Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/214

188] dried, assumes a rigid and contracted surface, may be put into the sub-tepid bath, of about 65°, which must be gradually raised to 75 or 80°, of 's scale, according to circumstances; or the body carried to a brewhouse, and covered with warm grains for three or four hours: but these expedients generally require medical assistance.

6. Violent shaking and agitation of the body by the legs and arms, though strongly recommended, and supposed to have often forwarded the recovery of children and boys, appears to us a doubtful remedy, which can be practised only in certain cases.

7. Sprinkling the naked body of a drowned person with cold water; submitting it to the operation of a shower-bath, or the sudden shocks of the electric fluid; as well as whipping it with nettles, administering emetics, and blood-letting,—are desperate expedients, which should be resorted to only after the more lenient means have been unsuccessfully employed.

It is, however, a vulgar and dangerous error, to suppose that persons apparently dead by immersion under water, are irrecoverable, because life does not soon re-appear: hence we seriously entreat those who are thus employed in the service of humanity, to persevere for three or four hours at least, in the application of the most appropriate remedies above described; for there are many instances recorded, of patients who recovered, after they had been relinquished by all their medical and other assistants.

Treatment on the return of life: As soon as the first symptoms of that happy change become discernible, additional care must be taken to cherish the vital action, by the most soothing means. All violent proceedings should, therefore, be immediately abandoned, no farther stimulants applied, nor even the ears of the patient be annoyed by loud speaking, shouting, &c. At that important crisis, moderate friction only is requisite. And, if the reviving person happen to be in the bath, he may either remain there, provided his sensabe easy and agreeable, or be removed to a comfortable bed, after being expeditiously dried with warm flannels: fomentations of aromatic plants may then be applied to the pit of the stomach; bladders filled with warm water, placed to the left side; the soles of the feet rubbed with salt; the mouth cleared of froth and mucus, and a little white wine, or a solution of salt in water, dropped on the tongue. But all strong stimulants, such as powerful electric shocks, strong odours of volatile salts, &c. are at this period particularly injurious. Lastly, the patient, after resuscitation, ought to be for a short interval resigned to the efforts of Nature, and left in a composed and quiescent state: as soon as he is able to swallow, without compulsion or persuasion, warm wine, or tea, with a few drops of vinegar, instead of milk, or gruel, warm beer, and the like, should be given in small doses frequently repeated.

Having stated the leading particulars to be attended to, in the practical treatment of persons who are on the eve of suffering from aquatic suffocation, we shall accompany them with a few directions, addressed to those humane assistants who often fall victims for want of due precaution in the execution