aB2olfe;v-:■''-.-' '."■■■-'  - ■■■-■>■-,■.  .=".::'■"■ .--x^-;":'  -  V-













;f.ji  -    wr-'Vy  :   .'■'•>'-'-i|"S-ip,  .;-,-r?        '  :
 
 
Afc*v let* 3t*a*   Teachers' A'.ooo.t

           REPORT
OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED ON
                               V
MRS. WILURD'S THEORY OF RESPIRATION.
N. Y. STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.
READ AND ACCEPTED AT THEIR CONVENTION AT BUFFALO,

           August 7, 1851.
i^H
          ALBANY:

PRINTED FOR THE COMMITTEE, BY H. H. VAN DYCK.
            1851. 
VslF
N532,r
U5i
F<X4n MO- iZ-Zo, """' I 
REPORT.
   The Commmittee appointed to report to the New York
State Teachers' Association, on  the Theory of Respiration,
by Mrs. Emma Willard, beg leave to state that they believe
the Theory to be true.
   1. Because the arguments being clearly stated by that author,
and founded on known and uncontrovertible laws, lead by a few
steps to the logical conclusion that the principal motive power
which produces  the circulation of the blood, is furnished by
the caloric, generated by respiration ;  operating in one part
of a circulating system, viz : the lungs, which has its opposite
or exterior, where the heat is abstracted by coming under the
cooling influence  of  atmospheric air,  and is  taken off  by
vaporization.
   2. In support of this Theory,  we find a great  number of
facts ; and none to disagree with it.
   3. We have found in a medical work of high authority, an
elaborate attempt to answer the Theory, on the principles of
physical science, which, in our opinion, is a total failure.*
  4. We find our opinion upheld by some of the first minds
of the community, not excepting some of the Medical Faculty.
  * The "New York Medical Journal," Sept., 1846. Replied to by Mra.
Willard in the same journal, March, 1847. 
                              4
   5.  And finally—the Theory has been most  signally upheld
 by the proof a posteriori, furnished by operations,  which  re-
 sulted in the immediate  cure of the Cholera,  as related in a
 work entitled " Respiration  and its Effects, more  especially
 in relation to  Asiatic Cholera and other Sinking Diseases."*
   This theory affirms that  the motive  power, which causes
 the circulation of the blood, is created by an expansion of the
 volume of the blood  in the lungs, produced by the combustion
 of the carbon of the venous  blood, caused by the oxygen of
 the air, introduced by breathing.
   This theory affirms, further, as a general principle, that  if a
 fluid is contained in a system of vessels, as, for example,  the
 blood in the circulatory system of animals, if heat be applied
 to one portion of this system, and the fluid be carried from the
 heated part and elsewhere condensed, and thence return to be
 again heated, then will this alternate expansion and condensa-
tion produce a perpetual circulation.
   Yet while it maintains that respiration furnishes the princi-
 pal motive  power, it shows that the action of the heart is
 necessary to open and close the valves  of the blood vessels in
 order to render the expansion available to  carry on circulation
 in certain positions;  also that circulation is assisted by exer-
 cise, and by other aids.
   That animal heat is caused by a combustion  in the  animal
 system, furnished constantly with oxygen from the air inhaled,
was first taught  by Lavoisier, and is so fully established  by
 Liebig, that it seems to be no longer a contested point.

  * A copy of this work, which was published in the autumn of 1849,  was
by Mrs. Willard presented to each of the members of the N. Y. State Teach-
ers' Association, during their  convention in the city of New York in the
summer of 1850, with a request, to which the society acceded,  that a com-
 mittee be appointed to investigate the theory, and report concerning its truth.
  Mrs. Willard's previous work, " On the Motive Powers which produce the
 Circulation of the Blood," has for its object to show that the principal motive
 power is furnished by respiration. 
5
   Heat causes expansion,  and it also  converts  the  watery
particles of the blood into vapor, or steam, when the pressure
of the air is removed, wholly or in part.
   That the lungs contain vapor,  appears  from the fact that
they collapse whenever air is admitted to their external sur-
face.   This vapor must have been  formed in the lungs, and
not elsewhere ; it in part fills and  distends them.
