On Pneumatic Medicine. 257 
Had the operation been performed as advised in this:case, 
in all probability the patient would have recovered ; and it is 
only in the repeated fruitless attempts at reduction, and the 
consequent delay.of the operation, that so many valuable 
lives are lost to their families, to their friends, and to the 
community. , 
Joun TAUNTON. 
Greville-street, Hatton-garden, : 
December 22, 1806. 
XLI. Thirty-third Communication from Ry. THORNTON; 
relative to Pneumatic Medicine. 
Suspended Animation restored by Vital Air. 
Mk. B——, a tradesman in Duke-street, Manchester- 
square, from causes which I need not enter into, resolved 
upon self-destruction. He deliberately retired to a garrét in 
his house, and wrote down his causes of distraction, which 
he left upon the table. He sent the maid-servant down 
stairs, and leaped, as he thought, into eternity. . 
It being the top of the house, and Sunday, the rest of 
the family at church, his wife, child, and servant below 
stairs, no one heard his struggles, and he was full twenty 
minutes before the wife entered the apartment, saw her 
husband suspended, and to all appearance dead. He was 
cut down, and every assistance sent for in the neighbour- 
hood. When I arrived, all pulsation had ceased, and ani- 
mation appeared fled. In all cases of apparent death, time 
presses, and the urgency of the case demands all possible 
expedition. The grand question is, what is first to be done, 
and by what means? Then it may be right to premise, that 
I consider hanging and drowning as the same effect, but 
only produced by a different cause. Both may be thus de- 
fined, ** A stop put to the actions of life in the body, with- 
out any irreparable injury to any vital organ ; but itis requi- 
site to put the animated machinery into action in a given 
time, or the power of action will be irrecoverably lost.” 
Cullen, Boerhaave, Mr. White, &c. &c. have, on the con- 
Vol. 26. No. 103. Dec. 1806. R trary 
