Fig. 119.—Artificial Respiration. Silvester’s Method. Expanding the Chest.
Fig. 120.—Artificial Respiration. Silvester’s method. Compressing the Chest.
Silvester’s Method.—Lay the patient on a flat surface, the head and shoulders supported on his coat folded into a firm cushion. Loosen all tight clothing, and if wet replace it by a warm dry blanket, his arms being outside the blanket. Clear the mouth of dirt, blood, &c., draw the tongue forwards, and fasten it to the chin by a piece of string or tape tied round it and the lower jaw. Next, standing at the patient’s head, grasp the arms at the elbows, and draw them gently and steadily upwards till the hands meet above the head (see fig. 119); keep them so stretched for two seconds. Then slowly replace the elbows by the sides, and press gently inwards for two seconds (see fig. 120). These movements are repeated without hurry about fifteen times in a minute, until a spontaneous effort to breathe is made, when exertion should be directed to restoring the circulation by rubbing the limbs upwards towards the body, and by placing hot bottles at the pit of the stomach, to the armpits, between the thighs, and to the feet. Should natural breathing not commence, artificial respiration should be continued for two hours before success is despaired of.
Fig. 121.—The Spray-producer.
Richardson’s Ether Spray-Producer (fig. 121) consists of a tube on which two india-rubber bags are placed; one, protected by a silk net, acts as a reservoir; the other, furnished with a valve, is the pump; these drive a constant stream of air over the tip of a fine tube projecting from a flask of ether; this sucks up the ether and throws it in fine spray on the surface to be chilled by its evaporation. The ether for this purpose must be very pure and dry, having a specific gravity of ·720, or the evaporation will not be sufficiently rapid to produce congelation. The first effect of the spray is a numbing aching pain with reddening of the surface. This is succeeded by a pricking pain. In ten seconds, if the ether be good, a dead white hue spreads rapidly over the skin, and when this appears the surface is quite insensible.
The bottle and elastic air-pump may be attached to the glass jet seen in the corner of fig. 121, which then makes an apparatus for injecting astringent solutions in spray over the nasal passages, the throat, and air-tubes; but the tubes used for watery fluids are much wider than that for pulverising ether into spray. Tannin in solution of 3-10 grains to the ounce of water, sulphate of zinc, or alum in similar quantity, may be thus inhaled with much benefit by persons suffering from chronic congestion of the mucous membranes.
Injecting Chloroform Vapour into the Uterus is a ready means of relieving pain in cancer of that organ; special apparatus is made for the purpose, but an ordinary elastic clyster syringe will answer the purpose, if the flask is unscrewed and a few drops of chloroform are poured into it, from time to time, while air is pumped through the delivery tube, which is passed up the vagina to the ulcerated cervix-uteri.