Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1874 — Artificial Respiration. [ARTICLE]

Artificial Respiration.

The new method of artificial respiration brought forward as a substitute for Dr. Marshall Hall’s is warmly commended by some of the foreign medical journals. According to this system the patient is laid on the ground upon his back, his arms fully extended backward and outward, a firm roll of clothing being placed beneath the false ribs, eo as to throw their anterior margin prominently forward. The tongue being held forward by an assistant, the operator, facing the patient, kneels astride his abdomen, and places both hands so that the thumbs rest upon the anterior margin of the false ribs, the four fingers falling naturally into the four corresponding intercostal spaces on each side. The elbows of the operator being then planted against his sidess he has but to throw himself forward, using his knees as a pivot, and the entire weight of his trunk is brought to bear upon the patient’s false ribs. If, at the same time, the fingers of the operator grasp and squeeze the false ribs toward each other, these combined actions crowd the false ribs upward and inward, producing the greatest possible motion of the diaphragm and displacement of the contents of the pulmonary air-cells. The operator then suddenly lets go, and returns to the erect position oh his knees, when both the inrush of air and the natural elasticity of the ribs at this part cause instant return to their normal position. This, repeated with proper rhythm and frequency, constitutes the entire process.