RECOVERY OF THE DROWNED.

This is perhaps the best known and most generally appreciated occasion of rescuing the apparently dead. The high degree in which it has excited public sympathy will appear from a glance at that section of the “Bibliography” (towards the end of the eighteenth century) which gives the titles of essays and reports connected with the Royal Humane Society and the corresponding foreign institutions upon which our own was modelled. The following general remarks and cases are from the essay of Dr. Struve, of GÖrlitz, Lusatia, 1802:—

“A great number of persons apparently drowned have been restored to life without the use of stimulants, merely by the renovated susceptibility of irritation. I have collected thirty-six cases of persons apparently drowned in Lusatia from the year 1772 to the year 1792. Most of them were treated by uninformed people, and revived by friction and warming; two persons, however, were indebted for their lives to the continuation of the resuscitative process for several hours. The greatest number were children; which is to be ascribed not only to the greater danger to which they are exposed of drowning, but also to the longer continuance of vital power in the infant frame” (p. 136).

“A boy of about a year and a half old had lain upwards of a quarter of an hour in the water, and was found face downwards, and the whole body livid and swollen. He was undressed, wiped dry, and wrapped in warm blankets; but the most particular part of the process was rolling the body upon a table, shaking it by the shoulders, and rubbing the feet. This having been continued for an hour, a convulsive motion was observed in the toes; sneezing was excited by snuff; the tongue stimulated by strong vinegar; the throat irritated with a feather; an injection given. The child vomited a large quantity of water, and in an hour afterwards began to breathe, and was completely restored to life” (p. 137).

“A woman upwards of thirty years of age, and who was affected with epilepsy, fell in a fit from a height of twenty feet into the water, where she remained a full quarter of an hour before she was taken out. Mr. Redlich, surgeon, of Hamburg, had her put into a bed warmed by hot bottles; she was rubbed with warm flannels, some spirits were dropped into her mouth, when in a quarter of an hour symptoms of life, such as convulsive motion and a very weak pulse, appeared. In three hours from the time she was taken out of the water she recovered completely” (p. 138).

Dr. Charles Londe, in a remarkable pamphlet (“Lettre sur la Mort Apparente, les ConsÉquences RÉelles des Inhumations PrÉcipitÉes, et le Temps Pendent lequel peut persister l’Aptitude À Étre RapellÉ À la Vie.” Paris, BailliÉre, 1854), records some instances of narrow escapes from premature burial of the drowned, one of which may be cited:—

“On the 13th of July, 1829, about two p.m., near the Pont des Arts, Paris, a body, which appeared lifeless, was taken out of the river. It was that of a young man, twenty years of age, dark-complexioned, and strongly built. The corpse was discoloured and cold; the face and lips swollen and tinged with blue; a thick and yellowish froth exuded from the mouth; the eyes were open, fixed, and motionless; the limbs limp and drooping. No pulsation of the heart nor trace of respiration was perceptible. The body had remained under water for a considerable time; the search for it, made in Dr. Bourgeois’s presence, lasted fully twenty minutes. That gentleman did not hesitate to incur the derision of the lookers-on by proceeding to attempt the resuscitation of what, in their eyes, was a mere lump of clay. Nevertheless, several hours afterwards, the supposed corpse was restored to life, thanks to the obstinate perseverance of the doctor, who, although a strong man and enjoying robust health, was several times on the point of losing courage and abandoning the patient in despair. But what would have happened if Dr. Bourgeois, instead of persistently remaining stooping over the inanimate body, with watchful eye and attentive ear, to catch the first rustling of the heart, had left the drowned man, after half an hour’s fruitless endeavour, as often happens? The unfortunate man would have been laid in the grave, although capable of restoration to life!”

To this case, Dr. Bourgeois, in the “Archives de Medecine,” adds others, in which individuals remained under water as long as SIX HOURS, and were recalled to life by efforts which a weaker conviction than his own would have refrained from making. These facts lead Dr. Londe to the conclusion that, every day, drowned individuals are buried, who, with greater perseverance, might be restored to life!

The following case in point appears in the Sunnyside, New York, communicated by J. W. Green, M.D.:—

“A few years since I was walking by the Central Park, near One Hundred and Tenth Street and Fifth Avenue. Noticing a crowd that was acting in an unusual manner by the side of the lake, I approached and inquired of one of the bystanders what was the cause of the excitement. He replied, ‘A boy is drowned.’ I advanced to the edge of the water, and saw two or three men in the water searching for the body. As they had not yet discovered it, I made enquiries, and found at last a small boy who had been a comrade of the victim. He showed me the spot from which the boy had fallen. I then pointed out to the searchers where to look, and immediately the body was recovered. I took it at once from the hands of the person who had it, and held it reversed, in order to disembarrass it of all the water possible, for a minute or two, then stripped it of its clothing, sent for a blanket and brandy. I took a woollen coat from one of the bystanders until the blanket should arrive, laid the child upon it and commenced to rotate it. This I continued to do for at least fifteen minutes by the watch. I then tried auscultation; no murmur could be heard.

“The skin was cold, the lips were blue. Every artery was still. With all these signs of death present it was still obligatory upon me to persevere. At the end of fifteen minutes there was a slight gasp. A small quantity of brandy was placed upon the tongue. A little of this ran into the larynx, and the stimulation was sufficient to produce a long inspiration and then a cough. This was more than a half-hour from the time when the boy had been removed from the water. Complete restoration did not occur until nearly an hour from that time. He was now given to his mother, and I was informed on the following day that he entirely recovered, without an unfavourable symptom.”

The three following cases of resuscitation from apparent death by drowning are copied from the most recent reports of the Royal Humane Society, London:—

“On 13th of August, 1895, Samuel Lawrence, aged five years, while playing on the bank of a disused clay-pit at South Bank, Yorkshire, fell into the water and sank. Two of his companions dived into the water, and brought him up after a submersion of from seven to ten minutes in an unconscious state. Two working men commenced artificial respiration, and Dr. Steele continued it for ten hours before the boy showed signs of returning sensibility and his complete recovery.”

“October 6th, 1895.—At Deptford, Surrey, a woman with a baby in her arms threw herself into the canal. They were rescued by the Royal Humane Society’s drags. Two ladies took possession of the bodies (time of submersion not stated), and they employed Silvester’s system of artificial respiration with success, in the case of the woman in about one hour, and with the child one hour and a half.”

“August 6th, 1895.—At Bradford, England, Rudolf Pratt, a clerk with Midland R.R. Company, was bathing, and sank in deep water. A bystander by diving brought him up. After a submersion of five minutes, unconscious, and not breathing, Dr. Oldham restored respiration by Sylvester’s method after one and a half hour’s treatment.”

These three cases are instructive on account of the length of time animation remained suspended before it could be aroused to a state of activity; and they lead to the belief that many cases that are given up as actually dead could be saved if efforts at resuscitation were kept up for a lengthened period, as in the first case.

In cases of drowning some persons are quickly revived after a long submersion; others again who are under water only a short time require artificial respiration for a long time before they show signs of returning life, as was the case with Samuel Lawrence, who was submerged only ten minutes, yet required ten hours’ active treatment to revive him.