Title: Theory of Circulation by Respiration - Synopsis of its Principles and History
Author: Willard, Emma, 1787-1870
Language: English
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                                 THEORY

                                   OF

                      CIRCULATION BY RESPIRATION.

                SYNOPSIS OF ITS PRINCIPLES AND HISTORY.


                          WRITTEN, BY REQUEST,
                 FOR THE "U. S. JOURNAL OF HOMŒOPATHY,"
                            BY EMMA WILLARD.


                               NEW-YORK:
    FRANCIS HART & CO. PRINTERS AND STATIONERS, 63 CORTLANDT STREET.
                                 1861.



                                 THEORY

                                   OF

                      CIRCULATION BY RESPIRATION.



SECTION I.

First step in the discovery--Animal Heat the product of Respiration.
    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.

TO DR. MARCY.--In complying with your request to write for your journal
an article embodying my theory of the motive powers which produce the
circulation of the blood, together with some account of its rise and
progress, I obey what I regard as a call of duty; and thus requested, do
it with pleasure.

But my theory, with its history, cannot thus be written without egotism.
Logicians say, that the way to convince others is to retrace, in order,
the steps by which you yourself became convinced, which is to be
egotistic. But in this case, there is a further reason: the scientific
discoverer must speak of the apparatus by which he experiments, and mine
was often my own physical frame.

Twenty years ago, while yet my mind, laboring with this great subject,
was condemned

                                "to drudge
    Without a second and without a judge,"

you, sir, comprehended the hypothesis which has now become a theory, and
you waited not for others to speak, but you fully acknowledged its
truth; and although, in Hartford, as now in New-York, you were thronged
with practice, (then allopathic), you yet found time to furnish me with
added experiments, made in your office, confirmatory of its truth, which
by your permission were afterwards added in your name to my published
work.

The first step in the theory occurred to my mind in the winter of 1822,
and while I was engaged in founding the Troy Female Seminary. Being in
attendance on a course of lectures on chemistry, and at the same time
teaching to a class Mrs. Marcett's excellent work on that subject, one
cold morning, as I was walking briskly up a hill, I said to myself, Why
do I grow warm? Whence comes this accession of caloric? It cannot be
transmitted to me from any object without, because every thing which
comes in contact with me is cold. Snow is under my feet, and frosty air
surrounds me; and, as to clothing, even the softest furs _impart_ no
warmth--they but keep from escaping that which comes from within. What
other method besides transmission is there of gaining heat? There is the
elimination of caloric, when, in substances chemically combining, weight
is gained and bulk is lost. Is there any such combination going on in
me? Yes; this atmospheric air, when I inspire it, has oxygen combined
with nitrogen; but when I expire, the oxygen has disappeared, and
heavier substances--carbonic acid gas and watery vapor--are returned in
its place. Thus, it must be, animal heat is evolved. It is the product
of respiration; and it is because I breathe faster and deeper, that more
carbon is oxidized or burned, and more heat is set free in my lungs; and
therefore I grow warm as I walk up this hill, though all around me is
cold.

The mind, excited by new and great thoughts, works with unwonted energy;
and mine at once collected so many proofs, that I became perfectly
convinced of the truth of the hypothesis. In searching books, I found
that Lavoisier had taught the same; but he dying, his doctrine was
discarded by English chemists, Dr. Black leading the way, and therefore
it did not then appear in English systems of chemistry. But from that
time, I cherished it with a mother's devotion, watched changes in my own
physical frame relating to it, taught it to my pupils, and held warm
disputes with the medical faculty, who opposed and contemned it.

In the summer of 1832, the Asiatic cholera appeared among us, appalling
every heart. This plague, I said, is a disease of coldness and
obstruction; and these doctors, wrong as they are on the subject of
animal heat, can never understand it--though, if Lavoisier were living,
he might. 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; and if it expands, it must move; and if it moves, it
must, from the organism of the parts, move to the left ventricle of the
heart, into which the valvular system opens to give it a free
passage--whereas the valves of the right close against it. "Eureka!" I
mentally exclaimed; "I have found the _primum mobile_ of the circulation
of the blood." I had for years disbelieved that the heart's slight
mechanical impulse was that cause. In teaching Paley's "Natural
Theology," my mind had come in contact with the passage in which he
describes the heart's more than Herculean labors; and I said, "This is
altogether too much--the heart alone cannot perform all this--there must
be some other power," and an abiding desire to know what that power
could be, prepared me for receiving this great idea. But my mind was
agitated by it, as the sea is, when a great rock is thrown into its
waters.

The cholera was then raging around me; and as I prepared to flee from it
to a mountain air, I confided to a scientific friend, Professor Twiss of
West Point, my hypothesis, which I regarded as probably the incipient
germ of an important discovery.

But there was first the former theory to be disproved; and then there
were new points to be investigated and established. In the ensuing
winters of 1833, 4, and 5, I gave much attention to the subject, and
employed professors in my school in the departments of chemistry and
natural philosophy, who assisted me,--particularly by their ingenuity in
the construction of such simple pieces of apparatus as were needed.

