Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-03-17
A TEST OF DEATH.
a Physician Tells OF q Sure Way OF As
certaIning II Life Is Extinct.

a Physician Tells OF q Sure Way OF As
certaining II Life Is Extinct.
! About once in so often the newspapers
are filled with accounts of premature
burials, and journalists with abnormal
imaginations are in demand to paint in
vivid colors the agonies that must have
been endured by the helpless wretches
who woke up and found themselves
dead. A few days ago such q case W.
reported in South Carolina. When the
coffin Of young girl who had recently
been buried was exhumcd the body was
contorted in a horrible manner, the
finger nails were deeply buried in the
palms OF the hands, tho face was LAGER
ated, and the appearance of the corpse
indicated that death had not finally
como without fearful struggle. 1t was
good story, and whether or not it was
a ''fake." it will probably start the
takers of the newspapers to work, and
there will be no lack of similar blood
curdling tales for a month or two.
a well-known Chicago physician read
the yarn referred to, and he was SO
much wrought up over it that he camo
to. tho Office of the Herald to learn
whether the case was duly authenti-
Gated.
'"There arc plenty of people molder-
ing under the Sod" he said, "who wcro
buried before life became extinct, but
they were never made aware of tho fact
Collins nowadays are Theoretically
sealed, and there is not enough air in
one of them to bring person to life out
of n trance. The lungs must have
certain amount of oxygen before tho
heart will begin to act, and ono full in
halation would exhaust all of tho oxygen
in modern casket, and the lungs
would, of course, be unable to take an
other. All these stories of fearful suf-
ferings endured by persons buried alive
are false; there's nothing to them.
'No doubt bodies arc frequently in
TERED while life is yet existent, but
this would not be the case. if every body
knew of n certain infallible and abso-
lutely certain test of death. Sucs
test have. 1t has never, so far as l
am aware, been in print, and the Herd
could do no better service to humani
than to publish it. was a coroner once
upon time in one of the Southern
States. An old darby had died sud-
denly, and l was called to sit upon the
body and determine the cause of death.
When 1 arrived the man had boon dead
twenty-four hours, and the negroes Of
the neighborhood were. preparing to
hold the funeral. I impanelcd a Jury;
the family of the deceased testified to
the extent Of their knowledge, but
was unable to find that the old follow
had any disease sufficient to kill him.
1 looked at the body and examined it
carefully. Then thought struck me.
and lighted a match and applied it to
the end Of one of the fingers of the
corpse. Immediately a blister formed.
bad the dead man put back into his
bed, applied various restorations, and
to-day the Same old darby is alive and
we'll.
'tThat, is the test. Do you see the
philosophy Of it? If you arc alive you
can not burn your hand without raising
blister. Nature, in the effort to pro-
tect the Inner TISSUES, throws covering
of water, d non-conductor Of heat, be-
tween the fire and tho flesh. If you
wera dead, and flame should como in
contact with any part of your body, no
blister would appear, and the flesh
would ho burned. The blood has been
withdrawn from the arteries, and your
bodyis like SO much beefsteak.
"All you have to do is to apply
match to any part of the supposed
corpse. If life remains, however little,
blister will at once form. Simple,
isn't 1t? Why, it is so simple that tho
most ignorant person in the world can
apply 1t, and no expert physician could
settle the question Of lifo or dcath any
more tainly."-Chicago Herald.