Mtfv 
UNITED STATES  OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON, D. C.
GPO  16—67244-1
42 
 
I'it/ 3
Wat  2. 
AN
                OS



SUSPENDED ANIMATION.



                BY

         S. gjOLHOUN, M.D.
  MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,
            PHILADEhPBiA:

PUBLISHED BY EDWARD PARKER, 178 MARKET ST.
          WILLIAM BROWN, PRINTER.
                1823. 
VJOA
[COPY-RIGHT SECURED.] 
PREFACE.
    This Essay is conducted  upon  the following
 plan: The general nature and causes of Asphyxia
 are  first detailed;  the species  from  submersion is
 then considered; next, the mode in which its causes
 operate; for this purpose, Respiration, as the function
 more particularly concerned, is first introduced, in-
 volving the examination of the effects of the various
 gases; of animal temperature, and of death from cold.
 After  this preparatory discussion,  the  cure  of as-
 phyxia from submersion, with that of its other spe-
 cies, is  given; and a  history of the  progress of
 resuscitation, authors, and humane societies, with the
 necessary apparatus, concludes the Essay.
   With  regard  to  the  manner of its execution, it
 consists of a simple detail of facts, collected from  the
best  authorities, as  well  as  from a  series of experi- 
IV
ments, whose  object was to develope  completely,
and establish upon certain foundations, the truth  of
what  was already  known,  as  well  as  to  discover
something new, and thus to deduce a correct patho-
logy and rational mode of cure. 
CONTENTS.
Introductory Remarks,.....
On Suspended Animation from Submersion,  .
On the Mode in which the Causes of Asphyxia ope-
      rate,        ....••
Of the Function of Respiration as the Place of Ori-
      gin of Suspended  Animation,
On the  Cure of Asphyxia:
    From Submersion,   .
    From Hanging,
    From Noxious Vapours,
    From Cold,
    From Lightning,
    From Fevers,
    From Pressure on the  Umbilical Cord,
    From Excessive Intoxication,
 The History of Humane Societies, and Authors on
      Resuscitation,.....
 The Apparatus and Mechanical Means proposed
          for the Cure of Asphyxia.
     1.  Of the London Humane Society,  .
              Original Documents.
 Experiments,.......
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111  d 
 
            AN ESSAY  ■


SUSPENDED  ANIMATION,
     LIFE is suspended, when its functions cease,
but can be renewed;  and is  designated by the
terms Asphyxia, Trance, and Suspended Anima-
tion.
  Its causes operate either directly or indirectly
on the lungs, the organs  in which it arises, and
may be produced  by  the suspension, either  of
their mechanical, chemical, or vital phenomena.
  When it is caused by the division of the eight
pair of nerves, or of the upper part of the spinal
marrow; by wounds in  the chest; by a strong com-
pression of the thorax and abdomen ; a sudden in-
jection into, or gradual accumulation of, fluid  in
the  cavity of the chest; the  mechanical  pheno-
                     A 
2
 mena of respiration are first interrupted, the oxy-
 genation of the blood is prevented, and asphyxia
 is produced.
   When it arises from a removal of the air, as in
 a vacuum j or by its extreme rarefaction, as in the
 ascent of very high mountains ; by submersion in
 water or noxious gasses;  by artificial closure of
 the trachea, as in suspension  by the cord;  or by
 natural means, as in the pressure of  tumors  in the
 trachea, in the oesophagus, throat, larynx or mouth,
 obstructing the passage of air, or by mucous col-
 lections in the lungs, the oxygenation of the blood
 is  impossible, and thus the suspension of the che-
 mical phenomena of respiration becomes its cause.
  By the diminution  of the  vital powers  gene-
rally, as by  cold ; lightning; fever; small pox;
hysteria; syncope ; apoplexy ; the oxygenation of
the blood is with equal certainty prevented, and
animation is suspended.
  Pressure on the umbilical  cord in tedious de-
liveries is also supposed to produce it.
  The  symptoms of asphyxia are slightly varied
by these different causes.  They, however, agree
in  their essential characters, the changes produc-
ed in the organs immediately concerned and ne-
cessary to life, the lungs, the heart, and the brain.
  The  most common  causes  of this disease are 
3
submersion in water, suspension by the cord, and
noxious  vapours ; as the first occurs  most fre-
quently,  it will form  more especially the subject
of the following pages.
 On Suspended Animation from Submersion in
                    ■water.

  When  an animal falls into water it struggles
violently, and attempts to inspire ; expiration soon
follows, and bubbles of air rise to the surface; the
struggles  become more  violent, the animal rises
again, and inspiration is again attempted ; the con-
tents «of the thorax are expelled, and it becomes
greatly diminished in capacity ; deglutition is per-
formed  in these struggles, the animal swallows a
small quantity of water;  the pupils are dilated, the
eyes protruded and glassy ; the tongue and gums
become of  a leaden or  livid colour, and death
follows  generally in the space  of from one to four
minutes.*
  The  pulse  in  fifteen  or twenty seconds after

  * Oswald on the phenomena of suspended animal life, p. 3,
Phil. Ed. 1802. 
4
Bubmersion, in one experiment, became more fre-
quent  and weak,  gradually increasing in fulness
and becoming less frequent, till, in sixty seconds,
it was slower by fifteen or twenty beats, and more
full; it then gradually declined, and between two
and three minutes it ceased altogether.*
  Goodwyn describes the pulse as weak and fre-
quent ; the  fulness, which follows, he does not
mention :|  After apparent death, in the space of
from fifteen seconds to one minute, a violent and
general convulsive motion  takes place ; it is regu-
lar, slow, and strong, sometimes remaining nearly
five seconds, returning again  at a very  short in-
terval, and repeated two  or three times in every
minute for the space of a quarter of an hour  or
more,  generally for  about ten minutes after the
natural struggling has ceased4  The muscles  of
respiration are particularly concerned; gasping
also attends it, and when  the  animal is  removed
from  the water a  deep inspiration is made, and
succeeded in a few seconds by an^expiration, ren-
dering it  probable, that these  convulsions  are in-

  * Oswald on the phenomena of suspended animal life, p. 2,
Phil. Ed. 1802.
  f Goodwyn on the connection of life with respiration, &c.
  t Oswald on the phenomena, and Kite's Essays and Obser-
vations, p. 119.  1795, Lond. 
5
tended by nature to re-establish the functions of
the lungs.*
  According to my experiments, the symptoms
of drowning, are; the animal is frequently per-
fectly still for some seconds after submersion;
bubbles of air rise to the surface, forced from the
lungs by the muscles of expiration ; violent  strug-
gling succeeds ; the eyes are turned upwards ; the
feet are moved  directly  downwards, pressing
against the bottom of the vessel in order to force
the body upwards,! and continuing between  for-
ty-five seconds and one minute; the motions and
looks of the animal then become irregular, and are
directed in no particular  manner;  the head  is
thrown  about from side to side, the tongue  is  pro-
truded ; the animal gasps,  gnashes his teeth, and
attempts to swallow ; the pupils become dilated;
the  eyes  staring, protruded, and glassy;  and
finally some frothy water is ejected, the struggles
ceasing in the  space of from one and a quarter,
one and a half, two  and a half, three, and some-
times not till the fifth and sixth minute ;\  in one
instance the heart was felt beating violently after

  * Oswald on the phenomena, and Kite's Essays and Obser-
vations, p. 119. 1795, Lond.
  f Expts. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14.
  i Expts. 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 8, 26.
                      A 2 
6
four minutes immersion ;* the convulsive stretch-
ing and gasping continued for two, three, and four
minutes,! but it never was  observed after six mi-
nutes, the animal being entirely dead after that pe-
riod.
  The symptoms felt on submersion by persons,
who have been drowned and recovered, are stated
to have been great anxiety, giddiness and loss of
sense or recollection ; in one instance the person
crept along the bottom to reach the shore; his
senses failed; he was taken up for dead, and after
recovery, gave this account.^
   In animals, the state of feeling is pretty certain
after submersion; their violent struggles show their
anxiety and pain ; the period of the continuance
of sense is exactly ascertained to be between three
quarters and one minute from the sudden irregula-
rity and convulsive distraction of their movements
occurring at the end  of that period, after succes-
sive systematic and well directed efforts to escape,
evinced by§ their looking directly upwards, and
pressure of the feet against the bottom of the ves-

  • Exp. 9.
  } Expts. 5, 6, 7, 8.
  $Mem. of the Soc. inst. at Amsterd. &c. translated by T.
Cogan, M. D.
  § Expts. 5, 6, 7, 8, 14. 
sel, forcing the body towards  the top of the wa-
ter.
  After submersion, the human body is cold, re-
laxed, swollen; the head bloated, the face disfigur-
ed; the colour leaden, violet, livid or black; the
lips are sometimes enlarged, the eyes flaccid, dis-
tended, dim and partly closed; the teeth are set,
the mouth and nose covered with froth; the tongue
is blue, livid, swelled or protruded; the  chest is
raised; the abdomen tense, and the body is with-
out pulse at the wrist or beating at the heart; sen-
sibility, sense and motion are completely suspend-
ed, and if the  submersion has been sufficiently
long to produce absolute death, the limbs are stiff,
sometimes though rarely flexible, and the sphincter
ani is generally relaxed.
  From the circumstance that anxiety is the first
morbid symptom  after submersion,  it is evident,
that the disease commences in the lungs ; in con-
sequence, the animal struggles violently,  showing
that the brain and organs of voluntary motion are
next exerted; the  heart beats with great agitation;
giddiness and loss of recollection succeed, evinc-
ing the suspension of  the action of the brain.
   In  consequence, the voluntary motions become
next distracted and irregular, evinced in the gnash-
ing of the teeth, protrusion  of the tongue, and 
8
convulsive gaspings, accompanied with  irregular
efforts to swallow : the thorax, abdomen and limbs
are more or less agitated, proving that the brain,
lungs and heart are  all involved in the general
convulsion of the system, which precedes death.
  The lungs, then, primarily, and afterwards the
brain and the heart, are the vital organs which are
principally disordered: the other irregularities and
morbid symptoms are  only the result of the dis-
ease, which exists in them, as will be explained
hereafter.
  The symptoms of recovery, are, water issuing
from the  mouth and nostrils, accompanied  with
froth;  feeble, irregular  and  convulsive efforts
to breathe, attended with  gasping,  and occa-
sional  motions  and spasmodic  agitations in the
limbs. The pulse beats at intervals, is small, quick
and weak ; the face becomes less livid, sometimes
distorted and violently convulsed; a rumbling is
heard in the bowels ; the breathing becomes more
free, the pulse more regular, and a gentle perspira-
tion softens the skin: vomiting sometimes  takes
place, and gradually a return of sense and motion:
sometimes the  person  continues silent, dejected
and listless for several days,with pains in the head;
in one case death supervened in one  hour  after
recovery, by a recurrence of epilepsjv 
9
    Recovery from drowning is extremely irregular
 in its circumstances ; it has been successful in the
 aged and the young;  even children  of two and
 three years have been  resuscitated after submer-
 sion for one minute,* and in several for not more
 than five death has supervened, notwithstanding
 the greatest efforts to rescue them; youth has pe~
 rished, old age has been saved ;f some were re-
 stored after immersion for half an hour ; one out
 of 600  cases after  45  minutes,! another  after
 more than an hour,§ and two after an hour and
 an half.  Old age, apoplexy, syncope, epilepsy, in-
 temperance in eating and drinking, fasting, fatigue
 or debilitating and chronic diseases, have preced-
 ed and rendered submersion fatal :|| the probability
 of recovery will be  determined by the combina-
 tion of circumstances  which heighten or weaken
 the susceptibility to previous disease in the sys-

   * Reports of the Hum. Soc. of London, case 264, quoted by
 Kite, p. 60. See Fowler's exp. and obs. relative to the influ-
 ence lately discovered, p. 70. Edin. 1793.
   ! Cases 19, 276, quoted by Kite.
   t Cases  103, 165, 350, 420, 547, also Cogan's Mem.  of the
 Amst. Soc. quoted by Kite, p. 60.
p-  § Amer. Med. Record, vol. iii. p. 3S9. 1820.   Annual report
 of Roy. Hum. Soc. 1803.  Letters from Copenhagen, 180Q
   !l Kite, p. 61, 62. Lond. 1795 
10
tern: apoplexy is rendered  probable by  a short
neck, a full habit of body, and from the occurrence
of the submersion without violence  or accident.
  Frequent  giddiness, nightmare,  false  vision,
tingling  in  the ears, loss of memory, horrible
dreams and unrefresbing sleep, will increase the
probability that this disease had preceded.  Af-
fections of the lungs, long immersion in cold and
deep water, or exposure, after the body isfound,to
rain and high  winds, increase the danger.  Re-
covery has followed submersion  for fifteen  mi-
nutes, though fainting had taken place immedi-
ately before ; and cases are stated, on the most re-
spectable, but now doubted, authority, in which
submersion had exfsted for days, and the patients
were restored.*   In other species  of  asphyxia,
resuscitation has taken place after  interment; a
lady, in England, was brought  to life  by a thief
who attempted to steal  a ring  from her finger-!
Sometimes dissection has produced resuscitation,
as in the case of the earl of Pembroke, who, on
being opened to be embalmed, as soon as the first

  * See Sandifort,  Thesaur, &c. 1768.  Roterod. Art. Gum-
mer. p. 505.  Eph. Curios. Dec. 1, A. vi. vii. Obs. 20, 75, 76,
89, 125,130,192.
  f See Reports of the Roy. Hum. Soc. for 1787-8-9, p. 77, as
quoted by Cogan, obs. on apparent death, p.  106,Lond. 1815, 
11
 incision was made raised his hand; the heart of
 a Spanish  nobleman, opened by Vesalius in or-
 der to discover his disease,  was found beating.*
 Recovery from apparent death in consequence of
 fever and nervous diseases, is more frequent than
 from cold  and suffocation.  Frequently, injury
 done to the body in taking it out of the water, as
 also medical aid injudiciously  applied, have de-
 stroyed life;! recoveries have  taken place  after
 considerable violence done to the body, simply by
 warmth  and  rest.!   Sailors frequently fall from
 the tops of masts into the water, and the accident
 is generally fatal; recoveries, however, are stated
 under the  most unpromising circumstances.  A
 man  fell from  the  foretopmast head  of a ship,
 struck upon  the foretop, and then  upon the gun-
 wale, falling, before he reached the water, not less
 than sixty  feet: he was under water for eight mi-
 nutes, and  twenty more elapsed  before any means
 of resuscitation was employed: the scalp was la-
 cerated extensively, and he was otherwise bruis-

  • See Reports of the Roy. Hum Soc. for 1787-8-9, p. 77, as
quoted by Cogan, obs. on apparent death, p. 106, Lond. 1815.
  f Cogan. Mem. of the Soc. Instit. at Amsterdam.
  t Sand. Thes. Art. Gummer. 1768, &c; also Reaumur nou-
velle bigar, torn. x. quoted by Gummer. 
                       12
ed, yet he recovered perfectly.*  The tempera-
ture of the water also influences the probability of
resuscitation;! it is stated, by Evers, that persons
recover sooner after  submersion in cold, than in
warm water.  M. Bucquet observes that  irritable
persons are most easily suffocated, and that they
suffered less-!  Experiments on the recovery of
animals have not been so successful as those on
the human body.  Gummer found that young
foxes and dogs rarely recovered by the use of
heat and  stimulants, after submersion for more
than three minutes ; and Kite seldom after eight,
ten, and twelve minutes.   The celebrated Bichat
never succeeded in resuscitating animals, though
his experiments were numerous.$   Habit  has
great influence in preventing death from  submer-
sion ; persons accustomed to remain long  under
water, have continued for thirty and forty-five mi-
nutes beneath the surface, without injury.|) Priest-
ly observed the same facts with  regard to the .

  * See Trans, of the Roy. Hum. Soc. from 1774 to 1784,  p.
45-8, as quoted by Currie,  p. 109.
  ! Ibid, p. 513, and Oswald on the phenom. &c.
  i See Hist, de la Soc. Roy. de Medicine.
  § Kite's essay on the submersion of animals, p. 122, Lond.
1795, and Sandifort Thesaur. Art. Gummer.
  | Ibid, p. 507. 
                      13

breathing of mephitic air ;* an  impure atmosr
phere produced death in animals, which had lived
in pure air, more speedily than in those to which
habit had rendered its noxious  qualities familiar.
   Recovery in animals is also extremely irregular
in its circumstances; in  my experience, they re-
suscitated spontaneously  after one and a quarter,
two, two and a half, three, and even four minutes
immersion;!  exhibited symptoms of  imperfect
recovery after four and five minutes,! but always
died after six minutes ; no appearances of life re-
mained sometimes after  a much  shorter period,
even after one and a half and two and a half mi-
nutes.§  The appearances observed on the reco-
very of animals, are gasping, irregular and convul-
sive breathing, with spasmodic motions of  the  g
abdomen; froth coming  out of the mouth, with
expression of great  pain during  and after  reco-
very. ||
   The usual evidences of death are cessation of
the pulse, and of respiration, which is known by
the application of the flame of a taper to the  nose ;
or the condensation of the  vapor of the breath
upon the surface of a mirror held before the mouth
and nose; or by placing a cup of water on  the

      • Kite, Lond. 1788.      f ExPt- "*> 5» 6» 21.
     * Exp. 7, 9, 28.    § Exp. 1,12.   | Exp. 4, 6.
                      B 
14
lower part of the breast-bone, and observing the
agitation produced on its surface by the motions
of the chest.  The presence of the usual signs of
death are not infallible: the body may be rigid,
cold, and livid;  the face  black,  cadaverous, and
swollen; the eyes glassy or clear,* flaccid, heavy,
dull, and fixed, or prominent and bloodshot; the
mouth covered with froth; the pupils dilated ; the
jaws and  extremities  rigid,  and inflexible,  and
the  body pervaded with universal coldness, and
vet recovery may take place.!
  Favourable anticipations have been taken from
the natural complexion of the face; Portal records
a case of death from fixed air,  in which, the eyes
and whole countenance had  the appearance of
health ; the fluidity of the blood  is  also an uncer-
tain indication, because  it is produced  by other
causes, and as in  drowned animals at least it is not
universal,! its certainty as a test is rendered still
more questionable.  The flexible state of  the joints

  * Reports of the Lond. Hum. Soc. vol. i. p. 87.
  f See Kite, Lend. p. 94.  Ibid, p. 15, for the case of a child
which was smothered in a bed and restored  to life notwith-
standing' the face was black and swollen. See the same work
from 1774 to 1784, p. 87, for a case of recovery, in which the
pupils were dilated and the eyes had lost their lustre, as quot-
ed by Currie, p. 107.
  * See Exp. 11, 15,  27, 31,14, 27, 46. 
15
 is insufficient; the relaxation of the sphincter is
 not absolute; in  the cat, it seldom if ever takes
 place.*  Even signs of  putrefaction are not cer-
 tain indications of death ;  lobsters  often have a
 putrefactive smell, when alive; Huxham mentions,
 that the texture of the  body is sometimes loose in
 scurvy, and emits a horrible stench sometime be-
 fore death; in the last stage of yellow fever the
 perspiration has a cadaverous odour, for hours be-
 fore life has ceased: Morton records a case of dis-
 ease, in which the surgeon fainted from the smell
 of the blood, in performing the operation of vene-
 section.   Abscesses are sometimes attended with
 putrid discharges: Van Swieten  mentions a case
 of long retention of urine, which on evacuation,
 was so noxious, as to produce a peripneumony in
 the attending surgeon.  Persons have been fre-
 quently resuscitated when life has been suspended
 after typhus fever, a disease, in which symptoms
 of putrefaction may take place,  and notwithstand-
 ing the patient recover.  It may, however, be
 only confined to the secretions, and  should from
 the facts above stated a.t least render our prognosis
from this sign with regard to the  issue of the case
doubtful, and encourage proper endeavours to se-
cure recovery.  If putrefaction should be the result
* Exp, 8,10,11, &c. 
16
of general causes, it is evident the issue must be
fatal.  The irritability of the iris is considered by
Oswald, as the best test of remaining life,* also
the sensibility of the internal membrane of the
trachea, and the want of contractility of the mus-
cles of the glottis, evinced by the presence of wa-
ter in the lungs; an effect which, in all probability,
never takes place  till after complete death.!
  Electricity has been proposed as a stimulus, to
discover the remains of life -,\ and as according to
Kite the irritability has continued 23 hours and
40 minutes after death, in the  right auricle of the
heart, its application may be useful.^
  The appearances observed on the examination
of bodies after death from submersion arc various.
  The external surface of the brain has been found
to be darker than usual; the vessels are described
by Goodwyn,|| as being turgid  without extravasa-
tion ; by Oswald and Kite, extremely full of black
bloody and never moderately distended; a cir-
cumstance, which might  be  inferred  from  the

  • Oswald on the plien.  of suspd. animal life, p. 63. Philad.
1802.
  ! See Kite, p. 113.    t See Kite, I.ond. 1795. p. 113.
  § Ibid. p. 114. Note.
  |j Goodwyn on the connection of life, &c.  London,  1788.
  'i Oswald on the phen. of suspd. animal life, p. 23, I'hilada.
1802, 
17
swelling and livid colour of the face, and the stop-
page of blood in the right ventricle of the heart.
  Kite, in other  cases, found the vessels  of the
brain in several instances free from turgidity, in
others rather  empty.   The  time, which elapsed
before  examination, might  have produced  this
difference ; a conclusion, which the  following ob-
servation would seem to confirm : the right auricle
of the heart, and of course the superior cava, and
its venous terminations, in a man  who had been
hanged, was found turgid by Harvey, on opening
him before his face had  lost its redness; on the
next day, its turgidity had entirely  disappeared.*
In two dogs, which were drowned for  dissection,
De Haen found  the brain distended with blood;
in four others, this appearance was not seen-! In
my experiments, the veins and vessels of the brain
have been found sometimes  pale and  empty, at
others, turgid-!
   The lungs contain generally a frothy liquid,^

  * Kite irt the recovery of the apparently dead, p. 31, Lond.
1778; and Expts. 57, 58, 59, in which a contrary effect wasob-
served.
  f Kite's Essay, 1788, quoting De Haen's Rat.  Medend. con-
tinuat.
  * Expts. 2,7, 8,10,11.
  § Goodwyn on the connection, &c. London, 1788.
B 2 
18
and are much collapsed, enclosing some air,* and
after a long submersion are filled with water ; the
pulmonary veins and arteries  are  full of black
blood.  According to Oswald, the lungs in pro-
portion to the size of the animal contain from one
to fifty cubic inches of air: Kite found them in a
complete state of expiration.!  Coleman found in
one experiment, the lungs to contain half a drachm
of air; when distended, 16 drachms ; sometimes
scarcely a particle was collected; in this case Good-
wyn supposes the lungs were emptied by the pres-
sure of the atmosphere, and Coleman, that expira-
tion is continued, till all the air is expelled.
   Kite  and Goodw)rn found!  no  water in the
lungs, when drowned in a  coloured liquid, result-
ing, no doubt,  from the irritability of the glottis.
It is sufficient to state that there is generally little
fluid of any kind found in the lungs till the glot-
tis is relaxed by death, when they become full of
water.§   When the animal  breathes after emer-
sion, the lungs are redder and  contain some air;

