Emergencies and how to treat them : the etiology, pathology, and treatment of the accidents, diseases, and cases of poisoning, which demand prompt action : desinged for students and practitioners of medicine / by Joseph W. howe.

  • Howe, Joseph W. (Joseph William), 1843-1890.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Emergencies and how to treat them : the etiology, pathology, and treatment of the accidents, diseases, and cases of poisoning, which demand prompt action : desinged for students and practitioners of medicine / by Joseph W. howe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    fainted on being immersed, and that the state of syncope lasted until she was brought to the surface. A committee of the Royal Chirurgical Society, London, instituted a series of experiments to ascertain the length of time animals could sustain life without a supply of oxygen. A brief statement of the principal results will be of interest. It was ascertained that, when the entrance of air was pre- vented by submersion, death was more rapid than when the trachea was thoroughly closed with a plug. When the trachea was simply plugged, the respiratory movements con- tinued from three to four minutes and a half, and the action of the heart was perceptible from six to seven minutes and a half. As a rule, the heart's action continued two or three minutes after respiration ceased. When animals were kept under water one minute and thirty seconds, death followed, even when the animal was taken out alive. 'No efforts were made in any of these cases to restore life. If respiration had been artificially produced, they would have probably recovered. The striking difference in the period of death in the two classes is explained by the fact that, in simple plugging of the trachea, sufficient air remained in the lungs to maintain life for a short time, while in the other, water found its way into the lungs and displaced the air which migrht otherwise have been reserved for aeration. Some contend that water does not enter the lungs of the drowned, but the results oi post-mortem examinations do not confirm this statement. Water, sea-weed, and other extraneous matter, have been found in the bronchial tubes in the major- ity of cases. It is true that at times there is not the slight- est trace of water. This circumstance is, however, excep- tional. The remarkable power of absorption possessed by