Dr. Underwood's treatise on the diseases of children : with directions for the management of infants.

Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Underwood's treatise on the diseases of children : with directions for the management of infants. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and carefully wiped; and some cold water may be forcibly dashed on the face and chest, by which we stimulate the external re- spiratory nerves—for what the par vagum is, as the medium of excitement of the respiration in ordinary circumstances, the fifth pair to the lateral spinal nerves, are at other times. Should these means not excite sobbing, or some indication of commencing respiration, the infant may be laid on the practitioner’s left hand, and slapped suddenly on the breech with his right. If these attemps to excite respiration fail, in- spiration is to be imitated by artificially distending the lungs. 1. To effect this the practitioner’s lips are to be applied to those of the infant, interposing a fold of linen, and he is to propel the air from his own chest, slowly and gradually into that of the infant, closing its nostrils, and gently pressing the trachea upon the oesophagus. The chest is then to be pressed to induce a full expiration, and allowed to expand so as, if possible, to effect a degree of inspiration. 2. But it is important in doing this, that the practitioner himself should previously make several deep and rapid expi- rations, and finally a full inspiration. In this manner the air expelled from his lungs into those of the little patient, will be more capable of exciting the dying embers of life. [I found this suggestion in an interesting communication by Dr. Faraday, in the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, vol. iii. p. 244, for Oct. 1838. It is ascertained that respiration may be suspended longer, as in diving, or in experiments, after such forced respirations, than in ordinary circumstances, from the greater purity of the air in the lungs.—M. H.] II. 1. in the midst of these efforts it should, in the next place, be the office of two other persons to maintain or restore the temperature of the little infant, by gently but constantly pressing and rubbing its limbs between their warm hands, passing them upwards in the direction of the venous circulation. Should the infant not show signs of life it may be immersed in a bath of hot water, the regular inflation of the lungs being still persevered in; and now a little hotter water may be let fall or dashed on the thorax (I cannot state how often I have seen this rouse them). We may sometimes (more especially where the