The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-12-26

LIT MUS PAPERS
TO TEST DEATH
French Scientist Discovers Meth.
cd to Prove if Life Is
Extinct.
pRECLUDEs BURIAL ALIVE
Test Is Physico-Chemical and Has to
Do With AIkalinity of the Body in
life-Litmus Paper Applied to
Serum Taken From Body.


alive is perhaps an elemental fear
one OF the horrors that have haunted
mankind through the ages. Not only
the simple and ignorant have suffered
because of it but wise men as we'll
and some of our most gifted writer's
have employed the theme of suspended
animation for the basis of weird and
terrible tales and of poems of Dan
tesque horror.
There has been some speculation
among medical men during the war
just over as to the possibility OF q
considerable number of ante-mOrtem
burials Of soldiers who received their
i last attentions in villages where the
facilities for caring for desperately
wounded men were of the most primi-
tive kind. ats e8rrs4fa veb.'f.r
Precedents at Hand.
Occasionally newspaper carries 4
story of a victim of catalepsy or hyB-
terra undergoing narrow escape from
| premature burial, and recently an
| English daily told of a nurse who was
| found in forest between Berlin and
Potsdam. apparently dead from an
overdose of veronal. and who was
placed in coffin ready for burial.
Just before closing the coffin the I'M
dertaker discovered to his horror that
her heart was beating and removed
her at once to hospital, where she
was given electrical treatment, under
which she finally opened her eyes and
uttered a few incoherent words. Such
authenticated incidents cause the
reader to ask if there is not some in
fallible test of death known to the
medical profession.
In the "Review of Comparative
Pathology DR.. SEVERN Icard of Mar
settles gives the results of his inyeSti
cations in progress during d long
period into this subject. His test is
physico- chemical and has to do with
the alkaIinity of the body in life. In
other words as long as life is present
In the human organism the fluids with
the exception of the urine, the gastric
juices and the sweat) are alkaline. On
the other hand, the tissues after death
are acid -
For short period after death the
tissues are both alkaline and acid. and
the litmus paper test shows both blue
and red. But seven or eight hours af-
ter death is supposed to have taken
place the test is positive; if life Is ex
tinct the acid test is unmistakable and
the blue paper becomes a deep wine
red SIN .G
This passage from alkalinity to acid
ity is found in all the animal series.
and as far back as 1870 it was urged |
as test for death by French physi-
clan, Doctor DeIagree who proposed |
in cases where death was doubtful to
introduce litmus paper into small In
cisions in the muscular mass. But this
method is likely to be repugnant to the
family of the subject-an objection
which Doctor Icard has overcome in
his experiments.
Litmus Paper Test.
The latter practitioner has made use
Of very simple method for procuring
4 few drops of Serious matter fror,
he tissues without mutilatipg
he body. He attaches a small pair OF
'orceps TO a fold of skin and clamps
hem in place. leaving them in position
or five or six minutes. AT the end CT
his time the forceps are removed and
n the depressions ON each side Of the
'pleat'' of flesh made by the combining
Instrument are seen to ooze several
lrops of serum. The blue litmus is
placed in contact with this fluid. and
f it turns red there is no doubt tina;
he patient no longer lives, for the acid
est is established. Sometimes it is I
ecessary to wait as long as ten min {
ties for the change from blue to red ,
o take place. bur once apparent it il
1t must be remembered
hat this test is useless before the
3pse of six hours, as acidity does nos
thoroughly establish itself in dead \
ody under this time.
1t is interesting to recall In connec- {
on with Doctor Icard'S test that oEo I
the tests commonly employed under
UGH circumstances has long been that r
grasping fold Of flesh with the E
3rceps and retaining 1t there for sew
raj moments. In the case of living
ody the ''pleat'' gradually returns IT, ri
ormaI, but when life Is extinct the =
of the flesh persists. Doc
n Icard's test (Which has been
1opted in the Narseilles hospitals) II
as u double value IN that II includes r
70 r,hvSi,.al foot nf rho onrnnrocSion ri "