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vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
A Wonderful Discovery.
We (Brisbane Courier, January 11) gladly give publicity to a discovery that promises to revolutionize 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 us he has witnessed, the squatter who to-day is puzzling over the future prospect of his surplus stock has opportunities before him that may be termed golden. All the most startling discoveries of the age at the first hint have been received with incredulity, which their after success has turned to the discredit of the early sceptics, so that, in matters of science, it would appear unsafe, no doubt, to 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:—
Many of your readers who know Sydney Harbour will remember the long inlet opposite the Heads known as Middle Harbour, which in a succession of land-locked reaches, stretches away like a chain of lakes for over 20 miles. On one of these reaches, made more than ordinary picturesque by the bold headlands that drop almost sheer into the water, stand, on about an acre of grassy flat fringed by white beach on which the clear waters of the harbour lap, two low brick buildings. Here, in perfect 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 upon 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 preeminence 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 that 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 woolara, that had the power of perfectly suspending animation, and that the trance thus produced continued till the application of another vegetable essence caused the blood to resume a 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 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 into wondering curiosity by experimenting on his dog. He injected two drops of his liquid, mixed with a pupils 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 stretched backward, 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 apprehension for the life of his favourite animal, Signor Rotura lifted the dog carefully, and placed him on a shelf in a cupboard, where he begged he might be left until the following day, when he promised to call at 10 o’clock and revive the apparently dead brute. Mr. Grant continually, during that day and night, visited the cupboard, and so perfectly was life suspended in his favourite—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 reproaches of remorse at having sacrificed 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 Rotura presented himself, and laughing at Mr. Grant’s fears, requested a tub of warm water to be brought. He tested this with the thermometer at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and in this laid the dogs head under. To Mr. Grant’s objections Signor Rotura 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 a blood heat. After about ten minutes of this bath, the body was taken out and another liquid injected in a puncture made in the neck. Mr. Grant tells me that the revival of Turk was the most startling thing he ever witnessed; and having since seen the 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 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 visitors 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 his favourite, was put in the freezing chamber at Mr. Grant’s works for four days, after being previously ‘suspended’ by Signor Rotura; 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, respiration 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 animals, whose lives have 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 Rotura then determined upon the erection of the works just finished at Middle Harbour, an enterprising capitalist, Mr. Christopher Newton, of Pitt-street, finding the necessary funds. Arrived at the works in Middle Harbour, I was taken into the building that contains Mr. Grant’s apparatus for generating cold, which has already been, in Mr. Nicolle’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 8ft. by 10ft. Here were 14 sheep, four lambs and three pigs, stacked on their sides in a heap, ‘alive,’ which Mr. Grant told me had been in their present position for 19 days, and were to remain there for another three months. Selecting one of the lambs, Signor Rotura put it on his shoulder and carried it outside into the other building, where a number of shallow cemented tanks were in the floor, having hot and cold water taps, to each tank, with a thermometer hanging alongside. One of these tanks was quickly filled, and its temperature tested by the Signor, I meantime examining with the greatest curiosity and wonder the 19 days’ dead lamb. The days of miracles truly seem to have come back to us, and many of those stories discarded as absurdities seem to me less improbable than this fact witnessed by myself. There was the lamb, to all appearances dead, and as hard almost as a stone, the only difference perceptible to me between his 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 gently dropped into the warm bath, and was allowed to remain in it about 23 minutes, its head being raised above the water twice for the introduction of the thermometer into its mouth and then it was taken out and placed on its side on the floor, Signor Rotura quickly dividing the wool on its 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, as I believe, a decoction from the root of the astracharlis, found in south America. The lamb was then turned on its back, Signor Rotura standing across it, gently compressing its ribs with its 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 gambolling and bleating over the little garden in front. Nothing has ever impressed me so entirely with a sense of the marvellous. One is almost tempted to ask, in the 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 process. Cargoes of live sheep can thus be sent to England by large steamers, and although a freezing atmosphere will still be an essential a temporary breakdown 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 would be perfectly good meat, whereas the others can be turned on to pastures or driven to market. Of course the same results can be achieved with the bullocks, but their greater weight makes them more difficult to handle with safety, and the carcase is rendered brittle by freezing, making them the more liable to injury. It sounded odd to hear Mr. Grant and Signor Rotura laying stress upon the danger of breakage on the voyage.