Thus we proved that, although the heart's action gives pulsation, it
does not necessarily give circulation. By an endless india-rubber tube,
filled with water, coiled upon a table and struck repeatedly at one
point, a pulsation was produced throughout, but no circulation. By
affixing the tube to a vessel of water, and laying it on an inclined
plane, the water ran through it in an equable current, making
circulation with pulsation. Clasping the hand upon the tube in
successive contractions, the fluid passed on _per saltem_, producing
circulation and pulsation united, but no acceleration of the current.
Now, add valves to the tube on each side of the opening hand, and you
will have the current--which is moving by gravitation, accelerated by
the hand's impulse, as the blood's current, first moved by respiration,
undoubtedly is by the heart's beat.

The heart we regard as the grand regulator of the blood's flow; and it
is admirably situated for measuring out a regular portion of blood at
every contraction. John Bell, believing in the Harveian theory, said,
"It is awful to think of the unfixed position of the heart;" and
Dr. Arnott declared that "the heart, the heart alone, is the ragged
anomaly in the laws of fitness in mechanics." The heart was now seen to
have a right position; for it should swing loose that its moorings be
not endangered; and, as whatever impugns the Creator's unerring wisdom
must be wrong, so the presumption is, that whatever vindicates it must
be right.

My hypothesis assumed the principle, that, if an endless hollow tube be
filled with a liquid, the liquid can be made to circulate perpetually,
if it be heated at one point and cooled before its return. A drawing of
the simple apparatus by which this problem was proved, is given in my
published work on "the Motive Powers, &c." The figure which represents
this apparatus gives the learner the most simple idea possible of the
connection of the respiratory and circulatory systems, and of the
combination of the two motive powers; the first, or chemical, coming
from the lungs, and the second, or mechanical, from the heart.

Suppose the heart divided into right and left hearts by dissection at
the septum: the circulatory system might then be represented by an
endless tube. Let such an one, nine or ten feet in length, and of one
inch bore (to be filled with water) be placed upon a horizontal table.
Let an enlargement of the tube be made by a tin vessel to represent the
lungs, which shall contain about one-fifth part of the water. Let the
tube connected with the right side of the vessel have, at a little
distance from the vessel, a smaller enlargement, composed of
india-rubber, which can be grasped by the hand, to represent the heart's
right ventricle, with a valve on each side opening towards the tin
vessel, the two to represent the tricuspid and semi-lunar valves. Let
the whole be made nearly full of water; then, under the tin vessel
(representing the lungs), let a fire be made. As the water heats, it
will expand; and as the valve closes to the right, it will go off to the
left side of the vessel. But, as no water will come in from the right,
on account of the valves, there will be no current. Now let the hand
grasp the india-rubber, and the fluid between the valves being displaced
by its pressure, all the water will go towards the tin vessel, because,
while the valve representing the tricuspid would close, that
representing the semi-lunar (between the mimic heart and lungs) would
open--and very freely; because the expansion made by the heat under the
tin vessel had created a vacuum, and thus made a suction power to draw
it forward, while there is a driving power behind to force it onward
into the tin vessel. Then relaxing the hand, a vacuum will exist between
the two valves; and the valve in the rear of the current now begun (the
tricuspid) would open, and the water rush in to fill the vacuum in the
india-rubber ventricle, to be again pressed forward by the next grasp of
the hand; and thus--the fire (representing respiration) being kept up,
and the alternate grasping and relaxing of the hand (representing the
heart's regular impulse)--a perpetual circulation might be made to go
on;[1] but not without another condition of the problem.

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; but it was restored by putting snow or
ice around the extreme parts of the tube. How often have we heard of
ladies who, having gone into warm baths, have been found dead by their
friends, or too nearly so, to be restored.[2] Through ignorance of the
cause, no right means would be taken to restore them, such as dashing
cold water upon the exterior, with simultaneous efforts to produce, in
fresh air and in proper position, such artificial respiration as leads
to the natural. Where no internal lesions have occurred, there is every
reason to believe that such measures might produce restoration.

My imperfect machines gave me to see how much might be done for this
important part of physiology by a more perfect apparatus. Mine was
merely horizontal--but one might be made to take as many positions as
are natural to the human frame; and how many facts might such an one
elicit concerning the effects of position on the circulation, by which
lives might every day be saved! But skilful mechanicians, not ordinary
mechanics, are needed, who are men of intellectual capacity, and are
furnished with _carte-blanche_ for time and expense.[3]

The years 1836-'7-'8 witnessed, on my part, several extraordinary and
fruitless efforts to get before the public the theory, of whose truth
and importance I was then fully convinced. In 1839, Dr. C. Smith, then
of Troy, an able medical lecturer, became a convert to the theory; and
showed me, in post mortem dissections, the organs of respiration and
circulation. At the close of that year, having carefully corrected and
made out copies of my manuscript theory, which I had before written, I
sent two to Paris--one to the two brothers, Drs. Edwards, members of the
French Institute, and one to my friend, Madame Belloc. I also sent one
to Edinburgh, to Dr. Abercrombie. Dr. Milne Edwards soon after wrote a
book, in which he made it a point to show that animals could live
several minutes without breathing; and Dr. Frederic Edwards wrote me a
short letter of objections to my theory, and adherence to that of
Harvey. This letter was copied and answered in my work published in
1846.

