DROWNING. 



147 



Theories of 

 drowning. 



Oc Haen. 



Cullen. 



Drowning, more than three quarters of an hour under the surface 

 ~Y~~" of the water. Indeed very few have been saved who 

 had remaini'd nearly so long in this state. The Reports 

 of the Humane Society abundantly prove this. Three 

 quarters of an hour is the longest space mentioned in 

 which any person they have been so fortunate as to re- 

 store was ascertained to have been in the water. 



The phenomena of drowning have been accounted 

 for in different ways, and it is certainly of much con- 

 sequence that we should be able to discover the true 

 theory of it ; for on this will evidently depend our 

 knowledge of the means most proper to be used for the 

 recovery of the apparently drowned. If we knew what 

 change it is that, on being submersed, takes place, and 

 extinguishes altogether, or suspends the functions of 

 life, we should have no more to do than to counteract, 

 as far as in our power, the effects of this change ; and 

 if we could counteract them completely, we should then 

 recover the patient. 



De Haen, who wrote on this subject, ascribes the 

 death of drowned person-i to the repletion of the lungs 

 with water, by which, he says, the arteries of them are 

 compressed, and the circulation of the blood stopped. 

 This was, no doubt, a natural enough notion for a man 

 to form a priori. But it unfortunately happens, in 

 most subjects of this sort, that the most obvious or 

 likely cause, or that which generally first occurs to 

 the mind of a philosopher, is not the true one. Sub- 

 sequent experiments and observations have shewn, that 

 scarcely any water enters the lungs in drowning. 



Dr Cullen, in his " Letter to Lord Cathcart," attri- 

 butes the death of drowned persons to the loss of ani- 

 mal heat, in consequence of the stoppage of respiration ; 

 and says, that dissection shews, that no water in suf- 

 ficient quantity to hurt the system enters the lungs, or 

 even the stomach ; and no injury is done to the orga- 

 nization of those parts. 



Mr John Hunter, in the 66th volume of the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, conceives, that the loss of respi- 

 ration has an immediate effect in stopping the other 

 vital functions, particularly the motion of the heart : 

 and that if a sufficiency of life still remain, nothing 

 more is wanting than to restore the function of respira- 

 tion, for then the heart will act, and all other parts de- 

 pending so immediately upon it, will instantly move 

 along with it. He attempts to confirm this, by observ- 

 ing, that when a new born child has been allowed to 

 spend too much time after the cessation of those func- 

 tions peculiar to the foetus, and before the new function 

 of breathing has commenced, the disposition to the new 

 mode of life is thereby lost, and the child would cer- 

 tainly die if respiration were not artificially induced, 

 by the introduction of air into the lungs. He also 

 adapted a pair of double bellows to the trachea of a dog, 

 and thereby induced artificial breathing, which he could 

 stop or set agoing at pleasure. He found, that on stop- 

 ping the breathing, the heart stopped, and on recom- 

 mencing the breathing, the heart again moved. This 

 process was repeated, he says, ten times on the same 

 dog, and always with the same result. The intervals 

 betwixt the trials being five, eight, or ten minutes. 



Dr Fothergill supposes, that drowned animals are 

 killed by the stoppage of respiration, and the conse- 

 quent stagnation of a quantity of foul air in the lungs, 

 which soon thereby acquires a sedative and deleterious 

 power. This stagnant air, he thinks, destroys by de- 

 grees the remnant of irritability, and thus, though 

 hitherto unnoticed, probably gives the coup de grace. 



Mr K it, in his Euay on the Recovery of the apparent- 



Hunter. 



Fotbergill. 



ly Dead, attributes the immediate cause of de;ith in 

 drowned persons to an apoplectic state of the brain ; 

 for by the stoppage of respiration, the blood is prevent- 

 ed from readily circulating through the lungs, and 

 hence must accumulate in the venous system. But 

 according to DrMunro, four times as much blood passes 

 through the brain as through any other part of the 

 body equally extensive. Hence there is an accumula- 

 tion in the bi'ain more than in any other part. 



Dr Goodwyn, however, in his treatise, On the Con- 

 nection of Life with Respiration, has rendered it very 

 probable that no apoplectic state of the brain is induced 

 by drowning ; but that the immediate cause of death, 

 in such cases, is the want of a proper stimulus to the 

 heart and arteries. 



The blood, we know, is the stimulus which sets these 

 organs in motion. But blood is of two kinds, systemic 

 and pulmonic. The former of a florid red colour, the 

 latter dark and grumous. The florid red colour' is ac- 

 quired by passing through the lungs in respiration ; but 

 when this function is stopped, the lungs can no longer 

 impart the above quality to the blood. The heart, as 

 every one knows, consists of two divisions, a right and 

 a left ; and these contain each an auricle and a ven- 

 tricle. Now, the dark-coloured blood seems to be the 

 proper stimulus to the right side of the heart and 

 its vessels, and the florid blood to the left. But when 

 the blood ceases to be rendered florid by its passage 

 through the lungs during respiration, the left division 

 of the heart is deprived of its proper stimulus. It will 

 consequently stop. But when the heart stops its action, 

 the blood is no longer sent to the brain ; and its excite- 

 ment being withdrawn, death, or apparent death, will 

 ensue. In attempting, therefore, to recover any person 

 from apparent death, our object must be to restore the 

 motion of the heart. But this is to be accomplished by 

 restoring respiration, as thus the proper stimulus for 

 the left side of the heart will be prepared. 



We find, moreover, that a certain degree of heat is 

 necessary to every function of life. Consequently the 

 heat lost by immersion in cold water, or by any other 

 accident which produces apparent death, must be gra- 

 dually attempted to be restored along with the function 

 of respiration. 



To determine the changes that take place in living 

 animals while immersed in water, Dr Goodwyn drown- 

 ed, in a large transparent bell glass, several cats, dogs, 

 rabbits, and other smaller animals; and he describes 

 the phenomena of drowning in the following words : 

 " When an animal is immersed in water, his pulse be- 

 comes weak and frequent; he feels an anxiety about his 

 breast, and struggles to relieve it. In these struggles 

 he rises to the surface of the water, and throws out a 

 quantity of air from his lungs. After this his anxiety 

 increases; his pulse becomes weaker; the struggles are 

 renewed with more violence ; he rises toward the sur- 

 face again; throws out more air from his lungs, and 

 makes several efforts to inspire ; and in some of these 

 efforts, a quantity of water commonly passes into his 

 mouth : His skin then becomes blue, particularly about 

 the face and lips; his pulse gradually ceases; the sphinc- 

 tres are relaxed ; he falls down without sensation, and 

 without motion." 



On dissecting drowned animals immediately after 

 death, Dr Goodwyn observed the following appearances. 

 1 . The external surface of the brain was darker than 

 usual ; but there was no turgidity of the vessels, nor 

 any extravasation. 2. The cavity of the lungs con- 

 tained a considerable quantity of a frothy fluid, and the 



Goodirvn, 



Blood tlie 

 stimulus to 

 the heart. 



Heat neces- 

 sary to lite. 



Dr Good- 

 wyn's expe- 

 riments. 



ni<criion 

 f drowned 