“Signor Rotura 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 that he has no fear of a fatal result. As to whether this temporary suspension would effect 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 inertness were submitted to, whether it would be so much cut out of one’s life or if it would be simply five years of unconscious existence tacked on to one’s sentient life. Signor Rotura could give no positive answer, but he 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.
“Signor Rotura proceeds to South America at once for a large supply of the two necessaries for the safe conduct of his process, and both these substances at present remain a secret.”
We publish this morning an article (“A Wonderful Discovery”) from the Brisbane Courier, the publication of which in the London papers has caused considerable sensation. A correspondent in the Pall Mall Budget speaks of it as promising to revolutionize all previous theories of meat-exportation. The discovery referred to is a scheme for anæsthetizing sheep for an indefinite period by the use of a certain drug, and then by the use of another bringing them to life again at pleasure. But this is not all; for, carried to its logical conclusion, this discovery will revolutionize all previous theories of political economy, and help us to solve the problems involved in a surplus population, hard times, strikes, and such like. If, as is maintained, human beings can be transmogrified and brought back to mundane existence when convenient, just look at the results likely to follow. We shall have, say, a universal strike of all mechanics proposed by the secretaries of the various trades unions. All the men will be put into a state of suspended animation; no strike pay will be required, and no funds needed, except to pay the secretaries (who will of course be on full pay) and the masters will be obliged to come to terms some time or other. Again, in hard times, a man with a small salary and large family can put the latter into a state of trance, and wait patiently till better days come again. This will be invaluable for assistant-masters in schools, clerks, postmen, and others. Then, again, in war, should 500 English men be so unfortunate as to be surrounded in some impregnable fortress by 500,000 Zulus or other enemies, the process can be applied with little fear of the provisions running short. The question as to what we should do with our criminals is now theoretically, if not practically, solved. They can be transmogrified, labelled, and put away in bundles for five, seven, ten, or twenty years, as the case may be, and warehoused in Pantechnicons, for which purpose the prisons could of course be used. Just think of the saving to the country in food, clothing, and warders’ wages; for no one would be required to look after the prisoners. Besides, all the anxiety and worry of the governors lest their prisoners should escape will be at an end; in fact there will be no need of governors. But why farther pursue the subject? Ten thousand useful applications of Signor Rotura’s “wonderful discovery” will doubtless occur to any of our readers.
On the 26th Mch 1877 the N.Y. World printed (see Scrap Book II p59) an account of an interview of its reporter with H.P.B., in which she said that the shepherds of Thibet understood how to cause life to be suspended in their domestic animals by manipulating a certain artery in the neck. After a fixed time has passed they bring the animals to life again without harm. She used these words, as it appears: “I prophesy to you (the Reporter) that within a year from now scientists will discover how this is done in the case of the lower animals.”[4]>
To the Editor of the “Indu-Prakash.”
Sir,—Ever since my arrival here, in February, with an hospitality and persistence worthy of a better cause, I have been hailed by every class of Society as a secret emissary of the Russian Government—a “spy” to call things by their proper names. And yet, so poorly informed am I by the authorities of my Native country of the ways and doings of the Russian police, that, in my ardent curiosity, I have now to apply to you for help. Will you kindly put your head together with mine to try and “guess” who may possibly be a certain mysterious individual who has recently appeared in Russia? He calls himself a “Prince of India,” and provoking the greatest curiosity in the general public is, at the same time, received as an honoured guest by the St. Petersburgh “court”—though, as I am informed, secretly. This is what one of the numerous papers, I receive, says of him, mentioning his arrival. I translate verbatim:—
“A few days ago, arrived at Moscow, on his way from Petersburgh to Samara the Hindoostanee Prince Ramchander Balajee of Bhetoor. Colonel and aide de camp on the General Staff, the Count N. Y. Rostovtzoff has been placed at the orders of the…
Editor's notes
- ↑ A Wonderful Discovery. by unknown author, Bombay Gazette, The, Wednesday, June 18, 1879
- ↑ Handwritten cross-reference beside this article; its target is unverified. The writer has not been identified.
- ↑ We publish this morning... by unknown author, Bombay Gazette, The, Wednesday, June 18, 1879
- ↑ Handwritten note beside the suspended-animation reports. The writer has not been identified.
- ↑ To the Editor of the “Indu-Prakash.” by unknown author, Bombay Gazette, The, Wednesday, June 18, 1879. The clipping physically ends mid-sentence after “the”.
- ↑ Handwritten cross-reference in the margin; its target is unverified. The writer has not been identified.