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



should be at a temperature above 60 ; air below that temperature should 

 never be used. 



4. All violent attempts to introduce large quantities of air are injurious ; 

 for whenever the pressure of the blood from the right side of the heart is 

 reduced, the danger of rupturing the air-vesicles by pressure of air is in- 

 creased. In a word, the practitioner should remember that he is doing the 

 same act, virtually, in artificial respiration, as he is when attempting to 

 relight an expiring taper. Any violence will only disarrange the mechanism, 

 and turn the last chance of success into certain failure. 



5. So long as care be taken to sustain a gentle action of respiration, it 

 signifies little, in my opinion, what means be employed. I have found a 

 double-acting bellows, described in the experimental part of this paper, 

 answer every purpose fairly. If any philosophical-instrument maker could 

 invent a good and portable electro-magnetic machine with my metronome 

 principle applied to it, so that from fifteen to twenty shocks per minute 

 could be passed from the larynx to the diaphragm directly, the most per- 

 fect attainable artificial respiration would be secured so long as any mus- 

 cular irritability remained ; and I should suggest the value of such an in- 

 strument in cases where it could be brought into operation immediately 

 after natural respiration has ceased. In combination with air heated from 

 120 to 140 for inhalation, every possible advantage that could accrue 

 from artificial respiration, or rather from respiration artificially excited, 

 would be secured, the persistence of muscular irritability being at the same 

 time a sure index that the effort should not cease. 



Note on Receiving-houses for the Drowned. 



The observations I have made in respect to the influence of heated air 

 lead me to suggest that, in all receiving-houses for those who are apparently 

 dead, a room should be set apart the air of which should be at 140 in 

 summer, and 130 in winter. If bodies taken out of the water showed any 

 indications of breathing, it would be sufficient, in my opinion, to place 

 them in such an atmosphere, simply providing by the position of the body 

 for the escape of water from the lungs. There would be under such con- 

 ditions quick evaporation of water adhering to the bronchial surface, while 

 the warm air would quicken the respiration, encourage the action of the 

 heart, and prevent radiation of heat from the body. If artificial respira- 

 tion were considered necessary, its performance in such an atmosphere would 

 render the possibility of recovery far greater than if a low temperature and 

 a moist state of atmosphere prevailed. 



SECOND SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS. Artificial Circulation. 

 In the second series of experiments an attempt was made by various 

 physical means to restore the circulation ; these attempts may be called 

 attempts at artificial circulation. Various processes were adopted. In 

 one class of inquiry oxygen was gently infused into the circulation, either 

 in the form of gas, or in solution as peroxide of hydrogen, in order to see 