  * Coleman dissert, on suspd. respiration, &c. p. 82, Lond.
1791, and also p. 99.
  f Kite, Lond. 1788, also Gummer. See Sandifort, thesaur. de
mort. Submersor.
  * Kite's Essay, 1788, London.
  § Kite's Essay, 17S8, Lond. quoting De Haen, rat. med. con-
tinuat. See Haller quoted by Gummer in  Sandifort. thesaur. 
19
the thorax is more distended, and the veins near
the heart are sometimes  less full of blood: the
trachea sometimes contains froth or water.*
   Coleman found the two  venae cava, the  right
sinus venosus, auricle, and ventricle, and pulmo-
nary artery loaded with blood;! l^e right auricle,
ventricle, the left sinus venosus, and left ventricle
are filled, and the left ventricle only half  filled
with black blood, according to Goodwyn; Oswald
found the left sinus  venosus and  auricle only
half full, whilst the trunks  and smaller branches
of the arteries, proceeding from the left ventricle,
contained a  quantity of  black blood.  Coleman
found the quantity of blood in the right ventricle,
compared to that in the left, in the proportion of
twelve to seven,  when examined immediately af-
ter death by tying up the two cavae, aorta, and pul-
monary artery ; whilst the proportion of the right
to the left was two to one, after the action of the
heart had ceased.  These proportions, however,
sometimes varied; in some cases they were as se-
ven to four, five to two, and twelve to, seven; the
medium ratio was one and  six-eighths.
   According to my observation, the heart and the

   * Expt. 2, 7,10,11,16.
   ! Coleman a Dissert. &c. p. 82,  Lond. 1791.  Kite's Essays,
p. 210, et seq. also London, 1795. 
20
 blood-vessels, generally, with some slight varia-
 tions, presented the following appearances:  the
 veins of the neck, venae cavae, and axillary veins,
 the  right  auricle  and  ventricle, full  of black
 blood;* the pulmonary artery containing  some;
 the  pulmonary veins distended, the left auricle
 and ventricle nearly empty, but in some cases mo-
 derately full, and the aorta containing very little
 blood.
   When the resuscitation is partial the two sides
 of the heart are more equally distended, and  the
 venae cavae less filled with blood from  the effect
 of the circulation being longer continued-!
   The stomach was found, by Coleman, to con-
 tain, generally, a little water;! Haller says, often
 none; the intestines never  contain  any water.$
 De Haen, in thirteen experiments, found no wa-
 ter in the stomach, with which those of Kite  en-
 tirely agree.||
   In some few'instances I have  found some wa-
 ter in this organ.5f   The peristaltic  motion,  ac-
 cording to my observations, generally, and to those

  * Expts. 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 41, 57, 58, 59, 36.
  ! Exp 7.    * Coleman a Dissert, p. 82, London, 1791.
  § See Sandifort's Thesaur. art. Gummer. Rzderer, quoted
by the same author.
  1 Kite's Essay, London, 1788.      J Expts. 34, 36. 
                       21
 •f Coleman, never continues as long as the con-
 tractions of the heart.
   The  bladder is frequently much distended in
 death  from  asphyxia.*   Davy  also  makes  the
 same remark.!  I have seen it in one instance.
   The  body  generally becomes  stiff in an hour
 after submersion, and in the cat, according to my
 observation, it never remains permanently flexi-
 ble.!
   On opening drowned animals immediately after
 death from submersion, the heart is found pulsat-
 ing; and,  according to Berger, it continues  for
 two, three, or  more hours after  exposure to  the
 atmosphere, and when it was not exposed it soon
 ceased to pulsate, reviving on the readmission of
 the air.§
   In nitrous air it ceased to beat in an hour; in
 hydrogen in forty-five minutes; in carbonic acid
 in thirty-five  minutes.   A  cat drowned at  the
 same time, and laid in the water for the same  pe-
 riod, exhibited contractions of the heart on open-
 ing the thorax, and exposure to the air continued
 its pulsations for seven hours, its colour becoming

  * Portal quoted by Bichat on life and death, Phil. Ed. 1809,
p. 231.
  ! See Davy on nit. oxide.     * Exp. 2, 3, 10, 11.
  § See Jackson's Essay on Suspend. Animat. p. 82, Phil. 1808, 
22
scarlet and the auricles beating more frequently
and much more strongly.
  The irritability of the  different  sides  of the
heart is various; according to Oswald it remain-
ed an equal length of time in both:* in  some in-
stances the heart was found wholly destitute of
irritability and insensible to the stimulus  of galva-
nism:  submersion in carbonic acid  gas, in some
cases,  exhausted that quality, and,  according to
Coleman, it continued for twenty-four hours after
respiration had ceased.
  In no instance have I observed it to contract as
long as twelve hours after death.   Its motions are
certainly increased by exposure to the air, on di-
viding the pericardium,! which renders it also
more sensible to the stimulus of electricity.   I
have observed it to contract after clots had form-
ed in its cavities 4  the puncture of the cava and
the pulmonary artery renews its contractions af-
ter they have ceased,§  and generally increases
them.
  The muscles lose their irritability sooner than
the intestines and the heart.
  The blood  is  rendered black by submersion,

  • See Oswald on the phen. of Suspend Life, Phil. 1802.  '
  !Exps. 9, 46, 51, 52. ,            ± Exp. 33, 40.
  4 Exp. 13, 16, 17, 22 
                      23

and those animals which are drowned in water of
a high temperature, have it equally dark colour-
ed in the arteries and veins ;*  according to the
observations of Coleman,.the blood of animals,
drowned in water at 98°, is of a higher colour than
that of the veins; and, contrary to the observation
of Hunter,! * have found it sometimes coagulat-
ed-!   The surface of the heart and  lungs appear
to have the power of coagulating the blood  effus-
ed upon  them.§
  The blood-vessels, according to the observation
of Phillips, communicate to the blood an irregular
motion,  even after the parts  have become cold,
and for seventy-five minutes after  the  heart was
removed in  one instance; he supposes|| that it will
continue for several hours after death; a fact
which demonstrates the necessity  of continuing
our efforts  to  resuscitate  the  drowned  persons
longer than  is generally practised.
   It was  thought proper to examine the state of
the temperature  in animals after submersion, to
determine exactly the progress of its decline and
its share in  the production  of death, particularly
as this quality has been observed to exhibit some

  * Oswald on the phen. &c. Phil. 1802.
  ! Hunter on  the Blood, p. 22, Phil. Edit.
  i Expt. 11, 15, 27,  31, 33, 46.       § Expt. 63.
  \ Phillips' expl. enquiry, p. 209-10. 
24
strange anomalies; thus an hybernating animal,
kept in air of a very low temperature, and having
that of its body reduced  to nearly the same de-
gree, after some time, had its temperature raised
to the natural standard, as was supposed by Hun-
ter, merely by the effort of the system, to heal a
wound in the  abdomen made for the  purpose of
introducing  a thermometer.  It was suspected
some sustaining power like this might exist after
death from submersion, and the following obser-
vations were made:
  After submersion in water of 85° of Fahrenheit
for five minutes, the air being of the same tempe-
rature, the surface cooled down to 92°: removed
to the air, in ten  minutes it fell to 90°, in fifteen
minutes it fell to  89°, in thirty minutes to 88°, in
fifty-two minutes  the interior of the abdomen had
fallen to 84°, when that of  the room  was 78°;—
results produced  principally by  the  suppression
of the circulation, as the  application of the tour-
niquet to an extremity of  a living person produces
the same depression of temperature.
  In another instance the temperature of the ex-
terior surface of the abdomen was 89° in air  of
85° after two  hours  had elapsed,  and in  rather
more than two hours and a quarter,  the heat of
the  animal, below the abdominal  muscles, was 
25
92°.*  In another instance, in twenty minutes af-
ter emersion, the surface of the abdomen was 88%
the air being  8l°.+   In a temperature of 73£%
when the head of the animal only was submersed
and the body kept perfectly dry, the temperature
of the exterior of the abdomen, in fifteen minutes,
was  92°.  In forty-five minutes! it remained at
92°;  in one hundred and forty minutes it fell to
83°. •  In another experiment, in the same circum-
stances and temperature, the heat of the exterior
of the abdomen fellto 90° in fifteen minutes ; to
86° in forty-five minutes; and to 76° in one hun-
dred and forty-five minutes ;§  whilst in another
animal, immersed in water .of 60° cooling down to
42° by the addition of ice, in  forty-five minutes,
the temperature fell to 75° of Fahrenheit/||
  The strength and vigour of the animal, I have
observed, certainly retards the reduction of the
temperature, and water being  a better conductor
than air, favours the dissipation of the heat in pro-
portion to their high or low degrees, as the above
experiments show.
   With regard to the effect of air of a higher tem-
perature in submersed animals, it  would appear
that  in one instance, when applied in the degree

        • See Expts. 1,2.     f See»Expt. 4.
       i Expt. 10.     § Exp. 11.    fl Expt. 15.
                       c 
                      26
of 160% in twenty minutes it rose to 106';* in
another in the degree of 150% in thirty-five mi-
nutes after immersion the body was 104°; in'air of
120°, in thirty-three minutes it rose to 106°;! and
of 111% in not quite one-third of  this time, the
heat of the animal was 102°.  So that, like the re-
duction of temperature, the power of the resist-
ance to the reception of heat depends much upon
the peculiar  constitution  of the animal.   Other
observations have been made; these are sufficient
to illustrate this position, that animals in asphyxia
have the power of resisting the  communication of
high degrees of heat, and prove that the powers of
life, in this respect, continue for some time after
their suspension.
* See Expt. 56.     . f See Expt. 24. 
            ON THE MODE

                ' IX WHICH

THE CAUSES OF ASPHYXIA OPERATE.
  Platerus in  1564, Borelli in 1680, Walsch-
miot, Littrius, and Becker in 1704, attributed as-
phyxia.to defect of air: Dethardingius in 1714 be-
lieved that death proceeded from the expansion
of the lungs ; Senac, Leprottus, Winslow, Kaau,
Bperhaave, supposed it to be owing to defect of
air and to apoplexy: Louis to the stoppage of the
circulation by pressure on the surface; Rsederer
to infarction of the lungs; Evers to the suppres-
sion of the motion'of the heart, produced by the
superior  weight  and  coldness of the water; and
VilUers to cold,  suffocation, and apoplexy.  Hal-
ler and Engleman believed  that death was owing
to the loss of the elasticity of the air and the curv-
ed state of the vessels, and the  consequent stop- 
28
page of the circulation by the exhaustion and col-
lapse of the lungs.*
  The opinions, with regard  to the causes of
death from submersion, may be referred to cold,
to loss of circulation, to apoplexy, and to defect of
air: the reasons which support these opinions are
as follows:
  1. Cold.—This cause does not produce death
from submersion, for animals  die sooner when
drowned in warm, than in cold  water;!  besides
exposure for a long time to water of a low tem-
perature does not produce death, provided respi-
ration be continued, and frequently after submer-
sion death is complete, though the temperature
does not, for a considerable time, decline to a de-
gree inconsistent with life;!  vet  *n these cases
spontaneous recovery did hot take place, which
should have happened had want of heat been the
cause of death: cold,  no  doubt, assists, because  it
debilitates the body when  long applied, in a high
or low degree.
  2. Loss of circulation.—The pulse ceases, ac-
cording to Oswald,  between two and three mi-
nutes after submersion, and it  continues, with the

  * Sandifort Thesaurus Dissert.  Jac.Gummer.de causa mort.
submers. 1768, ltoterodam.
  f See Art. Gummer. in Sandifort Thesaur. 1768, Roterod.
  4 Expt. 10, 11. 
29
 other functions, an indefinite length of time when
 the breathing is continued; though the body be im-
 mersed in water, it is evident the stoppage of the
 circulation is not the cause of drowning, but an
 effect.
               lib
   3.  Apoplexy.^From the fulness and slowness
 of the pulse observed in about One minute after
 submersion;  from the lividness  of the gums and
 face*, also  from the hemorrhagies from the  nose
 and ears of divers,the sense of fulness of the head
 when the same air is breathed for a long time, or
 the breath  is  entirely suspended, it is evident that
 appearances resembling apoplexy must take place
 in submersion, and dissection gives' some support
 to this position, for the vessels  of the brain are
 sometimes found turgid; but as  there is no extra-
 vasation, and as frequently there is no turgidity
 in the vessels, on the contrary they are perfectly
 empty, and as death generally takes place in four
 minutes, and sometimes in two or three, and even
 in one. minute after submersion, it is evident that
 apoplexy cannot be the cause, for this disease, in
 its natural form, sometimes continues for days, and
 generally for hours, with a full and bounding pulse,
 great distention of the vessels of the head, and even
 extravasation without producing death: besides
the turgidity  of the vessels sometimes  seen after
 death from submersion is not owing entirely to in-
                     c 2 
30
creased action of the arteries as in apoplexy, but
more to a remora of the circulation in the veins,
caused by the fulness of the right auricle and the
compressed state of the thorax and lungs, produc-
ed by the  weight of the atmosphere, and the wa-
ter, and the contraction of the arterial system af-
ter death, and in proof of this circumstance, the
veins of the axilla are found equally distended
with those of the brain, from the influence of these
causes.*  The experiments of Coleman, however,
put it beyond all doubt.  The vessels of the hrain
were exposed immediately after death from sub-
mersion for four minutes^ and they were found less
distended than usual. The carotids of a dog were
secured in order to prevent apoplexy; in half an
hour he was submersed;  life ceased  in four mi-
nutes, and the vessels of  the brain,  were found
less distended than in ordinary death; of course
apoplexy cannot be the cause.!
   4. Defect of Air, or Suffocation.—As we know
that respiration  is essential to life,  and that sub-
mersion may be safely continued for a long time,
if respiration be not suspended, and as death is
the immediate consequence of the suppression  of
this function, the conclusion is certain, that suffo-
cation is the cause:
* Expt. 32.     t Coleman a Dissert. &c, Lond. 1791. 
31
  Accordingly we now proceed to .detail the cir-
cumstances, on which perfect respiration depends,
in order to expose the subject in all its lights, and
then deduce the most approved mode of cure.
Of the function of respiration as the place of origin
           of Suspended Animation.

  The  phenomena of respiration  are, mechani-
cal, chemical and vital.  After the air is inspir-
ed, the lungs, consisting of a vesicular structure,
absorb  the oxygen and  leave the  azote, mixed
with some carbonic acid, formed during the pro-
cess.  •                                   •
   Mechanical  Phaenomena.   As a general  posi-
tion, the duration of the  scarlet colour  formed
during respiration depends upon the quantity of
air, contained in the lungs, diminishing in inten-
sity as  the oxygen disappears; the agitation pro*
duced by these organs also prolongs  it;* yet, if
the lungs be violently distended and  the'air al-
ready in them does not escape, oxygenation is re-
tarded ;  even if the residuum in the lungs be ex-
hausted, and fresh air be injected, the scarlet co-
* Bichat physio, research. Phil. 1809, p. 213. 
32
 lour is not so.soon produced, as by natural respi-
 ration.*  It is then important to ascertain exactly
 the number of natural respirations, in  order to
 produce the greatest  possible effect in  resuscita-
 tion; particularly, as inflation produces the tem-
 perature, and  retards its  decline, as well  as
 oxygenates  the blood-!   According jo Kite, the
 lungs receive three hundred cubic  inches of air,
 and the  chest in every minute makes about ten
 respirations; to Davy twenty-seven or twenty-
 eight.
   When the body is bent in a sitting posture, near
 a table, and the thorax expanded itself with some
 difficulty, thirteen respirations were made in a mi-
 nute, according to my observations; when the.
 back leaned against a chair, and  the thorax was
 free, nine respirations were performed.  Respira-
 tion is affected by the state  of the mind, even by
 attention to  the experiment.
   In the morning after breakfast two respirations
 in a minute were found sufficient for the space of
 one minute; during the second three were neces-
 sary.   When the experiment was repeated in the
evening two respirations in the minute were suf-
 ficient  for the support of  life, and could be con-

     • Bichat physio, research. Phil. 1809, p. 217.
     t Philip's enq. p. 215, Phil. Edit. 1818. 
33
tinued for three minutes;  afterwards three were
necessary, and even these produced, after some
time, some slight fulness of the head.  On repeat-
ing it I found that I could subsist with comfort
on three respirations in  a minute; the experiment
lasted for twelve minutes, and there was no appa-
rent diminution in the power of continuing them.
A middle number of respirations between three
and thirteen in a minute, increasing according to
circumstances; is, then, about the natural standard.
  The degree of pressure occasioned by inflation
also causes a difference between natural and arti-
ficial-respiration.*   When  air is forced into the  ■*
lungs with great violence, emphysema is the re-
sult in the breast and  neck; and when  the force
is only moderate, the  air passes,  in a separate
state, into  the arteries,! an effect which has taken
place, even in colic, from  the pressure produced
by the spasms; also sometimes in greatly hurried
respiration.:!-
   In my experiments, the air forced into the lungs  *-
with some violence by the bellows, rose on the sur-
face of the exposed lungs, like bubbles  oozing

  * Philip's enquiry, Phil. Ed.
  ! Bichat phys. researches, p. 249,  247.
  % See Morgagni and Pechlin, quoted by Bichat phy. re-
searches, p. 249. 
34
 from mud, and passed to the surface of the peri-
 cardium and into the  cavity of the abdomen near
 and behind the kidneys.*   On the  contrary, the
 effect of artificial respiration, when too little or
 rarefied air is injected into  the lungs, equally re-
 tards oxygenation.
   After the air is admitted into the lungs, its oxy-
 genous portion unites with the blood, produces the
 scarlet  colour, and forms carbonic acid, which is
 discharged by  the mechanical actions of this vis-
 cus.
   The  oxygen of the  atmosphere appears to be
 equally necessary to the vegetable and the animal
 world:  Davy found that plants looked better, but
 for a shorter time in oxygen than in atmospheric
 air:j bees, snails, (helix pomatia)4 slugs,  (Umax
 flavus),§ destroyed the oxygen completely: Spal-
 lanzani found that the .helix vivipara, an aquatic
 animal, ceased to change the air at. the temperature
 of freezing: near the bottom, they consumed only
 half the air, which they did when allowed  to
 breathe at  the  surfaqr; andr when they breathed

  * See Expt. 41, 42.
  f Davy  on  nit. oxide. Hub..Mem sur  la  Germin. &c..and
 Sennebier.   See Ellis, an enq. into the changes, &c. "Edin
1807.
  t Vauquelin, quoted by the same.
  § Spallan. quoted by the same, p. 73,74, 75. 
35
jhe. air alone, the oxygen was destroyed  without
the azote being the least diminished ;* some am-
phibious animals, as the sea tortoise, will live in
the hold of a vessel or in the bottom of a hogs-
head for manymonths, though the air be impure.
Birds die before  half the oxygen is consumed: a
mouse and a guinea pig expired when about three
fourths of the gas  had'disappeared, though the
carbonic acid  was withdrawn-!   Spallanzani ob-
served that birds and quadrupeds do not consume
more than Tt95 parts of the oxygen, and sometimes
only 17 or 16^ parts, and then die, though the
fixed air be removed, proving clearly that air fre-
quently  renewed is  absolutely necessary  for the
existence of these animals.   It would then appear
that as we ascend  the series of animation, the
higher orders require air better ventilated than the
lower.
   Atmospheric air appears to be necessary to all
species and orders of living beings, for it has been
satisfactorily proved that oxygen, when pure, will
produce convulsions, debility, and death, though
the carbonic acid be removed by lime water.!  It
causes a sensation of warmth in the lungs, great
excitement, an increase of  strength, fulness and

     * Ellis, p. 76.                ! Ibid.
    * Higgins' Phil. Expts. Lond. 1795, p. 146 et seq. 
S6
frequency of the pulse, rising, in one instance, to
ninety, in another to one hundred and twenty
beats in a minute, when sixty-four was the natu-
ral number in • the same period.  In the experi-
ments of Davy, oxygen produced oppressed res-
piration, though little of the oxygen had been con-
sumed.*  He also found that man and the mouse
consume less oxygen, and produce less carbonic
acid, when they breathe in pure oxygen, than in
common air.!   There can be no doubt, then, that
the dilution of the atmosphere by azo#te renders
it more favourable to the support of animal life,
and that pure  oxygen is  improper for resuscita-
tion.
  Habit, however, has a great effect on the power
of  animals to breathe air  already tainted  by res-
piration; Priestley found that those animals which
breathe pure  air will  die sooner  in impure air
than those which have been accustomed to it.!
  Natural peculiarity of  constitution has also an
influence; certain fishes die immediately on being
exposed to the  atmosphere;  others live many
hours: all the  organs of the body have various de-
grees of strength in different individuals; one per-
son recovers from drowning, though he has been

       * Davy on nit. oxide.     f Ibid, p. 442-4.
       * Kite, Lond. 1788. 
37
6ubmersed for half an hour, simply by the effect.
of rest and the sun;  another dies irrecoverably
after immersion but for one minute.   Such is the
effect of constitution.
  Other circumstances also have an agency; and,
in general, any cause which debilitates or strength-
ens the system, or changes the qualities of the
atmosphere,  produces difficulty  or  freedom  of
breathings
  In this  country, during the  prevalence of cold
and dry winds from the north and west, the tone
of the system is increased and the lungs play with
ease; on the contrary, when the system is bathed
in vapour by the eastern winds, which blow over
the ocean, and particularly  in warm seasons, the
system is  weakened and the breathing is oppress-
ed.  The  same effect is produced by respiring
frequently from a vessel of small capacity,* by the
impurity of the  atmosphere of crowded  rooms,
and of museums; by the debility of the system pro-
duced  by  fear, horror, fatigue, digestion, fever,
dropsy, gout, consumption,  or other chronic dis-
eases.
  It would appear,  then, that the  lungs should
perform their functions properly,  the air must
consist of  the proper  proportions of oxygen and

  * Prof. Pfaff quoted by Ellis in an enquiry, 0. Edin. 1807. 
38
 azote, have a due and not excessive degree of
 moisture, and be freed from noxious vapours by
 ventilation.
   After the air is admitted into the lungs it unites
 with the blood; Priestley and Cigna found that ve-
 nous blood becomes florid at its surface, when ex-
 posed  to the atmosphere, though covered and de-
 fended by a thick stratum of serum.*   The expe-
 riments of  Hooke  prove that  it combined with
 the blood after the natural and mechanical  mo-
 tions of the thorax were suspended.by opening it;
 and of Brodie, that oxygen was absorbed and car-
 bonic acid formed  in the same  condition of the
 lungs-!
   It would, then, appear from  the most demon-
 strative and conclusive evidence, that after appa-
 rent death respiration may be continued, and also
 that its peculiar changes on the blood may be pro-
 duced.
   After  explaining the causes  which affect the
 strength and perfection of the organs of respira-
tion, we proceed to explain the mode of operation
of those caviscs which  entirely suppress it,  and
produce asphyxia.
  It was stated, in the commencement of this me-

