RAISING THE DEAD. A REMARKABLE CLAIM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7702, 9 July 1903, Page 2

RAISING THE DEAD. A REMARKABLE CLAIM.

" Death " being a term so absolute, there will be widespread scepticism over the Statement, even tlipugh attributed 1 ('by the American correspondent of the "Daily •Telegraph") to "a physician 'of repute in 2few York}" that "the resuscitation, of (persons after death, under certain conditions, can ho accomplished." Dr Robert Kemp asserts that he has "proved it 'beyond a. doubt by operations upon dogs whose hearts have ceassd' to ibeatj" and lie believes, though he encountered a failure last year, that he w ill yet succeed in the resuscitation of a human 'being j but it mmst bB ranemibered that it has long been held widely that death cannot be assumed until conniption has set iii. Dr Kemp does not assert that -his method is entirely jiew, as Dr Pruss, in Europe^ by mac-sage of the heart, once brought a man to life and kept him alive for twelve ihours. He has, however (says the " Telegraph's " correspondent), improved on Dr Pruss, and \ 'believes that it will be possible to ibwng miany patients back to lite and to perma-. li-cnt recovery. The opinion of experts in 'London raises very little hoipo that a fresh lenee- of life can be given to humanity by, Dr Kemp's experiments. Some of them profess to have no knowledge of the American physician. "A man lias igot to die some time, and it is nob only the heart which is involved in deatih as a rule/ observed an •eaninent authority to whom a Westminster represantatiyQ referred! Dr Kemp's claims. " There is general weakness, and' there is also .decay arising from old age. Again, if a dead man's I\ings are tuberculous, or his liver cancerous' keeping his heart beating •will not get rid oif either disease. The heart is a very important organ, ibut not the only one; and' it is well known that both human and animal hearts, recently removed from the corpse, can be made to beat and) can be kept 'beating for \hours by feeding them with a Suitable nutritive saline fluid. As to Dr Kemp's claims, however, I should not like to phophesy ; wondterful things have' been done, and one can aay no more thai that." Another authority was not less emphatic. " It ia said," be 'remarked, " that a fly can; 'bo brought bock to life by covering it -with salt. Nothing of the sort. Supposing you try to drown a fly>-rwihat then? You cannolt sutoceed, because a fly will not drown. The unaccustomed element and! tho coldness cause it to appear dead,4but it is only dbronqint, and the effect of the jsait upon ib is that of a stimulant. For my -own 1 part, i defy any operator to restore- a deadl body to life. A person who has been under an anaesthetic, and who is apparently d"eiad, may "be made to appear alive; by continued 'pressure on the ribs end by working tho tongue; but there can be nothing 'beyond that. As a matter of fact, even when we have actually wanted to keep a dtog or cat alivei w« have, with all our experiments and endeavours, utterly failed/ A third authority points out that Dr Kemp's efforts were obviously involvedi in .fche difference between actual death and molecular deatih. " The animal tissues^' he observed, "no doubt live for a time after death. Massage of the hear* from outside is being used now in the cases of patients who die under an anaesthetic. I hove seen the abdomen opened, a.nd the heart massaged 1 with the hand tihrough tbe diaphragm from below the* ribs in order to get it to frcji again. As a matter of fact, you can see the heait start beating ; but it all depends on the circumstances oi the case. I have se*iri two such cases, but it is a desperate remedy. The experiment/ did not succeed. But, of course, you are prepared to take any risks in such eases. It 'has no doubt foeen done in other places, but in the two cases which pamc -under my own observation the patients were doomed before the experime<nt- was started."