RUSH: A pair of horse blankets were found in the road near Rush last week. The owner should apply to Charles Coville for them. ALSO, Fred Gray, a native of Rush and for many years a resident of Alaska, was recently appointed deputy game warden for the southern district of Alaska. The appointment came to him as a surprise and carries with it a good salary.

SOUTH MONTROSE: The “Comets” were defeated in a lively game of basket ball at the Rink on Wednesday evening by the South Montrose team. Score, 15-10. The South Montrose team has improved much since their game with the Slaves and this together with their greater weight proved too much for the local boys who displayed deftness in handling the ball and in team work.

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP: Judging from rumors coming from N. Bridgewater, the report that there is a panther roaming the wilds along Snake Creek gains credence. New Milford men have been alarmed by the cries of the wild beast for a couple of weeks back, and now Henry S. Patrick, of N. Bridgewater and his neighbor, L. N. Mack, are reported to have seen the tracks of the huge animal, which is unmistakably a “panther.” Mr. Mack’s hired man alleges to have even a closer acquaintance with the wild animal, having met the brute face to face while doing chores with a lantern at a barn on a remote part of the farm. Eye witnesses state that the speed with which lantern and man returned to the house would bear out the story that the animal seen was not a black calf. The screeches of the animal have been heard, and when rending the night air it gives the hearer a shivery feeling. The thickly wooded tracks extending through Bridgewater, Franklin and New Milford townships would furnish a good hiding place for the outlaw. Potter and Pike counties, where wild animals abound, are not so far away but what a migrating beast could make the distance in a couple of nights’ travel from either direction. Henry Pittsley, residing near Franklin Forks, heard the animal’s cries a few nights ago, and Lynn Brown, who had a young heifer disappear in that vicinity a short time since, ascribes his loss to the panther.

AUBURN TOWNSHIP: In a party which went fishing through the ice at White’s Pond, Auburn, last Saturday, were Bruce B. Lott, of Montrose, E. W. Lott and Clark Giles, of Springville and John Rifenbury, of Auburn. There were five men, all told, and they succeeded in catching 93 pickerel, averaging in weight about one pound each. The ice was thin, and Mr. Rifenbury went through, clinging to the ice until the members of the party had bridged a path over the ice with boards and dragged him from the icy waters by grasping each others’ hands and pulling the immersed one out.

FAIRDALE: The Prospect Hill Telephone Co. held a meeting in the Grange hall, Tuesday.

NEW MILFORD: Charles Garland, aged 72, a veteran of the Civil War, died at his home here, Monday evening, Dec. 4, after an illness of a few days. He was born in Catskill, NY and at the outbreak of the war enlisted in the 20th NY State militia, which was later merged into the 80th NY Volunteers. After nearly three years of service he was discharged on account of sickness. In 1864 he was married and in 1881 went to Nicholson to reside. While there he opened the present Carlucci stone quarry. About 8 years ago he removed to New Milford where he had since resided. Interment was in Nicholson cemetery.

WEST HERRICK: Thieves stole a hive of honey from Glen Miller; also from Mrs. Lizzie Darte; three hammers from J. J. Walker, a hammer and wrench from C. M. Buckingham, two turkeys from Fred Howell, and 19 feed bags from our new sheriff. Ben thinks it was a Keystoner who took the articles as he took all in sight, when a Democrat would have taken only half. ALSO, a banquet was tendered Sheriff-elect B. T. Reynolds and wife at their residence on the evening of Nov. 24. Twenty-two braved the elements and answered to the roll call. The suffragettes were in evidence and it was decided that if the ladies could have voted in old Susquehanna county this fall, Ben’s majority would have run into four figures. Mrs. Reynolds proved an ideal hostess and all went merry as a marriage bell.

