An enquiry into the causes of suspended animation from drowning : with the means of restoring life. by David Hosack, M.D.

  • Hosack, David, 1769-1835.
Date:
1792
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry into the causes of suspended animation from drowning : with the means of restoring life. by David Hosack, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    17/46
    2d. Refpiration. To live and to breathe are fy- nonimous. It is not my intention to inveftigate the phyfual caufe of refpiration (for fuch an attempt in the prefcnt imperfect ftate of phyfiology would be as abfurd as an attempt to explain the caufe of death, from an interruption of the mere aft of re- fpiration ;) but to point out its connection with the other functions, and thereby with the living prin- ciple. In the lungs (the organs of refpiration) there are two fets of blood-veiTels, thz bronchial and the pul- monary •, the firft, from their fize and diftribution, are by all admitted as exprefsly for the purpofe of nourishing the lungs-, it is alfo as univerfally admit- ted, that the blood, in its pafTage through the pul- monary artery, is deftined to undergo fome changes, or to acquire certain effential properties from the action of the air, which it has loft, and at the fame time to part with fome impurities which it has ac- quired, in its circulation through the other parts of the body : this is evident not only from the action of air upon the blood out of the body, but alfo from the changes which is obfervable immediately upon its pafiing through the lungs into the left au- ricle of the heart, viz. from a dark blackifh colour to a bright and florid red; as alfo from the effects of fufpended refpiration, and breathing an impure air.