   The lungs being partially free from atmospheric  pressure *
the degree of heat necessary to convert the watery part of the
blood into vapor, is  less than  the mean temperature of the
blood, or  below 98°.  Water  in  vacuo  is  converted into
vapor at 67°.   Hence, if this animal heat is sufficient  to con-
vert water into vapor, then  there is a motive  power sufficient
to cause a circulation of the blood.  The  action of the heart
gives a  pulsatory motion to the  current thus  formed,  adds
some force, and equalizes its flow.
   The following facts are from John Bell's Anatomy and Phy-
siology.   See vol. 1, page 350:—" Galen  called the right
auricle the ultimum moriens, or the  part which  died last, for
upon opening the body, soon after death, he found the right
auricle filled with blood, and still palpitating with the remains
of life, when all the other parts seemed absolutely dead." The
cause of this accumulation  of blood on the right side of the
heart seemed to have employed the thoughts  of Haller dur-
ing half of his life.   He says " that when the lungs are col-
lapsed, no blood can pass through them ; but it must accumu-
late on the right side of the heart."
   Bell himself asserts, that  in this case " the right auricle has
behind it all the blood of the body pouring in  from all parts,
during the last struggles, but the left auricle has nothing be-
hind it but the empty veins of the lungs," i. e. the pulmonary
veins.   " Nothing can fill  them but what  fills the vessels  of
the lungs."
  * The opponent of the theory, in the  New York  Medical  Journal, admits
the fact of a partial vacuum in the luogs. Seethe  "New York Journal of
Medicine," September, 1846. 
6
Facts which agree with the Theory of Circulation by Respiration 4

   1. A system of blood vessels exists, through which a mass of
inert blood, equal to twenty-five or thirty pounds weight, in a
full grown  human  subject, is perpetually circulating.   It is
contrary to the laws of physics  that inertia  should be over-
come without force.   There must, therefore, in this circle of
circulation, be one power, or more.  Where  is the piincipal
power 1  In order to find its place, let the machine stop, by the
power  ceasing  to act.  The fluid will move onward  by its
last impulses, and  leave a  void in  front of  the power ; it will
go on to  the rear, and  there be congested; and  hence the
vessels leading to  it will be  full and  distended, while those
leading from it are empty.*   Death  is the  stopping  of the
animal machine.  At death  the blood  stops in the  lower
capillaries  of the lungs, just where it would stop provided
Mrs. Willard's theory were true; and this great fact not only
agrees to the truth of the theory, but it contradicts  any other
hypothesis.  For, if the principal  motive  power were  in the
heart, then  at  death the tubes  conducting from the lungs to
the left ventricle of the heart, being in  the rear of the  power,
would  be engorged—but  on the  contrary,  they are  found
empty.   The  principal motive  power,  proceeds  then, not
from the heart,  but from the capillaries of the lungs.
  2. Suppose such a system of blood vessels filled with the
usual quantity of blood, and suppose that the circulation stops7
the organs being yet unimpaired, and  the  problem is  to find
means to set the current in motion.   If there be found one
power, operating only in a  particular place,  and  that alone
will set the current in motion, then is  it logical  to conclude
that that is the  principal motive power, and it is needless to
look for any other.   In such a  case in  the  animal system,
restored respiration, (it may at first  be artificial,) operating of
           • See the extract, just inserted, from John Bell. 
7
course at the lungs, sometimes  sets the current into renewed
motion ;  and  nothing else has ever  been known  to do it.
Therefore, respiration, operating at the lungs, to send forward
a stream of warm blood, (through what was before an empty
tube, the  pulmonary vein, so called,)  which touches  and
excites the heart to renewed contractility, is the true motive
power of the circulation, and this  is precisely what is taught
in Mrs. Willard's Theory of Respiration.
   The fact  that resuscitation  after drowning, stifling  with
carbonic acid gas, as in fumes of charcoal, is produced, if at
all, by forcing air into the lungs, is too well  known  to  need
proof from  authority.  But  there  is much of this at hand.
