PREMATURE BURIAL.

PREMATURE BURIAL.-THE MEDICAL SOOIETY OF LONDON.

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while in others it plays a secondary part.they are dead. We say without hesitation that cases of i death are few, and that those in which the careful consideration of his own results and a com-simulated is likeness cannot be effaced do not exist. other Freund conOf the with those of Dr. observers, parison vincel that this organism is the direct cause of certain formsrecorded instances of premature burial the vast majority are of acute, chronic, and recurring enteritis, characterised by wholly devoid of foundation in fact, and the doubtful abdominal pain, diarrhoea, loss of weight and strength, and remainder are wanting in substantiation by the only evidence ansemu. Dr. David Murray Oowie of Ann Arbor and Dr. worthy of credence-that of a qualified medical man. In James Frederick Munson of Sonyea, N.Y., give the results some parts of Germany what are termed funeral chambers of an Experimental Study of the Action of Oil on Gastric are provided for the purpose of watching bodies in order to Acidity and Motility. They find that olive oil and cotton- verify the fact of death. In some of these a bell rope is seed oil, when given in connexion with the usual test break- placed in the hands of the corpse, but as a distinguished fast, decrease the gastric acidity at the end of the hour and authority has pithily remarked, 11 since the institution of retard the evacuation of the stomach, that the secretion these chambers no one has ever heard the bell ring." We of hydrochloric acid is delayed when oil precedes the meal may fittingly close these remarks with the words of Brouardel, and is unchanged when oil follows it, and that the height "Let us say at once that one fact is found to be almost of secretion is lowered when oil precedes the meal and is constantly present-viz., in the immense majority of cases unchanged when given afterwards. They conclude that oil the persons died without having been seen during their is in suitable cases preferable to antacids because of its illness by a physician, and were buried without a physician heat value, and recommend that in hyperchlorhydria it having had the opportunity of verifying their death." should precede the meal, that in hypochlorhydria it should follow the meal, and that its use should be avoided in stasis THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. and persistent slow evacuation. Dr. Hugh A. Stewart of AT a general meeting of the Medical Society of London, Baltimore records his observations on the Pulse and at 11, Chandos-street, Cavendish-square, London, on held Blood Pressure Changes in Aortic Insufficiency. He confirms Henderson’s statement that the cardiac cycle is not May llth, Mr. C. B. Lockwood was elected President and the diphasic but triphasic, consisting of systole, the period of following were elected members of the Council : Mr. Charles ventricular discharge; diastole, the period of ventricular A. Ballance, Dr. Walter Broadbent, Mr. Edred M. Corner, relaxation and filling ; and diastasis, the period of rest. From Dr. Bertrand Dawson, Dr. John H. Drysdale, Mr. Harold

etiological factor,

After

a

A. T. Fairbank, Colonel Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bart., R.A.M.C., Dr. James Kingston Fowler, Mr. A. Corrie Keep, Mr. oubic centimetre of blood and that the volume of blood V. Warren Low, Dr. Percy J. F. Lush, Dr. Frederick S. which regurgitates is negligible. The fall of blood pressure Palmer, Dr. J. Porter Parkinson, Dr. J. J. Perkins, Dr. in aortic regurgitation is due to the diminished peripheral Frederick J. Poynton, Mr. Herbert Tilley, Dr. R. Cecil ocesistance brought about by a reflex inhibition of the vaso- Wall, Mr. Charles Gordon Watson, Dr. F. Parkes Weber, motor centre and not to loss of blood by regurgitation. We and Dr. W. Essex Wynter. wish the American Medical Association every success in this endeavour to found a periodical dealing with the scientific THE QUESTIONABLE EFFICIENCY OF ATROPINE aspects of medicine. IN CHLOROFORM POISONING.

experimental investigations he finds that aortic regurgitation increases the systolic output in the dog by only a fraction of a

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PREMATURE BURIAL.

IN the Biochemical Journal of April 16th Dr. W. Webster IN a contemporary journal on April 28th there appeared contributes notes on the action of atropine, hyoscyamine, under the following headlines, " Living Woman in a Coffin- hyoscine, scopolamine, duboisine, and daturine, representing Narrow Escape from being Buried Alive," a detailed account the results of a research which was begun with the primary of an alleged circumstance calculated to strike terror into object of testing the efficiency of atropine as a restorative in the minds of people, and especially those who are unusually poisoning by chloroform, or as a precautionary measure receptive of the marvellous. In a later issue it was stated before its administration. Dr. Webster found as close a relathat there was no foundation for the report. Although tionship between these substances as regards their physiopremature burial cannot be denied absolutely we may say logical action as there is between their chemical structure, with Brouardel, " if a mistake has been made it is a popular no difference being detected between them from a physioblunder and not a medical one." There are many circum- logical point of view. The experiments were performed on stances which cause death to be simulated but the phenomenon dogs and cats and the anæsthetics employed were chloroform, ,can never, at least in this country, give rise to a mistaken ether, or the A.C.E. mixture, and in a few cases curare in belief when properly examined by a qualified medical man. addition. The investigation was restricted to the gross Apparent death, or, as it has been termed, " latent life," effects upon the heart, circulation, and respiration, and is occasionally observed under a variety of conditions. In brought out several points of interest. In dogs atropine, hysteria, catalepsy or trance, and syncope from mental or hyoscine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and daturine, whether physical shock the signs of life may be reduced to a in small or large doses, produced a lowering of the blood minimum. The same occurs in many cases of so-called pressure. Dr. Webster considers that although these drugs stillbirth and in supposed deaths from drowning. Pro- eliminate the tonic inhibitory action of the vagus, they have a longed attempts at resuscitation of bodies apparently lifeless simultaneous action on the heart substance, diminishing the at once exemplify the condition and indicate the knowledge output. The frequent administration of increasing doses of that life may be distinguished from the simulacrum of death. these drugs produces a condition of tolerance within one or Short of cadaveric decomposition there is no certain sign of two hours, enabling the animal to withstand, with comparadeath, much less an absolute criterion which can determine tively slight reaction, very many times the dose which would the precise moment of death. In some cases of somatic have been fatal at the beginning of the experiment. In death-e.g., after decapitation-the heart, once termed small doses the respiration is quickened and rendered deeper; "ultimum moriens," has been known to beat for many in large doses it is often paralysed immediately. In so far minutes. It is not our purpose to discuss here the various as they go these experiments do not tend to encourage the signs of death and their relative value but to assail what has use of atropine in chloroform poisoning. Suprarenin, on the become in some degree a popular belief that bodies may be other hand, seems to be of much more, though limited, buried alive because of the supposed inability to prove that utility. Its effect is transitory, so that as a rule small