Part 6

XXV.

In the year 1658, Elizabeth, the servant of one Mrs. Cope, of Magdalen parish, Oxford, was convicted of killing her bastard child, and was according hanged at Green-ditch, where she hung so long, that one of the by-standers said, if she was not dead, he would be hanged for her. When cut down, the gallows being very high, she fell with such violence to the ground, that seemed sufficient of itself to have killed her. After this, she was put in a coffin, and carried to the George Inn, in Magdalen parish; where signs of life being observed in her, she was blooded, and put to bed to a young woman; by which means she came to herself, and, to all appearance, might have lived many years: but the next night, she was, by the order of one Mallony, a bailiff of the city, barbarously dragged to Gloucester Green, and there was hanged upon a tree, till she was dead.

XXVI.

In the year 1797, a fine boy, about nine years old, son of Mr. Baldock, Surgeon and Apothecary, at Burwash, in Sussex, had the misfortune to fall into a pond of water, about twenty roods from his father’s house, wherein he soon sunk to the bottom, and there remained at least a quarter of an hour, before any one went to his assistance. By the time he was taken out, the father had arrived at the spot, where he found his son to all appearance dead, his face having turned quite black, and his pulsation totally left him; he, however, took up the body, and carried it home, losing no time in stripping off the wet cloaths, and getting it into a warm bed. He next proceeded to wipe the skin quite dry with napkins, and afterwards to rub the body well with hot cloths. Mr. and Mrs. B. continued the stimulating process for a full hour, without the smallest prospect of success; they nevertheless persevered, and soon afterwards had the happiness to discover some small symptoms of returning life, from the emission of a very feeble groan. This encouraged them to redouble their exertions; and though they proved wholly ineffectual for more than another hour; during which time the body appeared as a corpse before them, they did not relax in their efforts; and, at the expiration of two hours and an half, they brought the vital functions into more visible action, which first appeared by a sort of convulsive motion in one hand. The next favourable symptoms discovered, were a little motion in one foot, an inward crying, and a very languid pulse. The return of animation was now more rapid, and apparently very painful; for the poor boy first cried low, and presently after very loud; his eyes, which were naturally prominent, on a sudden burst wide open, and appeared very red and full of terror. After this, he was taken out of bed, and put breast high, into water blood warm, in which situation he appeared calm for about ten minutes, when he again cried, but not so strong as before. Being taken out of the bath, (where the friction was still kept up with the hand) wiped dry, and put again into a warm bed, he was soon after perceived to breathe, though very quick and feeble. Having in some degree recovered his senses, he spoke a few words imperfectly; but his speech soon became more perfect; and having swallowed a trifling potion his father administered to him, he complained of great pain in his stomach and bowels, which was soon relieved by an embrocation, volatile, oily, and anodyne. The next night he got rest by the help of a cordial anodyne; but it was a fortnight before he wholly recovered.

We have been particular in stating the above facts, from an idea that the knowledge of them may prove useful in similar accidents, and indeed in all cases of suspended animation.

XXVII.

Doctor Tissot mentions an instance of a girl who was restored to life, after she had been taken out of the water, swelled, bloated, and to all appearance dead, by laying her naked body upon hot ashes, covering her with others equally hot, putting a bonnet round her head, and a stocking round her neck, stuffed with the same, and heaping coverings over all. After she had remained half an hour in this situation, her pulse returned, she recovered her speech, and cried out, I freeze, I freeze; a little cherry brandy was given her, and she remained buried, as it were, under the ashes for eight hours. Afterwards she was taken out, without any other complaint, except that of lassitude or weariness, which went off in a few days. The Doctor mentions likewise an instance of a man who was restored to life, after he had remained six hours under water, by the heat of a dung-hill.

XXVIII.

Doctor Alexander mentions an instance of a man, who was to all appearance killed by a blow on the breast, but recovered on being immersed for some time in warm water. These, and many other instances of a similar nature, amount to a full proof of this fact, that many of those unhappy persons who lose their lives, by falls, blows, and other accidents, might be saved by the use of proper means duly persisted in.

XXIX.

Mr. Tossach, Surgeon at Alloa, relates the case of a man suffocated by the steam of burning coal, who he recovered by blowing his breath into the patient’s mouth, bleeding him in the arm, and causing him to be well rubbed and tossed about.

And Doctor Frewen, of Sussex, mentions the case of a young man who was stupified by the smoke of sea coal, but was recovered by being plunged into cold water, and afterwards laid in a warm bed.

XXX.

Even in old age, when life seems to have been gradually drawing to a close, the appearances of death are often fallacious.

A Lady in Cornwall, more than eighty years of age, who had been a considerable time declining, took to her bed, and in a few days seemingly expired in the morning. As she had often desired not to be buried till she had been two days dead, her request was to have been regularly complied with by her relations. All that saw her looked upon her as dead, and the report was current through the whole place; nay, a gentleman of the town actually wrote to his friend in the island of Scilly, that she was deceased. But one of those who were paying the last kind office of humanity to her remains, perceived some warmth about the middle of the back; and acquainting her friends with it, they applied a mirror to her mouth; but, after repeated trials, could not observe it in the least stained; her under jaw was likewise fallen, as the common phrase is; and, in short, she had the appearance of a dead person. All this time she had not been stripped or dressed; but the windows were opened as is usual in the chambers of the deceased. In the evening the heat seemed to increase, and at length she was perceived to breathe.

