They are not dead : Restoration by the "heat method," of those drowned, or otherwise suffocated / by T.S. Lambert.

  • Lambert, T. S. (Thomas Scott), 1819-1897.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: They are not dead : Restoration by the "heat method," of those drowned, or otherwise suffocated / by T.S. Lambert. 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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    tween the thumb and finger, and cut through the skin and into the windpipe a long slit, from just below the enlarge- ment {d, Fig. A) named the larynx, or Adam's-apple, down to the level of the top of the breast-bone, or so long an open- ing as is needed. There is no danger of its being too large. It will be small enough at best for practical purposes. The cutting into the windpipe will call for about the same force as would be necessary for cutting the nails. To preserve the opening free, wedge its sides apart, or insert a tube. One can be made by simply rolling stiff paper (letter or the like) around the little finger, a pencil or the like, several times. Obstruct the passage as little as pos- sible, and fasten the wedge or the tube so that it cannot slip into the windpipe. Now mark the simple fact, that there is no more danger in cutting open the windpipe than there is in cutting the nails, and do the former with the same promptness and coolness with which the latter would be done, if it would save a person's life. Eemember that there are neither blood-tubes, nor nerves, of any account, near the perpendicular, central surface line of the body, below which the windpipe is situated. Indeed, the windpipe seems to have been located just in the right place for being easily and safely cut open, even by a bun- gler, upon many occasions when necessary for saving life. If the person's neck is short, thick, and fat, so that the windpipe cannot readily be felt, the opening of it will not be so easy. Sometimes it will be necessary to open it by cutting across it, until it is nearly or quite cut through. No harm can result, but it is not as handy an opening through which to work. / think and advise that this free passage should be provided at once, in all cases of suffocation for so long a time that the