           * Davy on Nit. Oxide, p. 445.
           ! See Croouian Lecture, 1810. 
39
moir, that the various species of asphyxia were es-
sentially the same; we shall now attempt to prove
this position by showing the effects of the noxious
gases, suspension, &c, and thus prepare  for the
discussion  of modes of cure, which shall compre-
hend  them all.
  Oxygen, when pure, is unfavourable to animal
life, and  produces convulsions and death, as  in
submersion,though not so speedily;* nitrous ox-
ide, according to Davy,! destroys warm-blooded
animals much sooner than oxygen, but not so soon
as the non-respirable gases; the larger and the
old live longer  in it than  small and young  ani-
mals: vegetables also die in it;! a butterfly died
in half  a minute, and  a fly in the  same time:§
fishes and lizards, (as happens in water freed from
its air,)  do not die so speedily in this gas.  Ani-
mals die in nitrous gas in  the space of  from one
to five minutes, which corresponds, pretty exactly,
with  the effects of submersion,|j and the  appear-
ances after death resembled those from the latter
cause,^|  with these differences, that the blood  in
the left side of the heart and the aorta was more
purple,  and  the irritability disappeared  sooner,

    *  See p. 53.    ! Davy on Nitrous Oxide, p.  366.
        *Ibid, p. 563.          § Ibid, p. 371.
         H Ibid, p. 339—40.      ", Ibid, p. 346. 
4«J
 than when the animal is killed by a blow.*   This
 sudden  loss  of irritability often appears  after
 drowning, and the purple spots in the lungs, men-
 tioned by Davy, sometimes are seen, particularly
 if the animal has breathed during submersion.
 Equal parts of nitrous oxide and hydrogen killed
 in the same manner, and with the same  appear-
 ances after death-!  Three  parts of hydrogen and
 one of nitrous oxide destroyed a mouse in a mi-
 nute.  Pure hydrogen could not be respired more
 than three quarters of a minute;  giddiness,mus-
 cular debility, a feeble pulse and a sense of suffo-
 cation were  the result-!   The same  symptoms
 occur in submersion in about the same period.
 Azote, in union with a small proportion of  car-
 bonic acid, produce the same effects: nitrous  gas,
. sulphurated hydrogen, and hydro-carbonated gases
 also destroy  in the same period, with this excep-
 tion, that it has been believed that the  two former
 are absorbed, and the latter produces in the blood
 a red colour;  in other respects, the essential symp-
 toms, the state of the lungs, heart, and brain are
 entirely the same as in submersion.
   Carbonic acid, according to Davy, is irrespira-

  * Davy on Nitrous Oxide, p. 348.  See a Diss, on Nit. Oxide.
 by W. P. C. Barton, 1808, p. 76.
  f Davy on Nitrous Oxkle, p. 558.      t ibid, p. 466 
41
 ble from  the closure of the glottis; another cir-
 cumstance, in  which it resembles water in its ef-
 fects; the limbs in death from the former do not
 generally grow stiff: this sometimes happens in
 death from submersion.
   It is stated, by Currie, that Dr. Black observed
 that birds immersed in carbonic acid gas were not
 so speedily killed  when their nostrils were stop-
 ped with  suet as when  they were left open, prov-
 ing that this gas operates upon the nervous sys-
 tem in  producing  death:*  these results are con-
 firmed by Dr.  Rousseau, an ingenious physician
 of  this city, who states, that  when the  nostrils
 are closed the  inhalation of carbonic acid  is not
 deleterious.  It is most probable ^hat it acts both
 by  excluding oxygen from the  irritation of the
 glottis, which fixed air  always produces, and also
 that it has a narcotic effect on the olfactory nerves.
 In Russia it is believed, by Dr." Guthrie, when a
 thaw  succeeds  a frost of long duration, that the
 thin plate of ice which forms upon  the windows,
 on  thawing, gives out a principle which is suppos-
 ed to be the carbonic acid discharged by respira-
 tion,  and  which produces all the deleterious  ef-

  * See Black's lectures on chemistry, edited by Professor Ro-
bison, vol. ii. p. 87, quoted by Currie, p. 129.
                      P2 
42
fects of this gas.*  This subject, according to thi>
gentleman, has been rigorously examined, and no
other source can be discovered for this noxious
vapour, as the stoves are found  to be perfectly
tight.
  From these facts it appears that the non-respi-
rable gases, as far as they have been examined,
produced essentially the same phaenomena, when
applied to the lungs, as water in submersion, and
also in the same period.  Convulsions frequently
occur during  immersion in these  airs, as also in
water, and the same irregular affections, pains in
the head, drowsiness and giddiness for some time
after recovery.
   Suspension by the cord kills also by the exclu-
 sion of respirable air from the  lungs.   Munrc
hung a dag,  in  whose  trachea an opening  was
made below the place of pressure, and the animal
 lived:  in three quarters of  an hour the rope  was
placed below the opening in the trachea so as to
prevent respiration, and the animal  soon died.
 The jugulars and the carotids have been tied  and
 life has been prolonged for weeks, proving  that
 death from strangulation is not produced by pres-

  * See Phil. Transact. Lond. vol. Ixix.  p. 325, for 1779, as
 mioted by Currie, p. 13Q. 
43
*ure on the blood-vessels:* nor is compression of
the nerves of the neck the cause; otherwise in the
experiment  of Munro above related, the  animal
would have died immediately and before the pres-
sure was made below the hole in the trachea: The
nerves, which are liable to be affected by suspen-
sion,  are the great  sympathetic  and the par \a-
gum ; a ligature on these nerves does not de-
stroy life for some time ;! whereas, in suspension,
death is  the result in a few minutes.  Pressure
on the spinal marrow cannot take place without a
fracture of the vertebrae, which does not  always
occur; in animals, the subject of these experi-
ments, never; yet death, in about the same period
as in  submersion, uniformly is  the result.  The
symptoms felt on suspension, and described by
those who have recovered, are similar to those ex-
perienced after submersion,! and the same appear-
ances observed  after death, in  both  varieties of
this disease.§ J

   * See Kite on, &c. 1T38, Lond. p. 198.
   jSee Bichat phy. res. p. 259, Phil. Edit.
   t See the Repts. of the Hum. Soc,for 1735-6, p. 138.
   § See Coleman. 
44
  From what has been already stated, the opera-
tion of the causes of death  in this disease, which
arise from the mechanical and chemical functions
of the lungs, can now be understood.  The divi-
sion of the eighth pair and of the upper, parts of
the spinal marrow, supplying the glottis, the mus-
cles of inspiration, and the diaphragm, destroys
the vital powers of respiration: By wounds in the
chest; by a strong compression of the abdomen and
thorax, and by a great accumulation of fluid in the
cavity of the chest; the mechanical functions of the
lungs are  suspended.  The operation of rarefied
air, of submersion, of noxious gases, and a closure
of the trachea by  natural or artificial means, pre-
vent the chemical changes of the lungs and  thus
produce the disease.
  Those which  arise from causes affecting the vi-
tal phaenomena of the body remain.   Of these, the
first is cold.  In order to explain the operation of
this agent, it will be necessary to examine the ge-
neral relations of animal temperature, without en-
tering into a discussion, with regard to its origin,
which would exceed the limits of this essay.
  The heat of the animal is intimately connected
with life, and is  a necessary  agent in supporting it.
From some experiments performed and  carefully
Repeated, I have found the temperature of animals 
45
to decline in proportion to the distance from the
heart: its power of preservation also is less consi-
derable in  the more distant than  in the central
parts of the body: the feet first lose their heat in
dying, and on exposure to intense cold:  the power
of generating this fluid  also depends much upon
the strength of the system: those who are conva-
lescent are more  susceptible of changes of tempe-
rature, and are more liahle to cold  feet  and  chills
over the whole body; the phlegmatic and the drop-
sical are more sensible to cold in winter than the
sanguine, and this  in the parts most distant from
the heart.   Palsy also takes away the  power of
preserving the temperature,*  and it is  certain
that the debilitating passions of the mind lessen
this power, proving that the state of the  brain and
the system generally contribute to this effect: the
nerves and the blood-vessels also  are intimately
concerned in this function: a ligature on either of
these structures lowers the  temperature and affects
the powers of preservation in the parts on which
they are distributed.   It is, therefore, a quality,
which depends upon the  integrity of every part of
the body, and is more or  less affected  by every
thing, which  impairs or strengthens it: Thus a
wound increases  the heat of the whole system, if
* Sec Earle's Expts. 
46
considerable enough to excite re-action;  if in a
vital organ, it lessens the temperature, if re-action
does not follow.   The  effect of wine strengthens
the system for a time, increases its temperature^
and debility is the consequence, and a greater sen-
sibility to cold.
  The most general law, which this quality pre-
sents, is that  its power of preservation, and  of
course its actual degree, diminish in proportion
to the distance from the heart, and that they both
increase with the general strength of the system
when in health, never  rising, however, beyond a
certain temperature, which varies according to the
class of the animal.
  The symptoms of apparent death from cold are,
coldness, numbness of the extremities, loss of the
power of motion, and irresistible propensity  to
sleep, ending in complete asphyxia, and if it should
continue,  in death:  the common appearances  of
which are, insensibility, inflexibility  of the limbs,
with the jaws fixed, the teeth clenched, and froth
issuing  from the mouth.*
  The symptoms of recovery observed in the mar-
mot are deep sighs, with  broken and inarticulate
sounds; the limbs become less rigid, the animal
stretches  out  his legs and fetches  another still
                       7
     * See Struves' Pract. Essay, p. 52, Alban. 1803. 
                      47
deeper sigh,  opens his eyes, and at length reco-
vers.
  It is singular, though the temperature be equal
to that of freezing, the  marmot never becomes
torpid, provided he be kept in the open air instead
of a close place.*
  This state  may  be hastened by  this circum-
stance,  as  the carbonic acid  produced  during
breathing would undoubtedly cause asphyxia with-
out the assistance of cold.
  With regard to the actual power of bearing cold
possessed, by the living  system, it appears, from
the experiments of Hunter, that the temperature
of the mouth may be reduced 20° by the applica-
tion of cold, and the animal sustains no serious
injury, and that of the urethra 40°.v  Dead matter
loses  and is increased in temperature more ra-
pidly than living.  The urethra immersed in wa-
ter, heated  to 113° for two  minutes, rose to the
temperature of IOO5.  Exposed to water heated
to 118° for some time, it rose to  102i, but  no
higher-!
   In my experiments on animals which had been
 submersed in air of a high temperature, it appear-

  * See Buffon's Nat. History of Animals, quoted by A. Fother-
gill in a new enquiry, &c. Ed. 1798.
  f See Hunter's Obser. on certain parts of the Anim. (Econ. 
48
 ed that they received heat more slowly than  iu
 those of Mr. Hunter.  Immersed in air of 150°
 of Fahrenheit for thirty-five minutes,* the body
 was 104°.   In air of 120°,! in thirty-three minutes,
 it rose to 106°, and in air  of  111°,! in not quite
 one-third of this time, the heat of the animal was
 102°.  So that the power of resistance of the ani-
 mal to the reception of heat, even during asphyxia,
 produced by submersion, was considerable.  Ani-
 mals placed in  air colder than their natural tem-
 perature lost their heat generally in proportion to
 the degree of depression of the medium.
   In a temperature of 60°, in about forty minutes
 it fell to 73",§ and proportionally less according
 to the higher degree of the air  to which they were
 exposed, and varying, in some instances,  from
 other causes, as strength of constitution and ab-
 stinence from food: this last result coincides with
 the experiments of Mr. Hunter.||  The male cat
 also preserves its heat after submersion longer
 than the female.
  The operation of cold in producing  death i«i
 easily traced in the symptoms already detailed:
the sleepiness and comatose disposition,  which

     * Expt. 18.            "! Expt. 24.
     * Expt. 20.            § Expt. 44.
     !i See Observ.  on cert, parts of, &c. Lond. 1792. 
49
 occurs on its first application, prove the weakness
 of the brain; the numbness, insensibility, and loss
 of voluntary motion show that the functions of the
 nerves  and muscles  are also debilitated, and at
 length  entirely suspended.  The  blood-vessels
 also lose their power and contribute to this effect.
 From the experiments of Spallanzani the oxyge-
 nation of the blood, which takes place even after
 death, is, by a low temperature, completely pre-
 vented.*   Cold  then acts, in inducing death, on
 the general powers of life; the remains of the re-
 spired air are not ejected by the loss of power in
 the muscles of expiration, and the oxygen present
 in the lungs is not assimilated from the want of at-
traction in the blood; thus, then, the  animal dies
 from the suspension  of the  mechanical  and  the
chemical functions, produced by the general  de-
crease of the vital powers.
  Hunger  also operates by  inducing  debility of
the powers of  life.  The muscles of  inspiration
cease to perform their functions, asphyxia takes
place, and, from the extreme debility, soon termi-
nates in death.
  The various  species of fever produce this final
change  in the same manner.
  All these causes  may operate either slowly or

        * See Ellis, p. 76, and p. 34 of this Essay.
                      E 
                       5C
           I
rapidly.   The division of the eighth pair of nerves.
may be partial, or combined with that of the spi-
nal marrow above the origin of the phrenic nerves;
the quantity of water injected into the thorax may
be greater or less; as also the pressure  of tumors
on the trachea; asphyxia accordingly will be more
or less sudden.  The decline of irritability  after
death, it has been ascertained, will be proportion-
ed to the duration and violence of the pain which
has exhausted the animal previously, and of course
the probability of resuscitation* more or less cer-
tain.
  We have now attempted to  prove that the va-
rious species of asphyxia resemble each other in
their origin from the lungs, and the formation of
blood unfit for the purposes of life.  On review-
ing the causes which produce this disease we find
that they are  allied by close affinities, and  that
they often unite in its formation.   The rarefaction
of the air, want of food, and cold in its higher re-
gions, all frequently concur in producing death.
Heat also sometimes combines with rarefaction
of the air and want of food, as  in the noxious
winds of the deserts of Africa, and frequently acts
alone, as in the  humming-bird, which is said  to
* See Bichat's Phys. Researches. 
51
become torpid during the summer in South Ame-
rica.
  It now remains to ascertain exactly what changes
these various causes effect in the interior of the
body by which death is produced.
  When the trachea is closed, the blood, in gene-
ral, begins to change  in  thirty seconds;  in  one
minute its colour is darkened, and it becomes per-
fectly like venous blood in one minute and a half,
sooner or later, according as the lungs are more
or less free fom air.  This dark blood is the prin-
cipal cause of death;  other  circumstances, how-
ever, conspire.
  1st.  Mechanical causes.  The compressed state
of  the lungs  has been considered, by some au-
thors,  as preventing the circulation,  but  experi-
ment does not confirm this supposition.*  Bichat
and Coleman found, Contrary to the  opinions of
Haller and  Cullen, that the circulation  went on
equally well when the lungs were entirely collaps-
ed  or  distended; this fact may be true in cases
where the heart possesses considerable power, as
in those on which the experiments were made; but
it is certain, that as during  asphyxia, this organ
is  much exhausted, that the motion of the lungs
must have considerable effect in accelerating the
• Bichat's Phys. Researches, p. 173-4, Phil. Edit. 
52
 blood, as it certainly would have, even in inani-
 mate tubes.   The effect  they  produce by  com-
 pressing the contents of the abdomen, and thus
 forcing on  the blood through the arteries and the
 veins into the right side of the heart, must be con-
 siderable.
  Bichat observed that tbe quantity of blood was
 increased, on dividing the carotid, every time the
motions of respiration were accelerated by pain,
though the number of the pulsations of the  heart
was not increased; proving, clearly, that these mo-
tions produce a. great effect upon the rendition
of the blood-vessels, and that, of course, their loss
must be one of the chain of causes which produce
death.
  2nd.  Chemical causes.   According to  Good-
wyn the cause of death is the want of scarlet blood,
the appropriate stimulus of  the left auricle, con-
fining the seat of the disease entirely to the heart.
Bichat believes that it is the presence of black
blood in the vessels of the heart and in all the or-
gans of the body which produces the  effect.
• From my observations,  I  should conclude that
the heart was debilitated in its  action, first,  from
the effect of black blood in  the lungs, lessening,
by sympathy, the power of this  organ; for its ac-
tion  is instantly renewed and invigorated by in- 
53
 flation, before the scarlet blood can reach the left
 auricle and ventricle.
   2ndly. The transmission of the black blood into
 the coronary arteries, which takes away the power
 of its fibres; as it weakens and destroys the func-
 tions of the brain, the nerves, the voluntary mus-
 cles, in fact of  most of the organs of the body
 through which it penetrates, as is proved by tying
 up the artery of a limb, and the injection of black
 blood into the carotids—the functions of the brain
 in the latter, and of the nerves ai\d muscles in the
 former, being completely suspended; it is, there-
 fore, very certain that the fibres and nerves of the
 heart are equally weakened by the contact of black
 blood.  That it is not owing to  the want of the
 stimulus of the red blood on the interior of the
 left auricle  and ventricle as Goodwyn supposes,
 Coleman states that the case of the foetus, whose
heart moves from the stimulus of black blood, is
 sufficient proof.   To this, it may be replied, the
analogy is not sufficiently strict; for, in foetal life,
 the organs  possess  properties in  many respects
different form those of the adult.
   It bears asphyxia better than  the adult, a qua-
lity which  continues for  some time  after birth,
showing that the power of the heart is more inde-
pendent of the lungs in the foetus than in the adult,
an important difference, as these  two organs are
                      e 2 
54
primary in the production of asphyxia.  It is in-
capable of supporting an independent temperature,
requiring  a degree equal to the mother in order
to live, and many of its organs, the  brain, the
nerves, the senses, digestion  and voluntary mo-
tion, are almost entirely at rest.  It is, therefore,
improper  to make a comparison between them.
Let us then reqpr to the facts in the adult system.
  That the scarlet blood can act upon the lefrau-
ricle and ventricle, by distention, is satisfactorily
proved by the injection of black blood into these
cavities, reproducing their motions after they have
ceased;* that it operates by its qualities as arte-
rial blood upon the left side of the heart, it is suf-
ficient to state that it is its natural stimulus in the
adult state.  A contrary effect, however,  is pro-
duced in the right ventricle, during asphyxia, from
the distention of the stagnating blood which does
not pass through the  lungs;  for when the venae
cavae, or pulmonary artery, are punctured, the right
auricle and ventricle  resume  their contractions,
even  after  they have ceased-!  This, however,
would appear to be the case only when the disten-
tion is considerable, and only  with regard to the
right side of the heart, for in the left ventricle the
* Bichat's Phys. Researches, p. 179.
! See Expts. 9,13,16, 17, 22. 
                      55

irritability is prolonged by  tying  the  aorta and
confining the blood in its cavity.*  The disten-
tion of the right side of the  heart is never exces-
sive, as appears from gentle pressure with the fin-
ger, expelling its contents, and from the fact, that
these cavities of the heart are filled merely by the
contractility of the veins, which is always weak:
in consequence, the valves between the auricle and
ventricle, as also between  the latter and the pul-
monary  artery, do  not perform  their functions
completely; the  blood, accordingly, in the con-
tractions of the auricle and ventricle is never sent
into the  pulmonary  artery, or in very small quan-
tities, regurgitating  into the  ventricle, or passing
between the auricle and ventricle, without even
distending the  pulmonary  artery, so that the func-
tions of this organ are weakened in every respect;
in the right side by  distention,  and in  the left by
the want of it  during suspended animation.
   It would appear,  then, that the  interruption  of
respiration places all the parts in  a state opposite
to that of nature, and thus produces death.  The
cavae and venous  system generally are much dis-
tended;  the right side of the heart so much so  as
to exhaust the little remains of irritability of this
organ; the pulmonary artery and lungs contain but
* See Bichat's Phys. Researches. 
56
little blood, a condition equally unnatural, as they
are deprived both of the stimulus of distention and
scarlet blood: the pulmonary veins are turgid and
filled with stagnant blood, and the left auricle and
ventricle are deprived of red blood, and are empty;
conditions almost in every instance, the contrary
of what happens in the living  state,  showing the
great power of the lungs and its appropriate sti-
mulus over the system, thus to overthrow and re-
verse the qualities of-life in all the important or-
gans;  and leading to the conclusion that it is by
re-establishing the natural state in each of these
particulars, that resuscitation will, most probably,
be effected.
  Bichat has proved satisfactorily, that the brain
dies  by the contact of  black blood, and  that, of
course, the suppression of respiration acts in this
manner on this organ in asphyxia: mechanical dis-
tention, produced in  the increased action of the
heart, also appears to have some connection with
this effect.  When red blood  was injected, by a
syringe, into the arteries of the brain, the appear-
ances of life were feeble, and death generally took
place, a result which might  have been expected
from the rude imitation of the arterial action which
this ^process presents.   We can nov/explain satis-
factorily the various phaenomena of asphyxia; the
anxiety first felt in the  lungs prove the origin of 
57
this affection  to be in that viscusj the continual
struggles till death takes  place show  the violence
of the feeling; the black blood penetrates the heart
and  is sent with force to the brain, and, in the
space of forty-five, sixty, or ninety  seconds, the
functions of this organ are entirely suspended, as
far as regards external objects; a period, which
corresponds pretty exactly with that of the forma-
tion of black blood, by the suspension of respira-
tion, in the experiments of Bichat.
  The pulse, during the loss of the scarlet colour
of the blood, becomes fuller and slower, from the
effect produced upon the brain, and gradually de-
clines till it ceases altogether; as a pYoof of which,
if the animal be permitted to breathe, these changes
do not take place; the system then exhibits some
distracted motions, which are the result of the re-
mains of life in the different parts of the animal,
displaying, however, the  best directed efforts to
replace  it in its  original state, by re-establishing
respiration.
  We proceed, in  the following chapter, to as-
semble all  the indications presented  by this sur-
vey of the phaenomena of asphyxia, to restore the
animal to health. 
ON THE
CURE OF ASPHYXIA
            First, from Submersion.

