Manual of popular instructions, for recovering persons apparently dead from drowning, suffocation, lightning : to which are added, remarks on the accidents incident to children and cautions, hints &c to persons exposed to the accidents and diseases for the prevention and cure of which this tract is designed / drawn up under the sanction, and with the assistance of Dr. Hawes, institutor and treasurer of the Royal Humane Society, London.

  • Hawes, William, 1736-1808.
Date:
[1806]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of popular instructions, for recovering persons apparently dead from drowning, suffocation, lightning : to which are added, remarks on the accidents incident to children and cautions, hints &c to persons exposed to the accidents and diseases for the prevention and cure of which this tract is designed / drawn up under the sanction, and with the assistance of Dr. Hawes, institutor and treasurer of the Royal Humane Society, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    when there is no chimney, to keep the door open, and to place A large tub of water in the room. 1 On Baihing, Skating, Is'c, In the act of drowning, \t often happens, that he who hastens to rescue his companion, loses hismvn Hfe —To pre- vent this, the assistant should make a running noosf on a handkerchief, cravat, or garter; tlien, with caution, ap- proach his struggling companion, and instantly pass the lioose over a hand or foot, and thus draw him with safety on shore. It lias been found that the bodies of persons drown- ed in small rivers or ponds, are much sooner discovered find taken out by means of rakes, or of hooks lixed on long poles, than by the drags, which are best calculated for those places where the water is deep and broad, and where boats can he had to make use of them. As the gaining even of a few minutes in such cases, is often of the utmost importance, it is recommended to the inhabitants of those places which have rivers or ponds in their neighbour-; hood, to be provided with several instruments of the form imd size of a muci-r/m^, but with the tines or prongs rather Tuore bent down. These instruments are to be fitted on light poles of ten or twelve feet in length: and to prevent the body receiving any injury from them, each tine or prong should be guarded by a small plate of iron, shaped like the segment of a circle, and welded on about half an iiich from the point, in the same way that is now done with the drags. —On an emergency, an instrument like what we have de- scribed, may be easily made, by heating the prongs of a common pitching fork, then bending them down at the place where they divide, to about a right angle with the shaft. It will sometimes happen, that the body cannot be reach- ed by these instruments, and no boat be at hand to use the drags in the ordinary way. In such case, we would recom- mend, that the drag be made fast to the middle of a long lope, which is to be stretched across the river or pond,