he methods in use for resuscitation of
the apparently drowned, that the new method was devised. This committee
made many experiments upon the cadaver but failed to arrive at any
definite conclusion by that means. The necessity then appeared of
thorough investigation of the subject by experiments upon animals, so
that the phenomena attendant upon drowning might be better known, and
the various methods of resuscitation properly tried. These experiments
were made in Edinburgh by Professor Schafer, with the co-operation of
Dr P. T. Herring, and the results obtained were embodied in the report
of the committee, which was presented to the Royal Medical and
Chirurgical Society in 1904, and published as a supplement to volume 86
of the _Transactions_ of the society. As the direct outcome of these
experiments, Professor Schafer was led to believe that a pressure method
of resuscitation was not only simpler to perform but also more
efficacious than any other. This conclusion was put to the test by
measurements of the results obtained upon the normal human subject by
the various methods in vogue; from these measurements, which were
published in the _Proceedings_ of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in
December 1903, it appeared that when such pressure is exerted in the
prone position the highest degree of efficiency as well as simplicity is
obtained. The description of this method was communicated to the Royal
Medical and Chirurgical Society, and was published in the following year
(1904) in volume 87 of the _Transactions_ of the society.

Thus it came about that by investigating the phenomena of drowning, and
the means of resuscitation in dogs, and by applying the results obtained
to man, the method which the society now advocates as the best was
arrived at. In the experiments referred to, it was found necessary to
drown 38 dogs, all but two of which were from first to last in a
complete state of anaesthesia, the two exceptions having been simply
drowned without anaesthesia. It is important that the public should
understand that the evolution of a method which will probably be the
means of saving thousands of lives has resulted from the painless
sacrifice of less than 40 dogs, a number which would doubtless in any
case have been destroyed by drowning or some other form of suffocation,
but without the benefit of the anaesthetics which were employed in the
experiments.

[Illustration: FIG 8..--Schafer method of treatment of the appar