Morning journal and courier., 1890-08-04

living like alternating animals. In per-
sons convalescing from grave diseases syn
| cope is easily induced at the moment the
| patient rises; the deficient cerebral circu-
| lation and venous stagnation in the lower
| limbs are favorable conditions to the oc-
currence. of apparent death. M. Brouar-
| del relates the case of a criminal who was
| hung in Boston at ten a. m, taken down
| at twenty-five minutes past ten a. m. and
| transferred to the anatomical amphithea-
| ter an hour thereafter, when his pulse re-
| commenced to beat. On opening the tho
| rax the pulse was seen to beat forty a min
ute, and it stopped beating at a quarter to
| three D. m. Hoffman tells of similar
| case.
| During the past two years many cases of
| recovery after apparent death from cleo
| tricity have been reported, and in some of
| them there was no sign of life for between
| two and three hours. M. Lester recorded
| seven cases where the subjects, under the
action of lightning, had remained appa-
rently dead for periods varying from seve
| raj minutes to three hours. Physicians
who took the observations stated that no
pulse could be felt at all, the excitation
having been strong enough to stop the
hearts action. A few years ago scarcely a
physician could be found who believed it
possible for a person to return to life after
having been buried even for day. But
now the fact finds ready acceptance that
people have been buried from eight to fif-
teen days and yet been resuscitated.
An interesting and physiological fact
bearing upon this subject has recently
been brought out by experiments upon
dogs with curare, the substance which the
South American Indian uses to poison his
arrows This poison paralyZes the lungs
first and afterward the heart, and when
given to dogs they generally fall apparent
ly dead within five minutes. But in all
instances where artificial respiration was
commenced before the heart stopped and
persisted in for q sufficient length of time,
recovery took place, the heart being by
this means kept at work until the poison
was eliminated by the lung. Accidents in
which occur much the same physiological
changes as are produced by curare are not
very infrequent, and from these conclu-
sions Of value can be drawn. Deaths I'M
der chloroform and ether are occasionally
reported. In this class of cases the hope
of resuscitation would seem to be even
greater than is usual in those of sudden
death
Where person who has been under
treatment appears to have died, even if
suddenly and unexpectedly, it is quite a
common custom of the relatives among
o'iA .Ae'eSoo W uePelu uPoh 1ueii oWH uiaS
nos1s OF death and to at once lay out the
body, send for the undertaken, etc.
The doctor is usually informed of the
unhappy occurrence; seldom, however,
until several hours afterward, the princi-
pal object of notifying him being to pre-
vent his making another visit. Very like
ly, in consequence of this custom, many
lives are lost which might be saved were
the physician called at once and efforts to
resuscitate were made by him.
There is one point to be considered in
this connection. In cases of sickness peo-
pie generally show the least possible sense.
1t is notorious fact that in every case of
death, except from some such chronic dis
ease as consumption or cancer, they will
lay the blame on the attending physician,
if it is a possible thing to do. Were he
called in directly after patient of his had
died, and he at once employed artificial
respiration or tried to stimulate the heart
by hypodermic injections, the chances are
that the relatives and friends would jump
to the conclusion that he had been giving
medicine in overdoses, and had poisoned
in consequence and was now endeavoring
to resuscitate his victim. The more intel
lgent reader would think this absurd, and
yet few years in the practice of medicine
would convince him to the contrary.
DIR. Clark, in advising young physicians,
urges them in cases of death by drowning
not to fail to use electricity in their efforts
to resuscitate. He says that fine point
of differentiation as to the probability OF
resuscitation in case of drowning is
whether it was suicidal or accidental, for a
suicide cannot be saved after five minutes
of submergence, but the accidentally
drowned many be submerged twenty and
possibly thirty minutes, and yet be resus-
| citated. The horror and revulsion of feel
| ing and fear of death of the latter are not
present in the former, and this influence
| on the mechanism of the heart may ac-
! count for the difference. Persevere in
your efforts, as life has been restored in
| drowning cases after four hours work