The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-03-15

Wonderful Machine
VIII DO It
PUMPS IN NEW LIFE.

For Which tho inventor Claims
Great Things, and Upon Which
He Has Experimental.
Almost sightless and semi-paralyz-
ed, Prof, George Poe, living the life
of arecluse on a backwoods farm in
Norfolk county, Va, claims to have
solved the problem of raising the
dead by means of his 'respirator,''
rs he calls the machine which he has
invented for the purpose. Tests of
it have already been made in the
presence of Norfolk and Portsmouth
city physicians, asphyxiated or
smothered dogs and rabbits being
the subjects. In each case the ami
NAL, after being pronounced dead by
the physicians, was brought back to
life by Prof. Poe's device, and soon
afterward was frolicking around in
the full joy of living. ;
A ten-year-old boy, Arthur Ostran-
der, son of the man with whom Prof.
Poe lives, acted as his eyes and hands
in the construction Of the machine,
which injects the air of life into the
lungs as it pumps out the deadly gas
es. The inventor claims that the me-
chine will resuscitate persons killed
by as~phyxiation, poison or drown
Ing; prevent death by an anesthetic
while a patient is being operated
upon; prevent "infant asphyxia" al
birth; make drunken men sober in a
few minutes; revive men clectrocut-
ed or hanged, the latter only in cases
where the neck has been broken; pre-
vent freezing to death even in the
Arctic.
Prof. Poe had long been studying
the problem "When does life really
leave the bodyoo" One day, while he
was Illuminating the centennial Of
1879, an employe brought in a trap
containing a huge rat. After the TO
dent had been killed the professor
said: Stand 'asike, boys, and III
bring it back to life" He pumped
oxygen into it's lungs until he actual
did revive it, SO that it leaped from
the table and escaped in a hole.
This encouraged Prof. Poe, and he
redoubled his efforts to ascertain the
exact moment when life ends. His
interest in it was stimulated by the
tact that a young sister who had
been pronounced dead from typhoid
fever and placed in her coffin had re
vived within two hours of the time
set for a burial and lived to be the
mother Of q family.
Several years ago Prof. Poe, strick-
en- with paralysis, was advised by his
physicians to live in the country. He
went to Norfolk county, and it was
while in seclusion on the farm Of his
friend, A. G. Ostrandcr, that he
evolved his artificial respiration ap-
paratus. The boy, Arthur, Of whom
ohe professor was fond, assisted in
assembling the model and in doing
what the professors dim eyes and
palsied hands could not alone accom-
plish.
The professors model is simply
that OF the human heart. The prob
lem in the ease of persons drowned,
s%uffocated or dead through anesthe,
tics was to remove the fluid or the
poisonous gases from the stomach or
lungs, and at the same time pumr
life-giving oxygen in. So Prof. Poe
began experiments on what he calls
double larynx tubes ard two tubes
toc0nnect the nostrils- o lc forinlct,
Studying the action Of tie heart, he
saw that it was that of a double CIV.
liader, or, rather, two cylinders,
right and left ventricals and RIGHT
and left auricles. With the assistance
of young Ostrander he built awork-
ing model in line with the construc-
ton of the heart, a simple machine
with two clyders, each having an in
let and an outlet valve. The plunp-
ers of each cylinder are made to work
simultaneously.
The machine will in a very few
minutes sober up a drunken man who
has fallen into a stupor. 1t is the
slow respiration caused by liquor
that makes a mar drunk" By the
help of the respirator the respiration
would be quickencd, and. the poison
thus carried out of his system, mind
and body once more resume their
normal state.
Thomas Black, a retired business
man of Norfolk, on being shown the
plans obtained permission to exhibit
them to Dr.. Francis M. Morgan, a
physician of Norfolk. Dr.. Morgan
Immediately saw that it promised to
be an immense boon to humanity.
and he induced the profcssorto de-,
monstrate it before a committee Of
Norfolk county and Norfolk city doc
tors. They witnessed the snothcrinp
Of rabbits and dogs to the point of
what they declared on their profess
sional honor was absolute death, and
then saw them resusoiatcd.
DR.. Morgan Wednesday described
demonstration given in his Office by
Prof. Poe and his machine in the
presence of himself and DR.. j. p.
jackson and DR.. N. G. Wilson. On
the operating table was the little
brass machine, composed of two
small cylinders about a foot high and
six inches in circumference, with q
pump-handle. Pipes led FROM tank
of oxygen to the machine, and from
it tubes fitted with nostril pieces
were to be fastened to a rabbit.
The rabbit was put on the table
and one of the doctors injected two
grains Of morphine into its leg, after
Which'four ounces Of ether W a givcn.
Of course the rabbit was dead after
this, and the doctors applied every
known test to discover signs Of life.
No life was there and the doctors
agreed that life was positively cx-
tinct.
Then Prof Poe annliad tbo ,,ho,