John Bell, vol.  1, p.  382, says :—" The heart of a creature
never moves if its  lungs lie collapsed ; but the heart returns
to act, the very instant that pure air is forced into the lungs."
   3. On the hypothesis  that the combustion of carbon in the
lungs, creating there an expansive power,  is the cause of the
circulation,  then must there be a constant supply of that fuel
brought  to  the  right  place.  If the  all-wise Maker of the
human machine has provided for such  a constant supply, and
put it in the right place to receive the action  of the air, where
life enkindles, and oxygen comes, then this proves the hypo-
thesis to be  a true theory of respiration.  These facts are sig-
nally true.  The All-wise has created  food and given appe-
tite, leading animals  by pleasure,  and compelling them  by
excruciating pain to provide, and eat such food, as will form
carbon, which is properly concocted, and  thence  received
into the lungs; and if any  thing hinders  this, the  machine
stops for want of fuel, i.  e. death ensues.
   4. If the  motive power operates by water, springing into
vapor in the lungs, then the Maker  of the machine must make
provision for a constant  supply of water, or the machine will
stop.  The  Almighty has created water to fill more space  on
the earth than aught else, except air, and he compels animals
to drink  it,  by the  pleasure which  they take in the cooling
beverage, and by the  horrible pains of thirst, if they do not 
8
 drink ;  and if water be not supplied, then the machine stops
 for the want of motive power.
    5. Again, how is it  in  respect to the supply of air, which
 on this theory must be momentary'?   Air  is  the fluid  which
 God has made to surround us, and He has made it with such
 properties, that by no natural means can it be kept from  us.
 The instinct of breathing is the first and strongest of all our
 instincts.   He has so made the body that the animal bellows
 must work, whether with or against our will.  We may work
 it faster or slower for a  little time, controling it within certain
 limits, but we cannot hinder breathing, by  which we momen-
 tarily renew the  supply of air.  If by the violent  closing of
 the aperture by which  air  enters the lungs, as  by hanging,
 then the machine stops  for want of motive power, no matter
 how healthy and  how perfect is the heart  and all  the  blood
 vessels.   These classes of facts each prove that the hypothesis
 advocated is a true theory—much more the  agreement of all.
   6. If the circulation in the animal machine is carried  on as
 this theory assumes, then there must  be a nice adaptation of
 the external coldness of the capillaries of the system with the
 internal  heat generated  in  the lungs; otherwise the whole
 mass might come to receive  the same  temperature, and this,
 no matter what the temperature was, would stop the machine.
 If the Creator has made  provision for this adaptation, that
 will be an additional argument  to prove the theory, and if
 no such provision was made, the want of it  perpetually sub-
jecting the machine to  the failure of the circulation, would
disprove the theory.  Here again we have the instinct and the
supply.  The  subject has a feeling of comfortable warmth
when the external temperature properly balances the internal;
but an instinct of coldness which obliges him to seek clothing
and shelter, when the proper balance  requires it.   These in-
stincts make it a necessity for man to procure clothing, houses
and especially beds to lie in when he sleeps, when  breathing
being slow,  internal heat diminishes.   The  effect of climate,
as in the colder regions,  where air is more condensed, giving 
9
 external coldness,  at  the  same time that it kindles more in-
 tensely the internal fire.   The food—fuel provided being ani-
 mal, with  much carbon in  cold countries, and fruits with little
 carbon in  hot, all  show that  the  Creator has made not only
 man, but the external world, for just such a state of things as
 this theory supposes.
   Thus we have  abundantly shown that not only  isolated
 facts, but great classes of  facts, agree to the truth of this the-
 ory, many of which exclude any other hypothesis concerning
 the motive power which produces the circulation of the blood
 than that it is produced by an expansive power, operating at
 the lungs, and generated by respiration.
   The  Committee beg leave  to  lay before the Association
 extracts of letters from eminent persons, (the originals of which
 were in their possession,) showing in what light this theory of
 respiration is viewed by those who have had the time to exa-
 mine it with care and attention.
   With regard, also, to the cure of cases of cholera, the Com-
 mittee had  in their possession  the original letters and papers
 published in Mrs. Willard's Theory, and also others not pub-
 lished, and the statement of  persons of character, known to
 the Committee or some of  them,  who had been present with
 the persons attacked, or heard them assert that they had been
 attacked with cholera,  and following the methods pointed out
 by Mrs. Willard, had been instantly relieved.
