356 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



in the cases which the author considered proper for attempt at re- 

 suscitation, was denned as a condition in which both the beat of 

 the heart and the force of respiration had entirely ceased, and in 

 which the animal, if left alone, would pass into putrefaction and dis- 

 solution. There was a limitation as to time after death during which 

 the means of resuscitation could be applied with a chance of suc- 

 cess. This time was limited by one of two occurrences : coagula- 

 tion of the blood in the vessels of the body, and putrefaction of 

 the tissues. The first of these events rarely occurred, in cases of 

 death such as has been described, within twenty minutes ; the second 

 was often deferred as many hours. A perfect means of resuscitation 

 ought, therefore, to be successful up to at least a period of twenty 

 minutes after death. 



There are four methods at present known by which endeavors have 

 been made to produce re-animation : 1 . Artificial respiration. 2. 

 Galvanism. 3. Injection into blood-vessels. 4. Artificial circula- 

 tion. 



Artificial respiration is almost a certain means of restoration when 

 the action of the heart has not stopped ; but if the heart has ceased, 

 then the process, however long continued, is of no avail, inasmuch as 

 the column of blood which should be passing from the heart to the 

 lungs is checked, and no blood is presented to the air which the pa- 

 tient is made to inspire. The author gave the results of sixty experi- 

 ments in which he had employed common air, and of several other 

 experiments in which different substances, such as oxygen, chlorine, 

 oxy-hydrogen, and ozone, had been mixed with the air used ; but in 

 all these cases the results were negative, because the action of the 

 heart had stopped. There was, nevertheless, this great fact to be 

 remembered, that in instances where the respiration had ceased, the 

 influence of artificial respiration in restoring the failing heart is ma- 

 terially increased by making use of an air heated to 130 Fah. Dr. 

 Richardson therefore suggests that in all receiving houses for persons 

 who may have been drowned, or accidentally killed by other means, 

 a hot-air bath should always be kept ready, in which the patient 

 should be at once placed, and the air of which should be used for arti- 

 ficial respiration. 



Galvanism, as applied to purposes of resuscitation, was first used by 

 Aldini ; but the galvanic current was generally applied in a very em- 

 pirical manner. The two important points to be solved were, (a) 

 whether galvanism could be used to start the respiration? (6) whether 

 it could be used to start the heart after that had stopped ? The 

 author had made numerous inquiries on these points, and came defi- 

 nitely to the conclusion that galvanism, however carefully applied, 

 tends to exhaust rather than to restore the heart, and that although 

 it might be made to restart respiration, by directing the current in 

 intermittent shocks through the chest, from the larynx to the dia- 

 phragm, yet that the muscular exhaustion it produced exhausted the 

 muscular force more quickly than the mere rest or natural death of 

 the muscle. Dr. Richardson at this point exhibited some newly-con- 

 structed apparatus which he had used in his researches. 



The idea of injecting fluids into the blood-vessels as a means of res- 

 toration was first thrown out in the seventeenth century. Recently 



