The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-02-22
BREATH IN DEAD MEN
STARTLING RESULTS OF A NEW JER-
SEY DOCTORS EXPERIMENTS.


After They Have Once stopped-It Is Not
| Patented and Any One Can Make 1t.
| DIR. Edwin De Baum of Passaic. n. j..
makes the announcement regarding the
| time hOnored statement that a man has
| died from lack of breath-that if breath
was all he needed he should have lived.
Considering that air is the most plen-
tiful resource of nature, having, as polit-
| ical economists would say, no value be
cause of its abundance, one would think
that DR.. De Baum had made no particu-
lar discovery. But there is more in his
statement than is apparent at first.
From time immemorial physicians
have directed their ingenuity toward an
effective application of this wealth of
air, but without satisfactory results.
Cases of suspended animation come I'M
der their notice every day. Men are
rescued from the water after a hard bat
tie with the waves, their lungs filed with
water, the ife's action suspended. In
the majority of instances restoration of
animation cannot be effected. The lungs
may be emptied of the water; the life
giving air, SO abundant, is at hand-and
if 1T could only be forced int the organs
and respiration started life could be re-
newed. Physicians efforts to solve the
problem have been unceasing, but, SAYS
DR.. De Baum, nisdirected.
When man is rescued from the wa
ter, the first thing done is to empty the
lungs of water by rolling him ON bar
rel or lifting him from the ground head
downward. Then he is laid on his
anly no
lungs and a rhythmic contraction and
expansion of the chest walls effected by
alternate pressure and relaxation. Some
times the forcing process has been kept
up for hours with ultimate success, but
considering the possibilities recognized
in artificial respiration the results have
been far from encouraging.
DR.. De Baum has worked on an entire
ly new line, and the result of his expert
ments and observation is a method of
internal respiration, which, he claims,
cannot possibly fail. His attention was
first directed to the subject by a case of
suspended animation in a newly BORN
child. 1t has been the practice in such
cases to force air into the lungs of the
infant by breathing into its mouth and
then contracting the lungs by pressure
upon the chest. But this has been found
not only intensely disagreeable, but high
ly inefficient.
DR.. De Baum decided to try new ex-
pedient. He passed a small rubber tube
through the nose of the infant and down
into the throat. Closing the mouth. he
forced air through the tube from a rub
Der bag, initiating the lungs; then, releas-
ing the pressure from the mouth, found,
Is expected, that the elasticity of the
of the chest caused immediate
of the lungs, forming COM
'lete respiration. This was kept up for
ID minutes, when natural respiration
lad been restored, and a life had been
saved. Since then DR.. De Baum has per-
,ected this hastily improvised apparatus
md finds that animation may be often !
restored within Is minutes.
The apparatus is as simple as it is in |
,enious. 1t consists of a long rubber |
ube, near one end of which is piece of |
oft rubber with which to cover the |
mouth and nose. At the other end are |
wo rubber bulbs. After the tube has !
,een inserted between the teeth, and the |
mouth and nose covered slightly, the |
over bulb is compressed, forcing air
nto the second bulb, which acts as res
rvOir. This second bulb is much more
Elastic than the other and maintains a
teady pressure of air through the tube
{ is covered with loose netting, which
cts as a sort of safety valve against
The tube is fitted with Il
topcock that may be used to lend force
o the first few respirations.
A few compressions of the lower bulb
re sufficient to fill the lungs. Then the
PRESSURE on nose and mouth is relaxed,
nd the lungs are enptied by The nat
ral elasticity of the muscles of the |
hest. This elasticity remains even aft
r death, and with this instrument it is
ute possible to make dead man
reathe regularly as long as the applica-
ion continues. In some of the doctors
apartments on dead bodies this simu-
alton of life has been absolutely star
ling.
1t is not for dead men, however, that
ne 'insufflator," as it is called, has been
evised, but for men who have been
rought apparently to deaths door by
sphyxiation from gas and water In the
alter case the lungs must first be emp
ed. The apparatus weighs but few
unces. 1t is not patented, as DR.. De
aun is strict observer of medical eth
s, which declare that the discoveries
physician belong to the world. He
treasurer of the state board of medical
hammers OF New Jersey and has in
ented several valuable surgical instru-
tents and devices.-New York World.
The Agricultural Profession.