XXXI.

Monsieur Janin, of the Royal College of Surgery at Paris, relates, that a Nurse having had the misfortune to overlay a child, he was called in, and found the infant without any signs of life; no pulsation in the arteries, no respiration, the face livid, the eyes open, dull, and tarnished, the nose full of snivel, the mouth gaping, in short, it was almost cold. Whilst some linen clothes and a parcel of ashes were warming, he had the boy unswathed, and laid him in a warm bed, and on the right side. He was there rubbed all over with fine linen, for fear of fretting his tender and delicate skin. As soon as the ashes had received their due degree of heat, Mr. Janin buried him in them, except the face, placed him on the side opposite to that on which he had been at first laid, and covered him with a blanket. He had a bottle of Eau de luce in his pocket, which he presented to his nose from time to time; and between whiles some puffs of tobacco were blown up his nostrils: to these succeeded the blowing into his mouth, and squeezing tight his nose. Animal heat began thus to be excited gradually: the pulsations of the temporal artery were soon felt, the breathing became more frequent and free, and the eyes closed and opened alternately. At length the child fetched some cries expressive of his want of the breast, which being applied to his mouth, he catched at it with avidity, and sucked, as if nothing had happened to him. Though the pulsations of the arteries were by this time very well re-established, and it was hot weather, yet Monsieur Janin thought it adviseable to leave his little patient three quarters of an hour longer under the ashes. He was afterwards taken out, cleaned and dressed as usual; to which a gentle sleep succeeded, and he continued perfectly well.

XXXII.

Mr. Glover, Surgeon in Doctor’s Commons, London, relates the case of a person who was restored to life after twenty nine minutes hanging, and continued in good health for many years after.

The principal means used to restore this man to life were opening the temporal artery and the external jugular; rubbing the back, mouth, and neck, with a quantity of volatile spirits and oil; administering the tobacco clyster by means of lighted pipes, and strong frictions of the legs and arms. This course had been continued for about four hours, when an incission was made into the wind pipe, and air blown strongly through a canula into the lungs. About twenty minutes after this the blood at the artery began to run down the face, and a slow pulse was just perceptible at the wrist. The frictions were continued for some time longer; his pulse became more frequent, and his mouth and nose being irritated with spirit of salammoniac, he opened his eyes. Warm cordials were then administered to him, and in two days he was so well as to be able to walk eight miles.

XXXIII.

In the parish of St. Clements in Colchester, a child of six months old, lying upon its mother’s lap, having had the breast, was seized with a strong convulsion fit, which lasted so long, and ended with so total a privation of motion in the body, lungs, and pulse, that it was deemed absolutely dead. It was accordingly stripped, laid out, the passing bell, ordered to be tolled, and a coffin to be made; but a neighbouring gentlewoman who used to admire the child, hearing of its sudden death, hastened to the house, and upon examining the child, found it not cold, its joints limber, and fancied that a glass she held to its mouth and nose was a little damped with the breath; upon which, she took the child in her lap, sat down before the fire, rubbed it, and kept it in gentle agitation. In a quarter of an hour she felt the heart begin to beat faintly; she then put a little of the mother’s milk into its mouth, continued to rub its palms and soles; found the child begin to move, and the milk was swallowed; and in another quarter of an hour, she had the satisfaction of restoring to its disconsolate mother the babe quite recovered, eager to lay hold of the breast, and able to suck again. The child throve, had no more fits, is grown up, and at present alive, i. e. 1803.

These means, which are certainly in the power of every person, were sufficient to restore to life an infant to all appearance dead, and who in all probability, but for the use of these simple endeavours would have remained so. There are however, many other things which might be done in case the above should not succeed; as rubbing the body with strong spirits, covering it with warm ashes or salt, blowing air into the lungs, throwing up warm stimulating clysters, or the smoke of tobacco into the intestines, and such like.

When children are dead born, or expire soon after the birth, the same means ought to be used for their recovery, as if they had expired in circumstances similar to those mentioned above.

These directions may likewise be extended to adults, attention being always paid to the age and other circumstances.

* * * * *

The foregoing cases and observations afford sufficient proof of the success which may attend the endeavours of persons totally ignorant of medicine, in assisting those who are suddenly deprived of life by any accident or disease. Many facts of a similar nature might be adduced, were it necessary, but these, it is hoped, will be sufficient to call up the attention of the public, and to excite the humane and benevolent to exert their utmost endeavour for the preservation of their fellow creatures.

In short, not only the ordinary signs are very uncertain, but we may say the same of the stiffness of the limbs, which may be convulsive; of the dilation of the pupil of the eye, which may proceed from the same cause; of putrefaction, which may equally attack some parts of a living body, and of several others. Haller, convinced of the uncertainty of all these signs, proposes a new one, which he considers as infallible.--“If the person (says he) be still in life, the mouth will immediately shut of itself, because the contraction of the muscles of the jaw will awaken their irritability.” The jaw however, may be deprived of its irritability though a man may not be dead. Life is preserved a long time in the passage of the intestines. The sign pointed out by Dr. Fothergill appears to deserve more attention.--“If the air blown into the mouth, (says this physician) passes freely through all the alimentary channels, it affords a strong presumption, that the irritability of the internal sphincters is destroyed, and consequently that life is at an end.”--These signs, which deserve to be confirmed by new experiments, are doubtless not known to Undertakers.