V^OL. XXIV. No. 5.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
79 
rubber cup is provided with straps to Aisten it in 
place, or it may be retained in position by the 
hands. The cup for adults fits any adult face, (one 
is also made for children), and is made so nearly 
air-tight by slight pressure that the slight leakage 
tloes not interfere with perfect filling of the lungs. 
The brass tube contains two valves, which controfl 
automatically the inhaled and exhaled air, cflfecting 
the proper discharge of the latter, and securing a 
constant supply of air that is fresh for the former. 
The bellows has an adjustment by means of which 
the volume of air forced at each stroke may be regu- 
lated at the outset for each patient, in accordance 
with the capacity of his lungs. The instrument 
once in place, all that is required of the operator is 
to work the bellows at the desired rate of speed, the 
respirator automatically doing the rest. When 
necessary, one person alone may successfully oper- 
ate it. The instrument forces air into the lungs, 
whence, as soon as pressure on the bellows is 
discontinued, it is expired, as in natural respiration, 
by the resiliency of the chest walls, lungs, and dia- 
phragm. As in the natural process, expiration is — 
if so contradictory a phrase be permissible — a pas- 
.>-ive act. 
The respirator is applicable, so the inventor 
claims, in all cases in which artificial respiration is 
indicated. As yet, he has had opportunity to test 
it in but three cases- — all of them of opium narcosis. 
In these it exceeded his expectations, as also those 
of the physicians present who saw it used. The 
first case was that of a man, aged 30, who had taken 
seven or eight grains of morphine with suicidal 
intent. Three hours afterwards, the narcosis was 
-^o deep that be could not be aroused. Respiration, 
one, or less, per minute; pulse, 140; pupils con- 
tracted to pin-points. Sulphate of atropia, 1-60 gr., 
and soon after 1-20 gr., was given hypodermically. 
Five and a half hours after the morphine was 
taken. Dr. Vanderburg arrived with his instrument. 
Pulse, 138 and weak ; respiration, one; pupils partly 
dilated; skin moist and clammy; deep cyanosis. 
The respirator was applied, and respirations forced 
at the rate of twelve to fifteen per minute. For an 
hour there was no perceptible change, but at the 
expiration of that time, the extreme urgency of the 
symptoms began to abate. At the end of three 
hours, the improvement was so decided that Dr. 
Vanderburg went home, leaving the case, however, 
in charge of a physician. The respirations were 
now thirteen, deep and regular; pulse, 120. The 
patient was thought to be getting sufficient air, and 
forced respiration was discontinued, nor was it 
necessary again to resort to it. The case terminated 
in recovery. No lung trouble supervened. Con- 
siderable air was forced into the stomach and 
bowels, but this soon disappeared without produc- 
ing bad effects. The only untoward sequel 1 vias a 
partial deafness in one ear, which lasted ten days, 
attributed to the action of the air in the Eustachian 
tube or to a possible rupture of the tympanum. 
No examination of the latter was made. 
The second case — the worst of the three — was 
that of a child 20 months old, who had swallowed 
one and a quarter grains of morphine. The narcosis 
ensuing became so profound and persisted so long, 
that family physician, friends, and even parents 
gave up all hope, and at length protested against 
further "torture of the child" by continuing the 
use of the respirator. Permission was reluctantly 
• accorded, however, to go on with its use for a 
" short time." Fortunately, a very slight but per- 
ceptible change for the better occurred before the 
parents again interfered. Furthur improvement 
was not long delayed, and, in brief, the child w.l^ 
saved. 
The third case — the least urgent of the three — 
also terminated favorably. 
The use of the instrument need in no wise inter- 
fere with any efforts on the part of the patient to 
inflate his own lungs. On the contrary, such 
efforts may be greatly assisted, while, between these, 
one or more artificial respirations may be interpo- 
lated. The author thinks that all vessels, bathing 
resorts, life-saving stations, etc., should be supplied 
with some device of the kind. An instrument of 
small size is specially recommended for resuscitating 
asphyxiated newly-born babes. 
The question having been raised whether any- 
thing as powerful as a bellows may be used to effect 
artificial respiration without rupturing the lung 
tissue. Dr. Vanderburg replies that Dr. Fell's cases 
have forever set this question at rest. If a bellows 
can be Used for nearly twenty-four hours, forcing 
respiration through a fresh opening in the trachea, 
which must allow more or less blood to get into the 
lungs, and all without occasioning undesirable lung 
complications, the danger cannot be very great. 
Furthermore, repeated experiments on a common 
fowl have convinced him that force enough cannot 
be brought to bear by means of a bellows to rupture 
the lungs. The great elasticity of lung tissue 
should be borne in mind. W. 
I Specially Compiled for PopitUzr Science yews. I 
MONTHLY SUMMARY OF MEDICAL 
PROGRESS. 
BY C. E. WASHBURNE, M. D. 