  The body must be recovered from the water,
stripped, dried, wrapt in warm blankets, and then
conveyed, with as little agitation as possible, to
the place  of resuscitation.  The old custom of
rolling the  patient upon  a barrel, or upon the
ground, of violently shaking, or carrying him over
the shoulders of another  person, with  the  head
downward, have been deservedly omitted.   Agi-
tation of the extremities, it is certain, has an ef-
fect in exciting the heart, for by pulling the aorta,
the axillary and  carotid arteries, the heart being
exposed  to  view, its motions were considerably
increased* as long  as any irritability remained;
this remedy, however, promises little benefit till
respiration is established, and the heart begins to
* Expts. 36, 54 
59
recover its power, and then, as in exercise, it may
increase its motions;  it should be confined to the
upper extremities only, and applied by approach-
ing the extended arm gently towards the head, and
restoring it to the side, as by this means^ the ax-
illary artery will be best extended and  relaxed.
If long submersed, inversion of the body,  for a
few seconds, to discharge the water from the lungs,
may be necessary:  it should be done gently and
with the greatest care.   An instrument has been
proposed for exhausting the water from the lungs;
but the above expedient will be sufficient.
   After being well dried  with  flannel, it should
be laid upon a litter, a bed, or in a carriage with
straw; the head gently raised, and the body plac-
ed in a supine posture: formerly, the patient was
advised to be placed on one side, rather than upon
the back, and occasionally upon the breech.*  Kite
recommends a posture in an angle of 20° previous
to the use  of any means of resuscitation; this po-
sition  would  have an unfavourable  effect, as it
would increase the pressure and the quantity of
blood  in the right auricle  and ventricle, which,
from observation, has a tendency to weaken their
motions, and retard the passage of blood, by the

  * Mem. of Vicentini in Cogan's translation of the Amsterdam
Soc. Memoirs. 
                       60

 pulmonary artery, through the lungs.  IF the body
 be raised and the head depressed, the quantity of
 blood  in the right side of the heart would be in-
 creased, in a  greater degree, by the pressure of
 the column, extending from the feet to the heart,
 and  therefore, this posture is  equally improper.
 The horizontal, the medium between the two, ap-
 pears to be preferable, as, then, when the heart
 begins to act, the blood passes into the head with-
 out the disadvantage of the resistance of gravity,
 as when the head is raised and the feet depressed,
 or the  contrary; and without the additional dis-
 advantage of the pressure of the column of blood
 on the  veins, distending and Weakening the mo-
 tions of the right side of the heart.*
   The  place to which the body is to be removed
 is next to be  chosen.  From the debilitating ef-
 fects produced by slight impregnations of the air
 with  noxious vapours, with moisture during  the
 prevalence of east, in Europe, and of west winds
 in America, it is evident that as few persons should
 be admitted as  possible; six active and  sensible
 men will be  sufficient;  the room should be well
 ventilated, and have an airy, northern, and dry
exposure.  These considerations are important;
as in cities, and in situations near the water, where
* See page 30. 
61
these accidents most frequently happen, all these
disadvantages are most frequently combined, and
the lives of many persons, whose constitutions are
weak, may be lost from inattention to them.
  With regard to the application of heat, various
opinions are entertained.   Submersion, for a few
minutes, abstracts but little heat from  the body.
According to Goodwyn,  the temperature may be
raised to  100° of Fahrenheit, and then artificial
respiration may be used.  Coleman thinks the gra-
dual application of heat is unnecessary, and that
respiration may be commenced immediately.  The
temperature, according to Hunter, should be pro-
portioned to the degree of life, and as  heat pro-
duces greater excitement than cold, a sudden ele-
vation may destrdy the resuscitating animal.*  He
found that if an eel be exposed to a degree of cold
sufficient to benumb it, till life is scarcely percep-
tible, and be retained in a temperature of about
40°, it will remain without change; but  if the ani-
mal be placed in a temperature of 60° it will show
strong signs of life, and die in a few minutes: birds
are killed  in the same manner:  snails, leeches,
earthworms, fishes, dormipe were frozen and could
not be recovered; the ears of rabbits, the  tail of
the tench, and the comb  of the cock were frozen

                   • Kite, p. 88.
                      F 
62
 and restored more easily.*  The gradual applica-
 tion of heat, however, has been tried, though not
 under circumstances sufficiently precise  to deter-
 mine with perfect accuracy the effect.   An animal
 was drowned and reduced to a temperature three
 degrees below that of the atmosphere; it remain-
 ed in the water, and  electric  shocks were passed
 through it, so as barely to excite a contraction in
 the muscles; the temperature was then raised three
 degrees every five minutes; the irritability dimi-
 nished at every step, and before the body had ac-
 quired its natural temperature, it was entirely lost-!
 The principle of the application of heat has  not
yet been precisely ascertained.
   On this subject I have made many observations,
but, from the great variety in the duration of the
irritability of the heart, sometimes ceasing after a
few minutes, at others not for hours, in various
temperatures, I can draw no positive conclusion
from them, excepting  with regard to the influence
of temperatures  above 98°;  then the heat of  the
animal rises above  the  natural standard, and, of
course, must prevent success.  The temperature
of 150° of Fahrenheit produced rigidity of  the

         * See Kite, Lond. quoting Hunter.
         f Kite, Lond. 1795. 
63
limbs in a short time, and, of course, rendered
death certain.*
  In one experiment, in air of 100° combined with
inflation, the circulation was much improved, and
the arteries contained more blood than usual.!  In
other and lower degrees, the effect was variable.!
The opinion of  Hunter is most safe on this diffi-
cult  practical question; that is, that the applica-
tion  of heat should be proportioned to the degree
of life, and that  it should be gradual, a precaution
indispensable  when  the temperature of the body
has been much reduced:  if the  body should be
nearly frozen, it may be necessary to immerse it
in snow, or cold water,  and then gradually in-
crease it.
  With  regard  to the mode, exposure before a
warm fire; the application of cloths wrung out of
warm  water;  immersion  in warm grains from a
brewery; or in warm water; sand; embers; or lees;
or in a bed heated by the human body;  or by a
warming-pan; exposure to the sun; hot bricks, or
hot bottles filled with water, rolled in cloths, and
applied to  the neck, armpits, back, knees, ankles,
and  soles of  the feet, have been proposed.   As

  * See Expt. 18.
  ! See Expt..43.  Of course, the simple effect of heat could
not be known, as it was combined with inflation.
  t See 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40. 
64
ardent spirits  produce cold by evaporation, it is
an  improper application to the skin; a poultice,
made by boiling  ginger in hot alcohol, has been
recommended to  be applied to the feet: hot water
in bottles would  be more easily procured, and is
equally efficacious.   A machine has been invent-
ed by Dr. Harvey, of Manchester, for communi-
cating heat to the body; it consists of a hollow tin
apparatus, in which the person is laid, an,d filled
with warm  water, which is renewed as  often as
may be necessary.*  This plan of heating the body
by  water is certainly not so desirable as by air,
sand, or placing the body before a fire; for water
has a debilitating effect independent of the  heat.
  When the body is properly prepared for com-
mencing respiration, the lungs must be inflated by
the mouth applied to the nostril of the patient, if
no  other instrument  can  be procured.  A tube
may be constructed by rolling a piece of the sole
of an old shoe, or  paste  board, and securing it
round with  thread; and then inflating the lung*
by applying the mouth to one extremity of the
tube,  the other being inserted  into the  nostril.
The pipe of a common bellows may be  inserted
into one nostril, whilst the  other side  and the
mouth are closed, the cartilage of the trachea is

     * See Ann. Repts. of the Roy. Hum Roc. 180" 
65
pressed backward to prevent the air from getting
into the stomach, and as soon as the lungs are fill-
ed, they are again  emptied by pressing on the
sternum.   Their motions should also be regular
and uniform, as it has been proved, that, when
the air is retained by the lungs in a state of extreme
distention, its qualities are less changed, in a given
time,* than  when breathed by alternate inspira-
tion and expiration.
  When the common bellows is used,  the air
should be discharged in expiration from the oppo-
site nostril, otherwise it returns into  the bellows
and again into the lungs;  the construction of this
instrument prevents its exit by the valve on the
side.   In  inflating the lungs of animals, with the
single bellows, I have observed the precaution of
pressing open the valve with  the finger before the
air  was injected, and then forcing' that which re-
mained in  their  cavity through it, and afterwards
continued the inflation.  This precaution obviates
all the disadvantages of the single bellows.  The
double bellows of Hunter, however^ from its con-
venience, is to be preferred.   An instrument has
been invented by Mr. Field of London, by which ^
the lungs  are entirely collapsed, in order to expe-
dite the circulation.   The alternate and complete

             * Ellis's Enquiry, Edin, 1807.
                     F 2 
66
exhaustion of this viscus of its air, as mentioned
in a preceding part of this essay,* is not so fa-
vourable to the oxygenation of the blood as natu-
ral respiration: any other process, therefore, than
simple inflation  is improper; particularly as it is
very doubtful whether the circulation is really ad-
vanced by entirely collapsing the lungs more than
by natural respiration.!
   W^ith regard to the kind of air to be used, there
can be no doubt upon the subject.  Pure oxygen,
nitrous oxide, and all the gases, excepting atmos-
pheric air, are proved to be unfavourable to life.!
   As to the number of respirations, the Humane
Society of London advise twenty or thirty in a
minute;  as the imitation of natural respiration as
^nearly as possible is desirable, ten are amply suf-
ficient.  The cooling of the blood by the exten-
sive surface exposed by the lungs, and its com-
plete oxygenation, are circumstances  always to be
kept in view.
   If the respiration be too frequent, the blood loses
its temperature; if too slow, it is not oxygenated
in the greatest possible  degree, and as this last
process  takes  place, even after death, these cir-
cumstances are not imaginary;  particularly  too,

          •See p. 31.          ! See p. 51.
          * See pages 35,39, et seq. 
67
as it has been shown, by actual experiment, that
artificial respiration, if not too rapid, retards the
loss of temperature after death.*
  In performing artificial respiration great force,
in injecting the air, must be avoided, from the dan-
ger of penetrating their texture,! and after it has
been continued for some time and resuscitation is
commencing, the number of respirations may be
increased, as we have before shown that the quan-
tity of blood in the arteries is by these means aug-
mented-!  Extreme distention of the lungs in this
stage is to be avoided,  not only as it is  incompa-
tible with the process of oxygenation in its most
perfect degree ;§ but also as it may produce  em-
physema and a  fulness  of the vessels of the brain
by retarding the course of the blood; a circum-
stance worthy of attention, as it frequently causes
apoplexy^ even  in healthy subjects.
   Condensation of the atmosphere to four times
its usual  density is said  to  produce  increased
quickness of the circulation, and to empty the cava
and the right ventricle, of course, to fill the lungs
with blood, an indication certainly desirable to be
fulfilled.
   A bladder was tied to a pipe, which was insert-
      * Philips' Enq. p. 215.
      ! See p. 33, and Expts. 41,42.      % See p. 52.
      § Ellis's Enq. Edin. 1807, and p. 31 of this essay. 
68
ed into the trachea of a kitten; a strong and uni-
form pressure was made upon  it so as to distend
the lungs;  the animal died after  eight minutes.
The lungs were kept distended by a ligature made
round  the trachea, the heart beat more strongly
than had been observed  in animals killed  in any
other manner.  There was also no distention of
the cava and sinus venosus, and there was a large
quantity of blood in the left auricle.*
   These changes were to be expected from open-
ing the thorax immediately after death, for as the
power  of the heart continues  still considerable, it
is evident that the circulation through the lungs
must, of course, exhaust the vena cava of its blood,
but as  the lungs, in their  most distended state,
can exert but little pressure on  the vena cava, it
is clear that the effect of condensation of the air
can be very  slight in emptying  either the cavae or
the right side of  the heart, in which they  termi-
nate.   Accordingly, from  my  experiments  per-
formed on cats, some hours after death,! no effect
was produced on the right side of the heart, when
the lungs were forcibly injected with air, because
that organ had ceased to pulsate.   The blood is
pretty equally divided between  the right and left
sides of the heart, (if only ordinary distention is
* Kite, London.
! See Expt. 41. 
applied to the lungs,) and is the effect of the power
of the circulation alone.*  It is, then, certain that
condensation of the air in the lungs can have lit-
tle effect on the circulation;  and as, when consi-
derable, it renders emphysema probable, it is cer-
tainly dangerous.      •
  The use of Hunter's bellows with ordinary pres-
sure is most  advisable.  Munro recommends a
pipe like a common male catheter to be introduc-
ed into the trachea; Mr. Coleman added to a tube,
with a vegetable bottle  fixed to one end, a direc-
tor made of a conical piece  of ivory to secure its
passage  into the trachea.  This  apparatus, how-
ever, is entirely unnecessary.  A large  tube, as
recommended by Monro, with a thick wire in the
inside to give it firmness, and slightly curved, may
be thrust into the oesophagus below the epiglottis;
the tongue is next drawn out and the instrument
retracted, as if it were  intended  to be drawn out
of the mouth, keeping it in  a line along the mid-
dle, but  raised from the tongue.   With this pre-
caution  it readily descends into  the  glottis; the
irritation, produced on the internal membrane of
the trachea, offers no objection to its  use, because
even in  health, when the irritability is  great, it
ceases after the first violent effort.  A tube intro-
■ See Expt. 7, 
70
duced into the  trachea prevents air from passing
into the stomach, and thus the descent of the dia-
phragm continues free and respiration unimpeded.
The functions of the brain would also, on reco-
very,  be weakened by the extreme  distention of
the stomach.
  If the introduction of the pipe be impossible,
which is not probable, bronchotomy should be im-
mediately performed; a longitudinal incision must
be made three or four rings below the cricoid car-
tilage, the trachea divided between the rings, and
to prevent the blood from flowing into it, the su-
perficial veins are to be avoided and the head kept
in an erect posture.   Mr. Justamond, a celebrated
surgeon of London, performed this operation on
a boy who had  been drowned; the discharge of
blood into the lungs, through the opening in the
trachea, was so ropioiia that verrway was impos-
sible.*
  With regard to the use of inflation of the lungs
with atmospheric air, I have made many observa-
tions; alone, it certainly will not resuscitate ani-
mals, a  result which corresponds with  the obser-
vations  of Bichat.   Continued for about half an
hour in temperatures of 61°,  of 70°, of 80°, there

  • See Obs. on Anim. Life and Appar. Death, by John Franks
Svo. 1790, London, as quoted by Currie. 
71
appeared to be some promotion of the circulation.
In another instance, in air of 62°, the circulation
was not at all improved; in air of 100° there was
more blood than usual in the arteries;* in one in-
stance, though the  power of the heart was appa-
rently increased by inflation for fifteen minutes,
the circulation was not in the least advanced.!
  These are the natural means of increasing the
heart's motion ; of thp modes proposed hy art, gal-
vanism has promised much.  By Oswald it was
applied by a machtne, composed of two hundred
and thirty  pieces of zinc and copper,  at the  same
time that oxygen was inspired;  the  greatest pe-
riod of submersion was six minutes; in  several
cases he was successful, and he failed but twice.
This result I confess I think questionable: the re-
spiration of oxygen alone destroys life, when in
full vigor, according to the experiments of Davy,
in a very short  time;  weakened by submersion,
its effect must be more decided.  Dr. Philips has
proposed   to  conduct  a stream of  galvanism
through! the lungs in the direction of their nerves,
and for this purpose  he states  that the power
should not exceed fifteen, or at most twenty-four
inch double plates of  zinc and copper, the fluid

    * See Expts. 39, 40, 36, 43.      f Expts. 16, 37.
    * See Philips' Exp. Enq. p. 329, Phil. 1818. 
72
being one part of muriatic acid and water.  The
application of galvanism and electricity through
the great nerves leading to the  heart and lungs
appears to be useless;  the  heart is certainly not
susceptible through its nerves, if the stimulus be
applied to the eighth pair in the  neck, as is the
case with the  voluntary muscles.  The  experi-
ments of Bichat, Fowler, and Humboldt prove this
position;  according to the  two latter, it is neces-
sary that the influence be applied to the nerves a
short distance from the heart, a circumstance which
renders it probable that this influence did not, in
their experiments,  pass through the  nerves at
all, but was conducted directly to the muscular
fibres,  particularly  as Bichat found it impossible
to produce contractions in the  heart when the
brain and heart were armed with different metals,
also the medulla spinalis and the last organ, and,
finally, the same organ and that branch of the par
vagum, from which it receives several  nerves.
The two armatures were made to  communicate,
and  no sensible effect resulted; the best mode,
then, of influencing the heart's motion is by apply-
ing the stream directly through the thorax, com-
mencing as nearly as possible to the heart.  This 
remedy has been used successfully in resuscitation
of animals asphyxied from cold.*
  Electricity also promises something in this dis-
ease: eggs have been hatched by it in forty-eight
hours;! Abilgaard found that small promote, but
that large shocks prevent recovery-!  Coleman
states that the hearts of young animals-have been
made to contract, by electricity, from ten to four-
teen hours.  The muscles were agitated violently
from four hours after  submersion by applying
powerful shocks of electricity; in another subject,
the heart and arteries were roused  for a moment,
and afterwards excitement was impossible by any
stirhuli.§   Kite found  that small shocks lessened
the irritability of the heart and muscles ;|| the ef-
fect was powerful; it emptied the organ of  blood
when inflation had no influence.^}   In these expe-
riments, small shocks of one-third of an inch, from
a phial containing  twenty-four inches of coated
^lass,  were  sufficient.**  From  these facts it
would appear that the  exact power of electricity,
as a means of resuscitation, is not known.   It has
been used in other cases, besides  death from sub-
mersion, with good  effect.   A child, aged  three

  * Oswald, p. 70.
  | Mem. de l'Acad. de Berlin, quoted by  Fothergill, p. J.57;
  t Ibid, p. 123.        § Kite, London.
  I Ibid.        H Ibid.         *• Ibid, 87.
                       G 
74
years, fell from a height and was taken Up to all
appearance  dead;  electricity was applied,  after
twenty minutes, to the thorax^ by passing shocks
through it, and  soon after the pulsation of the ar*
teries was perceived; the child vomited in ten mi-
nutes, and  was restored,  in  about a  week, to
health.  According to my experiments, electri-
city, applied in a stream in air of 56°,  increases
the power of the heart;  broad surfjaces, as con-
ductors, contribute to this effect more than points,*
and sparks not at all.  Opening  the  pericardium
causes the heart to beat, after it has  ceased to be
influenced by electricity;! inflation also  increases
it with this  combination.  Electricity, by sparks,
and a  stream both increase it, when exposed to
the air, by opening the pericardium;! electricity
has no effect upon the  heart when transmitted by
the eighth pair  of nerves,§ nor in resolving coa-
gulated blood, an indication important to be fulfil-
led, as sometimes the power of the heart continues
after coagulation of the blood takes place.!)   It is,
then,  most properly applied in moderately strong
shocks by passing it through the  thorax  in  a
stream, and after inflation has been used for some
time.^j
    * Expt. 54.         . § See Expt. 50.
    j- Expt. 50.          !; See Expt. 55.
    * See Expt. 6?       r See Expts. 48, 50, 55. 
75"
  With regard to the effect of other stimuli upon
the heart, I have made some observations.  Wa-
ter, at 120° of Fahrenheit, applied in a bladder
near to it, has no effect whatever on that organ.*
  The agency of ligatures applied to the extremi-
ties, so as to limit the circulation  to the vital or-
gans, is very encouraging.   A cat submersed till
death, and exposed in air of 100° to 110° for thirty
minutes with atmospheric inflation, and ligatures
surrounding  the extremities, so  as to limit the
circulation,  greatly  increased  its  power  in the
trunk.! With the same combination  in a tempe-
rature of  110° for one hour, the  same effect was
produced:! and also in another, in air from  100°
to 110* for the same time; in another,  in air at 60°
for forty minutes, the circulation  was equally in-
creased,  proving clearly that  ligatures, limiting
the circulation to the trunk, greatly  increase the
power of  the heart.  The effect of the ligatures
in increasing the power of the circulation was very
decided, for  in  one  instance all  the extremities
were surrounded by ligatures but one, and in the
latter there was less blood in its artery at its pas-
sage into the limb, proving  that  if the ligatures
had not been  applied, the  circulation would not

        • Expt. 52.            f See  Expt. 45.
       t See Expt. 46. 
have been increased in all the large arteries which
supply the trunk, as it Would have been diffused
through the extremities: as distention of the arte-
ries and the left side of  the heart is necessary in
order to cause the valves to  perform their func-
tions, and as, in asphyxia, the blood is  confined
to the venous system, the difficulty of procuring
a sufficient  quantity of blood  to  fill the arterial
system, must be evident, and the value of the ap-
plication of ligatures to the extremities, as it tends
to produce that  effect, and, of course, to increase
the power of the heart,* is also apparent and cer-
tain.  In these experiments, atmospheric inflation
was used  in order to  produce a sufficient power
of the heart, and distention of the blood-vessels
to found  a  comparison,  on which to determine
the effect of circumscribed circulation; without it,
it had been observed that there was no circulation
of blood,  even in the armpit,!  in consequence of
the weakness of  the heart: and as atmospheric in-
flation alone had been observed not to increase
the powers of the circulation in an equal degree,
as when in  combination  with circumscribed cir-
culation, the effect of  the latter Mas clearly evi-
dent and certain.i

  * See p. 20, 55.         j- See Expt. 3J.
  * See Expts, 37, 39, 40, -If!, and tbc sn'^equont <*xr>crimenS 
77
  During these operations, and  after circulation
has commenced, frictions may be applied  with
propriety to the body; as it has been shown by di-
rect experiment that they increase the quantity of
blood  sent to the right auricle, the distention  of
which weakens its power, after asphyxia has taken
place, the postponement  of this remedy, till the
blood has begun to circulate, appears evident and
proper;  also  as  friction  retards the  passage  of
blood by the arteries, as much as it facilitates that
by the veins, it should be gentle, and great pres-
sure should  be avoided upon the bowels: it will
be best applied by the hand moistened with oil or
lard; a brush has been used to excite the surface,
and whipping with rods recovered a case record-
ed  by  Justamond.   Sal ammoniac, oil of  vitriol,
and common salt, all substances which may de-
stroy the texture of the  skin  are improper.  A
boy died after immersion, for fifteen minutes, in
a pit of salt lye; it produced inflammation of the
skin, and of the whole tract of intestines.   This
substance, if used in frictions so as to destroy the
surface,  and till  the circulation  was established,
would constantly produce this effect.
  The flour of mustard, the  essential oil of tur-

on the effect of ligatures combined with atmospheric inflation,
45, 46, &c.
                       g2 
pentine, boiled over  cantharides, may be used,
the room, however, must be well ventilated when
substances of an acrid and volatile nature are ap-
plied, as  the  person may have  an idiosyncrasy
with regard to them, in which  case, the want ol
ventilation might be injurious.   With regard to
the action of remedies of this character, it  may
be observed that as the most violent are necessary
to excite the body when in asphyxia, and as then
operation may be excessive, when life returns, it
is necessary to abate their action by  washing the
skin, as it regains its sensibility.  Volatile  lini-
ment, composed  of equal parts  of olive oil  and
vol. spirits of ammonia, will, perhaps, be the best
application, as it will not  incommode, and  will
stimulate sufficiently. The parts to which it should
most properly be applied are the trunk, particu-
larly opposite to the stomach and heart.
   The operation  of mechanical stimuli, as a brush,
when they induce inflammation, has been observ-
ed to render  the animal  more sensible to galva-
nism;* this circumstance demonstrates the pro-
priety of deferring this stimulus till  the circula-
tion is established.
   The vapour of vinegar, applied to the conjunc-

  * See Fowler's Expts. and Observat. Edin. 1793, p. 128. 
79
nva,* rouses  from syncope;  light thrown upon
the eyes, volatile alkali applied to the inside of
the nose, loud  noises, acrid  substances  to the
tongue, as prepared mustard or the juice of onions,
may be useful.  Tickling the soles of the feet, the
sides and  arm-pits,  as  also  the nose,  with  a
feather,! are recommended; they, however, can
only be useful after circulation commences, as the
passage of blood by the  arteries is necessary to
establish the sensibility.  Plucking the hairs! has
also been suggested, and it appears equally rea-
sonable with beating with rods, which has suc-
ceeded.   It  is in this stage of the treatment that  ^
agitation of the arms promises benefit by stimu-
lating the heart from its  effect on the vessels.^
   With regard to the use of internal remedies,
the essential.oil of mint, peppermint, and  other
aromatic stimulants, appear to be best adapted to
the system  in this species  of asphyxia;  injected
 into the stomach, they produce exhilaration with-
 out anv dangerous effect.  Laudanum is noxious
 from the difficulty of graduating the dose, as large
 quantities must  be  used in this disease;  six
 drachms of laudanum were followed by an instan-

