On the use of artificial respiration and transfusion as a means of preserving life / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, T. Lauder (Thomas Lauder), 1844-1916.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the use of artificial respiration and transfusion as a means of preserving life / by T. Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    10/16 (page 8)
    s same thing was observed by Fontana {op. cit., torn, i, p. 80) in poison- ing by the bite of the viper, and by Weir Mitchell in poisoning by the rattlesnake. Weir Mitchell* found that the heart might be kept pulsating for a long time by means of artificial respiration ; but his results do not seem to have been so encouraging as to lead him to propose it as a means of saving life. Dr. Fayrer and I have been more fortunate, and on one occasion we have succeeded in keeping the heart of a rabbit beating for eight hours after the animal was apparently dead. Nor had the heart ceased to pulsate even then ; but the hour was late, the room was cold, the assistant was no doubt tired, and the experiment was consequently given up. Although respiration had been continued for a much longer time than is usually necessary with woorara, the animal gave no signs of returning sensibility. This seems to indicate a differ- ence between the poisons. On the probable cause of this, I shall have something to say in a later part of this paper. The service which artificial respiration renders in cases where breath- ing has ceased in consequence of asphyxia, whether due to drowning, strangling, or poisoning by carbolic acid in brewers' vats or close rooms, is so generally recognised, that it is unnecessary to say anything about it here. Its use in poisoning by strychnia is not so well known, and, so far as I am aware, has only been tested upon animals. Before I proceed to speak of this, it may be well to say a few words in ex- planation of the term apncea, which I shall have to use, as it is em- ployed by physiologists in a different sense from that which is attached to it by many physicians. On the meaning of dyspnoea, both physi- cians and physiologists are agreed; and both apply it to the violent respiratory efforts which occur when the blood is imperfectly aerated. Apncea, however, is not unfrequently used by physicians in the sense of extreme dyspnoea, where there is excessive difficulty of respiration. Physiologists apply it to a very different condition—viz., that in which the blood is so excessively aerated that there is no need for breathing at all. This will be much better understood by the reader if he will try a simple experiment on himself. Let him note how many seconds he can hold his breath, and he will find that he can only do so for a very short time. Let him then quickly take several deep breaths, and repeat the experiment. He will now notice that for several seconds more than on the first trial he does not feel any inclination to breathe at all. This is the state of apncea as understood by physiologists. A few * Jiesearc/ies on the Venom of the Rattlesnake, 1861, p. 81.