Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-03-29


will perceive that as soon as the
saliva, drink, food, etc,
reaches the throat, where IL IS liable
TO ''get into the windpipe," this
rises TO close itself against the
intrusion. At the same
time mark that the breathing,
whatever its stage, coincidentally
stops. No danger. then, exists that
water may be sucked into the
lungs" since the ''suckn does not
work. 1t may be argued that some
times substances do ego down the
wrong way But what a disturb
ance they excite! AS no strangling
occurs in drowning, it Is evident
that water does not then 'gO down
the wrong way" But the question
il. ssDoes the windpipe remain
closed when the person has become
unconscious ?'' Neither conscious
ness no volition, as viii be presently
proved, was necessary in or had
anything to do with closing the
windpipe. Why can it not remain
closed without them? 1t can and
does.
Once more all directions for artifi-
cial respiration from Marshall Hall
to the present day say draw forward
the tongue and thus raise the cpl
CLOTHS, or cartilaginOus cover Of the
Windpipe, which cover is situated
beneath, and attached TO, the back
part Of the tongue. Whoever tries
to follow this difficult direction will
be convinced that the windpipe IS
safely closed. This direction would
not be uniformly given unless the
windpipe was uniformly closed.
But still another fact remains to be
stated, which some may think
might have been mentioned first
and saved words. No water is
found in the lungs of a drowned
person unless he has been really
dead for q con. iderable time. If
miscOneeption and preiudices are SO
bomb-prOOf that what has been said
does not convince every one of the
truth he must be referred to remarks
farther on, which will undermine
every vestige of unbelief.
ThirGly-No trustworthy iadica-
ton of the earliest moment or hour
when life in case of suffOcatiOn is
extinct is known. Closed or nearly
closed .eyelids, especially ii when
opened they Ieshut, indicate life /;
but if not closed death is not certain.
The same is true of the mouth. The
pupils and the effect of bright light
upon them also afford clew. But
neither fact nor theory, as yet, yield
anything definite. Littlejohn would
relax neither hope nor effort under
eight hours. Another writer says
when the heart ceases to beat death
occurs; from what we know this is
a gross error. The fact is, this field
has not been studied nor expert
mented in as its importance de-
mands. The longest time known to
the writer upon trustworthy author
ifY is two and One-half hours used
in resuscitating the young lady
drowned in the NOrWalk disaster.
A dog much longer than that under
water recovered under the influence
of the suns rays. The very strong
negative evidence is that there is no
apparent reason, as we shall con-
clusively see, why, under proper
conditions, a person should not re-
cover from sutfOcatiOn any time be-
fore decided decomposition occurs.
If, then, appearances are good,
though days or weeks have elapsed,
go to work and try to resuscitate the
person. Will it do any harm to
tryP
FACTORS IN DROWNING AND RESTO-
RATION.
Three active factors of the we'll
being of the body are noticeable as
stopped by drowning:
~ Breathing is stopped.
~ Circulation is stopped.
(3) Production of heat is stopped.
Consciousness and motion, the
want of which produce the most APP
palling appearances of the drowned,
are also stopped. OF course the
body is becoming cool more or less
rapidly according to its weight,
especially that of its fat, and accord
ing to the temperature to which il is
exposed.
1t seems to have been taken for
granted i'm the construction of those
parts of the body related to the
being, and that a PERSONS fellows
would have sufficient intelligence
and humanity to aid him to the
sinpleextent necessary for his restO-
ration from suffOcatiOn. 1t is evil
dent that man was made with ref
erence to the social status of the
future when teaching shalt be prac-
tical.
In restoration, the three factors
must be considered in a reverse or
der.
Q) Restore heat.
(2) Restore circulation.
81 Restore respiration.
Consciousness and motion will
follow. Indeed, facts demonstrate
and theory indicates that when heat
is completely en- hroned again the
other two factors of the three will
work without further care. The
heart and pulse begin to beat little
before respiration starts, which is
sure to follow, with all the other
functions in its wake.
Drown a fly, bee, ant or other
convenient animal (dOn't give
this away" to Bergh), then place it
i'm the bright suns rays; as soon as
it Is warm and dry it will show that
its life was not gone
Spring brings animation to all
nature. Its heat melts the iceberg
and the glacier. Heat warns the
seeds into development and alone
incubates the bird in the egg; in
short all the realms of life own that
heat is their sine qua non, so that we
almost say that cheat is life and
cold is DEATH" 1t should therefore
be the first factor to secure attention
in case of drowning. To rub the
body before it is warm, hoping to
excite that circulation which nature
has suspended, is not only not use
full, but injurious. TO circulate cold
blood, if it could be done, would
none of the tissues; warm
blood is an essential to their active
ity; and a circulation of cold blood,
by still faster cooling the body,
would be sadly detrimental. For
tunately, then, 1t can't be done. For
like reasons artificial respiration
before the body is warm and the
started only does harm,
except for few times desirable to
empty the lungs when sutfOcation
has been caused by smoke or pOis-
onOus gas inhaled.
CASES ILLUSTRATING HOW HEAT
HAS BEEN APPLIED.