   • See Bichat's Phys. Researches, p. 244, Edin. 1809.
   ! Cogan's Amsterd. Memoirs.        § Expts. 36, 54.
   t Kite, 1788, Lond. 
80
 taneous diminution of the motions of the heart
 after its injection  into the stomach ;* six  ounces
 of brandy rendered more quick and feeble the pul-
 sations of the heart according to the same author;
 he also states, they produce their effect before re-
 spiration, and, of  course, circulation  is restored.
 Kite states that heated liquors  injected into the
 stomach, after hanging and drowning, have no
 effect upon the brain.7
  According to my experience, the effect  of the
 same agents injected into the stomach, of turpen-
 tine, hot water exhibited  no evidence of sympa-
 thy between the action of that viscus and  the
 heart after submersion.!  Electricity also  passed
 through the stomach, was equally ineffectual.§
  It is evident they can produce no effect  till the
 circulation is established;  it is, therefore,  neces-
 sary to postpone their application, and thus the
 danger of giving a quantity which may embarrass
 the functions of life will be avoided, as the effects
 can be immediately observed.; as soon  as symp-
 toms of resuscitation appear, water with a little
 aether, Hoffman's anodyne liquor, brandy, or wine

  * Coleman, 1802.
  ! Mem. Soc. Lond. vol. iii. quoted by Fowler p. 72 of Expts.
and Obs.
  $ Expts. 60, 61.            § Expt. 62. 
                      81
 may be injected into the stomach with the best
 effects.
   The use of tobacco in injection has long been
 recommended: Coleman gave it  to  a drowned
 puppy* after all motion had ceased.  One drachm
 of tobacco was infused in two ounces of boiling
 water  and suffered to cool.   With the common
 means of recovery it soon made efforts to inspire,
 and breathed tolerably well, but in less than ten
 minutes it died; as the same quantity given to a
 small dog in health  produced death in less than
 four minutes, and as it  would have endangered
 even the life of a man, the dose was certainly fa-
 tal; no conclusion, therefore, with regard to the
 powers of the remedy in a  proper quantity,, can
be drawn from these experiments.
   Legare tried the effect  of  tobacco injected into
the intestines; he found that nausea, and vertigo
were the first symptoms  ; on exposing the intes-
 tines some time after submersion naperistaltic mo-
tion appeared, even after five minutes irritation by
the air, and when tobacco  fumes were injected
of the  temperature of 90° of Fahrenheit, the lac-
teals became visible and turgid, the  peristaltic mo-
tion was more considerable,  and the arteries beat
more strongly after every injection; after thirty-
♦ Coleman, 1802. 
82
six minutes the remedy lost its  power from  the
exhaustion of the animal.*  Administered of the
temperature of 65° by the anus  it produced  the
same effects, increasing the pulsations of the me-
senteric arteries, whilst the carotids beat as usual.
  The injection of warm water into the bowels,
at the temperature of 130° and 65° of Fahrenheit,
increased the peristaltic motion in animals whose
abdomen was simply opened without any other in-
jury.
   In animals submersed for one and a half minute
and for three minutes, no effect was produced by
the tobacco fumes, though they were continued
for an hour, united with artificial respiration; in
another, with heat and tobacco fumes, they were
equally inefficacious.   The fatal effects of tobacco,
■when administered in ruptures, proves the neces-
sity of  caution in the use of this remedy.  The
Abbe Fontana found that a small quantity of the
essential oil of tobacco, applied to wounds, pal-
sied the limbs.   Accordingly, we may conclude,
from  these observations, that  this medicine, like
opium, in large doses is speedily distinctive, that
in  moderate doses it first stimulates and excites
the powers of life.   Like other substances of the
same class its use should be restricted till the re-

  * Legare on the effects of tobacco fumes, Phil. 1805, p. 15. 
83
ttstablishment of the circulation, and then it should
be given in the most cautious and moderate man-
ner.  Dr. Hawes has invented a machine for in-
jecting tobacco smoke into the intestines; a com-
mon clay pipe, to the bowl of which  the mouth
may be  applied,  answers very well.  Other  sti-
mulating substances  are recommended; Currie
advises an injunction of two or three tea spoon-
fuls of spirit of hartshorn, a heaped tea spoonful
of mustard, or a table spoonful of essence of pep-
permint with a sufficient quantity of warm water;
these may be continued  after some degree of vi-
tal power has been restored  and the sympathies
of  the system have been, in some measure, esta-
blished.
   With regard to the use of emetics, they should
be  postponed till the circulation returns: that the
stomach is  insensible to white, to blue  vitriol, to
emetic tartar, after the usual  signs of life had dis-
appeared, has been proved by actual experiment.
One  drachm of tartarized antimony, given to an
animal submersed till all struggling had ceased,
produced no effect upon the internal coat of the
stomach or intestines.*   When symptoms  of re-
 covery began to take place, vomiting and purging
were the consequence.   The animal,  however,
"Kite, Londo 'i 
84
 died  at the end of seventeen minutes from the
 commencement of recovery; and it is probable
 that death was  produced by the excessive dose.
 White vitriol and emetic tartar, thrown into the
 stomach, diminished the force and frequency of
 the contractions of the heart, a fact which renders
 it highly probable that these medicines are entirely
 useless or dangerous in this  disease.  They pro-
 duce  great irritation from the necessary dose, and
 are therefore unmanageable, and when they do
 operate they weaken, and when they are retained
 they destroy the powers of life.
  As to the propriety of venesection  when the
 Vessels of the face are extremely turgid, and there
 has evidently been great  determination  to the
 brain, it may be proper, as the symptoms of reco-
 very begin to appear, to bleed in the jugular vein,
 and thus relieve any congestion which  may exist
 there; but the quantity must be such as not to de-
 bilitate the patient.  As it is certain that empty-
 ing the cava promotes the motions of  the heart,
 and as opening the jugular vein will produce this
 effect, it is a measure which may be sometimes
 useful, even before symptoms of resuscitation take
 place, and may be practised as soon as inflation is
 commenced.   After recovery has taken place,
 should pain in the head, giddiness, drowsiness
continue, it  may be proper to draw  blood from 
85
the jugulars, or apply leeches or cups to the back
of the neck; in general the latter will answer every
purpose.  Kite drew blood in forty-^five cases, ac-
cording to the London reports, with  favourable
effect; it has been recommended by Coleman when
the patients  are plethoric, and it is necessary to
be particularly cautious in tying up the arm after
bleeding, as Cogan* relates a case, in which  the
patient bled for some hours after this operation
in such a manner as to insure death.
   With regard  to the effect of the transfusion of
blood  on the drowned, it has been conjectured!
that eight or ten ounces of blood, will produce re-
suscitation when injected into the  jugular vein;
but it is evident that as the cause of death is owing
to the formation of improper blood, even if arte-
rial blood were injected, this quantity would be
too small to produce any effect, and into the ju-
gular  vein it  would be useless, because, in the
most natural state, arterial blood is unnecessary
there, and what is still more discouraging, even
if the whole arterial system  could be filled with
 scarlet blood, and not constantly renewed as it
changes its colour in one and a half minute, it is

  • See Cogan's Translation of the Dutch Memoirs.
  ! See Rep. of the Hum. Soc. Lond. far 1785-6.  Sherwin's
Letters, p. 204.
H 
86
 probable that resuscitation -would, by these means,
 be little assisted.
  However, it is stated that  resuscitation  took
 place, in an experiment performed by Dr. Gartly,
 by the transfusion* of arterial blood.  Bichat fail-
 ed  to produce resuscitation  by injecting arterial
 bipod into the brain,  because the blood was not
 renewed by its union with oxygen :f if the mo-
 tions of the heart were entirely suspended, the in-
jection was of no avail; the animal could not be re-
 covered after that change had taken place.   It is
 evident that the practice of continued transfusion
 of arterial blood would fulfil all the indications
 necessary to be observed; the arterial blood, if re-
 newed in the blood-vessels, would supply the sti-
mulus of distention, as also  the  proper  fluid for
 the support of life; and to produce this effect, the
 body of one animal may be used  as the means by
 which the  circulation may be continued through
 that of another.   Accordingly, from  the  well
 founded prospect of success afforded by this re-
medy, some experiments were made,  but  from
the  coagulation of the blood in  the tube, which
takes place very soon, even at temperatures nearly
equal to the animal  body, I was  unsuccessful.

        » Oswald, p. 20.                    "$
       ! See Bichat's Phys. Researches, p. 202-3. 
8-7
From the probability of pernicious effects from
the influence of the blood  of other animals upon
the human system, and the general impossibility
of procuring transfusion by means of the body
of another person, the experiments  were relin-
quished. 
.  ON THJ
' CURE OF ASPHYXIA

     FROM HANGING.
  This disease has been  shown to differ from
drowning, only in the effect of the water, which
conducts away the heat of the body more rapidly.
The same  modes of cure are to be pursued.  A
physician assured  the great Bacon that he could
revive, by tepid baths and  frictions,  any subject
who had not been suspended longer than half an
hour, when the neck was not dislocated.*  The
same remedies have succeeded in recovering the
drowned;  cupping glasses, to abstract the blood,
are frequently advisable, from the accumulation
of blood in the head.  Sometimes children are
suffocated  by being covered in the bed-clothes. It
is common to permit cats to sleep in the bed, or

      * Struve's Pract. Essay, p. 37, Albany, 1803. 
89
on the cradle with young children: Attracted by
the pleasant temperature, these animals lay them-
selves across the neck of the child, and thus com-
pletely obstruct respiration.   In  these cases the
remedies for resuscitation are the same.
a 2  • 
          ON THE

CURE OF  ASPHYXIA

  FROM NOXIOUS VAPOURS.
  When a person is exposed to carbonic acid ga»
he becomes drowsy, inclines to vomit, and has a
headach.  The sleep becomes deep, and at length
the patient is insensible; his breathing is natural,
without any symptom of suffocation; and if he is
not relieved within an hour he is irrecoverably
lost.
  In treating this  disease, all the above  modes
must be pursued, with this exception; as the body
is generally soon recovered, and the air is not so
good  a conductor  as  water, the  temperature is
greater than in cases of drowning;  the application
of cold water, let fall from a height, or thrown in
small quantities with some violence  against the
surface, drying it at intervals,/has  succeeded.  If
it be winter, frictions  with ice and snow may be
applied.   Inflation with  atmospheric  air;  galva- 
91
nism; electricity;  and the other remedies for as-
phyxia, produced by submersion, must also  be
used.  Injection, into the lungs, of air impreg-
nated with  volatile alkali has been proposed, by
Mr. Safe, in death from fixed  air.   It is probable
that it operates by   stimulating the  olfactory
nerves, and by sympathy, the diaphragm and inter-
costals. 
         ON THE-

CURE OF  ASPHYXIA

      FROM COLD.
  In high northern latitudes, parts exposed to ex-
treme cold become insensible, livid, and after some
time entirely lose their life.   The person affected
is ignorant of his situation till informed of it.
The most effectual remedy is to keep the parts in
a low temperature by rubbing them with snow or
ice, taking care not to break the skin, and gradu-
ally and  slowly raising the temperature.  When
the  patient has been wholly frozen, the same plan
of treatment must be followed; he must be rub-
bed or covered with ice or snow till the symptoms
of recovery begin  to appear; flannels sprinkled
with volatile  stimuli, as the spirits of ammonia,
should be applied and  rubbed  over the surface.
As  the appearances of life advance, the preceding
means of resuscitation must be used, observing 
93    *
that the remperature should  be gradually and
slowly raised in proportion to its former depres-
sion.   This  disease differs from.asphyxia from
submersion in being attended with  general debi-
lity of'the powers of Mfe* from the loss of tempe-
rature ; the destruction of respiration being merely
a  consequence of that  reduction.  Hunger fre*
quently concurs in producing  this specks of as-
phyxia, and is cured by the gradual exhibition oi
nourishing substances; equal caution  in their ex-
hibition  is  necessary, as in asphyxia from cold
with regard to the application of heat.  When it
is the sole cause, recovery is generally impossible
from the excessive debility it produces.  Ardent
liquors often unite  with cold  in suspending life.
In Russia it is observed that the use of spirituous
liquors, in cold weather, are followed by a debili-
tating  chill which favours  the baneful effects of
cold: accordingly, in excessive  frosts they  are
avoided.*   Immersion in cold water, and  after-
wards rubbing with  snow,  are the most effectual
remedies.   When the extremities are frozen in
Russia, even when quite black, rubbing the parts
with goose grease has been  found to restore their
life and circulation with great effect.

  * See Travels from  Petersburg to divers  parts of Asia, by
John Bell, vol. i. in the years 1715-18. 
94
   Mr. Currie, in his book  on this subject, men-
 tions that after the taking pf Ochakoff some pri-
 soners were ctyred by this application by the pea-
 sants, when others, under the care of the regular
 surgeons, lost their limbs«and toes by the use of
 other means.   The goose  grease was smeared
over the parts  while warm, and the operation was
 often repeated, so as to keep them always covered
 with the grease.  The circulation gradually ex-
 tended lower down, the  blackness disappeared,
 and by degrees they became perfectly well. 
          ON THE

CURE OF ASPHYXIA

   FROM LIGHTNING.
   When this cause has acted with great power,
 disorganization takes  place: hemorrhages occur
 at the mouth and nose; the blood-vessels are rup-
 tured ; the pia  mater is torn in pieces; the brain
 is altered in its appearance;  the skin is black as
 ink and driven into ridges, and speedy putrefac-
 tion takes place.  In such cases recovery is im-
 possible; it  is only when no organic lesion of the
 organs is produced, that there is any prospect of
 cure.*
  The violerice done to the surface of the body
 may be considerable, without necessarily render-
 ing recovery impossible.  A man  was struck by
lightning, which threw  him upon his back several

            • Kite, p. 235, London, 1788. 
96
yards within the room, with his legs upright in
the air, in which posture he remained for a long
time, perfectly  sensible but unable to open  his
eyes or to speak; he could not move his limbs for
some time afterwards; his clothes were  rent in
many parts; brass buttons and part of his watch
chain were melted;  the flesh  of his right side
scorched and torn; and one of his toes split open,
and yet his breathing was not suspended, nor any
future injury sustained.*   A boy, struck by light-
ning, was carried home apparently dead; the body
was stiff, cold, the countenance livid, and the eyes
contracted; by bleeding to twenty ounces,the use
of a warm bed, and strong frictions, he recovered
in a short time; cooling remedies and purging re-
moved  a fever which followed, and in a week he
was well-!  Electricity.has been used with suc-
cess.   M. Abilgaard recovered fowls struck down
by an electric shock through the head, by another
shock through the breast and back; a second shock
given to the head had no effect; that through the
breast restored them, even after the blood flowed
from the nostrils-!  It would be prudent to make

  * See Currie's Observations, p. 146, quoting the Phil. Trans.
1781, vol. Ixxi. p. 42.
  ! Trans, of Roy. Hum. Society, vol. i. p. 198.
  t See Collect. Soc. Med. Haun, tom.ii. quoted by Currie, p 
97
 the shocks at first gentle, and gradually increase
 their power.   Inflation of the lungs and heat to
 the surface, should the body have cooled, will be
• useful assistants. 'Stimulating glySters and drinks
 may also be advisable.
   Exposure to rain, as in the asphyxia  produced
 by other causes  which do  not diminish .the heat
 of the body, has succeeded.*  Bleeding, inflation,
 frictions, emetics, the  earth bath, have also been
 used.f  To avoid  danger-in a thunder  storm*,
 avoid trees,  palisadoes, or  any elevated object
 which may attract the lightning; it is better also
 to be thoroughly wet  by the rain, as electricity
 passes harmless over apy substance whose surface
 is wet.  Leaden  spouts,, iron gates,' iron sfoves,
 windows, bell wires, are dangerous  during a thun-
 der storm.

 148. Electricity recovered a boy who was apparently dead by
a fall, after other means ha,d failed.
  * Fothergill's Preserv. Plan, p. 18.   ! Struve, p. 145. 
        •  ON THE'  •

CURE OF  ASPHYXIA    ^
                            \.
                            .-'»■■
     FROM FEVERS.
   This form of the disease has also been cured
 by exposing the body to  wateY falling  from a
 pump.*  The other remedies are also applicable.
   A patient had a fever for nine days, was seized
 suddenly, with debility; the physician, on his ar-
 rival, found him without pulse or respiration, and
 was told that he had been in that state for a quar-
 ter of an hpur. •• The feet and stomach were fo-
 mented with hot brandy,  and  half a pint of Ma-
 deira wine  was given him.  A tremulous motion
 was observed in the under  lip, and soon after he
 began to sigh  and the pulse to beat; he became
 sensible, and soon recovered.  Coughing some-
 times induces asphyxia.   A child, labouring un-

  * How. Append, p. 125, quoted by Kite, Essays, p. 383,1795,
Lond. 
                     99
               •
•ter a cough, was suddenly attacked with a diffi-
culty of breathing, and fo all appearance died; it
was gradually recovered by inflation of the lungs.
The same remedy was applied  several times and
with the same success.  The attack recurred  in
the absence of the physician, and the patient died.
Fainting, induced by any cause, when the person
is much debilitated, will suspend life, and if pro-
per means are not used will end in death.  A wo-
man, after delivery, fainted suddenly; the maid
servant extended herself upon her mistress, in-
flated her lungs oy blowing into her mouth, and
she soon recovered.   On enquiry she said that
at Altenburg midwives practised this method on
children wfth the greatest success.   This corres-
ponds with the method of Elisha used for the re-
covery df thq Shunamite!s son, 2 Kings, c. iv. 
ON THE
        CURE OF  ASPHYXIA

FROM PRESSURE OF THE UMBILICAL
                 CHORD.
  The death of Infants is often produced by the
too sudden rupture of the membranes, and the con-
sequent^>rotrusion of the chord between the sides
of the pelvis and the Head of  the child.  Death,
in this instance, results from the stoppage of the
circulation by the placenta: it does not arise from
apoplexy, because  it would not be so instantane-
ous; nor from suppressed circulation in the lungs,
because the same state of these organs will always
exist; nor from the want of nourishment, because
the child may be supported for several days with-
out it.*  Asphyxia in  children may also be pro-

  * See Dr. Clarke in Kep. Of Hum. Soc. Lond. 1785-6, taken
from the 8th vol. of Lond. Med. Jour, and quoted by Kite, 1788,
Lond. 
                      101
 duced by the death of the mother.   Doleus men-
 tions that  signs of life continue for a day after
 this event; a child was saved forty-eight hours
 after the death of the mother, though it was wound-
 ed in the foot.*
   Mr. Locock mentions  a case in which a child
 remained exposed to the cold on a table in a wash
 house for something less than two hours; he plac-
 ed it on his knees before a fire, chafed  it gently,
 and applied brandy to the stomach, occasionally
 inflating the lungs for more than half an hour.
 The umbilical chord began to bleed, the heart to
 beat gently, the same means were continued, and
 the child gradually recovered-!
   The remedies are the  same as in other cases.
 The use of ammoniacal vapours recommended by
 some practitioners is dangerous,  as they may
 sometimes destroy life.  A current of cold air or
 cold  water sprinkled  over  the  body have been
 sometimes effectual, particularly" where asphyxia
 has been produced by  smothering under the bed-
 clothes.                     *

  • See Osiander, quoted by &truve p. 37, and Kite p. 249,
Lond. 1788.
  f See Currie's Obs, on Ap. Death, Lond. 1815, p. 138
                      I 2 
              REMEDIES

         FOR ASPHYXIA

FROM EXCESSIVE INTOXICATION.
  With regard to the cure of suspended anima-
tion  from  excessive  intoxication,  the  patient
should be laid upon a bed with  his head a little
raised; his neckcloth and all tight bandages round
the body loosened; the body should be rubbed
with flannels, and  the liquor removed from the
stomach by an emetic or by a pipe and syringe.
  The emetic may be introduced by means of the
pipe and syringe, and should consist of  ipecacu-
anha, emetic  tarty, or of white or blue vitriol.
Thirty or forty grains of ipecacuanha infused in
boiling water, or  three* grains  of emetic tartar,
twenty of white, and five of blue vitriol, may be
given, and repeated at intervals of ten or fifteen
minutes.  I have seen a child, who had taken half
a pint of gin, completely recovered, and the sto- 
103
mach more effectually and suddenly evacuated by
equal parts of sweet oil and sweet milk, given at
a short interval in the quantity of a teacup full,
than by any other mode t .the effect was instanta-
neous:  The stomach was evacuated, without ef-"
fort,  as  soon  as  the mixture  was  swallowed.
Should no emetic  medicine* be convenient, the
flexible tube maybe used: it should be about foui"'
feet long, introduced into the stomach, which is
filled  with water  by pouring it into a funnel at
the  top  of the tube, or  by injecting it  with a
Syringe r as soon as the stomach is full, the pipe
may be converted into a syphon by turning down
its upper extremity, and the water be again eva-
 cuated.   Remove all bandages from about the
neck, apply cups or leeches  to the sides of the
head, should it.be turgid with blood; the hands
 and feet should be next put into warm water.
   Whipping with rods may be useful; the same
 directions apply to  the treatment of insensibility
 from opium, stramonium, and all the other narco-
 tics.  The stomach soon becomes insensible, and
 emetics dp not operate after these substances have
 been  taken.   Affusion of cold water has. been
 found to rouse the system, after the ordinary
 emetics have failed without it.   If the patient is
 near  a pump, let  the  water be  discharged over 
104
him, after a dose of emetic medicine, and it ope-
rates directly.
  Mr. Brodie has proved that alcohol, of course
all  spiritous liquors, porter, ale, cider, wine, &c,
vegetable poisons, as opium, act upon the brain
and. cause the diaphragm to cease its  motion,
whilst the vascular system  and the heart continue
their  functions as  before.   He also ascertained
that the  heart and arteries would continue their
functions if artificial respiration were kept up af-
ter  these which were given;  the conclusion was
natural, that by the inflation of the lungs long
continued, the animal might be revived, as actu-
ally took place after the woorara; the oil of bitter
almonds had been administered to a rabbit and a
cat; in one by continuing respiration for sixteen
minutes;  in the other for one hundred and sixty
minutes, recovery took place.   He therefore pro-
poses inflation of the lungs as a remedy in these
cases.
  It is necessary  that the temperature of the ani-
mals should be kept up during inflation, as  this
process tends to abstract the  heat rapidly, when
the  functions of the brain  have been suspended
by the agency of narcotic or spiritous substances. 
THE HISTORY
■. .                   or

HUMANE SOCIETIES, AND  AUTHORS' ON
             RESUSCITATION.
  An account of diese institutions and works, as
the most valuable contributions to resuscitation
from asphyxia, will be  proper here.  In Egypt,
Greece, and Rome, it was practised with success,
but no institutions were established especially for
that object.  In the year 1637 a dissertation was
published by Peter la Sena on  death from sub-
mersion;*  two treatises are mentioned previous
to the year  170O; in 1651 Kirchmayer wrote upon
this subject, but his efforts were lost, and it was
reserved for nhe. last  century to commence, in a
scientific and effectual manner, this noble work.

