The Raymer enterprise., 1920-02-05
LITMUS PAPERS
TO TEST DEATH
French Scientist Discovers Meth
Cd to Prove v Life Is
Extinct.
PREttIDEs BURIAL MIW
Test 10 Physloe-ch Chemical and Has to
pe With AikalInity II the Body In
lfs-lltmus Paper Applied to
Serum Taken From Body.

lIfs-lltmus Paper Applied to
serum Taken From Body.
Paria-The fear Of being buried
alive Ii perhaps an elemental fear
one OF the horrors that have haunted
mankind through the ages. Not only
the simple and ignorant nave suffered
because Of It but wise men as well,
and some Of eur 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 a. to the possibility Of q
considerable number Of ante-mortem
burials Of soldiers who received their
last attentions In villages where the
facilities for caring for desperately
wounded men were Of the most prIml-
tive kind.
Preesdsnts At Hand.
Occasionally q newspaper carries a
story Of victim Of catalepsy or hys-
terra undergoing narrow escape from
premature burial, and recently an
English daily told OF q nurse who was
found In forest between Berlin and
Potsdam. apparently dead from an
overdose Of ver0nal, and who was
placed In q CONN ready for burial.
Just before closing the coffin the IN
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 nnally opened her eyes and
uttered few incoherent words. Such
authenticated Incidents cause the
reader to ask II 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 invssti-
cations In progress during long
period into this subject. His test y
physic0-chemi and has to do with
the alkalInity Of the body In life. Il
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 q short period after death the
tissues are both alkaline and acid. and
the lltmus paper test shows both blue
and red. But seven or eight hours af-
ter death Ii supposed to have taken
place the test Is positive; II life Is ex-
tinct the acid test Is unmistakable and
the blue paper becomes q deep wine
red.
This passage from alkalinlty to acid
ity Is found In all the animal series,
and as far back as 1870 1t was urged
as 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
bis experiments.
Lltmus Paper Test
The latter practitioner has made use
Of very simple method for procuring
q few drops of serous matter from
the tissues without mutilating
the body. He attaches small pair Of
f0rceps to q 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 and
In the depressions ON each side Of the
''pleat" Of flesh made by the confining
instrument are seen to ooze several
drops Of serum. The blue litmus Is
placed In contact with this fluid. and
Il II turns red there Is no doubt that
tAe patient no longer lives. for the acid
test h established Sometimes It Is
necessary to walt as long as ten min
utes for tho change from blue to red
to take place. Apt once apparent II IL
indisputable. Il must be remembered
that this test Is useless before the
lapes Of SIX hours. ~ 1eidlty does not
thoroughly establish itself In a dead
BODY under this time.
Il h interesting to recall In coanec-
don with Doctor, Icard's test that ono
Of The tests commonly employed under
such eircunstances has long been that
of grasping 1 fold of nesh with the
forcsps and retaining II there for sew
eral moments. In the case Of living
body the ''pleat" gradually returns to
Normal. but when life d extinct the
compression sf the Aesh persists. Doc
tor Icard's test (which has been
adopted Ii the Narseilles Hospitality
has Z double value 10 that It Includes
The physical test Of the compression of