Charlevoix county herald., 1919-12-26
.L|TMUS PAPERS
TO TEST DEATH.
French Scientist Discovers Meth
Cd to Prove if Life Is
Extinct.
PREcLUDES BURIAL alive
Test 10 Physieo- Chemical and Has to
DO With AlkaIinity Of the Body In
life-Litmus Paper Applied to
Serum Taken From Body.

Paris.-The fear OF being buried
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 IL 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 Il
considerable number of ante-mOrtem
burials of soldiers who received their
last attentions I'm villages where the
facilities for caring for desperately
wounded men were of the most priml-
tive kind.
Precedents at Hand.
Occasionally newspaper carries a
story of victim of catalepsy or hys-
terra undergoing narrow escape from
premature burial. and recently On
English daily told of a nurse who was
found In a forest between Berlin and
Potsdam, apparently dead from an
overdose Of veronal, and who was
placed In q coffin ready for burial.
Just before closing the coffin the un-
dertaker discovered to his horror that
her heart was beating and removed
her at once to a hospital. where she
was given electrical treatment, under
which she finally opened her eyes and
uttered 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
seilles gives the results of his invest-
cations in progress during long
period into this subject. His test is
physico- chemical and has to do with
the alkalinity Of the body in life. In
other words, as long as life is present
Ia the human organism the fluids (with
the exception of the urine, the gastric
Juices and the sweaD 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 unmstakable aad
the blue paper becomes a deep wine
red.
This passage from alkalinity to acid.
lty is found in all the animal series
and as far back as 1870 1t was urged
as a test for death by French physi'
clan, Doctor Delagree, 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.
Lltmus Paper Test.
The latter practitioner has made use
of very simple method for procuring
a few drops of serous matter from
the tissues without mutilatine
the body. He attaches a small pair OF
forceps to a fold of skin and clamps
them in place, leaving them in position
for five or six minutes. At the end OF
this time the forceps are removed anC
in the depressions on each side Of the
-1pleat" of flesh made by the confinlrl
instrument are seen 10 oOze severa
drops of serum. The blue litmus Il
placed in contact with this fluid. arc
IL II turns red there is no doubt thai
the patient no longer lives, for the aciC
test Is established. Sometimes II l,
necessary to wait as long as ten min
utes for the change from blue to ret
20 take place. but once apparent IL I:
sftdisputable. II must be remembered
that this test Is useless before the
aapse of six hours. as acidity does no
thoroughly establish itself in deat
body under this time.
1t is interesting to recall In conaec
ton with Doctor Jcard's test that on'
of the tests commonly employed under
such circumstances has long been tha
of grasping q fold of flesh with the
forceps and retaining 1t there for sey
eraI moments. Ia the case of livinl
body the 'pleat" gradually returns e
normal. but when life is extinct tn,
compression of the FISH persists. Doc
tor Icard's test (Which has beeI
adopted In the Marseilles hospitals|
has a double value IN that IL includes