Dr. Lavista related the following case at a recent 
meeting of the National Academy of Mexico {Medi- 
cina Practica) : A man about 35 years of age, 
while riding on horseback, received a stab in the 
abdomen. The knife penetrated the bladder, and, 
through the rearing of his horse, was broken over 
the pubic bone, one of the pieces — ninety-three mil- 
limetres long — falling into the bladder, where it 
remained two years and a half. The wound gradu- 
ally closed, but the fragment of^the blade within the 
bladder set up a severe cystitis. From the time of 
the injury the patient was never able to stand quite 
erect — always bending the body slightly forward. 
The pain was so incessant that he could scarcely 
sleep, and he became greatly emaciated. Calculus 
having been diagnosed, lithotrity was attempted, 
but it was found impossible to crush the stone. 
Exploration was then made through an opening in 
the perineum, when the broken blade was dis- 
covered, placed like a bridge between the anterior 
and posterior walls of the bladder, directed down- 
wards and backwards, with the edge undermost. 
It had become so immovably fixed in this position 
that it could not be removed through the perinieum. 
Supra-pubic cystotomy was then resorted to. The 
incision first made — ten centimetres in length — 
proved insufficient, and had to be enlarged. The 
trespassing knife-blade was at length removed, and 
also the pieces of a large stone. This had been of 
such size as to distend the bladder, and prevent the 
point of the knife from penetrating the posterior 
wall. The walls of the bladder were ulcerated and 
covered with vegetations. After scraping the mu- 
cous membrane, the opening into the bladder was 
accurately sutured, drainage being provided for both 
above and below the pubes. " Healing was almost 
immediate, no untoward circumstance occurred, and 
the course of the case has been of the happiest." 
"One hardly knows," adds the London Medical 
Recorder, "which most to admire in this most 
extraordinary case — the skill of the surgeon, or the 
phenomenal endurance of the patient." 
mie de Medecine {Journal de Medecine) a case of 
trephining for cerebral haimorrhage, together with 
statistics of thirty such cases, all of which were 
non-traumatic in their origin. There had been no 
deaths and no untoward occurrences. The new 
case was that of a man, aged 53, who had had an 
attack of cerebral h;cmorrhage twenty months 
before. Right hemiplegia ensued, together with 
late contracture of the hand and epileptic seizures. 
The focus of disturbance in the brain was localized 
at the middle part of the precentral convolution. 
Craniometrical measurements were made, in accord- 
ance with the results of which trephining was per- 
formed. The remains of an old cerebral hiemor- 
rhage were found and removed. Antiseptic precau- 
tions were duly observed, and drainage was provided 
for. Time of operation, one hour and a quarter. 
The next day the contracture of the hand had 
ceased, and the hemiplegia showed marked im- 
provement. Speech was more distinct, and the 
patient also showed greater intelligence. During 
four months he has had no return of the convul- 
sions, from which, previous to the operation, he had 
suffered at least as often as once in two weeks. 
Dr. Charles McBurney, of New York City, 
with the aid of Dr. William Allan Starr, the neu- 
rologist, of the same city, recently secured an 
excellent result in a case of intra-cranial surgery. 
The patient, himself a physician, — Dr. Clark, of 
Rochester, N. Y., — received an injury of the liead, 
through accident, last summer, which was followed 
by aphasia and by paralysis of the right side of the 
body. The paralysis was, after a time, partially 
recovered from, but, the aphasia continuing, he was 
brought to the Roosevelt Hospital, New York City, 
for treatment. The seat of the brain lesion having 
been located, — and correctly, as the sequel proved, 
— trephining was performed, and disclosed the 
presence of a clot, the removal of which resulted in 
complete relief of the paralysis, and in partial 
relief of the aphasia. Complete relief of the latter, 
also, the physicians confidently believe, will be the 
ultimate result of the operation. 
Mr. M'Gill, of Leeds, reports (Lancet) a case of 
ununited fracture of the radius, in which he scraped 
the ends of bone, and filled the space left between — 
about three-fourths of an inch — with small bits of 
bone from a young rabbit. Immediate union re- 
sulted. The patient was shown before the British 
Medical Association five months after the operation, 
"when the injured arm was as useful as the other." 
Championnikre recently reported to the Acade- 
BUTTER.MILK AS A DiURETIC IN ClIRONIC BrIGHT's 
Disease. — Dr. Henry D. White, of Nutley, N. J., 
says (New York Medical Journal) that in treating 
chronic Bright's disease, where the urine is scanty 
and high-colored, it is often very difficult to find a 
diuretic that will act satisfactorily, for any length of 
time. A patient of his, 55 years old, weighing 350 
pounds, the mother of eleven children, has had 
Bright's disease five years. When he first saw her, 
about ten months ago, she vras suffering from 
dyspnoea, constipation, excessive oedema of the legs, 
with small superficial ulcers, which caused intense 
pain. The urine was very small in quantity and of 
high color. Diuretics, laxatives, etc., were pre- 
scribed, with temporary relief; but nothing could 
be found in the way of a diuretic which did not 
speedily lose its efficacy. Treatment was continued, 
with little satisfaction to either patient or physician, 
for about four months, when, one day, the sufferer 
casually expressed a desire for some buttermilk. 
The doctor offered no objection, and the patient, 
in following the "indication" afforded by her own 
