Emma Willard

“ Let me, then, as best I may, consider anew the problem of heat as produced by respiration, and see whether I cannot find out something which has a bearing on the fatal coldness of this fearful disease. It is into the lungs, and no where else, that breathing introduces atmospheric air; and it is there that the oxidation of carbon or animal combustion takes place. Thus must caloric be imparted to the blood in the lungs; and in them is one-fifth of the blood of the system, of which seven-eighths is water.
The nature of heat is to expand all fluids. The blood in the lungs must, therefore, expand ”

“ Was there, in the whole wide world, another person besides myself who would have taken such a living corpse, dragged it out of doors, and set it upright, on feet which could not feel, with the expectation that it might breathe out death, breathe in life, and be restored? ”

“ No one believes that the solid parts of his leg warm the blood as much as it warms them. Finally, it discredited the old theory, that it showed no adequate use for the great primary function of respiration, and its constant attendant, animal heat. Breathing and warmth are not ultimate ends. Man breathes to live; he does not live to breathe. He is warm to live; he does not live merely to be warm. Our theory shows that it is these primary agencies which sustain his being ”

“ As to the reviewer’s assertion that heat is generated in every part of the system, and imparted to the solids equally with the fluids—that I positively denied, in the name of common sense. For who does not know that, although there may be some heat elaborated in the stomach, and some during the processes by which the fluids change to solids, that the great source of heat to the system, is in the fluid blood, and not in solid flesh or bone? Our senses of sight and feeling show us, in the case of blushing, that heat comes and goes with the blood. ”

“ The theory of respiration is a truth which will cut its way; and if we do not take it up and teach it, in a few years we may see the mortifying spectacle of the community teaching the profession scientific truths. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Much more, when we discern a mighty power, that of expansion, and see how the Almighty has made our frame in reference to its production by caloric—the lungs allowing of heat within them like wet cloth, and the nerves, bones and muscles all made and arranged, so that oxygen shall be brought to them by respiration on the one hand, and carbon by the numerous digestive and circulatory organs on the other. ”

“ We have read of a theory which maintains that it goes there because there is a mutual attraction between it and the capillaries of the lungs. But there is none between the water in our tube and that in the tin vessel where water is boiling; but it goes into it with a rush notwithstanding. Because there is a strong suction power produced by expansion, no other attraction is needed. The apparatus, as here described, goes no farther than to represent the circulation in single-hearted animals. But in my work is a drawing which shows the left heart on the opposite of the mimic lungs from the right ”

“ I recollected how, in former times, the stage horses, driven rapidly into my native village of a winter morning, had clouds of vapor wreathing upward from their nostrils, while the icicles of condensation were hanging below. The nurse, who stands over the dying, holds a mirror before the mouth and nose, and considers that life is only extinct when vapor ceases to be formed. ”

“ With a coldness that would collapse the lungs, the bowels must naturally be drawn up (and with dreadful pains) to supply their place. The ghastly change in the face must occur when cold has condensed its arterial vapor. If respiration could restore heat, before any lesions had taken place in the organism, the patient might recover. Then I began rewriting my theory in a work afterwards published, with the title, “Respiration and its Effects, especially in relation to Asiatic Cholera and other Sinking Diseases.” ”

“ How easily could these highly intelligent ladies have kept themselves from danger, or saved themselves when they felt it approaching, had they known and understood these principles. For two reasons, in case of the failure of the motive power from keeping the body too long in hot water, the blood would be congested in the head. ”

“ And it was in performing this experiment that a truth was discovered, which, had it been known, many who have ignorantly lost their lives might have preserved them. When the fluid in the apparatus became equally, or nearly as much, heated at the extreme parts of the circulating tube as at the heating vessel, then the motive power of expansion ceased, and (the hand’s impulse being too weak of itself to carry it on) circulation failed ”

“ Second step—Heat evolved in the lungs by Respiration there produces Expansion. Third step—Expansion; implied motion, which from the organism must conduct the blood to the left ventricle of the Heart. Theory imperfect, until the formation of sufficient vapor or steam in the lungs is perceived and acknowledged. ”

“ Afterwards, having been instrumental in relieving a woman who was perishing from having breathed the fumes of charcoal, I was led to reflect that in such cases there was something to be taken away from the lungs, as well as warmth to be added. This woman’s extreme coldness, and feeble, fluttering pulse, showed that she was dying for want of right breathing ”

“ As I passed southward on my journey, I left, March, 1846, my manuscript in the hands of Wiley & Putnam, in N. York: [4] to be published at my expense. During the six months in which I was absent on my travels, my book was published; and the publishers sent copies, as directed by me, to many of my personal friends, and to several physicians. ”

“ Cartwright, then of New Orleans, announced in a letter to me that he had publicly become my advocate. His name will ever be connected with the 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. ”