Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/213

Rh precaution; as violent shaking of the body might extinguish the latent spark of life.

4. The mouth and nose must be cleansed from the mucus and froth, by means of a feather dipped in oil.

5. The whole body should now be gently wiped and dried with warm flannel cloths, then covered with blankets, feather-beds, hay, straw, &c. In cold or moist weather, the patient is to be laid on a mattress or bed, at a proper distance from the fire, or in a room moderately heated; but in the warm days of summer, a simple couch is sufficient.

6. If the patient be very young, or a child, it may be placed in bed between two persons, to promote natural warmth. (See also the Warming Machine, delineated in the second Plate, and described p. 192.)

7. In situations where the bath cannot be conveniently procured, bladders filled with lukewarm water should be applied to different parts of the body, particularly to the pit of the stomach; or a warming-pan wrapped in flannel gently moved along the spine; or aromatic fomentations frequently and cautiously repeated.

8. As the breathing of many persons in an apartment would render the air mephitic, and thus retard, or even prevent the restoration of life, not more than five or six assistants should be suffered to remain in the room where the body is deposited.

Stimulants generally employed:

1. Moderate friction with soft, warm flannel, at the beginning, and gradually increased by means of brushes dipped in oil, till pulsations of the heart are perceptible.

2. Inflation of the lungs, which may be more conveniently effected by blowing into one of the nostrils, than by introducing air into the mouth. For the former purpose, it is necessary to be provided with a wooden pipe, fitted at one extremity for filling the nostril, and at the other for being blown into by a healthy person's mouth, or for receiving the muzzle of a pair of common bellows, by which the operation may be longer continued. At first, however, it will always be more proper to introduce the warm breath from the lungs of a living person, than to commence with cold atmospheric air. During this operation, the other nostril and the mouth should be closed by an assistant, while a third person gently presses the chest with his hands, as soon as the lungs are observed to be inflated.—For a more effectual method of alternately introducing fresh air into the lungs, and expelling that which is rendered mephitic, or unfit for respiration, we refer the reader to the second plate, Fig. 1, described in p. 190, and following.

3. Stimulating clysters, consisting of warm water and common salt; or a strong solution of tartar emetic; or deceptions of aromatic herbs; or six ounces of brandy, should be speedily administered.—We do not consider injections of the smoke of tobacco, or even clysters of that narcotic plant, in all instances safe or proper.

4. Let the body be gently rubbed with common salt, or with flannels dipped in spirits; the pit of the stomach fomented with hot brandy; the temples stimulated with spirit of hartshorn; and the nostrils occasionally tickled with a feather.

5. Persons of a very robust frame, and whose skin after being dried,