t him, and crape was tied to the handle of the front door.
Standing by the side of his lifeless babe, Dr. Ely said to himself, "If
this theory should be true, I might yet save my child." And profiting by
the example of Dr. Cartwright in restoring the dead alligator, he
restored his child to life. Remitting his efforts too soon--again the
infant ceased to breathe. And again, and yet the third time, the father
restored him--when the resuscitation proved complete; and months after,
the child was living and in perfect health. Dr. Ely then came promptly
forward, and, like a nobly honest man, reported the case as convincing
evidence of a truth which he had formerly opposed.[8]

Whoever wishes to know the history of theories concerning the motive
powers of the blood as they then stood, may learn them by looking over
files of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, edited by Dr. J. V. C.
Smith, for the years 1852-'53, and a part of 1854. Dr. Cartwright wrote
for it during those years; and, encouraged by his protection, I
frequently answered objections, which flowed in from various medical
opponents. The objection derived from the foetal circulation, I answered
thus, in the Journal, of May, 1852: "The change occurring at birth, so
far from falsifying this theory, affords presumptive proof of its truth.
When first the air enters the trachea of a new born infant, and animal
combustion begins, the inflation of the lungs must open the vessels and
vesicles prepared to receive the venous blood. To fill the new-made
vacuum, the whole of the blood from the right ventricle rushes through
the pulmonary tube, leaving none to go through the _ductus arteriosus_,
thus made useless, and henceforth to be abolished. But what is to move
the blood from the capillaries of the lungs? The heart's force,
insufficient before without aid from the mother's respiration, is now
divided, while its work is doubled. A new power must then be generated
by the meeting of the air with the carbon of the blood, enkindled by the
peculiar functional vitality of the lungs. Without such a power, no
perceptible cause exists sufficient to move the blood onward to the left
ventricle. But it is moved thither, and with a power which presses down
and closes the valve of the _foramen ovale_, thus clearly manifesting
that this current exceeds in force that in the right ventricle. Grant
that the new function of respiration has furnished a new power, and this
astonishing instant