Induces Heart Beat In Dead Subject.

New York Times 100 years ago today, June 28, 1913:
Paris Doctor Restores Pulsations for 35 Minutes After Instant Killing.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    PARIS, June 27. — Dr. Bouchon, following in the footsteps of Dr. Carrel, recently succeeded in reviving the normal action of the heart ten minutes after death. In a paper which he will read at the next meeting of the Academy of Medicine Dr. Bouchon says:
    "After a motor car accident I was called in, and immediately perceived that the victim had been killed instantaneously. Despite my assurance that there was no doubt as to his death, the friends of the victim insisted that a desperate attempt should be made at resuscitation, and about ten minutes after the last breath I decided upon a surgical operation, having diagnosed traumatic rupture of the heart.
    "I opened the thorax, and in fifty seconds laid bare the heart. I immediately found about a pint of blood in the pericardium and a heart wound about two and one-half inches long on the inner surface of the left ventricle. After suture I proceeded to apply my method of reviving heart action.
    "After filling all the cardiac cavities with a special organic liquid I made a rapid tracheotomy and introduced oxygen by the tracheal tube, while my assistant performed artificial respiration tractions. I then began alternate rhythmic auricular massage of the heart, and at the end of about a minute I clearly perceived that the heart had resumed its physiological tonicity, and, to my great surprise, it continued to contract by its own true action. Radical pulsation then became perceptible, and after I had closed the thoracic flap the heart continued to contract for thirty-five minutes. At the end of this time the contractions suddenly ceased and all subsequent efforts to re-establish them were in vain.
    "The autopsy was very significant, showing the tearing away of the lower cardiac nerves, the bursting of the right kidney and liver, and a part of the intestine, proving the case an exceptionally violent one of traumatism. Had there been merely cardiac traumatism by a dagger thrust, followed by instantaneous death, I think my method of revival, applied under favorable conditions, might possibly have given an appreciable prolongation of life; but this is merely hypothesis.
    "I consider that this case has given valuable information from a scientific standpoint, as it was not merely a desperate one, but a confirmed case of death. "