  * La Sena Petri Diss. 1637. See Trans, of the Roy. Hum.
Soc. from 1774 to 1784, and Struve's Pract. Essay, 18.03. 
106
  In 1767 Reaumur reported several instances of
resuscitation; in Amsterdam, a humane society
was established in the same year; Milan and Ve-
nice followed.   The Empress of Russia publish-
ed an  edict for the same .benevolent purposes;
France, Germany, England, "North Amcrica,and
the states of Barbary united in  the sairfe career,
and increased the distinction of  the  eighteenth
century.  The tracts of Winsfow and Bruhier in
France, and several minor writers in Germany,
prepared for the work of Hufeland in 1791, and
those of Bichat, Portal, and the Institute; Good-
wyn, Kite,  Coleman, and Fothergill re'ceived ho-
norary distinctions from the Royal Humane So*
ciety of London; and in Norm America, the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania has produced some re-
spectable dissertations en this subject. 
THE
APPARATUS AND MECHANICAL MEANS

   PROPOSED FOR THE CURE OF ASPHYXIA.
      ' 1.  Of the London Humane Society.

   Fig.  1, 2, 3, are representations of a pair of
bellows for inflating the lungs, as also to inject a
warm stimulating  vapour, as rosemary, &c. va-
lerian.
   The mark, &c. A, fig. 2, is a lever for filling
the bellows with  fresh air  in inflations, which
must be turned  over in inflating it, and turned
aside when the bellows are used as common bel-
lows for injecting stimulating vapours.
   C, fig. 2, is a  brass nozzle which fits into fig.
5, at D, for inflating, and into fig. 6, at E, for in-
jecting stimulating vapours.
   Fig. 4, is a long flexible tub© of the same de-
scription as fig. 7 
         j,            108
  Fig. 5, is a short flexible tube filled to the noz-
zle of  the bellows.
  C, for inflating its tube F, fits into figures 8, 9,
10,11,12.    .
  Fig. 6, is a brass box inclosed in wood to con-
tain the  stimulating substance, and  is to be con-
nected at E  with the nozzle of the bellows, fig. 1,
and at H with the long'pipe, fig. 7.
   Fig. 7. A long  flexible tube which", being fitted
at G, upon fig. 6, at H, is used for injecting with
smoke.       •                 •
   Fig. 8. A curved silver pipe fo fit on .fig. 5, for
inflating the lungs by passing- it down the throat-
beyond, the  glottis.
   Fig. 9. A canula  for  bronchotoniy; it fits on
fig. 5, at C
   Figs. 10,  11,  12, are nostril pipes of various
sizes;  they fit on fig. 5, F.
  .Fig. 13,  are  clyster pipes of different sizes;
they fit on fig. 7, at I.
   Fig. 14, is a syringe with a flexible tube K K
for injecting cordials into the stomach.
   This apparatus is contained in a chest lined
with baize, with proper receptacles  for  sponge,
flannels, flint, matches-, steel, and tinder; and it is
used in the  following manner:
   When inflation is intended, the circular piece
of  wood,. B, fig. 3, is turned over the clack-hole; 
109
then fix the short flexible tube, fig. 5, Plate II.
to the brass nozzle of the bellows, fig. 2, at C; the
ivory pipes, figs. 10, 11, 12, for the nostril; the
curved silver pipe, fig. 8, for the throat;  and the
silver canula, fig. 9, for  bronchotomy;  each of
which, as before described, is adapted to the plug
of the short flexible tube.
  When you wish to inflate, press the brass lever,
A, fig. 2, open the bellows; then let go the lever,
and, by shutting the bellows, force the  air into
the lungs.  To extract the air, open the bellows
without touching the lever; and to  expel the foul
air, press the lever, (to open it) and shut the bel-
lows, by which  means the extracted foul air will
be thrown away; then, still keeping the lever open,
dilate the bellows, by which means it will  again
be filled with fresh air;  let the brass lever down
and proceed to imitate inspiration and expiration.
   It  may, perhaps, be necessary,  at first, to fill
two or three times before you expel once;  and,
for this purpose, you must remember to keep the
lever open whenever the bellows are emptied, in
order to take in  more fresh air by the dilatation,
&c. &c.  When the brass lever is shut, and  the
circular wood is removed from off the clack-holes,
it is a common pair of bellows.
                       K 
 
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
             The Points examined.

Time of dying; Temperature; Peristaltic motion; State of the
         heart, vessels, and muscles after death.

               Experiment I.

  At forty minutes past eight o'clock, P. M. the
thermometer standing at 85° of Fahrenheit, a kit-
ten, about twenty days old, which -had been with-
out food for twenty hours, was immersed in  wa-
ter.  In one minute and a half the struggles  had
ceased.   The thermometer was applied to the skin
of the abdomen, and examined, after letting it re-
main for five minutes, and the temperature was
92°, the surface being completely wet.   In ten mi-
nutes after immersion it was 90°; in fifteen  mi-
nutes it  was 89°;  in  thirty minutes  it was  88°.
The abdomen was opened to ascertain its tempe-
rature.  In forty minutes after immersion,  the 
112
thermometer was  introduced  into it, and its ex-
posed  surface covered from the air, and in fifty-
two minutes  after immersion,  the  temperature
was 84°; of the room 78°.  The peristaltic mo-
tion still continued, and, in three hours and ten
minutes, it was again examined and it had ceased,
but the blood had not coagulated: in twelve hours
and eleven minutes, the motion of the heart had
ceased, and, on  opening the  pericardium, it still
continued motionless; the blood was not coagu-
lated ;  the right ventricle and the large veins con-
nected with  the heart were  filled  with blood,
though not excessively distended.  The pulmo-
nary artery contained some blood; the pulmonary
veins were full; the left auricle was nearly empty;
the left ventricle contained almost none; the aorta
contained but little;  the veins of the neck con-
tained some; and the muscles had lost their irri-
tability.

               Experiment II.
              The Points examined.
The Temperature; Dissection; Veins; Heart; Lungs; Blood-
            vessels ; Blood; Body; Brain.

  A cat, about twenty days old, which had not
taken food for twehty-four hours, was submersed
till she died.   The temperature of the room was 
113
85*.   In one hundred and twenty-three minutes,
the temperature of the  surface of the abdomen
was 89°; in one hundred and thirty-six minutes,
the temperature of the abdomen below the mus-
cles was 92°.
  The muscles had  lost their irritability eleven
hours after immersion.
  The veins of the neck, as they descended over
the lower jaw, appeared gradually to be more fill-
ed to the right auricle, which was full.  The as-
cending cava was also full; the heart was without
irritability;  the right ventricle considerably dis-
tended; the pulmonary artery  contained  some
blood; the lungs, a little air as the animal escap-
ed during submersion, and made a partial respi-
ration;  the left auricle was very small with very
little blood; the pulmonary veins somewhat dis-
tended; the left ventricle contained less than the
left auricle; and the aorta some blood.  The
veins of the tongue also contained some, but were
not distended.   The blood was not coagulated,
and  the whole body was stiff; the veins of  the
brain were not distended.
k 2 
114
              Experiment III.

             The Points examined.
Time of dying; Temperature; Heart; Blood-vessels; Body,
                  and Muscles.

  A cat was submersed till it died, with the in-
tention  of examining her body some time after
death.  Its  struggles completely ceased in one
minute  and a half, and it was removed from the
water in two minutes.  The air of the room was
79*°.
  In 7 minutes after removal from the water the
      body was at                          97°
  In  18 minutes                           97°
  In  32 minutes                           97"
  In 42 minutes                           96°
  In 63 minutes                           94°
  In 86 minutes                           92"
  In 128 minutes                          88*
  The  temperature of the room was        79£°
  The  body was examined  after  nine hours had
 elapsed, and the heart and large blood-vessels pre-
 sented  the same appearances as in  the last case;
 the body was stiff and the muscles had lost their
 irritability. 
115
               Experiment IV.
              The Points examined.
Resuscitation;  its symptoms; Temperature; as also of  the
  healthy animal, and the effects of suspended circulation in
  the living body.

   A  kitten, aged  about  twenty days, was  im-
mersed for one and a quarter minute; it had not
eaten for fifteen hours.   After laying  it on the
table, it remained still for a few seconds, then it
gasped, breathed several times at the interval of
five or six seconds; in about two minutes it made
motions with  its jaws  as if  it were  chewing,
stretched out its legs, the abdomen exhibiting mo-
tions of convulsion; it began to move its feet, to
roll and kick; seemed in pain; breathed with great
effort and with some convulsive movements of the
abdomen; it breathed eight minutes after immer-
sion, forty-two times in a minute; began to mew,
to move about, and express great pain.
   The temperature of the room being 81° of Fah-
renheit, the kitten still went on rising up to go
away; the bulb of the thermometer was applied to
its belly and kept close to it by wrapping a linen
handkerchief round it, so as to prevent the escape
of heat by evaporation.   After the thermometer
had  been applied* for ten minutes in this manner, 
116
the heat of the surface was ascertained  to be ac-
curately 88° in about twenty minutes after being
removed from the water.
  The thermometer was applied successively to
the bellies of three healthy kittens of  the same
litter; it rose in the two first to 98°; in the last to
96°, proving that there was nothing  peculiar in
the degree of heat of the animal.

  Note.  Suspension of circulation in  a limb of
an healthyaniraal produces the same reduction of
temperature.  In the summer of 1819 tourniquets
were applied by me to the humerus and  thigh, so
as to compress the arteries completely,  and after
fifteen minutes, the temperature generally fell to
90% 88°, and 87°.

               Experiment V.

              The Points examined.
The time of continuance of sense; Effects of immersion for
                   two minutes.

  A kitten was  immersed for two minutes; it
struggled violently, turned its eyes upwards, paw-
ed  in  a direct manner up  and down,  pressing
against  the bottom of the vessel so as to raise it-
self to the surface for the space of forty-six se-
conds, when its  motions became confused, its 
117
eyes directed  in  no particular manner, and evi-
dently without an object.   It was taken out at the
end of two minutes and gradually resuscitated.

               Experiment VI.
              The Points examined.
Time of continuance  of sense; Effect of immersion for three
          minutes; Symptoms of resuscitation.
   Another cat, which had been without food for
twenty hours, was immersed  for  three minutes.
On first immersion its struggles were violent;  it
attempted to rise directly upwards; the eyes were
turned in the  same direction, and its motions all
tended  to raise the animal to the surface; they
continued for the space of one minute, and then
they became irregular and directed in no particu-
lar manner.   Afterwards  it ceased to make at-
tempts to rise to the surface.  It made one strug-
gle before the three minutes expired.  It was re-
moved from the  water at the end of that period.
In four and a  quarter minutes it cried, and in four
and a  half it  made one great convulsive motion
with a deep respiration.  In four and three quar-
ters it made another; in five and a half minutes,
it made a  strong convulsive respiration with a ge-
neral stretching of the body, froth coming out of
the mouth; in six minutes, another of the same 
118
character; in seven minutes, another with no mi-
nor respirations in the interval;  in nine minutes,
another; nine and a quarter, another; in nine mi-
nutes twenty-five seconds, another; it made three
respirations in  the  next half minute; ten  in the
next; the breathing became now strong at about
eight in the half minute; froth coming out of the
mouth; the inspirations were  deep;  the abdomi-
nal muscles violently moved;  the mouth gasping
at every breath; the expirations were strong, as
if the animal wished  to force something through
the nose; the respirations were now about twenty
in a minute, twelve minutes being  elapsed since
immersion; it began to stretch its legs; to breathe
more strongly; the power of the lungs increasing,
and the  general strength, till at last it recovered
altogether.

               Experiment VII.

              The Points examined.

The effect of immersion for four minutes; Symptoms of impei;
             feet resuscitation; Dissection.

   A kitten, which  had been without  food for
 fifteen hours, was immersed for four minutes; it
 ceased to move directly upwards in fifty seconds;
 made one effort to breathe just before the four mi« 
                      119

nutes expired, when it was removed.  In one mi-
nute and a quarter after immersion, it made one
convulsive respiration; in two and a half, another;
in three and three quarters, another; in four and
three quarters, another;  in  six minutes afte» im-
mersion, another;  in  seven and one-eighth, an-
other; in eight and a half, another more weak and
less full; in ten and  a quarter, it  made another
still  more feeble, the  strength  of the animal evi-
dently declining, when it died.  In one  hour af-
terwards, the breast was opened, the two carotids
and  the jugulars, the right auricle and ventricle
were only moderately distended; the pulmonary
artery contained but little blood; the left auricle
and ventricle was moderately distended; the aorta
was empty; and the blood in a fluid state.   The
lungs were partially distended with air, and look-
ed red.  The  veins  on the surface of the  brain
looked pale and were not full;  there was  but little
blood in the longitudinal  sinus.   The muscles
had  lost their irritability; the  peristaltic motion
still continued in  a  very slight and scarcely per-
ceptible degree, proving clearly  that the inspira-
tions which  the  cat performed before death had
some effect in partially exhausting the right auri-
cle and ventricle of blood; in filling the lungs with
air and keeping  the two sides of the heart more
equally distended. 
120
               Experiment VIII.

              The Points examined.

Immersion for five minutes; Symptoms of spontaneous resus
                citation; Dissection.

   On Wednesday, the 12th September 1821, a cat,
which had been without  food for thirty hours,
was  immersed for  five minutes  to  observe the
changes of spontaneous resuscitation.  On first
immersion, air was discharged from the lungs; the
animal struggled to rise to the surface for forty-
nine  seconds, its face turned  upwards, the feet
striking against the bottom, eyes open, as if it was
the wish of the animal to ascend:   But after this
period the head was thrown  about from side to
side without an object; the legs were also moved
distractedly; showing that after submersion for
forty-nine seconds it had completely lost the power
of governing itself; it was then let loose, being
still  in the water, it laid on its  side, stretching it-
self in a convulsive manner,  occasionally  making
three or four attempts to breathe in the third mi-
nute; in the fourth fewer, in  the fifth still fewer;
it was then removed from the water  and laid in
the sun in  a temperature of 75", but  no disposi-
tion to resuscitation appeared. 
121
   1'he abdomen was opened after the animal had
laid  for an hour in a temperature of 75°.  The
veins of the upper surface of the brain were filled
with blood; the jugulars, the two cavse, the right
auricle and ventricle were also full.  The left side
of the heart was not so full as the right, and the
arteries were empty.   The muscles had lost their
irritability; the intestines were slightly inflamed;
the peristaltic motion was scarcely perceptible; and
the sphincter ani was contracted.

               Experiment IX.

              The Points examined.

Spontaneous resuscitation does not take place after five mi-
                 nutes immersion.

   Another cat, which had eaten none for thirty
hours, was immersed for five minutes; one of the
eyes  was inflamed; the cat exhibited  the same
symptoms precisely as in the  last case, pawing
and looking up  till three quarters of a minute
elapsed, when it ceased to move for some seconds;
at four minutes, the heart could be perceived beat-
ing in the side; immediately after the five minutes
had elapsed,  it  was laid on a window,  and it
screamed out in an involuntary effort to breathe.
Pressure was  made on the thorax about the heart;
                       L 
122
 it gasped, which was repeated on again making
 the pressure.   On rubbing and pressing the belly,
 in three  quarters of a minute it gasped again;
 froth came out of the mouth; the gaspings became
 more distant and more feeble; at the end of fif-
 teen minutes after submersion it was opened; the
 right auricle was pulsating vigorously; the right
 ventricle more so; the pulmonary artery was punc-
 tured and immediately the right ventricle con-
 tracted  more  strongly; the right auricle became
 also more powerfully contracted; but it was re-
 markable  that the two cava which were laid bare,
 (in this and the preceding experiment the peris-
taltic motion had, I believe, ceased,) did not be-
come more empty.  The auricle also did not dis-
 charge its blood, or  at least in perceptible quan-
tities ; the heart, then, performs its functions very
inefficiently after submersion, even though its con-
tractions  continue apparently  powerful.   The
heart continued to contract for two  hours; the
right auricle and ventricle much stronger than the
left auricle and ventricle. When the pericardium
was opened and the surface of the heart exposed to
the air, the right auricle and ventricle certainly be-
came more strongly contracted.  i.The  blood,
either in the cavities  of the heart, or in the great
veins, did not  become red. 
123
               Experiment X.

             The Points examined.

      Effects of six minutes immersion; Dissection.

  A vigorous full grown male cat was submers-
ed for six minutes; the temperature of the water
was 75* of Fahrenheit.  In forty-eight seconds it
ceased to struggle with violence or to make efforts
to rise;  no  struggles or signs of life whatever
were  observed  after the animal was taken out of
the water.
  In  15 minutes after immersion, the heat of the
external surface of the abdomen  was        92°
  In  25 minutes                            ^2
  In 45 minutes                            92
  In 55 minutes                          91*°
  In  65 minutes                            91
  In 75  minutes                            9°
  In 85 minutes                            8^
   In 95 minutes                            86°
   In 105 minutes                          86°
   In 115 minutes                          86°
   In 125 minutes                          84°
   In 140 minutes the temperature of the inte-
      rior of the abdomen was              83° 
124
   The temperature of the room at the conclusion
 of the experiments was  735°.
   In this experiment only the head of the cat was
 immersed.
   On opening the body  of this cat nothing pecu-
 liar was discovered at one hundred and forty-five
 minutes after immersion; the peristaltic motion
 had ceased.  The iris had no contractility; the
 sphincter ani was contracted; the  heart  on its
 right side; the veins of the tongue, the jugulars,
 the descending cava, as also  the ascending, were
 filled with black blood; the pulmonary veins were
 full; the left auricle contained very little, and the
 left ventricle still less blood; the trachea was fill-
 ed with froth.  The head was examined thirteen
 hours and fifteen minutes after immersion.  The
 veins of the brain were found turgid with blood;
 the longitudinal sinus contained some air and was
 not completely filled; the body was stiff; and the
 sphincter ani was still contracted.

               Experiment XI.
             The Points examined.
Effects of immersion for five minutes; Decline of tempera
                 ture; Dissection.

   The: head  of another healthy, but delicate full
grown cat was submersed at twenty minutes past 
125
eight, P. M. the thermometer standing at  75".
In forty-six seconds it ceased to make attempts to
ascend; it remained five minutes in the water and
was removed, and exhibited no signs of life after
emersion.
  In 8 minutes after immersion the  temperature
     of the surface of the abdomen was      92°
  In 15 minutes                           90°
  In 25 minutes                           88"
  In 35 minutes                          871"
  In 45 minutes                           86*
  In 55 minutes                           84°
  In 65 minutes                           84°
  In 75 minutes                           82°
  In 85 minutes                           82°
  In 95 minutes                           81°
  In 105 minutes                          81°
  In 115 minutes                         80*"
  In 125 minutes                          ?9°
  In 145 minutes after immersion the tem-
     perature  of the  interior of the abdomen
     was                                 76"
  The temperature of the  room immediately af-
ter these experiments was  7Z\".
  The two last experiments were performed at
the same time.
  The head of the cat was examined fourteen
hours and twenty minutes after immersion, and
                     L 2 
126
the exterior surface of the brain was found to be
much darker than usual, from the fulness of the
veins.   The  longitudinal sinus contained a con-
siderable quantity of blood, and was partially dis-
tended.  The veins of the neck, the venae cava?,
the right auricle, and  ventricle were distended
with blood.  The pulmonary artery was  partially
filled;  the pulmonary veins very fell; the left au-
ricle and ventricle empty; and the aorta contain-
ed a little blood.  The trachea  presented  some
bloody froth on opening, which was increased in
quantity on pressing  the lungs; the body of the
cat was stiff, and the  blood was coagulated in the
large and small vessels and in the right sideof the
heart.   The iris did not present any signs of irri-
tability, nor was  the sphincter ani relaxed.

               Experiment XII.

              The Points examined.
  Effects of two minutes and a half immersion ; Dissection

   To ascertain exactly the period of resuscitation
 after the shortest period of immersion,  a half
 grown cat was immersed for two and a half mi-
 nutes ; it, however, did not recover, but remained
 without motion.  The heart, on  dissection, was
•motionless, supposed to be owing to violence of 
127
the servant who submersed it, from a wound dis-
covered in the lungs and the bloody water found
near the heart; the peristaltic motion was  vigor-
ous, and  the muscles retained their irritability,
and the temperature of the cavity of the abdomen
96°; of the room 78'.   The  heat of the abdomen
was examined three  quarters  of an hour after-
wards, and was found to be  88°.

               Experiment  XIII.

              The Points examined.

 Effect of three minutes immersion; Dissection; Opening of
         the pericardium; Puncture of- the cava.

   That spontaneous resuscitation  does not take
 place after three minutes, was proved by two other
 experiments:  There was no motion after removal
 from the water after that period.   Dissection.—
 The right auricle was at rest, excepting when irri-
 tated by the  finger; the right ventricle moved
 slightly  towards its  lower end.  The heart, on
 exposure to the a'ur after  the  removal of the  pe-
 ricardium, retained its dark colour; the air had
 no effect upon  the blood through the auricle or
  veins, though exposed for hours.
    In one hour and fifteen minutes, motion in the
  ventricle still continued, as also in the auricle, on 
128
irritation with the finger; the former moved more
vigorously on opening the vena cava,  from the
removal of the distention; the blood was not co-
agulated.   On puncturing  the  cava, the  blood
spouted to the  height of  one  and a half inches.
The auricle also lessened  in size, but did not ac-
quire the power of contraction spontaneously on
opening the  cava.  The fact, then, is true, that
distention of the cavities of the heart prevents
their contraction.  The contraction of the ventri-
cle  produces  no pulsation on  the pulmonary ar-
tery; the left side of the heart was motidnless; the
masses of coagulated blood which were  found af-
ter  its discharge from  the cava, did not become
scarlet as it generally does.

              Experiment XIV.

             The  Points examined.

Effects of three  minutes immersion;  Puncture of the cava,
                Dissection; Heat.

  The other cat mentioned in the above experi-
ment, ceased to struggle violently and to rise di-
rectly upwards in fifty seconds, and when dissect-
ed, the blood was found coagulated in forty-eight
minutes after death.  The heart was motionless
and did not return on puncturing  the cava; the 
129
veins of the tongue were moderately full; the cavae,
jugulars, and right auricle were filled with blood.
The left auricle and ventricle were nearly empty,
and the peristaltic motion had ceased.   The tem-
perature of the bowels, in  eighty minutes  after
death, was 78°; of the room 68*.

               Experiment XV.

  A cat was immersed in water at the tempera-
ture of 60°,  gradually  cooling  down to 45°, at
which point it arrived in twenty minutes; in thirty
minutes it had fallen to 42% at which it continued
during the whole experiment.   The cat remained
in the water for forty-five minutes, and the tem-
perature of the interior of the abdomen was 75°.
The muscles still retained their irritability on ir-
ritation with a knife; the heart was motionless,
and the blood had coagulated in the cava and the
heart;  the disposition of the heart and blood-ves-
sels was as usual; the thermometer stood at 80*
In the room at the conclusion of the experiment. 
130
              Experiment XVI.

