Resurrection

Victims of electric shock, or drowning, or patients who die under anaesthetics may be brought back to life by the immediate injection of adrenalin with a needle directly into the heart. This has been demonstrated by Dr. George W. Crile, Cleveland surgeon, and his nephew, Dr. Dennis R. W. Crile, of Chicago, on patients of their own who had been pronounced dead, they told the Chicago Medical Society and the American Association of Anaesthetists.

Adrenalin is the active principle extracted from the suprarenal glands (or sheep), small bodies situated just back of and above the kidneys. It was first isolated several years ago by the late Jokichi Takamine, and has been used for various purposes by physicians, but has never before been injected directly into the heart, except in the case of a stillborn baby recently chronicled in TIME. The effect of the treatment is to contract the blood vessels, especially in the limbs, increase the blood pressure and stimulate the heart. It could not, of course, be used to restore a patient who had died from a long, wasting disease, but in cases of violent shock where death has ensued because of a rush of blood from the heart to the blood vessels, adrenalin is effective.