On Employment of Oxygen Gas in suspended Animation. 191 
Goodwin, published at London in 1788*, and I found that this 
author had tried the oxygen gas administered by inflation to ani- 
mals drowned on purpose, and that he had fully ascertained its 
efficacy. I repeated his experiments with success, and they 
added confidence to my own previous opinions. 
But the case of an animal drowned for the express purpose of 
an experiment, and which had been saved by the inflation of 
oxygen gas previously prepared at leisure, is very different from 
that of a man who has been drowned by an unforeseen accident. 
In the former case, every thing is arranged for the experiment, 
and the oxygen gas is ready beforehand; but if it be requisite 
to afford speedy assistance to a human being just taken out of 
the water, too much expedition cannot be used in preparing and 
administering the gas. It is the object of this short paper, there- 
fore, to exhibit the method which I have contrived for introdu- 
cing oxygen gas into the lungs instantaneously, and while they 
are yet warm. 
For this purpose I had recourse to Berthollet’s important dis- 
-covery of the hyperoxygenated muriate of potash, which, among 
other wonderful properties, possesses that of containing nearly a 
third of its weight of oxygen, which, when exposed to a moderate 
heat, is reduced to a state of gas; and upon this remarkable pro- 
perty my process is founded, 
If inflation, therefore, be the principal resouree in cases of sus- 
pended animation, if oxygen gas be preferable to atmospheric 
air, and if the apparatus which I am about to describe be proper 
for developing the oxygen gas in a very short time, and for intro- 
ducing it instantly into the lungs, I shall not have uselessly di- 
rected my humble talents to the welfare of society, 
Description of the Apparatus. 
In fig. 1. (Plate III.) is seen a cylinder of wood A, with lead 
at bottom to keep it steady. Into this is screwed the neck of 
the brass retort B. To the foot of this cylinder a spirit lamp is 
fixed, the flame from which embraces the belly of the retort. 
To the cylinder a flexible leather tube, ddd, is attached, which 
at the other extremity unites at F with the bellows E. These 
bellows terminate at G with a portion of a tube of elastic gum, 
which is furnished with a small brass plate to fit the human 
mouth. The bellows are provided at F with a valvet, and the - 
inflation of the gas is effected as follows : The cylinder A is placed 
on a small table by the side of the bed on which the patient re- 
*« The Conneetion of Life with Respiration; or, An experimental In- 
quiry into the Effect of Submersion,” 
t This valve might perhaps be attached as efficaciously to the usual aper- 
ture in the under side of al! bellows.—Eprrors. 
clines. 
