When children are dead born, or expire soon after the birth, the same means ought to be used for their recovery, as if they had expired in circumstances similar to those mentioned above.
These directions may likewise be extended to adults, attention being always paid to the age and other circumstances.
The foregoing cases and observations afford sufficient proof of the success which may attend the endeavours of persons totally ignorant of medicine, in assisting those who are suddenly deprived of life by any accident or disease. Many facts of a similar nature might be adduced, were it necessary, but these, it is hoped, will be sufficient to call up the attention of the public, and to excite the humane and benevolent to exert their utmost endeavour for the preservation of their fellow creatures.
In short, not only the ordinary signs are very uncertain, but we may say the same of the stiffness of the limbs, which may be convulsive; of the dilation of the pupil of the eye, which may proceed from the same cause; of putrefaction, which may equally attack some parts of a living body, and of several others. Haller, convinced of the uncertainty of all these signs, proposes a new one, which he considers as infallible.—“If the person (says he) be still in life, the mouth will immediately shut of itself, because the contraction of the muscles of the jaw will awaken their irritability.” The jaw however, may be deprived of its irritability though a man may not be dead. Life is preserved a long time in the passage of the intestines. The sign pointed out by Dr. Fothergill appears to deserve more attention.—“If the air blown into the mouth, (says this physician) passes freely through all the alimentary channels, it affords a strong presumption, that the irritability of the internal sphincters is destroyed, and consequently that life is at an end.”—These signs, which deserve to be confirmed by new experiments, are doubtless not known to Undertakers.
The difficulty of distinguishing a person apparently dead from one who is really so, has, in all countries where bodies have been interred too precipitately, rendered it necessary for the law to assist humanity. Of several regulations made on this subject, we shall quote only a few of the most recent; such as those of Arras, in 1772; of Mantua, in 1774; of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1775; of the Senuhausée of Sivrai, in Poitore, in 1777; and of the Parliament of Metz in the same year. To give an idea of the rest, it will be sufficient to relate only that of Tuscany. By this edict, the Grand Duke forbids the precipitate interment of persons who dies suddenly. He orders the magistrates of health to be informed, that physicians and surgeons may examine the body; that they may use every endeavour to recal it to life, if possible, or to discover the cause of its death; and that they shall make a report of their procedure to a certain tribunal. On this occasion, the magistrate of health orders the dead not to be covered until the moment they are about to be buried, except so far as decency requires; observing always, that the body be not closely confined, and that nothing may compress the jugular veins and the carotid arteries. He forbids people to be interred according to the ancient method; and requires that the arms, and the hands, should be left extended, and that they should not be folded or placed cross-wise upon the breast. He forbids, above all, to press the jaws one against the other; or to fill the mouth and nostrils with cotton, or other stuffing. And lastly, he recommends not to cover the visage with any kind of cloth, until the body is deposited in its coffin.
We shall conclude this article by subjoining, from Dr. Hawes’s Address to the Public on this subject, a few of the cases in which this fallacious appearance of death is most likely to happen, together with the respective modes of treatment which he recommends.
In apoplectic and fainting fits, and in those arising from any violent agitation of mind, and also when opium or spirituous liquors have been taken in too great a quantity, there is reason to believe that the appearance of death has been frequently mistaken for the reality. In these cases, the means recommended by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, should be persevered in for several hours; and bleeding, which in similar circumstances has sometimes proved pernicious, should be used with great caution. In the two latter instances, it will be highly expedient, with a view of counteracting the soporific effects of opium and spirits, to convey into the stomach, by a proper tube, a solution of tartar emetic, and by various other means, to excite vomiting.
From the number of children carried off by convulsions, and the certainty arising from undoubted facts, that some who have in appearance died from that cause have been recovered; there is the greatest reason for concluding, that many, in consequence of this disease, have been prematurely numbered among the dead; and that the fond parent, by neglecting the means of recalling life, has often been the guiltless executioner of her own offspring. To prevent the commission of such dreadful mistakes, no child, whose life has been apparently extinguished by convulsions, should be consigned to the grave, till the means of recovery above recommended in apoplexies, &c. have been tried; and, if possible, under the direction of some skilful practitioner of medicine, who may vary them as circumstances shall require.
When fevers arise in weak habits, or when the cure of them has been principally attempted by means of depletion, the consequent debility is often very great, and the patient sometimes, sinks into a state which bears so close an affinity to that of death, that there is reason to suspect it has too often deceived the by-standers, and induced them to send for the undertaker, when they should have had recourse to medicine. In such cases, volatiles, eau de luce for example, should be applied to the nose, rubbed on the temples, and sprinkled often about the bed; hot flannels, moistened with a strong solution of camphorated spirit may likewise be applied over the breast, and renewed every quarter of an hour; and as soon as the patient is able to swallow, a tea spoonful of the strongest cordial should be given every five minutes.