   The committee would suggest that the Association memo-
 rialize  the  Legislature,   requesting  a  commission   to  be
 appointed  to examine, experiment and report; which com-
 mission shall be in  part members of the medical faculty, and
 in part scientific persons, not of that faculty.
   This theory,  if true, is of the utmost importance to man's
 physical well-being.  Let  it then be acknowledged, received
 and taught, instead  of the errors which are now in our  schools
 on  this important  subject.  The Medical Faculty have, it
appears to  us, shown some  prejudice, by leaving a subject of
so much interest to  the millions, comparatively speaking, un- 
10
noticed.  It promises,  if true, to teach people to preserve
their health, and in important cases to restore  it without
medical aid.
  The discovery, if it be a discovery, is a great one.   It ori-
ginated not among doctors, but teachers—and with a female
teacher, too.  From all these circumstances, we recommend
that the Association agree on a petition to  the Legislature,
in order to draw out, if any exist, latent objections; and not
to leave so valuable  an acquisition to  human knowledge, to
the  mercy of those whose prejudices of sex and profession
might mislead their judgment.
                           THOMAS S.  TWISS,
                           JOSEPH FELLOWS,
                                            Committee.
   From the numerous documents subjected to their inspe( tion?
 the Committee select, to lay before the  Association, the fol-
 lowing :

 EXTRACT OF  A COMMUNICATION FROM THE WELL KNOWN
  DR. R. J. BRECKENRIDGE, NOW SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
  IN KENTUCKY, TO MRS. WILLARD.
   Dr.  R. J. Breckenridge presents his  respectful salutrtions
 to Mrs. Willard, and returns his sincere thanks for the copy
 of her very interesting work on the circulation of the I lood,
 which he received some weeks ago, just  on the eve of remov-
 ing from Pennsylvania, and which  he  has availed himself of
 the earliest leisure to read with great attention.   *   *   *  *
 And he must say that the theory of Mrs. Willard seems to
 him.eminently ingenious, and, to say the least, full of proba-
 bility ; and that it is exhibited in her little work with great
.clearness aad  ability. 
11
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE HON. JOHN WILLARD, JUDGE
  OF THE  SUPREME COURT, TO MRS. EMMA WILLARD, DATED
  SARATOGA SPRINGS, JANUARY 17, 1850.
  Your letter, with your valuable pamphlet on %< Respiration
and its Effects," came during my absence.
  I carefully read  the pamphlet, at my earliest leisure, and
was struck with the originality and  soundness of your theory,
and of the train of reasoning  by which  it is supported.  Its
failure to  command universal assent, at once, if such should be
the case, will  afford no argument  against  it.  It would be
strange if it did not meet with  some opposition.  It has to
encounter the prejudices of early education, and the influence
of  professional pride.   No  discovery  leading to essential
changes in medical practice has ever been  received without
distrust.  It requires time to enable the  general  mind to be
imbued with new  truths, and  perhaps it  is  best that it is so.
The delay leads to the  multiplication of new facts, affording
scope for a more extensive generalization, and  thus strength-
ening the arguments by which the doctrine  is supported.
  EXTRACT OF  A LETTER FROM PROFESSOR BURLEIGH, OF
        WASHINGTON, D. C, DATED OCTOBER 2, 1850.
  Mrs.  Willard— *   *  *  *   *   I read with great profit
your remarks upon the Asiatic  cholera.  It  appears  to  me
that your views are correct.  I intend to call the special atten-
tion of the Faculty of our Medical College to your theory.
  I am fully convinced that thousands annually go down to
the grave for the want of a  knowledge of JEropathy.   My
impression is, that your " pathy" will  eventually supersede
every other pathy, and that the time  will come when  the
medical profession will acknowledge  the  truth, even if  it is
first promulgated by those out of the medical profession.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM DR. DANIEL GREGORY* OF BOSTON,
       TO MRS. EMMA WILLARD, DATED  JULY 22, 1851.
