A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene Part 36

541. _The method of resuscitating persons apparently drowned._ In the first instance, it is necessary to press the chest, suddenly and forcibly, downward and backward, and instantly discontinue the pressure. Repeat this without intermission, until a pair of bellows can be procured. When the bellows are obtained, introduce the nozzle well upon the base of the tongue, and surround the mouth and nose with a towel or handkerchief, to close them. Let another person press upon the projecting part of the neck, called "Adam's apple," while air is introduced into the lungs through the bellows. Then press upon the chest, to force the air from the lungs, to imitate natural breathing.

(Appendix M.)

539. Give the first method for the treatment of cold. 540. The second method. 541, 542. How should persons apparently drowned be treated?

542. Continue the use of the bellows, and forcing the air out of the chest, for an hour at least, unless signs of natural breathing come on. Wrap the body in warm, dry blankets, and place it near the fire, to preserve the natural warmth, as well as to impart artificial heat.

Every thing, however, is secondary to filling the lungs with air.

Avoid all friction until breathing is restored. Send immediately for medical aid.

543. _The means of resuscitating persons asphyxiated from electricity, &c._ In apparent death from electricity, (lightning,) the person is frequently asphyxiated from _pa-raly-sis_ (palsy) of the respiratory muscles. To recover such persons, resort to artificial respiration. In cases of apparent death from hanging or strangling, the knot should be untied or cut immediately; then use artificial respiration, or breathing, as directed in apparent death from drowning.

_Observation._ It is an impression, in many sections of the country, that the law will not allow the removal of the cord from the neck of a body found suspended, unless the coroner be present. It is therefore proper to say, that no such delay is necessary, and that no time should be lost in attempting to resuscitate the strangled person.

544. _The method of resuscitating persons apparently dead from inhaling carbonic acid gas._ When life is apparently extinct from breathing carbonic acid gas, the person should be carried into the open air. The head and shoulders should be slightly elevated; the face and chest should be sponged or sprinkled with cold water, or cold vinegar and water, while the limbs are wrapped in dry, warm blankets.

In this, as in asphyxia from other causes, immediately resort to artificial respiration.

543. What treatment should be adopted in asphyxia from electricity?

From hanging? 544. What should be the treatment in asphyxia from inhaling carbonic acid gas?

_Observations._ 1st. Many persons have died from breathing carbonic acid that was formed by burning charcoal in an open pan or portable furnace, for the purpose of warming their, sleeping-rooms. This is not only produced by burning charcoal, but is evolved from the live coals of a wood fire; and being heavier than air, it settles on the floor of the room; and, if there is no open door or chimney-draught, it will acc.u.mulate, and, rising above the head of an individual, will cause asphyxia or death.

2d. In resuscitating persons apparently dead from causes already mentioned, if a pair of bellows cannot be procured immediately, let their lungs be inflated by air expelled from the lungs of some person present. To have the expired air as pure as possible, the person should quickly inflate his lungs, and instantly expel the air into those of the asphyxiated person. _Place the patient in pure air, admit attendants only into the apartment, and send for a physician without delay._

What sad results frequently follow the burning of charcoal in a closed room? What suggestion in resuscitating asphyxiated persons?

CHAPTER XXVII.

ANIMAL HEAT.

545. The true sources of animal heat, or calorification, are still imperfectly known. No hypothesis has, as yet, received the concurrent a.s.sent of physiologists. We see certain phenomena, but the ultimate causes are hidden from our view. Its regular production, to a certain degree, is essential both to animal and vegetable life.

546. There is a tendency between bodies of different temperature to an equilibrium of heat. Thus, if we touch or approach a hot body, the heat, or caloric pa.s.ses from that body to our organs of feeling, and gives the sensation of heat. On the contrary, when we touch a cold body, the heat pa.s.ses from the hand to that body, and causes a sensation of cold.

547. The greater number of animals appear cold when we touch them; and, indeed, the temperature of their bodies is not much above that of the atmosphere, and changes with it. In man, and other animals that approach him in their organization, it is otherwise. They have the faculty of producing a sufficient quant.i.ty of caloric to maintain their temperatures nearly at the same degree, under all atmospheric changes, and keep themselves warm.

548. Those animals whose proper heat is not very perceivable, are called _cold_-blooded; as most species of fishes, toads, snakes, turtles, and reptiles generally. Those animals which produce sufficient heat independently of the atmosphere surrounding them, are called _warm_-blooded; as man, birds, quadrupeds, &c.

545-570. _What is said respecting animal heat?_ 545. Are the true sources of animal heat known? What do we see? 546. What is the tendency between bodies of different temperatures? Give an explanation. 547.

What is said of the temperature of animals? 548. What is meant by cold-blooded animals? By warm-blooded animals?

549. The temperature of man is about 98, (Fahrenheit's thermometer,) and that of some other animals is higher; the temperature of birds, for example, is about 110. It is obvious, that in most parts of the globe, the heat of the atmosphere is, even in summer, less than that of the human body. In our lat.i.tude, the mercury rarely attains 98, and sometimes it descends to several degrees below zero.

