The Press., 1912-08-21
Bv F. A. MITCHELL

Near the middle of the nineteenth
 century an ingenious Frenchman wrote
 story based on the idea that the liv-
 ing human body by process of ex-
 haustion of its moisture called desic-
 cation could be kept as a mummy for
 an unlimited period and by the reintro-
 duction of water could be reanimated.
 This literary production was consid-
 cred by the people of that age to be
 very ingenious and highly imaginative. There was no pretense on the part of
 the author that the idea on which 1t
 was built was or ever would be possi- | ble, nor was it taken seriously by the | public.
 The coming of the twentieth century
 marked the beginning of new scien- | tific era. For a hundred years men had been discovering that they could
 talk to each other from different parts | of the globe; that disease was nothing more or less than the work of inf nitely small germs and hundreds of | other-to them-marvelous processes of nature. These discoveries were mostly
 accidental. But about the year 1900 rich men began to found institutions
 with a view to making regular prog | ress.
 One of the most important subjects studied by these institutions has been
 the human body and that mysterious life process which is born with it and grows as it grows. In the year 1912 scientists began to experiment., among other things, on the animal heart and found that portions of 1t removed from the body and cultivated in hyptOnic plasma would pulsate for several months. This changed the conditions under which the animal might be pro- nounced dead. 1t was also about this time that scientists laid down two causes of bodily death or corruption the action of microbes and self diges- ton. From this scientific fact natural ly followed the axiom-exclude the microbes, exhaust the water and there can be no death.
 A hundred years have intervened be- tween a knowledge of this fact and its being put In practice. That which 15O years ago was the basis of an imagi- native extravaganza has today become the subject of an actual occurrence.
 It appears that about the middle of Chicago, then a small city of not more than four or five millions of people, meat preserver named Swartz. whose son Adrian chose, rather than follow in the footsteps of his father, to de- vote himself to scientific research. Be ing heir to a couple of billion dollars, or 2,OO0 wealth units-the people of that day had not been driven by vast accumulatiOns to our present system of typifying fortunes-he was not pre- vented from following unremunerative tastes by poverty.
 This Adrian Swartz loved a beauti- ful girl whose name appears on the records as Muriel Anderson. Profes- sOr Swartz worked on his own lines, in his own laboratory, keeping his in- vest1gations profound secret What l he was doing has only come to light | fifty years after he was engaged in | his work He was absorbed in two | things-his investigations with a view
  Miss Muriel Anderson.
 It was then known that different parts of the body may be taken from a person who has recently been pro- dead by the old standard and preserved in cold storage vaults for an indefinite period. The young pro- lessor was able to start on his fnvesti- gations with a knowledge of this and other facts. Knowing that corruption may be kept out by excluding mi rrobes and water, he devoted himself to the discovery of process by which, after having kept them out, the water might be reintroduced at later date without admitting the microbes.
 That the breathing process may be without producing corrup- lion was also known to Professor Swartz, and this was very important point. The main problem before him was not how to keep out corruption, but to restore animation.
 Miss Muriel Anderson was taken i'll and died. Her lovers grief was so great that f6r time 1t was feared that he would lose his reason. There was no evidence that the body was not disposed of by burial, which was the usual method in those days. After the girls death SwartZ was observed to pursue his investigations with still more eagerness than before. Indeed. his relatives feared that he would go insane on the subject of perpetuating life.
 There are traditions that a dog be- longing to one of his friends died and ten years later appeared at his mas ter's door and showed great delight at the reunion. It was whispered that the dog had been reanimated by the young professor. There was similar story about a cat. but unscientific per sons claimed there was nothing re- in bringing back a cat to life except for the tenth time. These matters are mentioned here to show that 1t was supposed Professor Swartz was reported to have achieved some success in his work.
 Recently there was a commotion in the Institution For Scientific Research. located in this city. Doctors and pro- feSsors have been seen to be consult us tOSClhCA HI WuASpCLS, DuL ucSpAlC LAC | improved methods used by some of our reporters for magnifying he whisper waves the secret was kept. Then 1t was confided to one or two per sons that body that had been more han half. century ago prepared for ! life perpetuating process had been discovered and removed to the institu- ion. With 1t was paper some four decades old. giving the results of ex- 'eriments in terminating bodies. A re- port was circulated that late discover es completed the process laid down in he paper and might possibly render t effective.
 We are enabled in this issue. owing o the enterprise of one of our repor- orial staff, who used ear megaphones,