  Dr. Gregory, after desiring Mrs. Willard's approbation to a
Society for  Medical Female Education, says—this is more
especially—" from the fact  of your having investigated and
written upon  the  human organization; I have read your
treatise on the circulation of the Blood,  and think it not only
exceedingly interesting as elucidating very satisfactorily  the
motive powers of the circulation, but deem it of great practical
utility in the preservation of health." 
12
  EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO MRS. EMMA WILLARD FROM DR.
    CHARLES A. LEE, DATED NEW YORK, MARCH 29, 1847.
  Dr. Lee was at that time editor of the N. Y. Medical Journal, in which
appeared the articles against Mrs. Willard's Theory, referred to in the Report
which was published September, 1846.  The article referred to in Dr. Lee's
let'er was the Reply of Mrs. Willard, contained in theN. Y. Journal of Medi-
cine, March, 1847.

  Bear Madam—On my return to the city, after an  absence
of a few weeks, I found your article, &c.   If there  are any
errata of consequence they may  be pointed out in my next
number.  I consider your reply extremely able and well rea-
soned,  and calculated to stagger the faith of some who have
hitherto slighted your Theory.  With many thanks  for your
favor, &c.
 LETTER  FROM  DR. RICHARD BLOSS, A REGULARLY EDUCATED
            PHYSICIAN, TO MRS. EMMA WILLARD.
                                     Troy, December 4, 184!).
   Bear Mrs.  Willard—In relation to  the case of Mrs.  G.,
 mentioned in the fourth section of your treatise on " Respira-
 tion and its Effects," I presume her symptoms, as related by
 you, and described  in her letter to  yourself, are conect, and
 such as might have been expected from her appearance in the
 morning, when I saw her.
   She was then languid and prostrated, from a  debilitating
 diarrhoea, which had followed her through the night, her pulse
 feeble, with a pallid  countenance, and I was not surprised  at
 being called to  visit her in  haste  in the evening, nor to hear
 from the messenger  that she was  sinking with cholera—but
 was agreeably surprised, on arriving, to witness the improve-
 ment which appeared in her symptoms, even from what they
 were  in the morning.  She was sitting upright in the bed,
 facing the open window, and covered with a profuse perspira-
 tion, her countenance flushed, and her  eyes brilliant, and to
 my inquiry how she was, answered in  a clear, strong voice,
 and with cheerful manner, " Much better than I have been."
 On applying my fingers to her wrist, I found a strong, distinct
 pulse, and my first impression was, that she had been taking
 some  diffusible  stimulant,  so  entirely had her  appearance
 changed.   But  on inquiring of herself and  the family where
 she was staying, what were her symptoms when you arrived,
and learning that she had loss  of voice, extreme prostration
livid countenance, and all those symptoms which characterise
cholera, and comparing  these with the  condition  in which I 
13
found her, and  knowing  the  process  which she  had gone
through, I could not but attribute  her  great and sudden  im-
provemement to the effect of strong artificial respiration.
       Very respectfully yours,      RICHARD BLOSS.
COPY OF A LETTER TO MRS. EMMA WILLARD FROM MR. J. W.
  HOWARD,  OF NEW  YORK, NOW A  MEMBER OF  THE RENS-
  SELAER INSTITUTE IN TROY, TESTD7YING TO  HIS  CURE OF
  CHOLERA BY APPLYING HER PRINCIPLES TO PRACTICE.
  Madam—In conformity with your request, I will endeavor
to give you  a brief account of a  severe illness,  which I was
called upon  to  endure during this last  summer, and which
might have  hurried me to an  early grave, had it not  been for
the excellent advice obtained by  reading  your valuable trea-
tise on Respiration.  I would not trouble you  with  this ac-
count did I not know the labor you have undergone in en-
deavoring to place this subject in its proper light before the
public.
