328 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



want of better to the secondary effects, I 

 strove to restore to the blood its aqueous 

 part, and, if possible, to re-establish the circula- 

 tion. 



With this view, I went to the Hopital de la 

 Chariti', provided with all the requisite instru- 

 ments. Choleraic patients were being brought 

 there every hour. The experiments being new, 

 venturesome, and dangerous, in the eyes of the 

 hospital directors, I was only suffered to ope- 

 rate on the moribund. The first patient, con- 

 sidered to be in a state sufficiently desperate 

 to be given up to me, was a woman, forty-five 

 years old. She was literally insensible, and 

 thoroughly cold. I hesitated for a moment to 

 try the operation under conditions so unrea- 

 sonable, so preposterous almost upon a corpse. 

 The radial arteries in the arm had ceased to 

 beat, and the heart alone kept up a feeble cir- 

 culation at the central parts. At length I 

 opened the vein, from which not a single drop of 

 blood proceeded, and taking the usual measures 

 to prevent the air from having access, I gra- 

 dually and slowly injected two ounces of alka- 

 line solution, the process of injection lasting 

 twelve minutes. It was scarcely over -before 



