for a lengthened Period. 243 



fectly made. In cases of drowning, also, a diver may find his 

 powers of giving aid wonderfully increased by taking ad- 

 vantage of Sir Graves Haughton's fact. 



I have myself had occasion to go more than once or twice 

 into places with atmospheres rendered bad by carbonic acid, 

 sulphuretted hydrogen or combustion; and I feel how much 

 I should have valued at such times the knowledge of the fact 

 above stated. Hoping, therefore, that it may be useful, I will 

 add one or two precautions to be borne in mind by those who 

 desire to apply it. 



Avoid all unnecessary action ; for activity exhausts the air 

 in the lungs of its vital principle more quickly, and charges 

 it with bad matter. Go collectedly, coolly and quietly to the 

 spot where help is required : do no more than is needful, leav- 

 ing what can be done by those who are in a safe atmosphere 

 (as the hauling up of a senseless body, for example,) for them 

 to do. 



Take the precautions usual in cases of danger in addition 

 to the one now recommended. Thus, in a case of choke-damp, 

 as in a brewer's vat, hold the head as high as may be; in a 

 case of fire in a room, keep it as low down as possible. 



If a rope is at hand, by all means let it be fastened to the 

 person who is giving help, that he may be succoured if he 

 should venture too far. It is astonishing how many deaths 

 happen in succession in cesspool^ and similar cases, for want 

 of this precaution. 



It is hardly needful to say, do not try to breathe the air of 

 the place where help is required. Yet many persons fall in 

 consequence of forgetting this precaution. If the temptation 

 to breathe be at all given way to, the necessity increases, and 

 the helper himself is greatly endangered. Resist the ten- 

 dency and retreat in time. 



Be careful to commence giving aid with the lungs full of 

 air, not empty. It may seem folly to urge this precaution, but 

 I have found so many persons who, on trying the experiment 

 on which the whole is based, have concluded the preparation 

 by closing the mouth and nostrils after an expiration, that I 

 am sure the precaution requires to be borne in mind. 



I have thought it quite needless to refer to the manner in 

 which the preparation enables a person to increase so consi- 

 derably the time during which he may suspend the operation 

 of breathing. It consists, of course, chiefly in laying up for 

 the time, in the cells of the lungs, a store of that vital prin- 

 ciple which is so essential to life. Those who are not aware 

 of the state of the air in the lungs during ordinary respiration, 

 and its great difference from that of the atmosphere, may obtain 



2 I 2 



