The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-11-17
SURGICAL SKILL.
ONE OF THE LATEST DIS
COVERlES IN RESUSCITATION.
Life Can BE Returned to ElectrocutCd
Men-the Time to Do 1t, Says DIR.
Cunningham, Is Instantly After the
End OF the Shock.

DR.. Richard H. Cunningham, who
Tor years has studied the effects of
electric shock on men and animals,
believe, however, that the condemned
man becomes unconscious the instant
he man at the switch applies the cur
cent. Il have had as patients" he
says, Electricians who have received
| severe shocks in poTerhouse acct
dents. ! have talked with men who
have come in contact with live wires
out of doors, | have examined the
bodies of persons who have met death
by electricity, some by accident.
some through sentence of the court,
and in the university laboratory
have made many experiments on ami
mails alive, but under the influence of
ether. or course, too, | have kept up
with the literature on the subject of
The effects of electricity on man and
beast. These things have been part
Of my regular daily work for years,
and l believe that the majority Of per-
sons who have died from electric shock
could have been resuscitated had the
proper means been at hand before the
effects of the shock were over. ! have
had these means in the laboratory
when experimenting on unconscious
ANNALS. | have had them with a
'orps of trained assistants ready to
begin the work of rcsuSci,ation at the
that all this could be part of an am
oulance or drug store outfit, however,
state what science can do with we'll
equipped laboratory and men practiced
in handling such equipment. With
out study and experiment one cannot
learn just how electricity kills man.
[ might go to a thousand clectrocu-
tons, all of them done thoroughly
with the best possible appliances, and
not get any scientific information as
condemned men. I should not doubt
mat the men vera dead, for l believe
that electrocutions are effective and
the least evil way of innicting CAPT
tai punishment, but unless | could at
Zach the proper physiological appara-
tEs to the person before he received
the current. SO that could record and
obtain graphical register of the phe-
nomena that occur during and after
The passage of the current, l should
not gain valuable information.
Il believe those who come to death
through electricity know when the
current enters the body, and are con-
scious of it for a distinctly recognize
able space of time. They have time
to think about it, in fact, for a man
IAN do lot Of thinking in a fifth of a
second. OF course, I did not learn
this from the animals l experimental
On, because they were unconscious
some time before the experiment began
as we'll as during it. l have learned
it from thoroughly trained and edu-
Gated electricians who have come to
NE for treatment, and from such tes-
tlmony that other electricians have
read in papers before various scientific
societies. There is a thorough reali-
sation of the fact that the current is
on'-that it is going through the
body. All who have experienced a
strong shock agree in this.
Zone cannot say with anything like
certainty the amount of electricity
hat went through the body of any of
:hese electricians, because it is hard to
say how the contact was 1t was acct
1ental. In a perfect contact the cleo
Todes are against the skin, and the
skin is moistened with salt water. A
man with dry skin does not receive
electricity as easily as a man whose
skin is damp. Then clothing may have
interviewed which would have a ten
lency to refuse a current.
I'm the laboratory, with everything
in absolute readiness for resuscita-
lion, we make an incision in the side
Of the animals neck, open a vein and
an artery and insert tubes, side by
side, down into the heart. Into the
artery we force blood just like what
would be in the animal naturally. Be-
sides this We add, in place of the
ibrim, solution of salt in warm wa
!er. Sometimes it takes an hour or
:wo of pumping in and pumping out
but at length the heart beats regular
y and the lungs work naturally once
more. The same thing could probably
De done with a human being, if one
had the proper fluid to work in his
Ieins and arteries"
She Ratified Dewey.