The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1920-01-02
LITMUS PAPERS
TO TEST DEATH
French Scientist Discovers Meth.
cd to Prove if Life Is
Extinct.
PREcLUDES BURIAL ALIVE
Test 10 Physieo- Chemical and Has 70
Do With AIkalinity Of the Body In
Llfs-Litmus Paper Applied to
Serum Taken From Body.

Lhe-Litmus Paper Applied to
Serum Taken From Body. r
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 1t 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
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 print
tive kind.
Precedents at Hand.
Occasionally a newspaper carries
story of victim of catalepsy or hys-
terra undergoing narrow escape from
premature burial, and recently an
English daily told of nurse who was
found In a forest between Berlin and
POtsdam, apparently dead from an
overdose of verOnal, and who was
placed in a coffin ready for burial.
Just before closing the coffin the un-
RI lyor fn y 10
her heart was beating and removed
her at once to q 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 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.
settles gives the results Of his investi-
cations in progress during long
period into this subject. His test Is
lphysico-chemIcal and has to do with
the alkalinity 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 a short period after death the
| tissues are both alkaline and acid, and
the ntmus 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.
| This passage from alkalinity to acid
| ity is found in all the animal series,
and as far back as 1870 it 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.
Litmus Paper Test.
The latter practitioner has made use
Of very simple method for procuring
few drops Of Serious matter from
the tissues without mutilating
the body. He attaches 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 and
in the depressiOns on each side of the
"pleat" of flesh made by the combining
| instrument are seen to OOZe several
drops of serum. The blue litmus is
| placed in contact with this fluid, and
if it turns red there is no doubt that
the patient no longer lives, for the acid
test is established. Sometimes it is
| necessary TO wait as long as ten min
utes for the change from blue to red
to take place. but once apparent it is
indisputable. 1t must be remembered
| that this test is useless before the
lapse of six hours, as acidfty does not
thoroughly establish itself in dead
body under this time.
| 1t is interesting to recall in cOnnec-
ton with Doctor Icards test that one
of the tests commonly employed under
such circumstances has long been that
of grasping fold of flesh with the
fOrceps and retaining it there for sew
eral moments. In the case of living
body the "pleat" gradually returns to
normal, but when life is extinct the
compression of the flesh persists. Doc
tor Icard's test (Which has been
adopted in the Marseilles hOspitals)
has q double value in that it includes
the physical test Of the compression of
the skin and the chemical test which
establishes a state OF acidity, thus
making assurance doubly sure" and
removing from the realm of chance
u, establishments nf death in cases