              The Points examined.
Effect of submersion for five minutes; Circulation extinct; Wa-
  ter in the trachea; No circulation of the lungs from inflation;
  Puncture of the cava.
  A cat was immersed for five minutes, and was
opened immediately in order to discover the state
of the circulation.  The appearances on dissec-
tion were as formerly.  The heart pulsated occa-
sionally ; the artery in the arm-pit was laid bare,
but there was no pulsation in it, and scarcely any
blood discharged from it on dividing it;  the tra-
chea was divided; water was found in it.  The
lungs were inflated about fifteen minutes after im-
mersion, and  the  power of the heart  increased;
the quantity of blood, however, in the venae cavae
or in the right auricle did not  diminish; nor did
the lungs become coloured, but exhibited a yellow-
ish white appearance, showing clearly  that no ar-
terial blood passed through them.  Puncture  of
the ascending cava caused great increase of mo-
tion in the right ventricle; it contracted more fre-
quently, as also with more power, evidently pro-
duced by the removal of its distention, for pres-
sure upon it caused the blood to flow through tb<
puncture, so as to exhaust it completely 
131
             Experiment XVII.

             The Points examined.

               Puncture of the cava.

  The same observations were repeated with re-
gard to the puncture of the cava and with the same
result.

             Experiment XVIII.

Effect of 150° of Fahrenheit after submersion for four mi-
  nutes; Blood; Heat; Puncture of the cava; Heart and Mus-
  cles.
  A cat was drowned  by submersion for four
minutes.  It  was then exposed to a  temperature
of 150° of Fahrenheit; the limbs began to stiffen
in fifteen minutes after immersion.  After immer-
sion, in seventeen minutes the fore-legs were quite
stiff.  As the resuscitation was hopeless, the dis-
section  was made; in three minutes more the hind
legs were stiff; the blood in the liver had  not co-
agulated ; the temperature of  the  interior of the
abdomen was, thirty-five  minutes after immersion,
104° of Fahrenheit; the heart had ceased; the vena
cava was punctured; the blood effused coagulated
in a very short time, so as to induce  the idea that 
132
 the surface of the heart and lungs had some agency
 in effecting it.   The heart did not move on punc-
 turing it with the knife, or irritating  it with the
 finger, and the aperture  in the cava had no effect
 whatever in exciting it.  The  muscles had lost
 their irritability.

              Experiment XIX.
              The Points examined.
Effect of 124° of Fahrenheit after a submersion of four mi>
            nutes; Heat; Irritability; Heart.

  A very young kitten was submersed in water
for four  minutes, so far as to produce death with-
out wetting the  surface of the body.   It was put
into a temperature of 124° of Fahrenheit.    It
breathed twice after it was put into this increased
temperature, but did not resuscitate.   In twenty-
four minutes the abdomen was opened and the
temperature  of  its inside was  96°.   In twenty-
eight minutes after submersion the intestines had
lost their irritability, as also  the muscles;  the
heart had ceased to move on irritation with the
knife, and on puncturing the cava the  blood  was
fluid. 
133
               Experiment XX.

              The Points examined.
Effects of immersion for four minutes and exposure to air of
  111° of Fahrenheit; Heart; Heat; Peristaltic motion; Lungs;
  Inflation.

  Another cat was submersed for four minutes
and  exposed to air of lllc of Fahrenheit's ther-
mometer  for twelve minutes.   No symptoms of
resuscitation appeared;  it was removed and the
heart was found to be motionless,  except when
irritated; it would'then continue to move for
some seconds  spontaneously, and in twenty-five
minutes the right ventricle had lost its irritability
entirely, though the right auricle continued to
move when irritated.  The temperature of the ab-
domen was 102° after the intestines had lost their
irritability, and also the muscles.  The lungs were
inflated at thirty minutes after immersion, and
the power and motion of the right auricle was evi-
dently increased; the pulmonary veins were eva-
cuated, but the right side  of the heart remained
full of black blood; the  artificial respiration was
continued for  a few minutes.  After about ten
minutes it was again repeated and the power of
the heart was again increased; the left auricle was
                       M 
134
 empty; the heart contracted with more power.  In
 a few minutes after, the contents of the right side
 of the heart, both of the auricle and ventricle, were
 pressed with  the fingers into the pulmonary ar-
 tery so as  to exhaust their cavities, and then the
 inflation was commenced and continued for eight
 or ten respirations; the surface of the lungs was
 more red, and the left auricle was fuller, and  the
 coronary arteries on the left side were evidently
 more red;  the heart also resumed its power.

              Experiment XXI.
              The Points examined.
Effect of immersion for four minutes and exposure to 102° of
                   Fahrenheit.

  A young kitten was immersed for four minutes
 and placed in air of the temperature of 102°  of
 Fahrenheit; it resuscitated gradually and in twen-
 ty-one minutes after immersion  was perfectly re-
 stored.  This proves that the temperature of 102"
of Fahrenheit does not prevent resuscitation. 
135
              Experiment XXII.

              The Points examined.

Effect of submersion for five minutes and exposure to a tem-
  perature of 100° of Fahrenheit; Heart; Puncture of the cava;
  Muscles; Peristaltic motion ; Remarks.

   The same kitten, in half an hour, was submers-
ed for five minutes and placed in a temperature of
100°.  If it recovered it would prove, in the most
decided manner, the  salutary qualities of this de-
gree of temperature.   It drew a convulsive breath
immediately after being  removed from  the water,
and another in two minutes after.   The  symptoms
of resuscitation were again observed.   The ther-
mometer had fallen to 92° in the place  where the
cat was; at the end of eleven minutes  to 90°; at
the end of thirty-seven without any evidences of
resuscitation.  The cat  was then opened.   The
right auricle and ventricle of the heart beat with
some power; the left side had ceased to beat; the
state of the parts was  as before observed;  the
puncture of the vena cava evacuated  the  blood
from the auricle  and ventricle; the former was
not increased in power; the latter considerably.
The muscles had lost their irritability, and the
peristaltic motion had ceased.  As the immersion 
136
in this case was for five minutes, it renders it pro-
bable that  this temperature has no noxious qua-
lities, for it is rare for this animal to. stir after im-
mersion for  five minutes.  The cases in which
young kittens are used must be distinguished from
those which are more advanced, as the former are
drowned with more difficulty.

              Experiment XXIII.

              The Points examined.

Effect of air of the temperature of 134° after an immersion of
              four minutes.  Dissection.

  A kitten  was submersed for five minutes, and
exposed for  fifteen minutes to air of a variable
temperature,  between 100° and 134% without the
least  symptom of  resuscitation.  In fifteen mi-
nutes the limbs did not begin  to grow stiff.  It
was opened;  the heart was quiescent, except the
right auricle; the peristaltic motion still continu-
ed; the blood was fluid, and the great blood-ves-
sels about the heart in other respects as usual; the
left auricle contained rather more  blood  than  is
common, being nearly full. 
137
             Experiment XXIV.

             The Points examined.
         Effect of immersion in an air of 120°.

  A full grown cat was submersed for four mi-
nutes and exposed  to  a  temperature of 120° for
thirty-three minutes, and was then  opened;  the
heart had ceased to beat;  the muscles had lost
their irritability; and the peristaltic motion had
ceased.  The symptoms of resuscitation appeared
in this case.  The state of the viscera showed an
entire  cessation of the powers of life in  conse-
quence of the application of this high, degree of
heat.   The  limbs, however, were not stiff, as in
one of the former cases.   The temperature of the
interior of the abdomen was  106°.

              Experiment XXV.

             The Points examined.
Effects of submersion for five minutes, and of air at 100°.  Dis-
                    section.

  A kitten was submersed for  five minutes in
water and removed into air of the temperature of
100° of Fahrenheit, in  which it remained for fif-
teen minutes without the least symptom of life.
                     M  2 
138
It was removed and opened; the right auricle of
the heart was found pulsating with vigour; the
right ventricle  had some slight motion, and the
left side was quiescent; the veins and large blood-
vessels were as usual"; the peristaltic motion was
vigorous.  The result of this experiment proves
that the temperature of 98° is more favourable to
the continuance of the functions than those which
are higher.   The  muscles had lost their irritabi-
lity, and, in  thirty minutes after immersion, in  a
temperature  of 69°, the peristaltic motion of the
bowels still  continued; also the motion  of the
right auricle was occasional and strong.

              Experiment XXVI.

              The Points examined.
       Effects of 64° of Fahrenheit on the heart,, &c.

   An  old female cat was submersed in water at
 the temperature of 64° for three minutes and ex-
 posed to the open air.   She ceased to struggle in
 one minute  and a quarter, and did not move af-
 terwards.  On examination, in half an hour after
 immersion,  the heart was motionless and the pe-
 ristaltic motion of the intestines had ceased. 
139
             Experiment XXVII.

             The Points examined.

             Effects of 64° on the heart.

  A young female cat about half grown was sub-
mersed in water at the temperature of 64° of Fah-
renheit for four minutes and exposed to the open
air  of the same temperature.  In two hours after,
the heart still beat.   The  peristaltic motion ceas-
ed in half an hour.   In twelve hours and a quar-
ter the heart was examined, and I thought, on com-
pressing the right auricle with  the finger,  that it
gave a slight convulsive motion; but as it did not
occur on repetition  of  the irritation, it was con-
cluded that the irritability of the heart, if not en-
tirely, was almost exhausted.  On puncturing the
superior cava the blood gradually flowed from the
right auricle, and on pressing both the auricle and
ventricle the blood flowed in a rapid stream, show-
ing that the communication was easy between the
auricle, ventricle, and veins, and that it would be
possible to exhaust, by suction, from  one  of the
jugulars, the cavities of the heart, and, of course,
increase its power.  In  this instance, the punc-
ture of  the descending cava and  the consequent
exhaustion of  the right side of  the heart had no 
140
 effect in resuscitating its motions.   They were
 perfectly quiescent.   A clot of blood was found
 protruding  through the puncture of the  cava,
 which, when drawn out, evidently appeared to pe-
 netrate into the cavities of the heart.   Much of
 the blood was  still fluid, and I think the circula-
 tion might have been kept up, notwithstanding the
 coagulum.  The colour of the blood, in  the de-
 scending  cava, was  slightly red  in its  smaller
 branches.

            Experiment XXVIII.
             The  Points examined.
 Effects of five minutes submersion and 92° of Fahrenheit.

  A very young  kitten was submersed for five
minutes and removed to a temperature of 92° Fah-
renheit.  It had scarcely been taken out of the
water before it began to breathe.  It was again
immersed for  almost one minute.   It gradually
recovered, but  exhibited signs of uneasiness  in
the heated atmosphere. 
141
              Experiment XXIX.

              The Points examined.
Effects of submersion for four minutes and 92° of Fahrenheit,
            and of air of 80°. Dissection.

  Another half grown cat was  submersed for
four minutes and put into a temperature of 92° of
Fahrenheit.   It exhibited not the slightest symp-
toms of resuscitation after being removed to the
heated air, but appeared perfectly dead.   Jn thirty-
five minutes after immersion the heart had ceased
and  did not  move, even on  irritating it with a
knife; the peristaltic motion  continued slightly;
the blood was not coagulated; and the tempera-
ture of the  interior of the  abdomen was 87° of
Fahrenheit.

              Experiment XXX.

              The Points examined.
          Effect of air of 80° of Fahrenheit.

  Another kitten was immersed for six minutes
and  exposed to 80° for one hour and twenty-three
minutes,  and then  examined.   The  heart  had
oeased to beat, and also the peristaltic motion. 
142
             Experiment XXXI.

             The Points examined.
Effects of submersion for six minutes and of 80° of Fahrenheit

  Another kitten  of the same age was  exposed
in the same manner and under the same  circum-
stances for one  hour and twenty-three minutes.
The heart had no  motion except a little in the
right auricle; the peristaltic  motion had ceased;
the blood had coagulated in the descending cava,
though  not in the heart.  These two last kittens
had been without food for eighteen hours.  The
thermometer was 80°.

             Experiment XXXII.
             The Points examined.
Submersion for six minutes; Effects of 82° of Fahrenheit; Dis-
            section ; Puncture of the cava.

  Two  other kittens of the same litter, which had
not taken  food for eighteen hours, Were submers-
ed for six minutes and exposed to a temperature
of 62° for three quarters of an hour.   The heart
of one was pulsating; the right auricle moved with
considerable  vigour; the right ventricle mode-
rately; the action of both the right  auricle  and 
143
Ventricle was  increased by the puncture of the
cava; the peristaltic motion continued in both kit-
tens.   The heart of the other had some consider-
able motion in the right auricle, but had lost its
motion in the other cavities of this organ.  At the
end of fifty-five minutes after immersion, the right
ventricle did not recover its beats when the cava
was punctured.  The veins near the heart were
more empty  in  the young cats of  this litter last
experimented upon, after dissection, because they
had breathed after immersion.   The veins of the
neck in the cats generally used in these  experi-
ments were not fuller than those in the axilla; a
fact which shows that nothing like apoplexy takes
place in submersion, for the whole venous system
appears to be equally full.

             Experiment XXXIII.

              The Points examined.
        Effects of 72° of Fahrenheit. Dissection.

   A  full grown cat, which  had not eaten for
twenty-four  hours, was submersed for four mi-
nutes and exposed to the air of the  heat of 72° for
an hour.   The right auricle of the heart still con-
tinued to move; the  blood was, in some degree,
coagulated, the heart being partially filled  with 
144
clots; the peristaltic motion and irritability of the
muscles had ceased; the stomach contained a con-
siderable quantity of water.  In several, the irri-
tability of the muscles remained  for so short a
time, that, in the last experiment,  it has not been
noticed.   In this experiment the cat was  in a de-
bilitated  state, as also in the six last preceding, so
that the conclusion of the temperature being fa-
vourable to the support of life is strong.

             Experiment XXXIV.

             The Points examined.
       Effect of 72° of Fahrenheit.  Dissection.

  A young kitten, which had  been resuscitated
and was  much  debilitated, was  again submersed
for seven and a half minutes; and after three quar-
ters of an hour's exposure to the air of the tempe-
rature  of 72° of Fahrenheit, the heart, the peris-
taltic motion, and the irritability  of the  muscles
had ceased.  It  had  not  eaten for twenty-four
hours.   The stomach contained  a considerable
quantity of water. 
145
             Experiment XXXV.

              The Points examined*

Effects of obstruction of circulation in the limbs on the power
  of the heart after submersion; Puncture of the vena cava;
  Blood; Heart; Diaphragm; Muscles.

   A cat was strangled, and as soon as it had
 ceased to move its thorax was opened.   The heart
 was found  quiescent; of course the  experiment
 failed.   The lungs were natural, partially collaps-
 ed ; and the venous trunks full of blood.   A punc-
 ture in the descending cava evacuated the blood
 from the right auricle, yet caused no motion; the
 blood coagulated immediately on effusion from the
 vessels;  the diaphragm moved on irritating the
 phrenic nerve; the  heart had lost its irritability,
 and the muscles also:  A circumstance which may
 have been produced by the excessive struggles of
 the animal which exhausted it.
   By examining the humeral artery in the  arm-
 pit in another animal, a few minutes after sub-
 mersion, the heart still  beating, the  circulation
 was scarcely, if at all perceptible.   To tie up the
 artery is therefore useless, as the circulation does
 not extend to  the arm-pit, of  course not to the
 thigh.   It was postponed till, from the increase of
                       N 
146
 the power of the heart, produced by artificial infla-
 tion, the blood could be sent through the artery.
 The following experiments, then, are intended to
 examine the effect of various temperatures  com-
 bined with inflation of atmospheric air as a means
 of exciting the power of the  heart, preparatory to
 tying up the arteries, as  a further  auxiliary to
 strengthen the circulation.

             Experiment XXXVI.
              The Points examined.
Effects of submersion for eight minutes; Inflation for thirty-;
 five minutes ; Veins; Heart; Peristaltic motion; Heat of ab-
 domen—of the room; Cavity of the pleura; Cause of diffi-
 culty.

  A half  grown cat was submersed for  eight
minutes.  She was then withdrawn and the  infla-
tion of the lungs commenced at four minutes after
immersion.   The inflation was continued through
the divided  trachea for thirty-five minutes,  when
the thorax  was  opened.   The  descending  cava
was not so much distended with blood as usual;
the veins in the arm-pit were also less distended,
and some blood could be perceived in the axillary
artery; the veins of the neck were considerabby
distended, though, perhaps, not quite so full as
usual; the pulmonary veins  were  full of scarlet 
147
blood, and the ascending cava appeared quite as
full as it was generally; the two sides of the heart
were pulsating with more force than in any other
case hitherto examined; they continued to beat for
an  hour with considerable vigor, and when irri-
tated, contracted strongly in all their cavities; the
peristaltic motion was not perceptible in thirty-five
minutes after immersion, and the temperature of
the abdomen had fallen to 70° of Fahrenheit; the
temperature of the air of the room was 61°; the
heart continued to beat for ninety minutes after
immersion  with considerable vigor. In four and
a half hours after, the whole right side still con-
tracted, and also the left auricle when irritated;
the lungs were found distended and coloured with
scarlet blood, and what is very extraordinary, the
pleura was filled  with water tinged with  blood,
probably from the violence of inflation rupturing
the lungs; there was some little water in the sto-
mach, though probably it might have been there
before the submersion.   The discharge of the con-
tents  of the venae cavse and of the right side of the
heart through the lungs appears  to be the great
obstacle.   The pulmonary veins were filled with
scarlet blood.  It appeared that pulling  the aorta
excited the contractions of the heart. 
148
             Experiment XXXVII.

              The Points examined.
.Inflation after six minutes submersion;  Dissection—Cava;
  Veins of the neck; Heart; Arteries; Heat; Peristaltic mo-
  tion ; Stomach; Muscles.

   A cat about half grown was submersed for six
minutes, and inflation  was commenced in twelve
minutes after immersion by  introducing a  gum
elastic catheter into the trachea and attaching its
extremity to the end of a common bellows.  It
was continued for thirty minutes, and, on opening
the thorax,  the right auricle  was found slightly
pulsating and very full of blood; the right ventri-
cle had ceased, but was slightly excited by draw-
ing the knife across it; the two cavae were full, as
also the veins in the neck and arm-pit; the pulmo-
nary arteries were filled with scarlet blood; the left
side of the heart was perfectly quiescent, not even
to be moved by irritation with the  knife; the  arte-
ries were almost entirely  empty; the temperature
of the  abdomen was  75° of Fahrenheit at sixty-
nine minutes after immersion; the peristaltic mo-
tion had ceased; the stomach contained no water-
and the muscles had lost their irritabilitv. 
149
            Experiment XXXVIII.

              The Points examined.

Inflation after sixty-eight minutes immersion ;  Dissection—
  Heart; Peristaltic motion; Stomach; Heat; Veins; Left ven-
  tricle ;  Blood;  Lungs: Puncture of the cava; Probe intro-
  duced into the  heart through the jugular.

   A full grown female cat was submersed for
sixty-eight minutes, and then exposed  for fifteen
minutes on a table, and the inflation of the lungs
was kept up by means of a pair of bellows and a
gum elastic catheter introduced into the trachea for
the space of thirty-five minutes.   As no  signs of
resuscitation appeared it was conjectured  that the
attempt was  vain.  The body was opened;  the
right auricle and ventricle and the venae cavae were
very full of black blood; also the veins of the neck,
axilla, tongue, and ears; of course those of the in-
side of the head which was not opened; the heart
was quiescent; the peristaltic motion had ceased;
the muscles had lost their irritability; the stomach
contained no water; and the temperature of the
interior of the abdomen, in two hours after sub-
mersion, was  75°, when that of the room was 62%
a curious coincidence in the three last  and fif-
teenth experiments in this respect; the pulmonary
                      n 2 
150
veins appeared empty, but, on examination, were
filled with scarlet blood, proving the effect of in-
flation ; the left auricle contained little blood; the
left ventricle very little; the blood was fluid; the
lungs were of a scarlet colour.  The puncture ot
the venae cavae produced no motion in the heart.
A probe was run down the  left jugular to the
heart into the right ventricle,  proving that the
blood could be withdrawn by one of the branches
of this vein, and thus the motion of the heart in-
creased.  It is, then, evident that atmospheric air
alone, injected into the lungs, will not resuscitate
these animals.

              Experiment XXXIX.
              The Points examined.
Effects of four minutes submersion; Inflation with atmospheric
  air and 70° of Fahrenheit; Dissection—Heart; Veins •, Lungs;
  Arteries,; Heat; Stomach; Muscles; Diaphragm.

   A full grown cat was immersed for four mi-
 nutes, as in the first of the three last experiments.
 It was found that simple inflation with the tempe-
 rature of  60° did not recover the animal.   Infla-
 tion was commenced in five minutes after immer-
 sion ; the  animal being put into a temperature of
 70° and kept there for thirty minutes, the inflation
 being continued.  The right side of the heart, as 
151
also  the  left ventricle, still contracted;  the two
cavae, the axillary veins,«and the jugulars were still
distended, though not quite so much as usual, nor
was the right side of the heart quite so full; the
lungs were very red, and the pulmonary veins
were filled with  scarlet blood;  the carotids also
contained more than  usual.  It was then evident
that inflation and 70° had  more effect, in this in-
stance, than inflation and 60° had in the first of the
three preceding experiments.  The temperature
of the abdomen  was 82° in about one hour after
immersion, which shows that there was also some
gain in this respect.  The stomach contained a
small quantity of mucous glairy fluid.  The mus-
cles, when the animal was opened, about thirty-
three or thirty-four  minutes after death, had not
lost their irritability, and the diaphragm  also con-
tracted on irritation. 
152
                Experiment XL.

              The Points examined.

Effects of submersion for five minutes and the temperature of
  80° with atmospheric inflation; Dissection—Veins; Heart;
  Arteries; Heat;  Peristaltic motion; Blood; Danger of vio-
  lent inflation; Power of the Heart; Blood coagulated.

   A  Kii 1KJN was imuiciacil fui  live minutes and
exposed in  a temperature of 80°, the lungs being
inflated with a  pair of simple bellows for thirty-
three minutes.   The body was then examined, and
the heart was found pulsating in all its cavities,
excepting the left  auricle  which  was filled with
dark-coloured blood; the pulmonary veins were
Scarlet.*   On exposure to the air the power of the
contractions increased; the-two venae cavae, the
jugulars, and the axillary  vein  were equally full
as when no inflation was practised, but the artery
in the axilla,  the carotid, and the  pulmonary ar-
tery were fuller  than in the last case, shewing that
there was more circulation, though it was very
small, for on puncturing the carotid artery merely
a drop issued forth, so that it  was almost obli-
terated.   The temperature of the abdomen inter-

  * Shewing that no circulation took place between the lungs
and left auricle. 
153
nally was 80°; that of the room 71°.  The peris-
taltic motion continued in a slight degree, and, in
one hour after the inflation commenced, the blood,
on opening the breast, was  found coagulated.   A
sac of cellular membrane, as large as an egg, filled
with air, with  the back part of the peritoneum for
its anterior coat, was found to occupy the back part
of the abdomen from the pelvis to the diaphragm.
It, no doubt, arose from violent inflation, which
drove the air into the cellular membrane in the
base of the lungs.  The power of the  heart then
continues after clots have  formed in  the blood
contained in its cavities.  In this case the tempe-
rature of 80° of Fahrenheit  appeared to be favor-
able.

