The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-24
TESTS OF DEATH.
METHODS BY WHICH PHYSICIANS
TELL If LIFE Is REALLY GONE.
a Chicago Doctor Adds n New One TO
the List TO Prevent the Possibility
of Burial Alive.


of Burial Alive.
From the Chicago Tribune.
A true and unfailing test of death, a
means by which burial alive may be made
an impossibility-it is a thing long sought
by scientists and one which a Chicago
man believes he has discovered
DIR. Chalmers Prentice of this city is
about to communicate 10 the medical
world a discovery that he believes bound
to prove a boon to humanity and to rob
death of this one Of its terrors. He has
found how, he says, to read death in the
human eye, to tell by the appearance of
veins and arteries whether life has de-
parted or a spark yet remains, and to tell
it with absolute certainty.
For centuries man has been haunted
with the fear that he will wake up in the
tomb to a realizing sense of his awful po-
sition. Many times graves have been open
ed for some reason or other. and those
who have performed the duty have been
Mortified to discover that the deceased had
recovered from the trance which had
seemed death. had struggled for release
and finally expired in agonies plainly indi-
Gated by the contorted position of the
body.
This fear was always present with the
late Emma Abbott, and the will of the
prlma donna directed that a dagger be
plunged into her heart as soon as the
attending physician should be satisfied
that she was no more.
during recent years many methods for
detecting the presence of life in the sup
posedly dead body have been suggested
and tried A favorite method, especially
in the rural districts, has been 20 hold a
mirror over the mouth Of the person. the
idea being that the slightest breath will be
recorded upon the polished glass in the
shape of steam. But this method is crude,
at best and, while sufficient to detect
breath in some cases, fails utterly i'm the
event of real suspension of animation.
Another method is to open an artery. In
the belief that the presence of circulation
will announce itself by the squirting of the
blood. This method is founded upon the
fact that the instant the circulation of the
blood through che heart ceases death oc-
ours. But, unfortunately, there are cases
OF suspended animation where the circu-
lation is so feeble that 1t has no apprecia-
BILE effect upon the arterial blood when the
lance is inserted. In other words the
blood flows from the artery precisely as it
would run from a vein, Indicating moth
ing.
In Germany and In some other European
countries the eXpedient has been hit upon
of connecting finger Of the dead with a
string that Is brought to the surface and
attached to a bell. A Waterman is always
near, and is charged with instantly ex-
huming the body should the bell ring.
While this is all right in theory in prac-
fipp "a no a. !,
saved a life.
In this country and In France and Eng
land plan has been adopted that is more
rational, although barbarous In the ex-
IRENE. 1t is TO provide mortuary cham
bers, where the bodies of the recently de-
ceased are kept for a certain time, or UNI
Ill all possibility of revival Is past But
it has been objected that this method Is
inhuman, since a person, If only in
trance, would in all probability be killed
without recovering consciousness, owing
TO the chill and damp of the SURROUNDINGS
And then, even should the unfortunate
man or woman survive these conditions
and come to life, the horror of the sltua-
tbon would be sufficient to dethrone rea-
son, If not to kill with shock.
A French scientist recently suggested
that the presence of the spark of life
might be detected by the use of the X raw
Much credit has been given this theory.
Still, while the conclusions of the French
saYant may be correct they have moi vet
been proved, and an almost insurmounta
bic obstacle to the extensive use of this
method lies in the difficulty of providing
the apparatus at the time and place re-
quired.
The galyanic battery in its infancy was
regarded much in the light of the X-ray
OF to-day-that is, it was thought capa-
pie OF almost any wonderland the propo-
sition was advanced that by its use the
dormant energies of the person palpably
dead because of suspended animation
could be shocked into sensibilty. II was
found however that the theory was not
trustworthy, and the battery might pro-
duce the contrary effect to that desired
and actually kill the person.
1t Is therefore matter of more than
slight Importance If DR. Prentice has suc
ceeded IN establishing an unvarying test
of the presence of life in suspected death
Being an ocultst, the doctor was naturally
in a position to be impressed with phe-
nomena or the eyes of the dead that would
pass unnoticed by the general practitioner
lt is known to the medical fraternity
that the blood vessels and veins of the
retlna OF the eye are the least nourished
of any in the human body For thar rea-
son feeble circulation ought immediateIv
to be noticed, where 1t exists, when an
examination is made of the retina bN
means Of a n ophthalmoscope.
During life the arteries and veins that
interlace in the retlna, which is the sac
that Immediately incloses the vitreous
humor or liquid of the eye, have a dis
tInct characteristic. Examined by light
thrown into the eye by the ophthalmo-
scope, the arteries are seen to contain the
dark blood. The two shades of fluid MAJ
be seen ramifying the retina as the nos.
terror or back part of the ball of The
eye.
The eye of a person with the breath of
life in him must present this appearance
even though blind. In case of a man whose
eye had been injured to such an extent
that an Opaque film had grown over the
cornea no ray of light could penetrate
hence OF course the coursing of blood in
the veins could not be SEEN But natural
ly, life or death cannot be told by tho
eyes unless the subject has eyes
DR.. Prentice says he noticed that tbc
eyes of the dead Immediately after disso
luton took on an entirely different ana
rnmistakable aspect Within a few mo
ments the distinction between the color
Of the blood In the arteries and the veins
entirely disappears. In fact, so RAPIDLY
does the change take place that the doc
tor found in many cases the phenomena
occurred absolutely simultaneously with