theory, on account of the remarkable experiments
by which he demonstrated its truth. In the presence of eminent
physicians, and other scientific persons, he resuscitated an alligator
which had been killed by tying the trachea. After an hour, when neither
fire nor the dissecting knife produced signs of pain, Dr. Dowler[7] laid
bare the lungs and the heart. Then a hole was cut in the trachea, below
the ligature, and a blow-pipe was introduced, which Professor Forshey[7]
worked with violence. At length, a faint quivering of moving blood was
seen in the diaphanous veins of the lungs. The inflating process being
continued, the blood next began to run in streams from the lungs into
the quiescent heart. The heart began first to quiver, then to pulsate;
and signs of life elsewhere appearing, the animal began to move; and
soon, strong men could not hold him. Again they bound him to the table,
and kept the trachea tied until life was apparently extinct; when, again
inflating his lungs, he so thoroughly revived that he became dangerous,
snapping at everything, and breaking his cords. For the third time, the
trachea was ligatured--the animal expired, and was resuscitated.

Dr. Cartwright says in his letter to me, published in the Boston Medical
Journal, January 7th, 1852, "By this resuscitation, your theory of the
motive power of the circulation of the blood was established beyond all
doubt or dispute." "This vivisection clearly proved that the _primum
mobile_ of the circulation, and the chief motive powers of the blood,
are in the lungs, and not in the heart." Dr. Cartwright mentioned, in
the same letter, a case in which his faith in my theory had saved the
life of a breathless infant--inducing him to unwonted perseverance in
inflating its lungs.

Able opposers to the theory, however, arose in New Orleans, some of whom
believed that the resuscitation might have been effected by applications
to the nerves. Dr. Cartwright procured, from Gen. Jackson's battle
ground, another alligator, which was publicly killed and vivisected. The
doctor's opponents first tried their means to bring the animal to life,
and failed. Then he, by artificial respiration, restored the huge
reptile as before;--thus proving that artificial respiration could
restore suspended animation when nothing else could.

Dr. Ely was one who had opposed and written against the theory. In the
meantime, his infant son had cholera, and expired. His medical friends
had lef