  It was about the middle of August, 1850, that I was seized
with a severe diarrhoea.  I tried  the usual remedies  and  suc-
ceeded in partially checking it,  so much so, that I did not
refuse myself the gratification of a cold bath upon retiring for
the night.   After going to bed I  felt extremely  cold  and  en-
deavored, by shifting my position, to regain the natural stimu-
lus, at the same time feeling a strange distress at the  pit of my
stomach  and an  excrutiating pain in my bowels—I might
almost say agony—and I was about getting up for the  purpose
of calling assistance, when I  bethought me of Mrs. Willard's
plan, as I called it, and with  little expectation  of success, I
must  acknowledge, I arose and went to the window,  and by a
succession of violent artificial breathings  and severe exercise
of my arms, throwing back my chest and  bringing into action
all the muscles of the upper part  of my body.  I succeeded in
obtaining a rapid circulation of the blood, and upon regaining
my  bed I wrapt my bed clothes around me and soon fell into a
profuse perspiration.  Shortly after I fell asleep and awoke in
the  morning refreshed by the  sweet slumbers of the night and
cured, no doubt of cholera.   If this statement can be of any
use to you you are at liberty to  use it, as may seem to you
best.   With heartfelt gratitude for your timely instruction,
           I remain, yours most respectfully,
                          J. W. HOWARD, New York.
  Troy, Bee. 12, 1850.
Mrs. Emma  Willard, Present. 
14
                       [FROM THE WEW YORK TRIBUNE.]
                 "RESPIRATION"—THE CHOLERA.
  We  opened this fair  pamphlet with slender hopes of edification from its
perusal, for while we were not wholly ignorant of  Mrs. Willard's fame as a
teacher, we were not before aware that the healing art was within the range
of her inculcations.  Her former work announced on the title page of this—
"A  Treatise on the  Motive Powers which  produce the Circulation  of the
Blood," never having attracted our attention.  But the scepticism with  which
we commenced, speedily gave place to curiosity, and this to interest,which in
time deepened into  conviction  that an important discovery had  been made,
which was here given to the world.   Let us endeavor to give the reader some
notion of Mrs. Willard's theory, so  far as a  single perusal of her pamphlet
and the limits of a brief article  enable us to do it.
  Respiration (she holds) is the primary cause of the Circulation of the
Blood.  The action of the heart  no more causes circulation than the action of
the piston creates the motive power  of the steam-engine.   But Respiration,
introducing Oxygen into the lungs, brings it  in  contact with the  Carbon of
the blood, producing a modified combustion, of which the action of the heart
and the circulation of the blood are  effects.   A certain degree of heat is es-
sential to the integrity of the blood and the action  of the lungs.   That heat
failing, the fibrin of  the blood separates from  the serum, as may be seen by
experiment.  The lungs, no longer inflated by the steam or vapor created by
the process of combustion, collapse; breathing ceases and death  ensues.  A
reduction of the temperature  of the  heart and lungs  is therefore certain,  un-
less counteracted and overcome, to result in death.
  How the special cholera miasm is  produced, or why cholera prevailed here
in 1849 and not in '48, we do not understand  Mrs. Willard  as attempting to
show.  But the earlier stages of the disease are indicated by languor,  feeble
or difficult respiration, coldness, oppression at the chest and general debility,
and these too often pass unregarded.   Nature  soon recognizes the presence of
a deadly foe,  and rallies  her forces for a desperate struggle.   Her  spasmodic
exertions  and discharges are not truly the disease,  but her efforts to master
it.  The fundamental difficulty is a disorder, prostration and partial paralysis
of the organs of respiration, whereby the lungs become at first partially and
as it proceeds wholly filled with carbonic acid gas, to the exclusion of freshly
inhaled or oxygenated air, so that  the blood ceases to be oxygenated on its
exposure at the lungs, and the process of combustion is suspended or stifled,
like the fire smothered beneath its own ashes.  This is cholera, and at length
collapse.   What is to be done to counteract it is not to fill the stomach with
drugs, or empirical mixtures, or anything else—though some medicines may
indirectly aid in effecting the needed reaction—but to expel the bad air from
the lungs and replace it by good.  In other words, the carbonic acid orother
poisonous gas must be expired and a full supply of fresh, pure, invigorating,
wholesome air inhaled in its stead, until the combustion at the lungs is fully
re-established, the blood restored to rapid and vigorous circulation,  and  the
rekindling of the vital flame is evinced (as it will be) by flushed features and
a profuse perspiration.   In case of a tendency to relapse, this counteraction
is to be repeated, The following is  Mrs. Willard's account of the application
of her theory, in the  case of a young woman who, after four day's  suffering
from diarrhoea, was stricken down, during the  late cholera season, by collapse,
and nearly deprived of speech, sense, and voluntary motion:
  " So benumbed was she, that, as she moved,  or rather was moved along,
she did not feel her feet touch the floor or the stairs.   She was, when in the
open air, placed in an upright position, with her back resting against a  board
wall, a fresh breeze blowing full in  her  face.  I then told her to breathe
violently, for she must get the bad air out of her lungs, and the good air in.
