The discovery of the physiological method of inducing respiration in cases of apparent death from drowning, chloroform, still-birth, noxious gases, etc., etc. / by Henry R. Silvester.

  • Silvester, Henry R. (Henry Robert), 1829-1908.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The discovery of the physiological method of inducing respiration in cases of apparent death from drowning, chloroform, still-birth, noxious gases, etc., etc. / by Henry R. Silvester. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    “ Lateat scintillula forsan.’ A NEW METHOD OF RESTORING RESPIRA- TION TO PERSONS APPARENTLY DEAD FROM SUSPENDED BREATHING. The subject of this work is one of deep practical and physiological importance, and is of direct personal interest to every individual, since no one can claim for himself or his family security from the dangers against which this method proposes a remedy. In the following pages, I purpose to describe a new method of treating apncea, or suspended respiration, by inducing such movements of the thoracic parietes through the muscles of respiration, as shall cause the atmospheric air we breathe to be drawn into and again expelled from the lungs of the asphyxiated person—and without having recourse to the employment of any me- chanical apparatus. The process is of universal applica- tion ; it is easy of performance, entirely in harmony with that of Nature, and does not prevent nor interfere with the use of those means in which much confidence has hitherto been placed; such, for instance, as the use of the warm bath and other plans of restoring warmth and circulation. Apncea, or suspended respiration, may be the result of drowning, of still-birth, of suffocation, of strangling, of hanging, of garotting, of epilepsy, of apoplexy, of the undue or excessive employment of opium, of chloroform, of certain gases, etc. The methods usually resorted to for restoring persons affected by suspended respiration may be grouped under three divisions. The first division includes various plans for exciting the reflex function of the nervous system. The second provides for the maintenance of warmth and circulation. The third proposes means for supplying air to the lungs, either by mechanically forcing air into the chest, or by inducing such movements in the thoracic parietes, as shall induce fresh air to enter into the pectoral cavity alternately with the expulsion of the products of respiration.