144 on respiration; 



cally expresses it, when once the black blood, (that is the 

 blood which has absorbed no oxigen) has penetrated the 

 heart's tissue, it is dead to sympathy, as well as direct sti- 

 Sesuscitation. muli. Hence it may be inferred, that, in suspended ani- 

 mation from drowning or otherwise, till this fatal effect takes 

 place upon the heart, it is capable of sympathizing in the 

 excitement of the lungs by inflation: that is, it continues 

 susceptible of the impression or action of the oxigenated 

 blood. This knowledge ought to be a still more powerful 

 inducement with us, to persevere in our efforts to restore our 

 fellow beings when they have been by any means aeciden- 

 Oxigengasa tally suffocated: and perhaps one of the most powerful 

 lan^oAesus-" aux i uar i es we could malte use of for this purpose would be 

 citation- the judicious application of pure oxigen gas for the infla- 



tion of the lungs, which must evidently be more effectual 

 than common air, and might always be kept in readiness 

 over water in the usual places appropriated for containing 

 the proper resuscitative apparatus, and highly creditable to 

 the philanthropy of some of the inhabitants is it to say, 

 that in this town there are several. 



State of the Upon examining the lungs of the mice which died in oxi- 



sansmineous ,, . i 1 . 1 , i i •-* 



system in mice S' en ' their vascular substance appeared to be engorged with 



killed in oxi- dark red blood; and on observing the liver I found it to be 

 '^ a> much lighter coloured than usual, no doubt from deficiency 



of blood. It would naturally have been expected, that, 

 from the action of the oxigen gas on the blood in the lungs, 

 it would have appeared of a florid colour: but in conse- 

 quence of the great excitement, occasioned by the rapid ab- 

 sorption of this gas in respiration, to the lungs, intercostals, 

 and diaphragm, the mechanical action of the lungs must 

 have first ceased, and several rounds of circulation must af- 

 terward have gone on from the continued action of the 

 heart, which 1 have sometimes known to beat nearly an hour 

 after the discontinuance of the animal functions. 

 and of those In those which died in atmospheric air, nitrogen, hidro- 

 killed mother gen, and carbonic acid gasses, 1 invariably found the lungs 

 collapsed and empty, and the liver full of blood. The cir- 

 culation in these cases being more suddenly interrupted, 

 time enough was not allowed to fill the vessels of the lungs. 

 kx\ atmos- The effect of oxigen on animals placed in it appears to 



be 