At first she said, * 1 can't; something rises up on the inside.' I told her that
her life depended on  it, and she  must.  She then made violent efforts.   Being
accustomed to teach,  I succeeded, after  earnest  endeavors, in showing her
what I would have her do. 
15
    My directions* were, that she would draw her arms down, to aid the
motion ot the ribs in compressing the chest; and for the same object to  bend
toward, curving the spine between and just below the shoulders;  and throw
out the air from the  bottom of the lungs with violence and with successive
ejections, as if under the operation of an emetic.  Having  done this, to stand
upright, raise the arms from the shoulders, resting the hands upon the hips,
bo as to give the chest its utmost capacity;  and to catch in the breath several
times successively with violence, as if cold water were thrown in the face ;
and  to continue inhaling, until she had filled her lungs to their utmost disten-
sion; then, as before, to throw out the air from their lower parts with force.
She said, ' It makes my head  feel dreadfully.'  * No matter,' said I, «it is a
good sign;  I expected it.'   In a few minutes  after the deep breathing was
fairly established—perhaps I might say as  soon—and while  I was watching
with intense anxiety the patient's face, the color changed from the 'clay-cold
death-look' to the full flush of the warm hue of life.   Never  did I witness
any  sight with emotions so intense.  A sign in the heavens, portending good,
could not have affected me more."
  "  The deep breathing, being several times resumed after the struggles, soon
confirmed a free circulation, and she could walk unsupported.   She joyfully
exclaimed, ' O, I feel well!'  And she added, ' I should soon have died if you
had not come to me; every thing was all dark to me.  I thank you.'  ' Thank
God,' said  I, *it is His air which has  cured you.'  In about  an hour after, I
sent her to walk to the next street, to  see Dr. Robbins, to tell her own story,
and get some medicine, of which her previous complaints indicated the neces-
sity.
  "This was,  it is true, a sudden restoration.   So was the attack; and  if
death from cholera had been sudden, who would  have wondered?   Had she
been struggling with the pangs of drowning, she might have been as suddenly
relieved.  If carbonic acid was  in her lungs, and restoration occurred by
throwing it out, the relief would, of course, be immediate.   If you  have  an
irflammation in your finger, and poultice it, restoration will be slow: but, if
you  find and pull  out a sliver, the finger will be fit for use at once."
  There are several other cases  like this,  and the author's  theory is stated
far more fully and clearly by herself than by us, but, as our purpose is not to
supersede, but to call attention to the pamphlet, we refer the  reader whose
interest  has been awakened, to  Mrs.  Willard's  own  exposition.  We  shall
undoubtedly have the cholera back again next season, and the public cannot
be too well guarded  against its  sudden attacks.   Here is a remedy which
asks nothing of the apothecary, which any one can take or administer, and
which can hardly by possibility do harm, except in cases of inflammatory dis-
ease, in  which  it must not be  resorted to.   Let no one, when attacked,
neglect  or delay  sending  for a good  physician, but  that need not interfere
with the thorough ventilation of the lungs.  We trust the Medical Faculty,
or at least some part of it, will not disdain  to  profit  by a  woman's  observa-
tions, if they have resulted in the discovery of  important truth.—H. Greely.

               [rROM THE HEW YORK ADVOCATE AND FAMILY GUARDIAN.]
                                                           January 5, 1850.
"Respiration and its Effects ; more especially in relation to Asiatic Cholera, and  other
    sinking diseases.  By Emma Willard, Author of " A Treatise on the Motive Powers
    which Produce the Circulation of the Blood,"  and various Historical and Educationa
    Works.  New York : Huntington & Savage, 216 Pearl street."  Price 25 cents.
