A Very Strange Story.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 11, 19 January 1870, Page 2

A Very Strange Story.

A Florence newspaper extracts from the “ Annales do la Medicine et do la Chirurgie Etrangere” the following extraordinary history. The Italian paper, for reasons easily to be gathered, does not give implicit credence to this statement, nor lend it the editorial sanction ; On the 18th of April, 1863 *' f >— ‘ priso** of Yillarica (Province of Minas-Geraes), in Brazil, two men named Aveiro and Cannes were executed at the same time. In Brazil executions take place with closed doors, in the interior of the prison. Dr Lorenzo y Carmo, of Rio Janeiro, well known by savants for his remarkable works on electricity applied to physiology, his surgical sjcill, and his success in autoplastic opera, tions, obtained permission to profit by this event in order to experiment on the power of electricity, and illustrate its analogy with some of the phenomena of life. The numerous experiments hitherto attempted have been made on the head and trunk separately. Dr Lorenzo y Carmo’s design was, if possible, to unite the head to the neck after decapitation. The heads of the two criminals fell within a few moments of each other into the same basket ; first that of Carines, then that ef Aveiro. Immediately after the second decapitation a compression was effected by a pupil of Dr Lorenzo on the carotid arteries of one of the beads, so as to stop the hemorrhage. The body was then placed on a bed prepared for it, and Dr Lorenzo stuck the head as exactly as possible on the section, and kept it in that position. The cells of a powerful electric pile were applied to the base of the neck and on the breast. Under this influence, as in former experiments, the respiratory movements were at once perceptible. As the blood, which penetrated in abundance through the surface of the scar, threatened to stop the passage of air, Dr Lorenzo had recourse to tracheotomy. Respiration then ensued regularly. The head was fastened to the bosy by stitches and by a special apparatus The physiologist wished to ascertain forlibw long a time this appearance of life could thus be artifi- / cially maintained. His astonishment was great when he saw at the end of two hours, that not only did respiration stiil continue under the influence of the electric current, but that circulation had even resumed a certain regularity. The pulse beat feebly , but sensibly. The experiment was eontinuel without intermission. At the end of sixty-two hours, it was evident, to the astonishment of everyone, that a process of cicatrisation had commenced on the lips of ‘i the section. A little later, signs of life manifested themselves spontaneously in the head and limbs, till then deprived of motion. The director of the prison arriving at this moment, for the first time, in the experiment room, observed that by a singular mistake, due to the haste of the operation, the head of Carines had been taken for that of Aveiror and had been applied to the latter. The experiment was continued, notwithstanding; and three days later the respiratory movements reproduced them- • selves, and electricity was suppressed. Dr Lorenzo y Carmo and his assistants were stupefied—frightened at a result so unexpected, and at the power of an agent which, in their hands, had restored life to a body whose right to exist the law had forfeited. The learned surgeon, who had only had in view a simple physiological experiment, employed all his skill to continue this work, which science, aided against all expectation by nature, had so singularly commenced. He assisted the process of cicatrisation, which progressed under the most favourable conditions. By means of an oesopha- . gian probe, liquid nourishment was introduced into the stomach. At the end of .about three months, the cicatrisation was complete, and motion, though still difficult, became more and more extended. At length—at the nd of seven months and a-half—Avei, Marines was able to rise and walk, feeling only a slight stiffness in the neck and a feebleness in the limbs.

So ends this remarkable story. Who can tell the results of scientific investigation carried so far 1 In families, natural i defects may be remedied by re-adjusting heads and bodies not originally proportioned { for each other; and human beings dissatisfied with their sex may, under the benevolent system of Dr Lorenzo y Carmo, repair the error of their origin. It will bo a question for lawyers to determine to what nationality these future beings are to belong, if head and body have previously owed a separate allegiance. But if the system holds good in violent deaths, surely it may be applied by deaths ensuing, as the coroners' juries have it, from natural causes. In this case, we might preserve our statesmen and celebrities for ev, r. Opponents of this system would, however, be found in heirs-apparent.