The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-10-14

miners; but these possibilities would not
be realized once in million cases. There
are too many conditions to take into ac-
count
The seat of vital power is the heart.
When that ceases to beat a person is as
dead as Julius Caesar. An imaginative,
eXcltable layman could not listen to the
heart and distinguish case of apparent
from real death, but a doctor has no
trouble in doing this. We have all sorts
of talk about how long the heart can stop
and then resume its beating; it is a CUES.
ton most difficult to prove. 1t is said of
cases of drowning that after nearly three
minutes the heart has resumed beating,
but that is hardly creditable, for it would
have to be proved that the patient was
actually immersed all that period. 1t is
| well known fact that in cases of acct
dent in the water persons on shore lose
all idea OF time, and say that they have
been there an hour when in reality they
have not been there quarter of an hour
Very often the heart goes through convul-
slye throbbings even after it has ceased to
beat, just as the body is given to gasp
ings after death. 1t looks then as If ma
ture dreaded to give up her task, and the
heart was saying: I am not done yet
1.-THE greatest danger of premature
burial, if there is any at all, is in cases
of sudden death in times of epidemic.
Over a century ago several mortuary
chambers were established in Germany.
The first was at Weimar, and the second
at Munich. Dead bodies were brought
these places and watched closely by med
ical men. During the first forty eight
hours after death a bell rope is attached
| to the hand of the corpse SO that in case
death was to not real the slightest move
ment will ring the bell. In al of these
hundred years only once has the sound of
Ill rr1 ir,o of ,lrft1
airy cham bers, and then 1t was due to the
! relaxation of the stiHened hand of a
| corpse. e
"To distinguish apparent from real
death many things have to be taken into
account. The signs of real death are
manifold. There is respiration; breath
| ing, however, often stops before the heart
| ceases to bent The disappearance of the
pulse at the wrist is another sign. AL
most the instant that death occurs the
eye loses it's lustre. the pupil dilates and
Him comes over the eye. Hlppocrates,
the father of medicine, thought the
moving up and down Of patients
| Adams apple an infallible sign of real
death. That motion is due to paraly sis
| of the respiratory centre, and patients
never recover after this condition is
reached. Inability to swallow, which
shows the inability of the nerve centre to
preside over the inherent vital forces,
| also points to the approach of death. But
all these signs, except the ceasing OF the
heart to beat, are merely corroborative.
That by itself is an infallible sign of real
death.
"There are great many tests of death.
The glass test, to get the vapor of the
breath, is the most common. 1t was first
applied by the old German nurses, and
| laid the foundation for many horrible
superstitions and stories, and after all
| it is no test. for often some signs of de-
composition are mistaken for life. A pa
tient might gasp and the vapor be on the
| glass to prove that he was alive, even af
ter decomposition had set in This ex-
pulsion of air from the lungs is due to
the fact that the stomach becomes bloated
| and filled with gases after decomposition
sets in. These gases arise and expel the
latent air from the lungs. Another test
Is to tie string around the finger. If
the heart continues to act, the finger be-
comes congested. One method of distin-
gushing death is to burn the body with
a hot needle or a hot hammer. II no in
| Illumination results, but merely plain
blister, the patient is dead Mustard
plasters and blisters also are applied as a
test. The flame of a candle sometimes is
placed a little way from the finger. II
the patient is dead the heat raises an air
blister.
persons who fear premature burial
often make request to be bled in order
to be sure that death is real. One man
know of left a request in his will that
one Of his toes be amputated, and this
was done to carry out the provisions OF
his will. There is fallacy about this
bleeding test however. Immediately after
death one is not apt to bleed; later he
blood oozes out on account Of the pres.
sure of the gases on the heart and other
organs.
The eye becomes relaxed at the moment
| of real death, but not at that of appar-
ent death. The tension of circulation is
taken off and peculiar speck comes on
the white of the eye which has the ap-
pearance of a speck on parchment. This
Indication of death was observed first by
fishwOmen, who used to watch the eyes
of their fish. One, might say, absolute
sign OF death is a blue spot in the right
groin; this is almost infallible. There is
a peculiar odor about the body even at
the moment of death. 1t is not that OF
decomposition, for it is too early for de
composition, though when the body once
becomes stiffened this signifies the COM
mencement Of decomposition. 1t is said
that this odor explains why dogs come
around and howl when someone dies
| The story told of man in Newark does
not explain the particular kind of a howl
that means death, though. He said he
listened to dog's howl steadily one
night for over an hour between and II
O'Clock, and he knew that somebody was
dying. Sure enough, when he read the
newspapers next day he saw that man
had died in Philadelphia just at that
hourl A tradition that bees fly away at
the approach of death unless someone
taps their hives and speaks to them is
prevalent throughout Pennsylvania and
New York State. This may be due to
the odor which accompanies death.
| mot all persons when they die are alb
solutaly cold. Different diseases produce
different temperatures. The higher the
temperature has been the longer it takes
the body to cool, and young persons hold
heat much longer after death than old
ones. A corpse often has the appearance
Of breathing to those looking at it. This
is the association OF the habit of vision
with life
"All this talk about death, apparent
death and premature burial brings us
down to one vital question-How long
could life be maintained in a coffin? An
experiment on a dog in coffin showed
| that the animal lived five or six
hours. A body in an ordinary coffin gets
only three or four cubic feet of air, and
| that would keep one alive only fifteen OF
twenty minutes. So those who trouble
| themselves about being buried when