Description of a simple and efficient method of performing artificial respiration in the human subject especially in cases of drowning / by E. A. Shafer.

  • Sharpey-Schäfer, E. A. (Edward Albert), Sir, 1850-1935.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Description of a simple and efficient method of performing artificial respiration in the human subject especially in cases of drowning / by E. A. Shafer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    2nd. After a time—ten minutes or more,—when most of the froth and fluids had been removed from the surcliarged hm^, tlie patient’s upper arm might be carried above the head, but with the patient on his right side, not on his back, as recommended by Dr. Sylvester. The reasons for those movements were derived from his own experience, and that of other members of the profession, not only in drowning, but in comatose conditions generally, the mucous stertor of apoplexy, hsemoptysis, drunken stupor with vomited matter in the pharynx, bronchitis, and other maladies. In his late speech on the Report, and especially in former papers, he had referred more in detail to such conditions, and he had still more recently dealt with it in his pamphlet on ‘ A Method for the Treatment of the Apparently Drowned.’ It was clear that the Committee’s Reports of 1862 and of 1902 were in practical agreement, and that they fully confirmed the soundness of the principles of the Marshall Hall method. Later experiences had, however, enabled Dr. Bowles to correct a few details in the application of those principles, so as to ensure complete efticiency in the method of treatment then submitted for the use of the public. The propriety of the application of warmth, of subcu- taneous or rectal injections, of stimidants, or other medical means at particular moments could only be properly arrived at under medical supervision. Mr. Warrington Haward thought the unprejudiced listener would see that both the methods alluded to in the discussion had advantages and disadvantages. But methods applicable to asphyxiated persons were not applicable to drowned persons. In tlie drowned the first necessity was to get rid of the fluid and froth from the lungs; hence the prone position is advisable in the early stages of the treatment. But something more than the measures recommended by Prof. Schiifer was required, and this, as Dr. Bowles had pointed out, was furnished by the rolling movement with a modification of the Silvester method by raising the free arm. It was also, no doubt, important to keep one lung clear by always keeping the patient on the same side. Thus it seemed to him that for the drowned the method of Dr. Bowles was superior to all the other methods—it combined their advan- tages, avoided their disadvantages, and added what was necessary to make them efficient. He suggested that the Society miglit now publish some definite pronouncement upon this matter. Dr. F. W. Hewitt endorsed the remarks of Mr. Warrington Haward. Dr. Bowles’ method seemed the most likely to meet the generality of cases of asphyxia from drowning. He con- sidered the prone method inadmissible because, at all events in the case of the deep unconsciousness produced by amesthetics, the trunk weight was liable to interfere with or prevent that