Extraordinary Discovery.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3130, 28 February 1879, Page 2

Extraordinary Discovery.

We gladly give publicity to a discovery that promises to revolutionise all previous theories of meat exportation. If the narrator of the following extraordinary facts is not too sanguine as to the success of the marvellous experiments he informs 5 us he has witnessed, the squatter who to-day is puzzled over the future pros* pects for his surplus stock has opportunities before him that may fairly be termed golden. All the most startling discoveries =■; of the age at the first hint, hare been received with incredulity, which their after success has turned to the discredit of the early sceptios, so that in matters of science it would appear unsafe to doubt, or look upon any result as beyond the limits of the possible.. For this reason we venture no opinion on the following process, an account of which we give in the writer's own words :—

Any of your readers who know Sydney .Harbor will remember the long inlet opposite the heads known as Middle Harbor, which ia a succession of landlocked reaches stretches away like a chain of lakes for over twenty miles. On one of these reaches, made more than ordinarily picturesque by the old headlands that drop almost sheer into thpjMrater, stand on about an acre of grassy flat, fringed by white beach on which the clear waters of the harbor lap, two low brick buildings.' Here in perfeot seclusion and with a careful avoidance of publicity is being conducted an experiment the success of which, now established beyond any doubt, must have a wider effect npon the future prosperity of Australia than any project ever contemplated. The gentlemen engaged in this enterprise are Signor Rotura, whose researches into the botany and natural history of South America have rendered his name eminent, and Mr James Grant, a pupil of the late Mr Nicolle, so long associated with Mr Thomas Mort in his freezing process. Next to the late Mr Nicolle, Mr James Grant can claim pre-eminence of knowledge in the science of generating cold, and his freezing chamber at Woolhara has long been known as the seat of valuable experiments originated in Mr Nicolle's lifetime. It appears about five months ago Signor Rotura called upon Mr Grant to invoke his assistance in a scheme for the transmission of live stock to Europe. Signor Rotura averred that he had discovered a South American vegetable poison, allied to the well known' iooorata % that had the power of perfectly, suspend* ing animation, and that the trance thus produced continued till the application of another essence caused, the blood to resume its circulation and the heart its functions. So perfect, moreover, was this suspension of life that Signor Rotura had found in a warm climate decomposition set in at the extremities after a week of this living death, and he imagined if the body while in this inert state were reduced

to a temperature sufficiently low to arrest decomposition the trance might be kept up for months, possibly for years. He frankly owned he had never tried this preserving of the tissues by cold, and could not confidently speak as to its effect upon the after restoration of the animal operated on. Before he left Mr Grant, he had turned that gentleman's doubts in wondering curiosity by experimenting on his dog. He injected two drops of his liquid mixed with a little glycerine into a small puncture made in the dog's ear, and in three or four minutes the animal was perfectly rigid, the four legs st-etched backwards, eyes wide open, pupils very much dilated, and exhibiting symptoms very similar to those of death by strychnine, except that there had been no previous struggle or pain. Begging his owner to have no apprehensions for the life of this favourite animal, Signor Eotura lifted the dog carefully and placed him on a shelf in a cupboard, where he begged he might be left till the following day, when he promised to call at 10 o'clock and revive the apparently dead brute. Mr Grant continually during that night and day visited the cup bo&«J, and so perfectly was life suspended in his favorite—no motion of the pulse or heart giving any indication^ of the possibility of revival, the frame being perfectly rigid—that he confesses he felt all the sharpest remorse at having pacrificed a faithful friend to a doubtful and dangerous experiment. The temperature of the body, too, in the first four hours gradually lowered to 25 degrees Fahrenheit below ordinary blood temperature, which increased his fears as to the result, and by morning the body was as cold as in actual death. At 10 o'clock next morning, according to promise, Signor Eotura presented himself, and, laughing at Mr Grant's fears requested a tub of warm water to be brought. He tested this with thermometer to 92 degrees Fahrenheit, and in this laid the dog head under. To Mr Grant's objections Signor Eotura assured him that, as animation must remain entirely suspended till the administration of the antidote, no water could be drawn into the lungs, and that the immersion of the body was simply to bring it again to blood heat. After about ten minutes of this bath the body was taken out and another liquid injected in a puncture made ia the neck. Mr Grant tells me the revival of "Turk" was the most startling thing he ever witnessed; and having since seen the same experiment made upon a sheep I can fully confirm his statement. The dog first showed the return of life in the eye, and after five and a-half minutes he drew a first long breath, and the rigidity left his limbs. In a few minutes more he commenced gently wagging his tail, and then slowly got up, stretched himself and trotted off as though nothing had happened. From that moment Mr Grant became aware of the extraordinary issues opened by his visitor's discovery, and promised him all the assistance in his power. They next determined to try freezing the body, and the first two experiments were discouraging. A dog (not Turk, his master declining to experiment any further on this favorite) was put in the freezing chamber at Mr Grant's works for four days, after being previously " suspended " by Signor Eotura; and although the animal revived so far as to draw a long breath, the vital energies appeared too exhausted for a complete rally, and the animal died. The two next animals—a dog and a cat-—died in like manner. In the meantime Dr Barker had been taken into their counsels, and at his suggestion respirations was encouraged as in the case of persons drowned, by artificial compression and expansion of the lungs. Dr Barker was of opinion that, as the heart in every case commenced to beat, it was a want of vital force to set the lungs in proper motion that caused death. The result showed his surmises to be entirely correct. A number of nnimals whose life has been sealed up in this artificial death, have been kept in the freezing chamber from one to five weeks, and it is found that, though the shock to the system from this freezing is very great, it is not increased by duration of time. Messrs Grant and Eotura then determined upon the erection of the works just finished at Middle Harbor, an enterprising capitalist, Mr Christopher Newton, of Pitt street, finding the necessary funds. On Saturday last I was invited to go down with a.member of the staff of the Sydney Morning Herald to see what had been effected. The gentleman from the Herald, by an unfortunate mistake as to out starting point, was left behind, and Messrs Grant, Eotura, Newton, and myself formed the party on board the smart little steam.launch that cut through the still waters of the bay at the rate of ten knots. Arrived at the works in Middle Harbor, I was taken into the building that contains Mr Grant's apparatus for generating cold, which has already been, in Mr Nieholle's time, too often and fully described to require any further notice from me. Attached to this is the freezing chamber, a small dark room about Bft. by 10ft. Here were fourteen sheep, four lambs, and three pigs, stacked on their sides in a heap, alive, which Mr Grant told me had fesPJjs. in their present position for nineteen days, and were to remain their for another three months. Selecting one of the lambs, Signor Eotura put it on his shoulder and carried it outside into the other building, where were a number of shallow cemented tanks in the floor, having hot and cold water taps to each tank, and a thermometer hanging alongside. One of these tanks was quickly filled, and its temperature tested by the eignor, I meanwhile examining with _the greatest curiosity and wonder the nineteen days dead lamb. The days of miracles truly seem to have come back to us, and many of the stories discarded as absurdities seem to me less improbable than this fact witnessed by myself. There was the lamb, to all appearance dead, and as hard almost as a stone, the only difference perciptible to me between this condition and actual death being the absence of dull glassiness about the eye, which still retained its brilliant transparency. Indeed this brilliancy of the eye, which is heightened by the enlargement of the pupil, is very striking, and lends a rather weird appearance to the bodies. The lamb was dropped gently into the warm bath, and was allowed to remain in it about twertythree minutes, its head being raised above water twice for the.introdact.ion of a thermometer into the mouth, and then it was taken out and placed on its side on the floor, Signor Kotura quickly dividing the wool on the neck and inserting the sharp point of a small silver syringe under the skin and injecting the antidote. This was a pale green liquid, and is, I believe, a decotion from the root of the Astracharlis found in South America. The lamb was

