250 liesusckation from apparent death by droivning. 



Art. VI. — Resuscitation by Oxygen Gas, from apparent 

 death by drowning. 



Letter I. 



TO THE EDITOR. 



Cambridge, Md. March 31, 1829. 



.Dear Sir — At the close of my chemical amusements of 

 this winter, an accident occurred, which gave rise to an ex- 

 periment, whose result deserves, I think, to be classed among 

 the subjects of your invaluable Journal; it is one, upon the 

 efficacy of oxygen Gas, in an extreme case of Asphyxia. 



A favorite young beagle hound had fallen into a neigh- 

 bor's cellar, full of water, and was drowned ; how long he 

 lay there, (which is a prominent point in the case,) can be 

 only conjectured, from the following facts; he was heard 

 flouncing and yelping in the water ; and the family believ- 

 ing he was a mad dog, did not venture in, to his relief, until 

 their negro man returned from a ride of two miles, on which 

 he had been sent, shortly before the accident ; when they 

 supposed he had got out, as he had been long silent ; but on 

 searching, he found him lying dead under the water, and 

 dragged him out ; finding it was my dog, he informed my 

 servant, who obtained a wheel barrow, and brought him 

 home, and then went in quest of me ; when I arrived, with 

 some gentlemen, who accompanied me, to witness the ex- 

 periment, which I proposed, — we found the dog's body and 

 limbs, so cold, hard and inflexible, that, laking him by the 

 foot, he was turned over, as a block with four pegs attached 

 to it. 



Having at hand some jars of gases, and fortunately, one of 

 oxygen, which I had recently prepared for a similar experi- 

 ment, with smaller animals, to be placed under asphyxia, 

 from carbonic acid gas, but not having executed my design, 

 I filled a large bladder with the oxygen, not diluted with any 

 portion of nitrogen, because I wished to produce the great- 

 est possible excitement, in a case so desperate ; I attached 

 to the bladder, a small brass stop-cock, with a long beak, and 

 infused into his lungs, by a violent pressure of the bladder, a 

 copious dose of the gas; upon which, he instantly made a 

 convulsive and solitary yelp, to the full pitch of his usual and 



