“LICKING” CREATION!

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1923, Page 4

“LICKING” CREATION!

DEAD MADE ALIVE. SAN FRANCISCO, April IS. Assuredly America can well lay claim to being the land of “tall things” and is constantly making promising efforts to “lick creation,” especially in the medicine firmament. Strange serums are being announced almost daily to remove the ailments to which flesh is heir, new forms of anaesthetics are proclaimed by leading American doctors, and now some of the medical practitioners of the United States almost believe they have solved the puzzle of centuries, and in Chicago people are asking whether the dead are to come hack. Not as spirits, hut actual I v to regain life after their hearts have stopped. Mr Denis W. (‘rile, of Chicago, and his uncle, Dr G. TV. ('rile, of Cleveland, solemnly affirm they have done work in the resurrection line, hut have not yet given names and other details which an eager world is breathlessly awaiting. These two doctors told the Chicago Medical Society and the Society of Anaesthetists that the wonder, can be accomplished by a serum consisting of extracts from the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands are mysterious. Recently noted surgeons stated that the glands are the stimulus of physical courage. The glands are located just above ibe kidneys. The serum is injected hv a needle in the heart. "Life can he restored by this method provided the cause of death can he (piicklv removed,” Dr (Tile stated. “With prompt and fearless treatment (lie patient may he made to live again. So far I have used the treatment only

in cases of persons who were pronounced dead. 'Hereafter I purpose to employ it upon persons who are dying.” HEART STIMULATED. Adrenalin finds its greatest utility in operations during which patients die from the anaesthetic, the discussion hrouglit out, hut" can he used in any situation where the cause of death call lie removed quickly. |)r Hugh S. AincKechiiie, president of the Medical Society, spoke in the highest terms of Or (Tile's researches, lie expressed his belie! that criminals electrocuted could be brought back to I i fe. "It would bv no means be safe or advisable,” be said, “with the results of those experiments known, tor the State Li let ilie relatives of such nil executed criminal take possession <>l the body, at least for many hours.” "hi the case of hanging,” lie added, “•resuscitation, though it often Mas been tried, would probably be out ol IJIO question, the reason being that the central nervous system lias been cut oil. ■Tail I should say that if Dr (Tile’s method were to be employed in the ease of an electrccuted criminal, it niighl succeed.

•■The effect of the treatment is to coni ract tin- blond vessels, especially ill the limbs : increase the blood pressure and stimulate the heart. The heart, of course, tan and olieii has been stimulated merely by the prick of a hatpin, but ihc injection of this gland secretion would lie much more effective.

"The treatment would he of most value in cases of shock, violent death, or drowning, or in the ease of patients alio die under anaesiheties. A sudden shock causes the blood vessels in the limbs in dibit" ; it surcharges them with blood, and there is not .suHieioni vital fluid in the heart to keep the victim alive. !i is tlii- coiidiiioii that the use ol adrenalin corrects.

"Il would lie impractical, if not impossible, to restore to life a patient who had died after a long, wasting disease. Nor could a human being he kept alive indefinitely by this treatment. Dr (rile has discovered no fountain of eternal youth. In the case ol the verv aged, the sudden increase ill Idle blood pressure would prove fatal." I)r ( rile urged physicians to undo general use of adrenalin, and recommended that hospitals he well supplied with it. CHEATING DEATH —EOT? "WHAT While American doctors have hoard with ext t mile interest the claims advanced on tclialT of adrenalin, some of the general public have approached C e subjct with mixed feelings. For ii ta.U'v. a ( aiifornian writer, Paul N. Vance, of Sausaliui. writing to a San !YatV'i 1 vi! iio'.vspaper. had this effusion for deration of a credulous public: "A new substance has been luirad, i read, Hud restores Hie detid It) Idd -son; dimes temporarily, someth''. - p uruii.'iiieiit !v. This means that slier ue ■:rr-dead and sleeping in peace f. r once, un!roubled .by nightmares or i Tec lioe, someone may stick a hpodernb," li-edle into us and buing us ha. k. to what

"\Y: ;• and piopareiions fur war, Licouio taxes to pay for wars planned and I. ,• wars fought, alarm docks, and insliMinent ("-died oi's, nagging wives and fau' tic I'tTuru or.-., movies scandals, and movies to; clubwomen and lab-

our strikes, profiteers and landlords, talking machines and people that play Them, the busy business man and his knife and fork clubs, the drug stores Iti'ii sell hardware, anil the people who think they think —meaning the psychoanalysts, the psychologists and the rest. ‘“God furhiu that they should use any adrenalin on me. AN hen I’m dead I want to stay dead!” Another scientific marvel was announced in Chicago a few days after the “hack to life” discovery, and this took the form of a micro-vivisection apparatus, governed by finely adjusted screws, whose work is so delicate and minutely exact as to enable it to dissect living human tells which are actually invisible to the naked eve. Ibis apparatus was perfected by Professor C. K. Tharaldsen of the department ol zoology of Northwestern University, according to an announcement made at the University.