358 Dr. Richardson on the possibility of [June 15, 



XIII. " An Inquiry into the possibility of restoring the life of Warm- 

 blooded Animals in certain cases where the Respiration, the Cir- 

 culation, and the ordinary manifestations of Organic Motion are 

 exhausted or have ceased." By BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON, 

 M.A., M.D. Communicated by Dr. SHARPEY. Received June 

 14, 1865. 



The present memoir presented to the Royal Society is preliminary ; it 

 does not profess to do more than to open the way to new work, and to show 

 the reasons why the restoration of action, in cases where life is suspended, 

 is at present so doubtful and difficult. 



In the course of my inquiries I have not confined myself to the mere 

 question of treatment as applied when there are still faint indications of 

 spontaneous animal action, or when such action has ceased only for the 

 moment. It is true that many of the experiments related in this Paper 

 have reference, incidentally, to treatment under the circumstances named ; 

 but I have had actually in view a much wider research. I have asked, 

 When an animal body that has undergone no structural injury (that is to 

 say, no destruction of organ or tissue) has ceased to exhibit those actions 

 which indicate what is commonly called life, why may it not be restored at 

 a period previous to the coagulation of the blood in its vessels, if not pre- 

 viously to the period when the new chemical changes, developed under the 

 form of putrefaction, are established ? 



To render the memoir concise, I have divided it into two parts. One of 

 these parts contains nothing more than the details of experiments, the ex- 

 periments being classified in groups according to the object for which they 

 were performed. It is my desire that this record should be preserved for 

 reference in the Archives of the Society. The other part, which is here 

 published, consists of an analysis of the experimental evidence, with the 

 conclusions to which I have been led by the evidence. 



ANALYSIS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE. 



In the experimental inquiry all the animals operated upon had been sub- 

 jected to such means for suspending their animation as produced the least 

 possible amount of change in the structure of organs. The animals were 

 all healthy while living. To suspend the spontaneous action which they 

 presented, and which marked their life, chloroform was employed in the 

 large majority of cases ; but in some instances carbonic acid was used, and 

 in others the process of drowning. 



The readiness with which chloroform can be employed, and the painless- 

 ness to the subject which is implied in its use, recommended this agent 

 specially at first. As the inquiry has proceeded I have seen no reason, so 

 far, to introduce any modification, inasmuch as the continuance of experi- 

 ment and repeated observation have simply tended to indicate that the pro- 

 cess called " death " is unity ; and that if animal action, brought to a stand 

 by chloroform, could be reproduced by any process, the same restorative 



