133 Galvanic Experiments 



A third, being taken sooner from the water, was saved ; 

 thouoh it had ah'eady experienced a convulsive cough, and 

 in all probability ■\\'ould have died without the assistance ot 

 the pile. This convulsive cough gave me reason to suspect 

 that a small quantity of A\ater had penetrated through the 

 larvnx and the trachea into the bronehiae and pulmonary 

 vesicles, which prevented inspiration and expiration, like 

 an organic defect, or as an obstacle to these functions, 

 while it causes the glottis also to remain shut in asphyxioe 

 of this kind *. It is for this reason that the application of 

 galvanism is in general ineffectual in such cases, if an arti- 

 ficial apertvire be not previously made in the trachea to admit 

 air, which, as a stimulant proper to the lunga, by exciting 

 a cough, may cause the small quantity of water lodged in 

 these cavities to be thrown up. If the animal be then gal- 

 vanized as above, it may be recalled to life with greater cer- 

 tainty, provided the excitability of the heart and lungs be 

 not absolutely destroved, as I have mentioned in the article 

 of Bronchotomy, in my Treatise of Chirurgical Operations. 



To satisfy myself on this point, 1 suffocated a fourth rab- 

 bit in the same medium, and, having examined the state of 

 the aerian passages, I discovered that the glottis was shut 

 by a spasmodic falling down of the epiglottis; the trachea 

 and the bronchiai were empty} but in the pulmonary vesi- 

 cles I found a small quantity of water, sufficient in this case 

 to oppose the return of the pnlntonary functions, unless an 

 artiiJcial passage be opened as already remarked : this quan- 

 tity of water was indeed so small that it would not have 

 been capable to produce any derangement in the above ve- 

 sicles, had the atmospheric air been at liberty to exercise an 

 action on the exterior surface of the breast. 



To assure mvself of these principles I sufibeated a fifth 

 rabbit, pre])arcd like the rest, inmiersing in the water the 

 head arid shoulders only. After straggling some thne, it 

 suddenly ceased to move; on which 1 galvanized it for ten 

 minutes ; when it recovered. 



It is my datv to state, that in the first the water had pe- 

 netrated the pulmonary vesicles ; and when this is the ease 

 it is needless to turn down the animal's head, as some have 

 proposed : in the last^ the small quantit); of water which 

 entered by incomplete inspiration had not gone beyond the 

 commencement of the bronchice. 



* I am not ignorant of what has been done by Troja and other phy- 



"■iciaos. 



IX, Rrpe^ 



