Inflating the lungs, and by this means communicating motion to the heart, like giving the first vibration to a pendulum, may possibly, in many cases, enable this something to resume the government of the fabric and actuate its organs afresh, till another unavoidable necessity puts a stop to it entirely.
It has been suggested to me by some of my acquaintances that a pair of bellows might possibly be applied with more advantage in these cases than the blast of a man's mouth. But if any person can be got to try the charitable experiment by blowing, it would seem preferable to the other ; first, as the bellows may not be at hand ; second, as the lungs of one man may bear without injury as great a force as those of another man can exert, which by the bellows cannot always be determined ; third, the warmth and moisture of the breath would be more likely to promote the circulation than the chilling air forced out of a pair of bellows.
To conclude, as I apprehend, the method above described may conduce to the saving a great many lives, as it is practicable by everyone who happens to be present at the accident, without loss of time, without expense, with little trouble, and less 'skill. And as it is, perhaps, the only expedient of which it can be justly said that it may possibly do great good but cannot do harm, I thought it so much consequence to the public as to deserve to be recommended in this manner to your notice. For though it is already published in a work which is generally read by the faculty, yet, perhaps, it may be overlooked by some, forgot by others, and, perhaps, after all the care that can be taken, it may never come to the knowledge of a tenth of those who ought not to be ignorant of it.
P.S. As the representation of an extraordinary fact may perhaps induce some to try the experiment, when occasions like those which are specified in the above remarks occur, it is hoped that humanity will prompt all such to favour the public with an account of their success, with,the principal circumstances that attended. And as the writer of these remarks has embarked in the designs of rendering this fact diffusively known, he would be glad to have it in his power to inform the public that numerous experiments con firm what this case suggests, viz., the possibility of saving a great many lives without risking anything.
White Hart Court, Gracious Street : September, 1744 The case upon which Dr. Fothergill founded his observa tions appears in vol. v. part ii. page 605 of the ' Medical Essays and Observations,' published in 1744 by the Medical, afterwards the Philosophical, Society of Edinburgh ; and as its importance in relation to the history of resuscitation is un questionable, it is here quoted A Man, Dead in Appearance, Recovered by Distending the Lungs with Air. By Mr. William Tossack, surgeon in Alloa, a seaport town of Clackmannanshire, Scotland, thirty miles east-north-east of Edinburgh.
I must submit to better judges to determine whether the experiment I design to relate was the means of saving the man's life on whom it was tried. It is at least very simple and absolutely
safe, and therefore there can at least be no harm, if there is not an advantage, in acquainting the public of it.
November it, 1732, early in the morning, an unusual steam was observed to come out of a coal-pit in this neighbourhood, belonging to the Honourable Sir John Schaw, of Greenock, which the people who went down to enquire the cause of it found to be the smoke of coals that lay about ten fathoms from the bottom of the pit, and were some way or other set on fire in two places. This pit, and all the others which had any communication with it, were shut up close, to smother the flame, and continued thus shut till December 3, when they were all opened. The one where the fire had been sent out a most nauseous steam, so that nobody could come near it, except to the windward. After some hours the colliers and others ventured down by the ladders into this pit, which was thirty-four fathoms deep, but soon came running up, all panting and breathless ; they that came latest being scarce able to speak so much as to tell that one of their number, James Blair, was left dead.
Two men who were no colliers offered soon after to go down, and others, animated by their example, accompanied them, brought up the poor man by head, shoulders, legs, of arms ; their hurry was so great they did not think how they carried him. When he came to the mouth of the pit, which was between half an hour and three-quarters after he had been left in the bottom of it, two had him by the arms, and two by the feet, with his back upmost. I made them immediately set him down at a little distance from the pit, turning him supine. The colour of the skin of his body was natural, except where it was covered with coal-dust. His eyes were staring open, and his mouth was gaping wide ; his skin was cold ; there was not the least pulse in either heart or arteries, and not the least breathing could be observed, so that he was in all appearance dead. I applied my mouth close to his, and blowed my breath as strong as I could, but having neglected to stop his nostrils, all the air came out at them ; wherefore, taking hold of them with one hand, and holding my other on his breast at the left pap, I blew again my breath as strong as I could, raising his chest fully with it, and immediately I felt six or seven very quick beats of the heart ; his thorax continued to play, and the pulse was felt soon after in the arteries. I then opened a vein in his arm, which, after giving a small jet, sent out the blood in drops only for a quarter of an hour, and then he bled freely. In the meantime I caused him to be pulled, pushed, and rubbed, to assist the motion of the blood as much as I could, washed his face and temples with water, and rubbed sal volatile on his nose and lips. Though the lungs continued to play after I had first set them in motion, yet for more than half an hour it was only as a pair of bellows would have done—that is, he did not so much as groan, and his eyes and mouth remained both open.