CLIFFORD TWP.: Tuesday morning, at about one o’clock, fire totally destroyed the Crystal Inn, one of the largest resorts at Crystal Lake, built by Mullaney Brothers. The building was owned and rented by C. W. Brownell. The Brownell family was asleep when the fire broke out, and the origin is not known. There was no means of checking the flames at hand and the large building was soon in ashes. The occupants of the building had barely time to escape, the fire having gained such headway. The loss is placed at about $18,000.

FOREST LAKE TWP.: The Ladies’ Aid Society of the Forest Lake Baptist church met at the home of Mrs. Charles Brown, Dec. 8. The men worked like beavers, re-shingling the church sheds, while the ladies did a fine lot of work for Mrs. Brown. The amount of money raised was $7.25 and there were 64 present.

ELK LAKE: Harry Lyon brought a couple of large horned owls to Montrose on Saturday and they have been attracting considerable attention in John Hefferan’s hardware store. The birds were caught by Mr. Lyon in a trap, having been making depredations on some of his fowls. They are handsome specimens and will doubtless eventually get into the taxidermist’s hands.

SUSQUEHANNA: The funeral of Lawrence Belgarde, the popular actor, was held from the home of John Walsh, with burial in the Catholic cemetery. The beautiful floral pieces showed the esteem in which he was held.

FOREST CITY: John Likely is here after spending the summer with California Frank’s circus. He left the outfit in Georgia.

NEWS BRIEF: Gasoline propelled handcars are to take the place of the old-fashioned “pump-handle” cars on the Lehigh Valley railroad. The company has ordered 20 machines to replace those now in use.

You can find back issues of “100 Years Ago” on our website at www.susqcohistsoc.org.

In response to last week’s column regarding “self-abortion,” a reader asked if the woman could be charged with the unlawful disposal of bio-hazardous waste, i.e., the mother threw her self-aborted dead baby into the trash bin. Frankly, I never even considered that particular angle as it never occurred to me that the corpse of the dead baby would be bio-hazardous waste. After a little bit of research, I failed to find anything that really seemed to fit into the bio-hazardous waste category, but then again searching for administrative regulations can be a frustrating exercise akin to the proverbial needle in a haystack.

After that question, however, it triggered the question of whether you could charge the mother with the Crimes Code provision relating to Abuse of Corpse. The Crimes Code makes it unlawful for any person to treat “a corpse in a way that he knows would outrage ordinary family sensibilities.” If a person abuses a corpse, then that person commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, which is punishable by up to two years incarceration and a $5,000 fine. You may recall reading about the elderly woman in Bradford County who was recently charged with this offense when she had the corpses of her husband and sister dug up and she put their bodies in her home.

It probably goes without saying that the idea of throwing a small dead baby into a communal trash bin would likely “outrage ordinary family sensibilities.” If the mother had disposed of her dead infant in the same manner, there is no doubt that she could have been charged with a violation of the Abuse of Corpse statute.

The question would come down to whether the self-aborted unborn baby or fetus is a corpse. The Crimes Code does not have a definition of corpse and I could not locate any Pennsylvania case law that provided a definition. Ballentine’s Law Dictionary defines corpse simply as “the dead body of a human being.” This definition seems rather obvious, but the question then becomes whether a fetus is a human being. There is nothing simple about this question - and that fundamental question still rests at the center of the national debate over the abortion issue itself.

Without getting into the abortion debate, it is enough to say that under the common law as it related to criminal offenses, a fetus was generally not considered a human being until the fetus was born alive. In the absence of any statutory framework providing otherwise, the common law would likely indicate that the criminal definition of a corpse would not include a fetus that was not born alive. Thus, we spin right back to where we were last week - there does not appear to be any criminal charges that can be lodged against a mother for committing a self-abortion and disposing of the dead baby in a dumpster.

On the other hand, the question about whether the fetus was born alive would be the ultimate issue - and an autopsy would likely demonstrate whether the baby was alive at birth. If the baby was alive, then the whole dynamic changes as the baby would be considered a human being at that point. If the mother failed to provide medical care for the baby, she could be charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child for breaching her duty of care as a parent. If the mother left the baby in a dumpster to die, then she could be charged with a criminal homicide. If she took active steps to kill the baby, then she would be looking at a first degree murder charge as it would be an intentional killing. If the baby was dead when the mother threw the baby into the dumpster, then she could be charged with abuse of a corpse.

