The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-22

Loeb and his assistants. according to
the usual custom of scientists. do not
give out the results of stheir investiga-
tons in Interviews. and il is in the
latest issue OF the American Journal
OF PHYSIOLOGY that Professor Lingle
tells OF his contribution to the chain of
discoveries that has already upset ac-
cepted beliefs
Reviving of Dead May Come Soon.
According to the experiments by the
university professors the time is held
TO be not remote when physicians viii
know just how much sodium chloride
and how much oxygen and how much
OF something else to inject into dead
persons veins in order 10 restore him
TO life- The question is asked by some
of those who have learned of the re-
cent discoveries made in regard to the
heart beat How long viii it be until
scientists viii know how to promote
Professor Lngle scented partly by
accident the. result he has attained
When experimenting with a strip of
turtles heart which he was moving
from one vessel containing a solution
OF sodium of chloride. he noticed that
the beating of the strip was greatly
increased when it came into contact
with the air. Upon noting this phe-
nomenon, the professor took strip cut
from the VentricIe OF a turtle that had
ceased to beat as a result of violence
inflicted in preparing it for expert
mentation, placed il in a solution of
salt, then placed the strip which had
by this time begun to beat in a jar of
oxygen gas. Here the beating was sus-
tanned for three full days, or seventy
two hours No one had been successful
in maintaining the beat of a single
strip Of heart for so long a time as
this before.
Caffein Only Stimulant-
It has been commended by some scien-
fists that caffein, one of the charac-
teristic chemical substances of the COT
fee that persons drink at their morning
meals, might have something to do
with starting the heart beats, but Pro-
fessor Lingle thinks that this is not the
case. According to him, caffein is a
heart stimulant but nothing more.
Professor Lingle made many expert
ments with solutions of cane sugar,
dextrose and glycerine to re-establish
rhythns. With none of these solutions
could he make the heart strip beat.
Then he combined these with salts of
calcium and potassium, but again he
failed. When sodium chloride was
used, however, strong beats appeared.
During the past year Professor w
H. Howell of Baltimore has been max
ing Investigations that he thought
tended to show that the phenomena
of the whole series of heart beats in
sodium chloride is explained by salt
losses sustained in the sodium chloride
solution and not by special action of
the salt in the bathing solution" Pro-
fessor Howelrs contention is that cal
cium and potassium have much to do
with the organization and sustaining
of heart beats. Professor Lingle, how |
ever, in his Investigations, shows that |
his colleague, Professor Loeb, is on the |
right track.
Summary of the Investigations.
Professor Lingle sums up his inves-
LEGATIONS in this way:
Il. Sodium chloride is absolutely nee |
essary for the origination of rhythmic !
activity of heart strips.
-. Agencies like caffein that can in |
tensify rhythmic activity cannot orig |
mate it.
g. What has been described as the /
sodium chloride arrest is probably due |
to a lack of oxygen in the salt solu- !
tons The presence of oxygen in these |
postpones its development and starts |
the rhythm again.
"A. Ordinary salt solutions do not /
contain enough oxygen for normal ac- |
tiVity Of heart strips.
IS. Oxygen gas and sodium chloride, |
if properly used. will keep strips beat /
ton.
IS. Oxygen gas has a powerful inf1u /
ence on rhythm, but is of itself pow
erless TO originate rhythm.
q. Oxalate solution that precipitates /
calcium will permit beats to begin if /
sodium chloride is present"
More Announcements Expected.
1t is expected that many new and |
important steps and discoveries in the /
field of physiology will be announced /
at the meeting of the American Physi- /
illogical society during the holiday sea-
son in Washington. Professor Mathews /
and DR.. Fisher are busily engaged at
the University of Chicago.
1t was just one year ago that Pros
fessor Loeb startled the scientific world /
by his statement and demonstrated |
that the vital force of life comes from
the electricity in the food which is
eaten and not from heat elements con-
tanned in the food