  We have read this work with the deepest interest, and unhesitatingly com-
mend it to the careful perusal  of our  friends  and patrons.   The subject of

  * Those I describe with particularity, because others may hereafter wish to follow them.
But I warn any one against it, unless confident that his disease is one in which coldness and
obstructed circulation prevail.   If he should do the same thing in an inflammatory disease,
it would injure him.  But if any  one feels himself sinking with coldness and debility—if he
has breathed the  fumes  of charcoal, or is freezing with a chill which is creeping  on his
ritals, and inducing him to drowse ; or, if the coldness of cholera comes over him, let him
Arouse, he has not a moment to lose, and if he has, beforehand, learned what was done at
this time, let him go and do likewise. 
16
which it  treats  is one of vital  importance,  and,  so  far as we can judge, is
handled with intelligence and skill.  It appears to us that  the theory here
advanced commends itself to the plain common sense of the people, and  that
the facts adduced in its support will be found " stubborn things" by the oppo-
nents of this theory.
  We live in an  age which, while it awards high respect to the medical pro-
fession, is slow to believe that any one of the existing schools has reached the
pinnacle of human knowledge in the " healingart," and slow to award to any
the claim to  infallibility.   If  new light, of an  important  type, has been
obtained relative to the laws of life and health, who shall refuse to receive it
because the channel of communication  has been the female mind, instead of
some popular school  of medical science ?  The simple  question should  be,
" What is truth ?"  and when a visitation  like the cholera is abroad in the
earth, though it  may, for an uncertain period, have suspended its ravages, it
surely becomes those who are exposed to its attacks to
                   "Seize upon truth where'er 'tis found,
                    Among their friends—among their foes."
  If what is advanced in Mrs. W.'s new work be correct, then a great truth
is discovered, the right understanding of which may save life, even when  its
dim taper barely flickers in the socket, and that by the most simple and avail-
able means.   We could wish this little work  in  every family on the broad
earth, where cholera has ever been, or may yet be, an unwelcome visitant.
Its perusal can do no harm, and may do  immense good.
                         [FROM THE LONDON CRITIC.]
A Treatise on the Motive Powers which Produce the Circulation of the Blood.  By Evma
          Willard. 8vo.  London and New York, 1846.  Wiley & Putnam.

  Proportionate  to the degrees of refinement which severally characterized
the nations of whom history has taken note, the enfranchisement of the facul-
ties of woman, and her consequent elevation in the social scheme has steadily
kept  pace.  And it  is a feature  most honorable to the present  age, that
throughout the states of Europe and America, which are blessed with free
institutions, woman holds at this time a higher intellectual position, and  has
a greater respect paid to her  faculties  and her person, than at any previous
period through which the world has passed.
  Bravely, too, has woman vindicated her claim to these prerogatives.  To
say nothing of mere writers of fiction, we have  in England  a Mary Somer-
ville, who handles with consummate ability the grandest and most important
of the physical sciences.  *  *  *  Neither is America backward in accord-
ing to woman the freedom for mind, and respect  to her talents, which  justly
are her due, nor  far behind us in the quality and capacity of genius which the
sex develop.  We have been led to these remarks, because in the book before
us (which is by an American lady)  we have an instance  of a woman under-
taking to discuss a subject that has perplexed and baffled the ingenuity  of the
most distinguished anatomists and physiologists who have considered it, from
Harvey down to Paxton; and  what is more remarkable, so acquitting herself
as  to show that she apprehended as forcibly as the best of them the difficulties
which beset  the  inquiry,  perceived as quickly as they did the errors and
incongruities of the  theories  of previous writers; and, lastly, herself pro-
pounding  an  hypothesis to account for the circulation  of the blood, and,
according to her ideas, the consequent action of the heart, equally novel and
ingenious, bearing upon its face a strong similitude of truth, and certainly
eminently entitled to  the serious attention and examination, by the test of
experiment, of all who profess or take an  interest in physiological science. 
 

il»*
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
NLM Q3277Ebr2  5

.AS
•ill