CHAPTER XXXII 

 FIRST AID AND HYGIENE IN RELATION TO BREATHING 



200. Air needed continuously. We can go without eating 

 for days or even for weeks. Water has to be taken into 

 the body more frequently. But we cannot go without breath- 

 ing for more than two or three minutes or, at most, four or 

 five minutes. 



201. Suffocation and drowning. When, for any reason, the 

 gas exchange in the lining of the air chambers in the lungs 

 is stopped for several minutes, suffocation takes place, and 

 death may result. Suffocation may be due to the replacement 

 of air by some other gas, or it may be due to the exclusion 

 of air. 1 The replacement of the air in the lungs by water 

 is called drowning. 



Suffocation and drowning are commonly fatal, but in very 

 many cases life may be saved by prompt and persistent action. 

 It is necessary (i) to empty the lungs of the water or foreign 

 gas and (2) to reestablish the breathing movements. 



When a person has been drowned, the first thing to do is to 

 place the body, face down, in a position that will cause the water 

 to pour out of the lungs. A child may be lifted up by the feet. 



Breathing movements should be begun at once. In the 

 Schaefer method of artificial respiration the victim is laid face 

 down, with the arms stretched forward beyond the head ; the 

 head is turned to one side and supported on a cloth, to leave the 

 nostrils and mouth unobstructed. The operator kneels, strad- 

 dling the subject's thighs and facing his head, and with the 



1 Breathing may also be stopped by a severe electric shock, which acts on 

 a group of nerves that control the breathing movements. The treatment 

 should be the same, whatever the cause of the suffocation. 



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