A new inquiry into the suspension of vital action, in cases of drowning and suffocation : being an attempt to concentrate into a more luminous point of view, the scattered rays of science, respecting that interesting though mysterious subject : to elucidate the proximate cause, to appretiate the present remedies, and to point out the best method of restoring animation / by A. Fothergill, M.D. F. R. S. member of the Royal College of Physicians, honorary member of the Medical Societies of London, Edinburgh, and Paris; also of the Philosophical Societies of Manchester, Philadelphia, &c.

  • Fothergill, A. (Anthony), 1732?-1813.
Date:
1795
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new inquiry into the suspension of vital action, in cases of drowning and suffocation : being an attempt to concentrate into a more luminous point of view, the scattered rays of science, respecting that interesting though mysterious subject : to elucidate the proximate cause, to appretiate the present remedies, and to point out the best method of restoring animation / by A. Fothergill, M.D. F. R. S. member of the Royal College of Physicians, honorary member of the Medical Societies of London, Edinburgh, and Paris; also of the Philosophical Societies of Manchester, Philadelphia, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    others in the heart, as the grand centre of all the vital motions. Such indeed is the importance of both thefe organs, that no perfea animal with warm blood can fubfift a moment without them. But certain cold animals can furvive the lofs of either of thefe vifcera for feveral minutes: the wa- ter Polype, without any thing even refembling either heart, or ftomach (unlefs a fimple canal may be called fuch), not only lives, but purfues its prey, and performs its various functions. Nor have thofe Philofophers fucceeded much better, who have placed the principle of Vitality folely in the brain. The famous Pinseal gland, in whofe facred recefs they conceived the Soul to be enfhrined, has more than once after death been found replete with ftony matter, and that without the Patients teftifying during life any vifible de- feel:, or derangement of the funBions of that or- gan. The brain of an ox fatted for daughter has been found in a petrified ftate. A human foetus has been born alive having onlv a few detached filaments of nerves in place of the fpinal marrow, but without even a veftige of brain. The wafp, many minutes after it has been de- prived of its head, ftill continues to dart forth its fling in various directions. The tortoife has been known to furvive this operation feveral months. Nay, what is perhaps ftill more fingular, the male toad, though decapitated in the aft of procreation, yet