550. Captain Parry, with his s.h.i.+p's company, in his voyage of discovery to the arctic regions, wintered in a climate where the mercury was at 40, and sometimes at 55 below zero. Captain Back found it 70 below zero. These were 72 and 102 below the freezing point, or about 200 below that of their own bodies, and still they were able to resist this low temperature, and escape being "frost-bitten."

551. Captain Lyon, who accompanied Captain Parry in his second voyage to the northern regions, found the temperature of an arctic fox to be 106, while that of the atmosphere was 32 below zero; making a difference between the temperature of the fox and that of the atmosphere, of 138. Captain Scoresby found the temperature of a whale, in the Arctic Ocean, to be 104, or nearly as high as that of other animals of the same kind in the region of the equator, while the temperature of the ice was as low as 32, and the water was nearly as cold. These facts show what a strong counteracting energy there is in animals against the effects of cold.

552. On the other hand, it has been ascertained by numerous and well-conducted experiments, that the human body can be exposed, even for a length of time, to a very high temperature, without essentially elevating that of the body. Chantrey, the sculptor, often entered the furnace, heated for drying his moulds, when the temperature indicated by the thermometer was 330. Chaubert, the Fire-King, is said to have entered ovens when heated to 600. In 1774, Sir Charles Blagden entered a room in which the mercury rose to 260. He remained eight minutes without suffering.

549. What is the temperature of the human body? Of birds? How does the heat of the atmosphere in summer, in our lat.i.tude, compare with that of the human system? 550. What is related of Captain Parry? Of Captain Back? 551. Of Captain Lyon? Of Captain Scoresby? What do these facts show? 552. What has been ascertained on the other hand?

553. In order to render it certain that there was no fallacy, says Sir Charles Blagden, "in the degree of heat shown by the thermometer, but that the air breathed was capable of producing all the well-known effects of such a heat on inanimate matter, I put some eggs and beefsteak upon a tin frame placed near the thermometer, and farther distant from the c.o.c.kle than from the wall of the room. In about twenty minutes the eggs were taken out, roasted quite hard; and in forty-seven minutes, the steak was not only dressed, but almost dry."

554. If a thermometer be placed under the tongue of a healthy person, in all climates and seasons the temperature will be found nearly the same. Sir Charles Blagden, "while in the heated room, breathed on a thermometer, and the mercury sank several degrees; and when he expired forcibly, the air felt cool as it pa.s.sed through the nostrils, though it was scorching hot when it entered them in inspiration."

_Observation._ Did not the human body possess within itself the power of generating and removing heat, so as to maintain nearly an equality of temperature, the most fatal consequences would ensue. In northern lat.i.tudes, especially, in severe weather of winter, the blood would be converted into a solid ma.s.s, and on the other hand, the fatty secretion, when subjected to equatorial heat, would become fluid, and life would be extinguished.

What is related of Chantrey? Of Chaubert? Of Sir Charles Blagden? 553.

Give Sir Charles's own statement. 554. What is said of the temperature of the human tongue? Mention the experiment by Sir Charles Blagden.

What would be the effect if the human system did not maintain an equality of temperature?

555. To enable man, and other warm-blooded animals, to maintain this equilibrium of temperature under such extremes of heat and cold, naturally suggests two inquiries: 1st. By what organs is animal heat generated? 2d. By what means is its uniformity maintained?

556. The ancients had no well-arranged theory on the subject of animal heat. They believed that the chief object of respiration was to cool the blood, and that the heart was the great furnace where all the heat was generated. At a later period, Mayow, from his discoveries respecting respiration, a.s.serted that the object of respiration was to produce heat, and denied that the blood was cooled in the lungs.

557. When it was discovered that, both in combustion and respiration, carbonic acid was produced and oxygen absorbed, it led Dr. Black to conclude that breathing was a kind of combustion by which all the heat of the body was produced. This theory was objected to, because, if all the heat was generated in the lungs, like those parts of a stove in contact with the fuel, they would be at a higher temperature than those parts at a distance, which was known not to exist.

558. The next theory, and one which received the sanction of the scientific men of Europe, was proposed by Dr. Crawford. He agreed with Dr. Black that heat not only was generated in the lungs, but that the arterial blood had a greater capacity for heat than the venous, and that this increase of capacity takes place in the lungs. At the moment heat is generated, a portion of it, under the name of latent heat, is absorbed and conveyed to the different parts of the body Wherever arterial blood is converted into venous, this latent heat is given out. But, unfortunately for this theory, Dr. Davy proved the capacity of both, for heat, to be nearly the same.

555. What inquiries are naturally suggested? 556. What was the theory of the ancients? What did Mayow a.s.sert at a later period? 557. What was the theory of Dr. Black? The objection? 558. What was the theory of Dr Crawford?