Referring to the subject of premature burial, Dr. W. S. Hedley, writing to the Lancet, October 5, 1895, says:—“Forty years ago the subject was investigated by Crimotel, twenty years later by Rosenthal, and more recently by Onimus. It seems safe to say that in no disease, certainly in none of those conditions usually enumerated as likely to be mistaken for death, is galvanic and faradaic excitability abolished in every muscle of the body. On the other hand, electro-muscular contractility disappears in all the muscles within a few hours after death (generally ninety minutes to three hours, according to Rosenthal), its persistence varying to some extent with the particular muscle examined (1), and with the mode of death (2). Therefore, if electro-muscular contractility be present in any muscle, it means life or death only a few hours before. It is clear that no interment or post-mortem examination ought to take place so long as there is any flicker of electric excitability. To me it seems almost equally obvious that in all doubtful cases, sometimes in sudden death, and often to allay the anxiety of friends, this test ought to be applied, and applied by one who is accustomed to handle electric currents for purposes of diagnosis.”
The Medical Record, New York, March 30, 1895, contains the following:—“In a case reported by M. D’Arsonval, a man was struck with a current of four thousand five hundred volts. The current entered at his hand and issued at his back. Half an hour or more elapsed before any attempts at resuscitation were made, but, on artificial respiration being practised on Silvester’s method, recovery took place. Dr. Donnellan reports a case of the passage of a current of one thousand volts through a man, which instantly caused coma, dilated pupils, pallor of the face, and sweating; delirium and tonic, alternating with clonic, spasms followed. The pulse was eighty. The respiration, at first stertorous, passed into the Cheyne-Stokes type. After the injection, first of morphia, and then of strychnia, the patient fell into a deep sleep, from which he awoke convalescent.—Centralblatt für die medicinischen Wissenschaften.”
The apparatus for applying electrical currents, long used by the Humane Society for restoration of the drowned, might with advantage be kept at public mortuaries, for use in cases of apparent death due to other causes, where decomposition has not manifested itself. The Weather Bureau at Washington advises those who are in the neighbourhood of persons struck by lightning to make immediate efforts to restore consciousness, because the effect of lightning is to suspend animation rather than to produce death. Respiration and circulation should be stimulated, and the usual remedies for relief in such cases should be administered for at least an hour before giving up the victim as dead.
Dr. Moore Russell Fletcher says:—“When persons without pulse or breathing are found in bed, in the field, or elsewhere, treat them in such manner as will restore from stroke of lightning, paralysis, or suspended animation from catalepsy, trance, or somnambulism, and continue the treatment until resuscitation rewards the exertions, or decomposition is evident.”—Suspended Animation, pp. 7, 8.
HYPODERMIC INJECTIONS.
Mr. E. E. Carpmael, of the Medical Department, Berkeley University, U.S.A., recommends, in the Morning Post, London, September 19, 1895, the injection of strychnine in “a supposed corpse;” while “Medicus,” in the Daily Chronicle, September 17, 1895, considers that post-mortems “would be to the advantage of the patient, to his relations, to science, and the community at large.” No doubt either of these plans would prevent live sepulture, by killing the cataleptic subject; while “M.R.C.S.,” in Morning Post, September 20, says:—“Obviously the simplest and best proof of death is putrefaction—shown chiefly by the discolouration of the abdomen.”
HYPODERMIC INJECTIONS.
A correspondent in the English Mechanic, October 25, 1895, says:—“I have long advised hypodermic injection of morphia before placing in coffin for burial. Ex hypothesi, the vital spark is not supposed to have expired, and the circulatory system not finally stopped. Hence the hypodermic injection cannot be futile.”
A medical correspondent writing from Dresden, August 18, 1895, sends me the following as showing the value of