These charges would not depend upon the likelihood of whether the baby would survive - the question would be simply whether the baby was alive outside the womb. If the mother managed to kill the baby inside the womb, then no criminal charges could be filed. If the mother had to “finish” the job outside the womb, then a whole host of criminal charges could be filed against her. The sad question is what is the difference between the two scenarios? The even sadder answer is nothing except the timing of the killing.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.

Cancer Detection And Man’s Best Friend

Dogs are loyal, playful, loving and sometimes cute as a button. It’s no wonder we love them (some of us more than others, to be sure).

Dogs were likely one of the very first animals we humans domesticated. They’ve been sitting around our campfires for a very long time, indeed. We train our dogs to sit, shake and lie down. It also could be said the dogs train us to dispense kibbles, rawhide treats, and scratches behind the ears. What matters isn’t which side comes out ahead in the exchange, I like to think, but that both sides benefit from our association.

Recently I had occasion to read aloud a news report to my “Labrador mix” as he lay stretched out near my feet one evening. Buster Brown came from the dog pound where he was listed as a Lab mix, although in truth the vet and I agree he has so many different influences in him it’s rather misleading to name just one. Still, because he will retrieve sticks I throw into the water, I dignify his existence by thinking of him as predominately a Labrador Retriever. And he’s content with that description.

The story I read aloud originated in Germany where a study was done with dogs who have been trained to indicate when they smell chemicals emitted by cancer cells in the human body. This isn’t the first such study to be done, but it confirmed what earlier ones had shown: dogs can be good early warning detectors of malignancies within us people.

The German study used two German shepherds (naturally), an Australian shepherd and one Labrador retriever. (Buster, of course, was pleased to hear about that fourth dog’s participation in the study.) The dogs were trained to lie down when they smelled lung cancer. The dogs were just house-dogs, and the training didn’t go much beyond that used in typical puppy school. So it’s likely that what the four dogs could do, so could my Buster and your Fido, too.

The canines in the study were given test tubes containing people’s breath samples, both healthy subjects and those who had lung cancer. The dogs had been trained to lie down when they smelled traces of lung cancer and touch the vials with their noses. About 70 percent of the time, the dogs successfully identified patients known to have lung cancer.

The study is not the first of this type to have been done. Other studies with dogs have tested their ability to detect breast cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer and more. Some studies have had much higher detection rates than 70 percent, too.

Clearly dogs can tumble to just a tiny trace of chemicals associated with cancer cells. I’ve read that dogs have more neurons running from the nose to the brain than we people do, and a larger proportion of the dog brain is devoted to processing information from the nose than is the case in our noggins.

The fact that dogs can smell malignancies would seem to indicate the cancers create particular chemicals that are otherwise not in our bodies. Exactly what those compounds are remains a mystery. In other words, we can say the dogs in Germany did pretty well at detecting lung cancer, but we don’t know what chemicals in the test tube vials were the ones the dogs responded to. And, of course, the dogs can’t tell us that part of the story.

It’s interesting to speculate why it took us so long to ask Fido’s help in cancer detection. I think it’s partly because of the way we view science and all things medical. We think that the best scientific or medical devices will be large and expensive machines. Likely they’ll be scary, too, at least if you have to spend time with one as a patient.

It’s just outside our framework of thinking to imagine that the mutt under the kitchen table at home could do as well as a chemical detector designed by an engineer and costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As a friend of mine in graduate school used to say, “Scientific instruments should be big, noisy, scary and cold.”

Or not!

Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a native of the rural Northwest, was trained as a geologist at Princeton and Harvard. This column is a service of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. Peters can be reached at epeters@wsu.edu.