then turned on its back, Signor Eotura standing across it, gently compressing its ribs with his knees and hands}, in such a manner as to imitate their natural depression and expansion during breathing. In ten minutes the animal was struggling to free itself, and when released skipped out through the door and went gambooling and bleating over the field in front. Nothing has ever impressed me so entirely with a sense of the marvellous. One is almost tempted to ask in presence of such a discovery whether death itself may not ultimately be baffled by scientific investigation.

You will see at once the benefits claimed by the discoverers of this progress. Cargoes of live sheep can thus be sent to England by laree steamers, and although a freezing atmosphere will still be an essential, a temporary break-down, necessitating a stoppage of eight or ten days in the production of cold would be of no consequence. When the sheep are landed in England, any that fail to entirely rally will be perfectly good meat, whereas the other can be turned on to pastures or driven to market. Of course the same results can be achieved wiJh bullocks, but their greater weiaht makes them more difficult to handle with safety, and the carcass is rendered brittle by freezing, making them mora liable to injury. It sounded odd to hear Mr Grant and Signor Rotura lying stress upon the danger of " breakage " on the voyage.

Signor Eotura tells me that though he has never attempted his experiment on a human being he has no doubt at all as to its perfect safety. The next felon under capital sentence he has requested Sir Henry Parkes to be allowed to operate on. He proposes placing him in the freezing chamber for one month, and declares he has no fear of a fatal result As to whether this temporary suspension would affect the longevity of the subject he can give no positive information, but believes its duration might be prolonged, for years. I was anxious to know, if a period of say five years of this inertnest were submitted to, whether it would be so much cut out of one's life, or it would be simply five years of unconscious existence tacked on to one's sentient life. Signor Eotura could give no positive answer, but believes as no change takes place, or can take place while in this frozen trance—no consumption, destruction, or reparation of tissue being possible —it would be so many unvalued and profitless years added to a lifetime. It occurred to me at once, what a chance for young gentlemen of fortune, who have outrun their means, allowing their finances to right themselves by the most rigid of all personal stage! We should probably have no more impecunious governors sent out to the colonies to live on their screw, while the home estates freed thsmselves of debt; if these gentlemen had the option of a dreamless exile in the freezing chamber. But this, of course, is idle speculation. The great fact, however, remains that live stock can now be sent to Europe by the longest route, by the aid of cold, with an absolute certainty of no loss.—Queenslander.

Cross-Eyed.— A cruel man described his mother-in-law's eyes in the following outrageous manner :—" She is so crosseyed that whenever she cries her tears flow cross-ways over her back."