The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-06-05
DR.. KEMP'S DISCOVERY
Remarkable Plan For Raising
the Dead to Life.
MAKES HEART BEAT BY MAssAGING

New York Physician Said to Have
Found Secret Of Restoring sus-
pended Animation-Brought Life to
q Dog Tha Had Been Dead Sixteen
Minutes.
Raising an interesting question as to
when life in animals actually becomes
extinct, DR.. Robert c. Kemp of New
York has found it possible to restore Il
dog to life after it's heart had stopped
beating for sixteen minutes, says the
New York Herald. After an examina-
ton by surgeons the animal was Off
cially pronounced dead, yet DR.. Kemp
by massaging it's heart SO far brought
it back to life that it lived twenty-four
hours and meanwhile was SO far re-
stored to the use Of its faculties that
it ate and drank and performed its
In eleven out of twenty-three expert
ments of this character DR.. Kemp has
succeeded in restoring dogs to life"
and he is convinced that in the case Of
human beings under similar conditions
the proportion Of RESERVATIONS would
be far greater.
In the ease of the dogs he ascrihea
their death after an interval Of from
two or three to twenty-four hours not
to failure of his treatment. for that
has apparently been successful. but to
the fact that the dogs could not be
prevented from tearing away the band
ages with which their wounds wel"
bound up.
Only one such experiment has been
tried on a human being. and in that
case it was not successful. but the fact
that the girl whose life he tried to re-
store after her heart had stopped beat
ing was suffering from a severe attack
of blood poisoning may explain the
failure.
In the case of the dogs on which DR..
Kemp experimental all had been
placed under the influence of chloro-
form. BY the use of delicate instru-
ments their heart beats and respiration
were carefully noted and automatic
ally charted. and when both respira-
ton and heart beats had ceased SO far
as the chart showed the experiment in
restoration was begun.
Or. Kemp's method is founded on
one which has been in use abroad,
but the surgeons before whom he read
his paper at a meeting held in the New
York Academy Of Medicine the other
night We're of opinion that he had i'm
proved on the foreign system. which is
to make an incision large enough for
the insertion of the entire hand, while
the incision made by DR.. Kemp is only
as large as would be made for the re-
moval of pus. He inserts only two
fingers. and instead Of massaging the
heart in regular beats he initiates the
double beat Of the heart when it is
working under normal conditions. as
shown on his chart. by the use of his
apparatus. The vital spark remains
active, he believes. and he merely fans
it into renewed life by massaging the
heart.
For more than two years DR.. Kemp
has been making experiments of this
character in the physiological labora-
tory of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, assisted by DIR. A. w. Gardi-
ner, and surgeons who have been
aware of the work he has been doing
have awaited his report with deep in
terest. They are of opinion that DR..
Kemp has taken a long step forward
in the methods of resuscitation and
that while such a course as he has
demonstrated is possible it would not
be resorted to except in extreme and
rare cases. Several who We're seen
recently declared that undoubtedly his
work could be made to save several
hundred lives a year.
"Dr. Kemp's conclusions from his ex-
periments will be listened to with the
greatest interest and confidence by the
medical profession" said DIR. George
F. Shrady. 1.-THE fact that he was able
to restore an animal t o the use of it's
normal functions so long a time as six.
teen minutes after the heart had stop
ped beating is a matter OF the greatest
possible Importance, and the applica-
ton Of the system to human beings
will be watched by all surgeons with
the keenest interest"
"As a last resort in saving life. where
heart failure has followed the use If
an annsthetic. DR.. Kemp's application
of and improvement upon all known
physiological principles are of the ut
most importance" said DR.. Robert T.
Norris. "But such an experiment
would have to be made once in ten
thousand times. as the modern methods
of applying an@sthetics are so certain
that they almost never have bad re-
Suits"