DROWNING. 
L 33 
flannel) may be lightly moved up and down 
the back. Fomentations of hot brandy are 
~to be applied to the pit of the stomach, loins, 
&rc. and often renewed. Bottles tilled with 
hot water, heated tiles covered with flannel, 
■or hot bricks, may be efficaciously applied to 
the soles of the feet, palms of the 'hands, and 
other parts ot the body, The temples- may 
be nibbed with spirits of hartshorn, and the 
nostrils now and then tickled with a feather; 
and snutf, or eau de luce, should be occasion- 
ally applied. 
S. Tobacco-fumes should be thrown up 
the fundament; ifafumigator is not at hand, 
a common pipe may answer the purpose. 
r l he operation should be frequently per- 
formed, as it is of importance ; for the good 
•effects of this process have been experienced 
in a variety of instances ‘of suspended ani- 
mation. But should the application of to- 
bacco-smoke in this way not be immediately 
convenient, or other impediments arise, clys- 
ters of this herb, or other acrid infusions 
with salt, &:c. may be thrown up with advan- 
tage. 
9. \Y hen these means have been employed 
n considerable time without success, and a 
brewhouse or warm bath can be readily ob- 
tained, the body should lie carefully conveyed 
to such a place, and remain in the bath, or 
surrounded with warm grains, for three or 
four hours. If a child has been drowned, its 
body should be wiped perfectly dry, and im- 
mediately placed in bed between two healthy 
persons. The salutary effects of the natural 
vital warmth, conveyed in this manner, have 
been proved in a variety of successful cases. 
10. Y\ hile the various methods of treatment 
are employed, the body is to be shaken every 
-ten minutes in order to render the process of 
animation more successful; and children in 
particular, are to be much agitated, by taking 
hold of their legs and arms frequently and for 
js. continuance of time. In various instances 
agitation lias forwarded the recovery of boys 
who have been drowned, and continued for a 
--considerable time apparently dead. 
11. It there are any signs of returning life, 
such as sighing, gasping, or convulsive mo- 
tions, a spoonful of any warm liquid may be 
given ; and if the act of swallowing can lie 
performed, a cordial of warm brandy or 
v ine may be given in small quantities and 
frequent 1 y r epeat ecL 
12. Electricity may be tried by the judi- 
cious and skilful, as its application neither 
prevents nor retards tiie various modes of re- 
covery already recommended ; but, on the 
'Other hand, will most probably tend to ren- 
der the other means employed more certainly 
and more expeditiously efficacious. 'I his 
^stimulus promises to prove an important aux- 
iliary in cases of apparent death, and there- 
fore deserves the serious regard and attention 
of the faculty. 
The methods which have been described, 
3"e to be employed with vigour for three 
hours or upwards, although no favourable 
circumstances should arise ; for it is a vulgar 
and dangerous error to suppose that persons 
are irrecoverable because life does not soon 
-make its appearance ; an opinion that has con- 
signed to the grave an immense number of 
the seemingly dead, who might have been 
restored to life by resolution and persever- 
ance. Bleeding is never to be employed in 
•such cases, unless by direction of one of the 
medical assistants, or some other gentleman 
of the faculty w ho has paid attention to the 
resuscitating’ art. 
We shall now describe the apparatus made 
use of in recovering bodies from the water, 
and in restoring suspended animation. 
Plate Miscel. fig. 44, is a forked instrument 
with blunt points for making superficial search 
after the drowned body, sounding the par- 
ticular situation in which it sunk. 
Fig. 45, a ladder with a long jointed 
handle. 
Fig. 46, an extractor, or a linked pair of 
tongs, which in the plate appears closed ; but 
on immersing it into water, opens by its own 
weight, as well as by the sliding down of the 
iron ring o from the part marked x to that of 
u. It may again be closed by pulling the 
double rope fastened to tire ring o T which is 
thus shifted upward from u to x: by means 
of expanding the iron arms n n, which are 
likewise connected with this ring, the mouth 
or flaps of the instrument rr may be shut ; 
and to prevent their opening till required, 
tiie two ropes are firmly tied round the iron 
bolt ss, in which situation they remain till 
the’ body is extracted. Great attention is re- 
quired in preserving them from the effects of 
rust; and, independantly of the weight of iron- 
work, it is perhaps the most complete 
piece of machinery that can be contrived for 
this purpose. 
