ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION IN APOPLEXY. 379 



was arrested by compression of the brain through the injection 

 of tepid water under high pressure into the cranial cavity. 

 From these experiments it is evident tliat we may hope for the 

 best results from the use of artificial respiration in some of 

 those cases of apoplexy where an extravasation almost instantly 

 arrests the respiratory movements, either directly by destroying 

 a part of the medulla, or indirectly by causing compression of 

 the brain. It may be thought that there is a considerable 

 difference between the compression produced by the injection of 

 tepid water and that which is due to an extravasation of blood, 

 inasmuch as the water will be rapidly absorbed, while the blood 

 will not. To a great extent this is true, and we can hardly 

 expect very much good from artificial respiration in cases of 

 apoplexy where the clot is large and the affection of the respi- 

 ration is gradual. In those cases, however, where a small extra- 

 vasation only has taken place in or near the medulla, the respi- 

 ratory movements are abolished, just as in Schiffs experiments, 

 by what may be termed the shock, although the medulla could 

 carry on respiration well enough if time were given it to 

 recover from the immediate effects of the injury. The em- 

 ployment of artificial respiration for a few hours would give the 

 time required. 



In another class of cases — that of poisoning by wcorara, 

 hydrocyanic acid, &c. — artificial respiration is invaluable. In 

 his Travels* Waterton tells a melancholy story of a poor Indian 

 who, when shooting at a monkey sitting in a tree straight above 

 him, was wounded near the elbow by his own arrow as it fell 

 down. He immediately became convinced that it was all over 

 with him. " I shall never," said he to his companion in a 

 faltering voice, and looking at his bow as he said it, " I shall 

 never bend this bow again." Having said this, he took off the 

 little bamboo poison-box which hung across his shoulder, and 

 putting it, together with his bow and arrows, on the ground, he 

 laid himself down beside them, bade his companion farewell, 

 and never spoke again. 



It is not true, as some persons formerly supposed, that the 

 minutest quantity of woorara in the blood is sufficient to cause 



* Travels in South America, 1825, p. 71. 



