Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, December 23, 1919, Page 2

LITMUS PAPERS 10 TEST DEATH French Scientist Discovers Meth- od to Prove if Life Is Extinct. PRECLUDES BURIAL ALIVE ——, Test Is Physico-Chemical and Has te Do With Alkalinity ef the Body In Life—Litmus Paper Applied to Serum Taken Frem Body. Paris.—~The fear of being buried alive is perhaps an elemental fear— eme 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 well, and some of our most gifted writers Bave employed the theme of suspended aaimation for the basis of weird and ‘tertible tales and of poems of Dan- tesque horror. There has been some speculation ameng medical men during the war Just over as to the posaibility of & considerable number of ante-mortem ‘purials of soldiers who received their last attentions in villages where the facilitites for caring for desperately weunded men were of the most primi- tive kind. Precedents at Hand. Occasionally a newspaper carries a story of a victim of catalepsy or hys- teria undergoing a narrow escape from premature burial, and recently an English daily told of a nurse who was feund jn a forest between Berlin and Potsdam, apparently dead from an eoverdose of veronal, and who was placed in a 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 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. Severin Icard of Mar- seillés gives the results of his investi- gations in progress during a long period into this subject. His test 18 physico-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 acld. For a short period after death the tissues are both alkaline and acld, 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 ncid test I8 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 a French physi- cian, 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 a very simple method for procuring a few drops of serous matter from the tissues without mutilating 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 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 if it turns red there is no doubt that the patient no longer lives, for the acid test is established. Sometimes It is « mecessary to wait as long as ten min- utes for the change from blue to red to take place, but once apparent It is’ indisputable. It must be remembered that this test Is useless before the lapse of six hours, as acidity does not thoroughly establish itself in a dead body under this time. 1t is interesting to recall In connec- tion with Doctor Icard’s test that one of the tests commonly employed under such circumstances has long been that of grasping a fold of flesh with the forceps and retaining it there for sev- eral moments. In the case of a 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 a 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 the establishment of death in casea where doubt exists. Hitby Train, Carried to Safety on Pilot. Tuscaloosa, Ia.—Hit by a fast pas- senger train, carried eight miles on “the pllot unconscious, and then falling off by side of the track, was the ex- perience of Louis Hammett, who lives to tell the tale, although he is In a hospital, where he is likely to remain tor several weeks. ‘BILL’ COULD PREACH. THE BEMIDJI DAILY PIONEER Paris.—Two ice-creams was the price realized on a stolen %.0,000 pearl necklace by 'two hotel page- boys. The boys took it without any idea of its value, and failing to get an offer of $2, they traded ror tue| creams. would pick it up: Not Lucky Bald- win.” Nine men who Baldwin picked up from the streets are now preaching the gospel. He speaks of them with pride, and a smile which shows the row of gold teeth, replacing those knocked out by the butt end of an Arizona sheriff’s gun, lights his face. SAYS ‘LUCKY’ BALDWIN Chicago, Dec. 23.—Present day crooks are all pikers. That is the opinion of “Lucky” Baldwin, one time horse thief, train robber, pickpocket and at present “among those who have come back.” “Fearless crooks? Why, you don’t read of one in a year,” Lucky told the United Press. ‘“‘iue only one I have read about in months is “Bill” Car- lisle.” “And then they had to stop him,” he added with a tone of regret in his voice. *I would like to get a hold of Carlisle. He would make a wonder- ful preacher. He wouldn’t ve afraid to preach the gospel.” baldwin, whose right name is C. J. Balfe, but who is known to inmates of the Chicago workhouse, where une has been chaplain for seven years, as “Lucky,” knows crooks from A to Z, He was one himself for twenty-five years but was converted at the Mc- Auley Mission in New York City in|; 1908. - For the last eleven years he has been one of the most successful mis- sion workers in Chicago, due to his knowledge of the underworld and its people. ‘“Fifty per cent of the inmates of the prisons of the United States should never be put behind tne bars,” |! suhscribe for The Pionedr. Overdoing It. “What occasloned the sudden dis- appearance of Casecard Charley from Crimson Gulch?” “Too much safety first,” responded Cactus Joe. “Just before the poker game started the boys caught him marking the deck.” SUBSCRIBE FOR THE DAILY PIONEER $25.00 Christmas Present Place Your Order fo ra Ford Car—Only Twenty-five Dollars Deposit—Hang the Receipt on the Christmas b et RS R Tree and You Have Made “Take the ‘dips.” They wait until the Whole Faml]y some poor little girl starts to get on H a car—and then they grab her purse appy W™ with a few nickels and run. “The day 1 was converted, I start- ed to lift the roll of a guy in the Bowery in New York. Only silver te.. from his pockets. Do you think I C. W. Jewett Co., Inc. SUGGESTIONS FOR A LADY Lavalliere Ear Drops zh:li:::" et g::c-sl::.. 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