Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/217

Rh execution of their benevolent design.

As many fatal accidents happen to individuals who wish to rescue others in danger of being drowned, especially when the former are unskilful in the useful art of swimming, which ought to be learnt at an early period of life, we think it our duty to remind the reader of the two excellent contrivances already described in our first volume, under the articles, and. Every family dwelling on the banks of lakes or rivers, or near ponds, ought to be always provided with two or three such useful articles, to serve in cases of emergency; as it will generally be too late to procure them on the spur of the occasion. Beside the various instruments represented in our first plate on this subject, and immediately to be described, there is another method of discovering the body of a drowned person, when immersed under water. Although we do not give implicit credit to novel and improbable schemes, yet, independently of its presumptive authenticity, we think the following narrative entitled to attention: it is inserted in the 37th volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, for April 1767.

The body of a child drowned in the river Kennet, near Newbury, Berks, was discovered bv a very singular experiment.—After diligent search had been made to no purpose, a two-penny loaf, with a quantity of quicksilver put into it, was set afloat from the place where the child had probably fallen in, which loaf steered its course down the river upwards of half a mile, before a great number of spectators, when the body happening to lie on the opposite side of the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about, swam across the river, and gradually sunk near the child, when both the child and loaf were immediately brought up, with garblers ready for that purpose.—In apparent confirmation of this extraordinary occurrence, we meet with the following account in Dr. 's Practical Essay on the Art of Recovering Suspended Animation, &c. (12mo. pp. 210. 3s. 6d. Murray and Highley, London, 1801).—A student of a certain university being drowned, an unsuccessful search was made for the body. A bye-stander advised his young friends to procure a large loaf; to scoop out part of the crumb; fill the hollow part with mercury, and then to throw this quicksilver-pye upon the current: he averred that it would become stationary at the place where the drowned was lying. They followed his advice, and the body was actually found.—As we have had no opportunity of ascertaining the truth of these narratives, by the test of experience, we shall only add, that there appears to be no chemical affinity between mercury and the human body, while in a living and healthy state; and that the swimming of a loaf, partly filled with that metal, may perhaps be attributed to a similar degree of specific gravity procured by this artificial combination.

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I. Of the Plate representing the "Instruments for recovering the Drowned."

Fig. 1, A forked instrument with blunt points, for making a superficial search after the drowned body, and sounding the particular situation in which it lies. Fig.