DROWNING. 



Natural order of Gruinales. Capparides, 

 Jussieu. Essential character : calyx five- 

 cleft; petals five; capsule one-celled, 

 five or three valved at the tip; seeds 

 very many. There are nine species. 

 These are herbs of a small size, and 

 singular structure. The leaves in most 

 of the species, near the root, -are fur- 

 nished with glandulous hairs on the up- 

 per surface, and fringed round the edge ; 

 these hairs have each a small globule of a 

 pellucid liquor like dew, continuing even 

 in the hottest part of the day, and in the 

 fullest exposure to the sun. Hence their 

 English name of sundew. D. acaulis is 

 singular for having a sessile flower in the 

 bosom of the root leaves. These plants 

 have the property of entrapping small in- 

 sects within their folded leaves. It was 

 discovered by Mr. Whately, a surgeon. 

 On inspecting some of the contracted 

 leaves, he observed a fly in close impri- 

 sonment; and on centrically pressing other 

 leaves, yet in their expanded form, with 

 a pin, he observed a sudden elastic spring 

 of them, so as to become inverted up- 

 wards, and as it were encircling the pin. 

 The American species are 3. D. rotundi- 

 folia, D. Americana, and D. Tenuifolia. 



DROWNING, signifies the extinction 

 of life, by a total immersion in water. In 

 some respects there seems to be a great 

 similarity between the death occasioned 

 by immersion in water, and that by stran- 

 gulation, suffocation by fixed air, apo- 

 plexies, epilepsies, sudden fainting, vio- 

 lent shocks of electricity, or even violent 

 falls and bruises. Physicians, however, are 

 not agreed with regard to the nature of 

 the injury done to the animal system in 

 any or all of these accidents. It is, in- 

 deed, certain, that > in all the cases 

 above mentioned,' particularly in drown- 

 ing, there is very often such a suspen- 

 sion of the vital powers, as to us nath 

 the appearance of a total extinction of 

 them ; while yet they may be again 

 set in motion, and the person restored 

 to life, after a much longer submersion 

 than hath been generally thought capa- 

 ble of producing absolute death. It 

 were to be wished, however, that, as it 

 is now universally allowed that drown- 

 ing is only a suspension of the action 

 of the vital powers, physicians could as 

 unanimously determine the means by 

 which these powers are supended ; be- 

 cause on a knowledge of these means 

 the methods to be used for recovering 

 persons apparently drowned must cer- 

 tainly depend. We shall, in this place, 

 give some directions on the subject, 



which have been recommended on re- 

 spectable authority, and have been sanc- 

 tioned by long experience. 



Mr. Hunter observes, that when as- 

 sistance is soon called after immersion, 

 blowing air into the lungs will, in some 

 cases, effect a recovery; but when any 

 considerable time has Seen lost, he ad- 

 vises stimulant medicines, such as the 

 vapour of volatile alkali, to be mixed 

 with the air ; which may easily be done, 

 by holding spirits of hartshorn in a cup 

 under the receiver of the bellows. And 

 as applications of this kind to the olfac- 

 tory nerves tend greatly to rouze the 

 living principle, and put the muscles of 

 respiration into action, it may probably, 

 therefore, be most proper to have air 

 impregnated in that manner thrown in 

 by the nose. To prevent the stomach 

 and intestines frora being too much dis- 

 tended by the air so injected, the larynx 

 is directed to be gently pressed against 

 the oesophagus and spine. While this 

 business is going on, an assistant should 

 prepare bed clothes, carefully brought 

 to a proper degree of heat Heat our 

 author considers as congenial with the 

 living principle ; increasing the necessi- 

 ty of action, it increases action; cold, 

 on the other hand, lessens the necessi- 

 ty, and, of course, the action is dimin- 

 ished : to a due degree of heat, there- 

 fore, the living principle, he thinks, owes 

 its vigour. From experiments, he savs, 

 it appears to be a law in animal bodies, 

 that the degree of heat should bear a 

 proportion to the quantity of life ; as 

 life is weakened, this proportion re- 

 quires great accuracy, while greater 

 powers of life allow it greater latitudes. 

 After these and several other observa- 

 tions on the same subject, our author 

 proceeds to more particular directions 

 for the management of drowned people. 

 If bed clothes are put over the person, 

 so as scarce to touch him, steams of 

 volatile alkali, or of warm balsams, may 

 be thrown in, so as to come in contact 

 with many parts of the body. And it 

 might probably be advantageous, Mr. 

 Hunter observes, to have steams of the 

 same kind conveyed into the stomach. 

 This, we are told, may be done by a hol- 

 low bougie and a syringe : but the opera- 

 tion should be very speedily performed, 

 as the instrument, by continuing long in 

 the mouth, might produce sickness, 

 which our author says he would always 

 wish to avoid. Some of the warm stimu- 

 lating substances, such as juice of horse- 

 radish, peppermint water, and spirits of 



