Evening star., 1934-07-22

ration-al these methods science has
devised for resuscitating reviving
o person who apparently has died
But do they really restore the dead to lifeP
1t all depends what you mean by death,
or. to put it another way, how dead the
victim is. If you say a person is dead the
moment his heart has stopped its beating or
he has stopped breathing, one or another of
these methods may very well restore life to his
body by starting the heart and lungs going
again.
These methods do not always succeed. how
ever. and their success or failure depends on
what has happened to the rest of his body,
particularly to his brain. If certain organs
such as the kidneys or liver have become so
broken down by disease that they cannot func-
ton, or if there is so much poison, either
chemical or bacterial IN the body that it cannot
be entirely eliminated. starting the heart and
lung action viii not be of any
Restoring life, however, is not merely mat
ter of starting the heart beating and the lungs
breathing, as you may have supposed. 1t is
matter also of starting the brain functioning,
getting the mental processes going once more.
Science has not yet found restorative for a
dead brain, though it has many devices for
printing the body's pump, the heart
Elf I were shocked by an electric current J.
! would not want any one to bring me back to
life" declared eminent psychologist For
If were resuscitated the chances are my brain
would not be functioning and would be dead
from the neck up"
The brain dies" from starvation 1t gets it's
nourishment from the blood constantly pumped
TO it by the heart. When the heart stops pump
ing for any length of time the brain is deprived
of nourishment and starves to death.
The whole matter of restoring life after death
depends on how long the brain has been de-
prived of nourishment That is why, when you
or an electric shock, you must start resuscita-
tfon at once without even waiting for doctor
No knows yet how long the brain can be
completely deprived of blood supply and still
be revived Possibly not more than 10 or Is
minutes But the exact limit has not been
determined, although psychologists have given
this problem some attention.
This the of the experiments carried
on at the University of California by Dr. Robert
Z. Cornish whose revival of dog that had died
attracted Nation wide interest. DR.. Cornish
and associates succeeded in starting the dogs
heart and circulation by methods commonly
and often successfully used to revive victims of
accidents or dying patients.
As result the animals body came to life.
But its brain, according to early reports, failed
to function properly. 1t had apparently been
too long deprived of nourishment.
Psychologists, hearing of Or. CornishS in
vestigationS, hoped that they would shed light
on the question: OF now long tle Drain couto De
starved without being irreyocably damaged
But the question has not yet been fully an
swered.
The dog is said to have barked and eaten
food, even to have recognized certain voices
and signals Its brain however, was not re-
stored to completely normal fInctioning: the
dog may never be more than q half-wit.
Failure to restore life to accident victims is
usually due to the fact that too much time has
elapsed after apparent death occurred. Even
if improved methods Of reSuscitation could start
heart action and breathing in victims dead for
any length of time, Psychologists suggest that
such success might be anything but kindness
to the victim his family
CCIENTISTS working at the Johns Hopkins
- University. however, have found q way
around this difhculty under certain conditions
of death. Animal victims of electric shock from
a low-voltage current such as Is carried on
the ordinary household wires, may be restored