|
| "Marshall Hall" | 13 | 254 " | 3.300 " |
| Rolling (without pressure), | | | |
| "Marshall Hall" | 12 | 192 " | 2.300 " |
| Traction (with pressure), | | | |
| "Silvester" | 12.8 | 178 " | 2.280 " |
+------------------------------+--------+---------------+--------------+

These experiments all tend to show that by far the most efficient method
of performing artificial respiration is that of intermittent pressure
upon the lower ribs with the subject in the prone position or face
downward. It is also the easiest to perform, requiring practically no
exertion, as the weight of the operator's body produces the effect, and
the swinging forwards and backwards of the body some thirteen times a
minute, which alone is required, is by no means fatiguing, and has the
further great advantage that it can be effectively carried out by one
person.

See Taylor, _Medical Jurisprudence_; "Description of a simple and
efficient method of performing artificial respiration in the human
subject, especially in cases of drowning," by E. A. Schafer, F.R.S.
(vol. 87, _Medico-Chirurgical Society's Transactions_); "The relative
efficiency of certain methods of performing artificial respiration in
man," by E. A. Schafer, F.R.S. (vol. 23, part i. _Proceedings of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh_); _A Method for the Treatment of the
Apparently Drowned_, by R. S. Bowles (London, 1903); _Handbook of
Instruction_, Royal Life Saving Society (London, 1908). (W. HY.)

_Penal Use of Drowning._--As a form of capital punishment, drowning was
once common throughout Europe, but it is now only practised in
Mahommedan countries and the Far East. Tacitus states that the ancient
Germans hanged criminals of any rank, but those of the low classes were
drowned beneath hurdles in fens and bogs. The Romans also drowned
convicts. The Lex Cornelia ordained that parricides should be sewn in a
sack with a dog, cock, viper and ape, and thrown into the sea. The law
of ancient Burgundy ordered that an unfaithful wife should be smothered
in mud. The Anglo-Saxon punishment for women guilty of theft was
drowning. So usual was the penalty in the middle ages that grants of
life and death jurisdiction were worded to be "_cum fossa et furca_"
(i.e. "with drowning-pit and gallows")