THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4295, 2 March 1901, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE "SALT ■ CL HE. 3 ’ ySome humorous . American has been making extracts; about a suit cure from ancient vcisaips of the “Lancet” and sollyjg-thorn, its up-to-date ‘•copy.”,. The, experiments on, dogs in Chicago. a,boui which' there lias been so. much .dLscuskion, are-' precisely as Dr vVard Eicliiirtlson performed- them, sonjc twent y yours ago in'London. Thoro is not king. ,uc.w about ibis great suit euro. It is used not only in all our hospitals, hut by 'hntidreds of doctors hi private practice. ■ It was .used as,long ‘ago .is 1848 when cholera was in Lun- ’ don. And, aecnnli-ig. to medical ro- • cords. Sir. C, .Wren ;.-u<’k-t:.s,sfu!ly practised it ijiTo3Gl Bat it is a wonderful remedy, nevertheless, for it icings ihc dead to life.

When' a. person 10-es iibout ’one-tliird of Jlis blond, he falls into a state of collapse ;uul,. ten cjiauccs to one, hL heart will-stop-boating and he will din. Yet In> has .stiij . plenty of Mood in Ir-s hotly. to suppm’fc life. ■ Why does ho die,? The- veins .ordinarily are full of blood, and their walls; are in a-shite of tension.;.- liko a. :pneumatic lyre. . . Consequently, they- -are-’ constantly discharging the blosd iutoi the heart, and the. Heart>is;pumping it back into the arter-ies;--after ”.-ii thos: ibbonic.-purified iu the -lungs; -.But, when 'severe bleeding-oc-curs, the. veins-collapse, jur.t, liken punctured tyro. Little’»or- no • -blood pastes into the heart, and so the-heart - stops: pumping. Tliis, of coarse, moans death. Whr.fc the. , dying map- needs is more fluid in his veins. - About two thousand yeai-fl ago it -was discovered that tho blood of an nriiiiiial .could bo .'injected into tho voir.-; of-■ snail a- p.;-ientand his life saved.- But the blood of- animals is a dangerous fluid and .so variola; other t hings eamo to he in-'cd. Ono ;of those was pure valor. Pure water, however, injures the blood remaining in the veins. The blood contains a largo quantity of various- kinds of salts, especially eillor--sdo 'of -sodium or common table .salt. It was but a short step to mix salt with the watch.’hmd this Aras done -for Tim first tirne hy'Libavnons in the year 1615.

The' exact mixture used ,1 y doctors now is the following Chloride of sodium (common salt), one draolim,; chloride of imtns.sium, six grains; phosphate <;i sodium, three grains; carbonate of sodium, twenty grains; alcohol,,one. drachm ; distilled water, one pint. - "Suppose, now. a man is stabbed,' or enikhod by machinery, and losdfe; u lot'.'of blood. . J When ho_ arrives at' the 'hospital ho is insensible. His .heart ; is ,-barely beating and can scarcely,.ho' fell. In La few minutes ho will, hoi no .mofc-i- Tho-‘surgeon .'.takes half a" pint or upwards of tho abode mixture .and warms., it • to blood, heat, opens a ifiii Mu; tho elbow, gobs ■ a glass syringej' and injects tho fluid, into tho vein. '

In a fow seconds the heart is filled onco more, it begins to beat mors and more strongly, avid, within, three or four 'minutes' tho man recovers' ,oonsciqushossl (The salt mixture is not at

all flourishing; it is no,elixir of life. It merely increases tho- bulk'of - tho blood sb, that the .heart is filled - and gets a “purchase’*'for its action- , Some years ago a' boy of fifteen was taken to the London 'Hospital' and, 'flu arrival, ho was' at the. last .gasp. Ho had been caught’ in tho- machinery of a mill and so badly torn _that ho . lost n’carly’half of hib; blood: : No -drugs, botwatcr - 'bottles, 'bVandy,' or''anythingof the kind could' Rave him. But when a feiy ounces of salt'solution were injected' into' his blood vessels,, lie became conscious immediately, and made a good recovery. ■„ ' - : .1-

At Guy’s Hospital men and women, apparently ‘dead,; haVo, been frequently brought;‘back to! health by this curious remedy. And dvewtP dying child, ’aged nine months,; -wasi recently restored to life at' tho GMldrenV Hospital in Great Ormond: street. -1 - <■

; For/, cholera,, the, .salt solution has proved an, excellent cure. In this disease tho Wood becomes ,a.s thick as tar and ceases to llqw’.ithrough tho bloodvessels. A .pint jpv .two’; of..saline solution '.brings, the blopd' hack to its , natural fluid couditioif; but it .does ,not always save the life',, of theipatient, ,

Sir Spencer Wcilf> used this remedy tc a great extent- in; 1848-49. , Sir -. B. Ward Richardson used it in the case of a woman.*.who?;was; .actually lying dead from cholera. In ;a. few minutes she sat 1 up in bed and made her will; but after' a little?; while - .sho died again. ■ A renewal of the injection,, however, restored her once more. And she was brought back to life in this way no fewer than six times. But Iho cholera had the mastery in , the end; :->■ As to the experiments on dogs that have been recorded ,as something altoaether new, they have been performed by. the. thousand all Overvcho world for the last fifty years. The late Df Woolbridge, of London, bled a dog to .death and. by injecting a quantity of Salt solution’, brought him' so quickly" to life again that. the ’ animal.‘ ran about tho laboratory'in half an hoiir- and'eat a hearty meal as if nothing had happened. To any one seeing such an experiment for the first time. it. would appear 'that, the salt possessed some wonderful, invigorating quality, .This 'is- what some unscrupulous 'American is. trying, to make the public'believe. . But all the saline solution does, is to offer resistance to the heart. Xt deceives the heart into boating. Plain 'waicr would, do the same, but for the ,curious .fact that it paralyses muscle. TJife.gait merely.prevents* the water from paralysing the muscle. But let no olK* he induced to believe that salt is an clixir'bf Hfe; ; ' A certain small quantity is'necessary. But to’take more than one usually, does at meals would do actual, harm.—‘'Daily Mail.” . ■ ; ■ •