged. Her
| life, however, was for a time in great
| danger, but she eventually recovered
and left the hospital cured.
Instances like this, although of a
very rare occurrence, do sometimes
happen in the d~issecting rooms of
hospitals, but / have never heard of
any such cases at the Anphitheatre
of Clamart, where pupils prosecute
| their anatomical lessons. Here, al
though the subjects are unclaimed
waits from all the Paris hospitals, no
pathological dissecting takes place.
Water as a Remedial Agent.
1t would seem that everybody
ought to know the value of a remedy
SO easily obtained as water. Yet,
though there is no remedy Of such
general application and none so easily
obtained as water, nine persons out OF
ten will pass it by in an emergency &c
seek for something OF less efficiency.
There are but few cases of illness
where water should not occupy the
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