370 On restoring the Life of Warm-blooded Animals, fyc. [June 15, 



THIRD SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS. Application of External Heat. 



The last series of experiments were conducted to ascertain the effects of 

 external heat applied to the hody that has ceased to show evidence of life. I 

 was led to the inquiry hy the fact that a kitten that had heen under water, 

 to my direct knowledge, for two hours, became reanimated in my pocket, and 

 lived again perfectly. To see what further could be done in this direction, 

 I placed three young rabbits, which had been drowned, in a sand-bath at 

 temperatures respectively of 100-110 and 120. Afterwards other rab- 

 bits that were destroyed by carbonic acid and chloroform were placed in 

 the same manner and exposed to the raised temperature for an hour. In 

 no case was there any restoration of vitality ; but it was observed that those 

 parts of the body that had been more directly exposed to the heat showed 

 the earliest indications of cadaveric rigidity. In the experiments where 

 the death took place from chloroform, and where the animals had been 

 exposed to a temperature of 100, the heart at the end of an hour was 

 found still excitable, and on the right side was contracting well without the 

 application of stimulus. This did not occur in the cases of death from 

 drowning and carbonic acid, nor yet in cases where the warmth was carried 

 above the natural temperature. These observations are of moment as in- 

 dicating two facts, viz., that chloroform is less fatal as a destroyer of mus- 

 cular irritability than either carbonic acid or the process of drowning ; and 

 that in the application of temperature to the external surface of the body 

 by the bath, it is not advisable to raise the temperature many degrees above 

 the natural standard. 



It is worthy of remark that in one of the rabbits which had been de- 

 stroyed by chloroform and exposed to a temperature of 100, the muscular 

 irritability in the intercostal muscles was present thirteen hours after death. 

 In all the cases the right side of the heart was found free of engorgement, 

 while the left side and the arteries contained blood thus indicating that a 

 pulmonic current had been produced. 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND INDICATIONS. 



I have already shown that artificial respiration is of service only when 

 blood from the heart is being still distributed over the capillary surface of 

 the lungs or, to return to the simile with which I set out, that the process 

 is simply one of fanning an expiring flame, which once expired will not, in 

 spite of any amount of fanning, relight. The further conclusion to which 

 I am at this moment led, goes, however, beyond the process of artificial 

 respiration ; returning again to the simile, I venture to report that, even 



same rate as the stroke of the heart of the animal previously to its death. The result was, 

 that one hour and five minutes after the complete death of the animal, its heart, perfectly 

 still, cold, and partly rigid, relaxed, and exhibited for twenty minutes active muscular 

 motion, auricular and ventricular. The action, which continued for a short time after 

 the rhythmic injection was withheld, was renewed several times hy simply reestablishing 

 the injection. 