              Experiment XLI.

              The Points examined.

       Effect of condensation of air in the lungs.

   A cat  was submersed, and after some hours
the lungs were injected by means of  a syringe
with some force.  The air penetrated to  the kid-
ney on one side, surrounding it with a large blad-
der of air.   The venae cavae were full of blood as
usual, which convinced me that this means of con-
densing the air  had no effect in  evacuating  the 
                     154

cava, and thus assisting the passage of the blood
through the lungs.

              Experiment XLII.

              The Points examined.
       Effect of condensation of air in the lungs.

  In  another  cat, in which the  thorax was laid
open, the-whole surface of the'lungs was evidently
penetrated by the air, when pressed  into  them,
rising from them like bubbles on the surface of
mud;  the surface of the pericardium about the
thymus gland was  also  filled.  The circulation
had nearly ceased so that it was  certain none had
penetrated the arteries and veins, though, from its
easy passage through the texture about the heart
and of the lungs, it was evident that it would give
easy admittance into them, provided the passage
of blood through them had continued, 
155
             Experiment XLIII.

              The Points examined.

Effect of seven and a half minutes immersion of 100° of Fah-
  renheit, and fifty-five minutes inflation with atmospheric air;
  Heart; Venae Cavx; Aorta; Humeral artery; Veins; Sto-
  mach ; Lungs.

   A cat, full  grown, was submersed for seven
and a half minutes, and a gum elastic catheter was
introduced into the  trachea, and at  the  end of
eight minutes  after immersion, and exposure in
air of  100°, the lungs were inflated with  atmos-
pheric air for fifty-five minutes.  The temperature
of the air injected into the lungs was about 70°.
At the end of fifty-five minutes the chest was open-
ed and the heart beat with great vigor;  the venae (^
cavae were full of  blood;  the  right auricle mode-
rately  distended;  the right ventricle contained a
considerable quantity of blood  and was beating,
though slowly, with considerable vigor;  the left
auricle was nearly empty of blood; the left auricle
contracted with some  vigor, yet, on dividing the
aorta,  its power was not sufficient  to propel the
blood  through the apertvire.   It must,  however,
during the inflation, have had some  effect  in pro-
pelling the blood, for the humeral  artery was 
156
 found to contain more blood than usual, and the
 veins in the axilla were  very turgid; there was
 no water in the stomach,  though the lungs  were
 filled with froth, and the intercostal arteries with
 blood.

             Experiment  XLIV.

             The Points examined.

Effect of 60° and ligatures on the extremities; Cavae; Arteries,
  Heart; Heat; Stomach; Remarks; Veins of the abdomen.

   A cat was submersed for five minutes, and re-
moved into an air of 60° of Fahrenheit.  The
blood-vessels of the extremities were secured by
ligatures, two round each whole extremity, and
inflation  with atmospheric air was continued for
forty minutes; the two cavae were filled with blood
to, perhaps, a greater degree than usual;  the ar-
teries, however, were more  full;  the axillary ar-
tery and  the carotid were evidently more distend-
ed ; the former bled considerably on dividing  it,
which, in former  cases, it never did; the lungs
felt warm to the hand; and the heart still retained
considerable power.  The temperature of the ab-
domen was 73°; of the room 60°.  This experi-
ment was made under great disadvantages  with
regard to temperature, and yet the blood-vessels 
157
were considerably filled; the right side of the
heart, I also  thought, was fuller of blood than
common;  the stomach was considerably distend-
ed. *  The animals had eaten some short time be-
fore death.  The effect  of the ligature, then, is
considerable,  even producing distention of the ca-
rotids, to which they were not applied.  I thought,
also, on examining the abdomen, that the mesente-
ric veins were  fuller; the vena azygos was cer-
tainly more distended than usual.

              Experiment XLV.
              The Points examined.
Effects of immersion for nine  minutes; Ligatures and infla-
  tion with atmospheric air for thirty minutes; Carotids; Axil-
  lary artery; Venae cavae.
   A cat was submersed for nine minutes, and
after tying the extremities with ligatures so as to
compress the  arteries, which occupied sixteen mi-
nutes, then inflating the lungs for thirty minutes,
it was placed  in an atmosphere of 110° for about
fifteen minutes, and then in 100°.   On  examining
the  breast, the  carotid* were found much more
filled with blood than in  ordinary cases; the axil-
lary artery also was partially full, and the corres-
ponding vein  nearly empty; the venae  cavae were
much less distended.  The result of this experi-
                       o 
158
   ment convinced me that, assisted by ligatures, in
   the space of thirty minutes  inflation, more effect
   was produced than by any other means yet tried".
   The motion of the heart was different from what
   is usual; it was of a steadily pressing character,
   as if it would be effectual in expelling its contents,
   which induced me to suppose, that to restore the
jf  power to the heart, it was  necessary that the ar-
   teries should be in  some measure full, otherwise
   the  tension of the valves is  not sufficient to pre-
   vent the passage of the blood from the  left auri-
   cle to the left ventricle, and  also the  same is true
   of the pulmonary  artery; it is necessary that it
   should be full; otherwise the blood  passes back-
   ward from the right auricle into the venae cavae,
   and from the right ventricle into the right auricle;
   what effect would  the  experiment  of  injecting
   blood into the jugulars, so  that it may be forced
   into the  lungs, have upon the circulation?   It is
   true that the distention of the right ventricle and
   auricle prevent their contraction, and the evacua-
   tion of the blood  reproduces them,  yet the invi-
   goration produced by sending a large quantity of
   blood through the lungs may increase  their power,
   and  on the same principle inject into the arteries,
   tbe humeral  for instance, so as to filh the  aorta,
   carotids, &c.   The left auricle contained scarlet 
159
blood, but in a small quantity, and was very much
contracted.

              Experiment XLVI.

              The Points examined.
Effects of submersion for thirty minutes; Of air of 110° of Fah-
  renheit, and inflation with atmospheric air for one hour, and
  ligatures on the extremities; Vena cava; Jugulars; Arteries;
  Carotids; Heart; Effect of loosening the artery; Heart; Ef-
  fects of cold or air upon the heart;  Blood coagulated.

   A large female cat was immersed for half an
hour, and removed to an air of the temperature of
110° of Fahrenheit.  Ligatures were put around
all the extremities but one.  A pipe was introduc-
ed into the trachea and inflation was commenced
in eight minutes after  removal from the  water
and  continued for one hour.   The cat was then
opened;  the venae cavae were  found very^  full of
blood; the venae  azygos and the vein  belonging to
the internal mammary artery; the jugulars were
as full as usual; the axillary  artery  and vein of
the extremity which was not tied contained less
blood  than that on the opposite side which  was
tied; the carotid was fuller than usual; the heart
was  perfectly quiescent,  as  the  axillary  artery
which was  tied contained more blood than  the
one on the other side which was not,  and also  the 
160
 vein.  It is clear  that the ligature has an effect,
 though the result of this experiment was unfavour-
 able to the complete resuscitation of the animal.
  The cause of the axillary artery and vein in the
 side which was not tied having less blood than
 on the other side which was tied, was that it pass-
 ed on to the lower parts of the extremity; for even
 after complete death, when the ligature around
 the other which was tied was loosened, the  blood
 which was in considerable quantity on the side of
 the ligature towards the heart before opening it,
 immediately was sent along the artery to the parts
below, which  before loosening the ligature were
perfectly empty; and the vein in the part beyond
the ligature which laid alongside of it, which was
very much distended, immediately contracted also
and propelled  its blood towards the heart, so that
the artery which was considerably distended be-
 fore was now, after loosening the ligature, almost
 empty, and the vein  which was  distended on the
radial side of  the  ligature was more empty, and
 on the side of the ligature next the heart the vein
 was more full, proving clearly  the great power
 which the arteries and veins  have in propelling
 the blood, and that it requires only a little increase
 of the power  of the heart to produce this  effect.
 The cause of death, in  this instance, is not easily
 understood; we should have suspected that there 
161
would have been some remains of life in the heart,
as afterwards really appeared to be; there are
great anomalies in the  progress  of this disease.
On removing the  pericardium in about seventy-
five minutes afterwards, the heart was examined,
and the right auricle was found to contract on ir-
ritation, which it  would not do immediately on
opening the body, proving the effect of the air or
temperature in exciting irritability.  All the other
parts of the viscus were perfectly quiescent.  On
opening the  heart, clots were found  in the cavi-
ties of both ventricles.  The cat struggled greatly
in dying.*

             Experiment XLVII.

              The Points examined.

   Another  cat was submersed and continued in
the water for one hour and twenty minutes; in
forty minutes more the ligatures were put upon
the extremities and the inflation continued for one
hour in a  temperature varying from 100° to 110%
generally  at  110°.  At  the end of this time the
body was examined, and it was evident from the
appearances of the carotids and aorta that there

  * It is probable the high temperature of 110°, in which the
cat was kept, prevented the continuance of the  heart's motion.
                      o 2 
162
had been some contractions of the heart, for they
were full of blood, though not to  distention, as
also from the right auricle which still contracted
on irritation.  The  axillary artery was also  full
on the side on which  there was no ligature,  and
the vein on the same side quite full which shewed
also some circulation.   The artery on the other
side, which was tied, was pretty full, but the vein
comparatively empty.   Does not this prove that
the power of the heart must have driven the blood
on through  the axillary artery and forced  the
blood through the axillary vein to the heart?   In
the artery of the thigh there is very little blood,
the ligature being put on just above the knee, so
that it could not have  obstructed it, as it did not
extend so far down.  These facts evidently prove
that the limitation of the  range  of the circulation
certainly increases the quantity of  blood in those
vessels which were free.

             Experiment XLVIII.
              The Points examined.
Effects of submersion; Heart; Electricity applied in a stream;
       Carotid and axillary artery; Cava; Remarks.
   A full  grown cat was submersed till it  was
dead.  The heart, on examination, had ceased to
beat, excepting the right auricle;  electricity was 
163
applied in a stream, the temperature of the room
being 56° of Fahrenheit.  Both the auricles soon
began to contract vigorously, the ventricles being
still quiescent.  In the space of a few' minutes
they also began to contract and continued to beat
vigorously for three quarters of an hour; the con-
tractions  were effectual and  strong, because the
blood in the carotid was considerable in quantity,
and also  in the axillary artery; they continued
with  great power from the influence of the elec-
tricity, for the heart was perfectly quiescent be-
fore; the effect, however, of emptying the cava
was not very evident; the electricity was applied
in a moderate stream, and it proved that the power
of the heart was increased and sustained by it, as
it had entirely ceased, excepting the right auricle.

              Experiment  XLIX.
                   Incomplete.

   Another cat was submersed and exposed to
the action  of electricity, the shock being  passed
through its side;  an  error was committed in its
application and the experiment failed. 
164
                Experiment L.

              The Points examined.
Effects of electricity; Inflation with atmospheric air and open-
  ing the pericardium upon the heart; Effects of electricity
  and atmospheric air united; Temperature; Effect of elec-
  tricity on the eighth pair of nerves; Effect of electricity af-
  ter the heart had ceased to move ; Inflation.

  Another cat was submersed till it was dead,
and ten  minutes afterwards it was opened.   The
heart beat ten  times in a minute in twenty-two mi-
nutes after immersion; in twenty-eight minutes
after immersion  a stream  of electricity was  sent
through  it, and continued for  five minutes, and
the heart beat only three times in a minute.  In-
flation of the lungs was made for ten minutes with
no  increase of power in the heart; the pericar-
dium was opened and the  surface of the heart ex-
posed to the  air after the  irritability had appa-
rently ceased, and the  heart, in a minute longer,
began to move, and its  power gradually increased,
the contractions  appearing in all  the  ventricles;
electricity  and inflation were applied alternately,
and it was evident with effect; the power of the
heart was,  in this instance, considerable, for the
carotids and  axillary artery contained consider-
able quantities of blood;  the temperature  of the 
165
room was 56° of Fahrenheit; the stream of elec-
tricity was passed, as in the last instance, in about
three quarters  of an hour  after immersion.  Its
effect was tried on the eighth pair of nerves by
connecting  with an iron hook introduced  below
the nerve with the machine, and sending the stream
of electricity through the heart, the animal being
placed  on an insulated stool, but with  no effect.
After the contractions of  the  heart had nearly
ceased, in ninety-five minutes after the immersion,
its power was evidently increased, the whole or-
gan contracting with considerable vigor.  Infla-
tion was then  applied, and it was thought to in-
crease its contractions.

                Experiment LI.
             The Points examined.
Heat after submersion; Effect of electricity on the heart; Ef-
  fect of opening the pericardium on the heart; Effect of air
  and electricity externally applied to the heart.

  A cat was killed by submersion and opened in
ten  minutes after immersion.    The  heart,  in
twenty-two minutes after immersion, beat fifteen
times in a minute. In one hour and three minutes
it had ceased.   Electricity was applied,  but with-
out effect.  The pericardium was opened, and the
heart exposed to the air in seventy-nine minutes 
166
after immersion, and it began immediately to con-
tract with vigor, so that, in the  last experiment,
it was evident that the motions of the heart were
occasioned by the contact of the air, as the  peri-
cardium was opened early in the experiment. The
electricity was again applied; the heart exhibited
contractions of increased vigor  almost immedi-
ately, so the air and electricity combined  increase
the power of the heart after it had ceased from
the action of electricity alone.

              Experiment LII.

  A cat was submersed, and examined after fif-
teen minutes.  On opening the thorax, the right
auricle contracted feebly.   It was left for twenty
minutes longer, and the ventricle contracted some-
what, though scarcely perceptible.   A bladder,
filled with warm water at 120° of Fahrenheit, was
approached to the heart; it had no effect whatever.
The pericardium was opened, the heat of the room
being about 60°.   It shortly after contracted with
vigor, and  was more sensible to mechanical irri-
tation.  A wire heated red  hot, applied to the
eighth pair of nerves, excited no contractions in
the heart;  when in contact with  the organ itself
they were  vigorous.  The  heart  increased  in
power instantly, proving that the contact of thr
air had great effect 
167
               Experiment LIII.
              The Points examined.
Effect of submersion and 58° Fahrenheit, and exposure to the
                air in a diseased cat.

   A cat was drowned in air of 58° of Fahrenheit,
and in half an  hour afterwards the arteries were
found to be equally distended with blood, as in the
four last experiments, particularly the carotid.  So
that it is a property of the animal, submersed in
a  temperature  of 58°, to empty the arteries in a
shorter time.  It is certain that the electricity did
not increase the volume of the arteries, as was
conjectured from the last experiments.  This cat
had an inflammation of the thymus gland; it will,
therefore, be necessary  to repeat  it.   As  far as
this fact goes  it is unquestionable that the arte-
ries were fuller. 
168
                Experiment LIV.

               The Points examined.
 Effects of electricity drawn off by points on the heart—in a
  stream—by broad surfaces; Temperature of 58°; Effect of
  electricity by sparks; Effect of pericardium opened com-
  bined with electricity and imperfect inflation; Principle on
  which agitations of the extremities act, and pulling the ca-
  rotid.

   Two  cats were submersed  till they were dead,
 and in five minutes  afterwards  they were placed
 on an insulated stool, and one of them was expos-
 ed to a stream of electricity passed through both
 sides of the heart by points placed on each side
 of it, the thorax being opened to discover its mo-
 tions.  Its  motions were not increased, but in ten
 minutes after  its first application  had ceased en-
 tirely, and in fifteen minutes  was  not irritable by
 the point of the knife.   The other, through which
 the electricity was passed in a stream  by two
 broader  surfaces, was increased  in frequency and
 in power; in fifteen minutes the heart also began
 to weaken; the stream was then applied and drawn
 off by broad surfaces from the  first, and it was
 again resuscitated  and its powers increased;  the
 temperature was 58°.  In  both it  was drawn off
by sparks without increasing their power in  the 
169
least.  The pericardia of both were then opened
and  exposed for ten minutes to the air, and the
hearts were increased in frequency and in power;
electricity was then drawn off from them by points
and with the same effect.  A stream of electricity
was  passed through  them and it increased them
still  more.  It was now an hour  since they were
submersed, and  as both the hearts were beginning
to decline, the lungs of one were inflated, but as
they had weakened very considerably it was soon
omitted.   To ascertain  whether  any stimulus  .«-
might be communicated to the heart by agitating
the extremities, as it was  conjectured that the
only mode in which an effect could  be  produced
by that means was by stretching the arteries; the
axillary artery was laid bare and  pulled; the mo-
tions of the heart were evidently increased still
more by pulling the  carotid from its more imme-
diate connection with the heart;  electricity was
passed through the stomach without effect.
p 
170
               Experiment LV.
              The Points examined.
Effect of electricity in resolving coagulations by points and by
        a stream; Also on the colour of the clot.

  A clot of blood of the size of a hazle-nut was
laid upon a glass stand and electricity  was drawn
through  it by  points for fifteen minutes without
the effect of dissolving it.   A stream was then
passed through it and  with the same result.  I
conjectured, in the last case, some little fluid ap-
peared about the clot, but this was not concurred
in by the gentleman who assisted me.  The parts
of the clot, when the sparks were drawn off, was
certainly more red than those which  were more
removed.  This might have been accidental.

               Experiment LVI.
              The Points examined.
Effect of heated  air of 160° of Fahrenheit on the animal sys-
  tem ; On the temperature of the abdomen; Convulsions; Fi-
  nal recovery.

   A  cat was exposed  to air of the temperature
 of 160° Fahrenheit and removed at the end of four
 minutes; convulsions were the consequence, and 
171
the thermometer, in the abdomen, rose to 106° in
twenty minutes after.  The object of the experi-
ment was to ascertain whether the temperature of
the interior of the body actually rose in conse-
quence of the application of heat externally, and,
of course, whether a temperature  incompatible
with life was thus generated.   After the convul-
sions of  the animal ceased, the respirations were
panting and frequent beyond measure.   In  the
course of thirty minutes after its removal it  had
entirely recovered and appeared to be strong.

              Experiment LVII.

              The Points examined.

Effect of submersion and time on the emptying of the cava.

   Two cats were submersed at five minutes after
five, P. M. and left till next morning to ascertain
whether there was any probability in the extraor-
dinary facts related of submersion for a long pe-
riod, and whether, as Harvey had  observed, the
vena cava and right side of the heart would be
more empty of blood, which presents so great an
obstacle  to resuscitation.  One in  twenty-three,
the other in twenty-four hours was opened  and
exhibited the following appearances« the vense
cavae were full, and the arteries contained some 
172
blood; the heart was without  irritability on the
application of mechanical stimuli, or from the ad-
mission of air intothe pericardium, proving clearly
that the changes which  appeared in Harvey's ex-
periment do not take place in the unopened body,
and that the irritability did not remain in the heart,
&c; the thermometer ranged between 50° and 60"
of  Fahrenheit.

             Experiment  LVIII.

              The Points examined.

Effect of submersion on the cava, pulmonary veins, heart,  ca-
 rotid, and axillary artery; Exposure of the heart and pulling
 of the carotid.

  Another cat was submersed till it was dead,
and laid in the air varying between  50° and 60°
of Fahrenheit, and was  opened at the end of thir-
teen hours.  The venae cavae  and  right auricle
"were much distended with blood; the ventricle
was not so much so;  the pulmonary veins were
full of black blood, and the left auricle contained
more blood than usual; the left ventricle was much
as before; the carotid and  axillary  arteries con-
tained more blood than is generally found in dis-
sected animals when the thermometer ranged be-
tween  70° and 80°; the exposure of the heart  to 
                      173

 the air, by opening the pericardium  and pulling
 the carotids, produced no contractions; of course,
 the irritability had irrevocably gone.

              Experiment LIX.
              The Points examined.
Effect of submersion and time on the heart and vessels, and of
              opening the pericardium.

   Another cat, which had been submersed at the
same time, was examined  after fourteen hours im-
mersion in water, the temperature of  which rang-
ed between 50° and 60° of Fahrenheit, and it was
found to exhibit the same appearances.  The heart
and vessels were in the same state, and  the  for-
mer  did  not contract on  exposure to the  air by
opening the pericardium  or on pulling the caro-
tids ; the right auricle and  ventricle were,  perhaps,
more soft than in the last instance.  These expe-
riments prove that Harvey's observation  does not
always hold  good, and that the irritability is ex-
hausted in thirteen or fourteen hours. 
174
               Experiment LX.

             The Points examined.

Effect of heated fluids on the heart when injected into the
 stomach; Heart; No sympathy between the stomach and the
 heart.

  A cat was submersed till all  signs of life had
ceased.  The thorax was opened previous to the
injection, when the heart was beginning to decline
in power; two ounces of spirits of turpentine, milk
warm, were then injected  into the stomach, but
with no effect on the motions of the heart.   This
experiment was performed under the idea  that
there was a  sympathy  in  the stomach with the
heart, as there exists between the lungs and the
heart.   This organ declined gradually without be-
ing the least  influenced by  the injection.

              Experiment LXI,

             The Points examined.
Effect of inflation and temperature milk warm, and hot water
      on the heart when injected into the stomach.

  The above experiment was repeated, and infla-
tion was combined with it.  The heart went on
notwithstanding, but regularly weakened; the in- 
175
Ration was omitted after a short time; the injec-
tion produced no effect upon the heart.   Upon
another  animal  very  hot water  was  injected.
From the effect which this agent produces in hys-
teria and other nervous diseases it was hoped that
its influence would be favourable; but without any
effect whatever.

              Experiment LXII.

              The Points examined.
Effect of submersion; Heart quiescent;  Electricity passed
  through the stomach ; No sympathy between the  heart and
  the stomach evinced by electricity.

   A cat was submersed till it was  dead, and on
opening the thorax the heart was quiescent.  A
stream of electricity was passed through  the sto-
mach by means of a gum  elastic catheter with  a
wire concealed in it, introduced into that organ.
The electricity was conducted through it by plac-
ing a brass rod with a knotted end on the outside
of it, and thus passing a stream through it, the ani-
mal being placed on an insulated stool connected
by the metallic conductors with the ground and
the machine.  No effect was produced by continu-
ing the  process  for five minutes; no sympathy,
then, existed between the stomach and the heart,
as evinced by electricity.  The pericardium was 
176
 opened, and the heart, in  a short time, began to
 contract from exposure to the air, and on passing
 a stream of electricity through it, it became vigor-
 ous.

              Experiment LXIII.
              The Points examined.
 Effect of the surface of the lungs and heart on coagulation.

  Some blood was permitted to fall upon the sur-
face of a board on which a cat prepared for expe-
riment laid, and at the same time blood was also
discharged on the surface of the lungs and heart;
the latter coagulated immediately, whilst the for-
mer did not during the time the experiments last-
ed,  proving the wisdom of nature in establishing
this quality to prevent the mischievous effects of
wounds of the heart and lungs.
THE END., 
 
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