Fig. 47, a pair of bellows with two separate 
bags, so contrived that by opening them when 
applied to the nostrils or mouth of a patient, 
one bag will be filled with common air, and 
the other with the air extracted from the lungs; 
and by shutting them again, pure atmosphe- 
ric air will be introduced into these organs, 
and that drawn out consequently discharged 
into tiie room. Thus the artificial breathing 
may be continued, while tiie other operations 
on the surface of the body are carried on: 
which could not be conveniently done if the 
muzzle of a common pair of bellows were 
introduced into tiie nostril. 
a, Is an intermediate board, but which ad- 
mits of no communication between the two 
bags. In tiie external board of each side, 
there is tiie usual hole, marked b, provided 
with a valve ; and the cylindrical part through 
which the air is expelled in common bellows, 
is here soldered to a copper box, within which 
two other valves are applied to the tubescon- 
ducting the air. The cover d of this box, 
may be unscrewed by means of an inter- 
posed leather ring, almost of the shape of a 
funnel, to the neck of which is fastened a 
flexible tube, e, made of varnished silk cloth, 
and a spiral wire that forms the cavity. To 
the extremity of this tube is attached a small 
ivory pipeT the front of which may either be 
tubular and round, for introducing it into the 
nostril, or flat, like tiie top-piece- of a clario- 
net, if it is intended for the mouth. The 
valves (which cannot be represented in a 
plate) consist of stiffened taffety, and are so 
arranged, that the corresponding ones 
stand in an inverted order. If therefore 
both bags of the bellows are expanded, two of 
the valves open themselves towards the inter-" 
nal part of the machine: one of these is 
fixed to one of the side boards, but the other 
is within the box, on the mouth of the con- 
ducting tube belonging to the opposite bag of 
the bellows. By this contrivance, the air 
enters both bags of the bellows at the same 
time, and is, on compression, again expelled 
by means of two other valves, which open 
from within towards the external parts. 
Both bags of tiie bellows terminate below the 
valve in one principal lube of communica- 
tion ; because, though the action of both 
bellows is simultaneous, the stream of air 
conformably to the arrangement before point 
ed out, can only enter and escape alternately. 
In using this machine, the small ivory pipe ’is 
applied either to one of the nostrils, or put 
into the mouth : in the former case, the other 
nostril and the mouth must be closed ; in the 
latter, both nostrils. \Y lieu the bellows are set 
in action, one ot the bags receives a column of 
atmospheric air through its valve, while the 
other, by means ofits flexible tube and its valve, 
extracts a portion of air from the lungs. But if 
the bellows are again shut, one of the bags 
parts with the impure gas drawn out of the 
pulmonary vessels, and the second convev s 
pure atmospheric air to the organs of respi- 
ration. By properly repeating this alternate 
process, the patient may again be enabled to 
exercise the important function of breathing. 
As, however, a precipitate and irregular me- 
thod of proceeding might be productive of 
injury, this delicate operation ought to be 
performed by persons who are acquainted 
with the mechanism of respiration, in some 
cases, where the patient has, for a consider- 
able time, lain under water, or was afterwards 
neglected for wan tot due assistance, it would be 
desirable to introduce into his lungs oxygen, 
or pure vital dephlogisticated air, instead of 
that ot tiie common atmosphere ; as the lat- 
ter is generally more or less corrupted on 
sucli occasions by the breath of many per- 
sons in the same room. For this purpose 
may be used a bladder, marked g, which is 
provided with a cock and pipe fitted or screw-: 
ed to the board of the inspiring valve and 
bag of the bellows. If, therefore, after open- 
ing the cock, the machine is set in motion, it 
will extract the pure air contained in tiie 
bladder, and, on the subsequent compression 
of the bellows, force it into the lungs of the 
patient. 
Fig. 48, is a machine for injecting the smoke 
of tobacco by way of clyster, in those despeJ 
rate cases which require tiie application of 
this remedy. It consists of a pair of bellows,! 
to the muzzle of which is fitted a metal box, aJ 
provided with a ring, in the middle of which] 
it may be unscrewed, and again closed, after 
being filled with tobacco, and set on fire;] 
the pipec of the flexible tube b, is introducer! 
into the fundament ; and thus by means of 
the bellows d, the smoke is forced into the] 
rectum. To these may be added, 
A bier of wicker-work, in the form of a 
slanting oblong basket, for conveying the body! 
of the drowned, in a posture somewhat raised. j 
r I his simple contrivance has the advantage,] 
that the water may easily run off, while the 
patient is carried : and as many unfortunate] 
persons are materially injured by rough treat-] 
ment, before they arrive at a house of recep-J 
lion, so that their recovery is -thus often frus- j 
tratcd,we recommend the universal adoption] 
of this useful implement. 
The Royal Humane Society of London ' 
have, for a series of years, offered premiums 1 
for machines and other inventions to save : 
mariners and other persons from drowning 
in cases of shipwreck, or other accidents at i 
sea. The life-beat of Mr. Greathead has been 
2 
