Annual report of the Royal Humane Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Dead.

  • Royal Humane Society (London, England)
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Royal Humane Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Dead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/122 (page 1)
    INTRODUCTION. RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY, WITH A TRIBUTE TO ITS CO-FOUNDERS. UT the middle of the last century, Dr. John Fo- thergill saw the dubiousness and fallacy of the received criteria of dissolution; and, in a paper addressed to the Royal Society, maintained (c the possibility of saving many lives, without risking any thing.” Though com¬ ing from such high authority, the subject attracted no attention ; and notwithstanding the great interest with which, a priori, it was natural to suppose it would fill every thinking mind, we hear no more of it, at that time, among our own countrymen. Though several instances had occurred, in various parts of the Continent, which pointed out the possi¬ bility of recovering, in many cases, those who were drowned, yet the attention they excited was limited and transient. M. Reaumur communicated, in 1767, to the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, some instances of resuscitation which had occurred in Switzerland. Holland, being intersected by numerous canals and inland seas, its inhabitants were, consequently, much exposed to accidents by water; and many persons wer£ B drowned