About this time, Dr. Aikin, of Baltimore, wrote to me on the subject;
and showed, by calculations, that the mere gradual expansion of the
water of the blood was not sufficient, of itself, to produce a current
as rapid as that of the blood was proved to be, even on the lowest
estimate of its velocity. This did not shake my faith in the great fact
that circulation was created by respiration. It must be so; for in life,
such respiration as produces heat is the invariable antecedent of
circulation, and nothing else is. There was something, then, which
remained to be discovered. Again, I placed before me the conditions of
the great problem, and set myself intently to its study; and I soon
found what I thus sought, and then discerned for the first time that the
blood moves, as does the railroad car, by steam. John Bell, my favorite
author, had shown that the lungs work _in vacuo_. A great proportion of
the blood is water, which, in a vacuum, springs into vapor at 67°, and
the temperature of the blood in the lungs is 101°. Its expansion, then,
was not merely the gradual increase of bulk by transmitted heat, but
also that of instantaneous expansion, by the vaporization of so much of
it as is needed; and what expanded water could not do, steam certainly
could. At once, a throng of proofs came to my mind. The most apparent of
these was the vapor _expired_ breathing. 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. Then came to mind the solution of that great mystery of
physiology, why the arteries are empty at death, which so long hindered
the discovery finally made by Harvey.

In the state in which chemistry was, even as late as the time of John
Bell, the chemical power of the heat produced by respiration at the
lungs could not have been understood.


SECTION II.

Publication of the Theory, in 1846, in "A treatise on the Motive Powers
    which produce the Circulation of the Blood." Its Reception: Critique
    in the New York "Journal of Medicine," September, 1846. My Reply, in
    the same Journal, March, 1847.

TO DR. MARCY.--In the years immediately succeeding 1840, (in which year,
as you will recollect, I had the honor to receive your countenance and
advice respecting my theory,) I was almost exclusively devoted to the
revision and enlargement of my historical works; but early is 1846,
having determined on making the tour of the United States, I resolved
first to prepare my theory for the press. In the introduction, I
remarked, "The house of clay in which the mind dwells must receive a
portion of its care; and that which I have bestowed on mine has
proceeded on a belief in the truth of the theory herein advocated, as
undoubting as that in the laws of gravitation; and when any new fact, or
any remark of an author, relating to my theory came under my
observation, I noted it down and laid it by with its kindred. About to
set out on a long journey, and aware that my field of vision had thus
enlarged, I felt it my duty to put together the principal of my remarks,
that I might so leave the subject, that, in case anything should prevent
my return, it would be in a form equal to the present slate in which the
theory exists in my own mind."

The time I had spent in devotion to this theory, the many rebuffs I had
met in seeking to promulgate it--sometimes, unhappily, affecting my
social life--had made painful the duty of publishing it. My historical
works had been received with favor; but I believed that, in publishing
this, it would be charged against me that I chose a subject unsuited to
my sex. I therefore said, in my preface, "This is not so much a subject
which I chose, as one which chooses me; and if the Father of Lights has
been pleased to reveal to me from the book of his physical truth a
sentence before unread, is it for me to suppose that it is for my
individual benefit? or is it for you, my reader, to turn away your ear
from hearing this truth, and charge its great Author with having
ill-chosen his instrument to communicate it?"

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. They sent other copies, which procured notices, some of
which were favorable, particularly one from the _London Critic_, and
others, the reverse. As few copies of the book sold, I was not
remunerated for the cost of publication. The copies sent to physicians
were mostly unacknowledged--received in cold, if not contemptuous,
silence. But my family physician, the worthy and learned Dr. Robbins,
to whom I dedicated the work, ever upheld me. He answered my questions,
gave me instructions, and showed me post-mortem dissections; and to
those who asked him if he believed in my theory, he wisely replied,
"Mrs. Willard is right as far as she goes." He knew that I made no
pretensions to understand the vast variety of medical subjects not
connected with the circulation, and that I never doubted his skill or
disputed his prescriptions. An honest man, and a skilful physician, he
deserved and had my unfailing confidence. And if, by reason of what I
knew, I had prolonged my life, he had the longer kept a good and
faithful patient. Lady-friends, to whom I had sent my work, had
sometimes referred it to their medical advisers; and thus Dr. Hiester,
an eminent physician of Reading, Pa., became a believer. And in the same
way, the eminent Dr. Cartwright, then of Natchez, and President of the
State Medical Association of Mississippi, came to a knowledge of those
principles, which, as we shall hereafter show, he so remarkably
elucidated.

In September, 1846, the _New York Journal of Medicine_, then edited by
Dr. Charles A. Lee, contained a review or critique on my work, which, if
the history of the theory shall hereafter become a matter of special
interest, may, with my reply, contained in the March number of 1847,
furnish any examiner with the full state of the question at that period.

The learned reviewer showed himself acquainted with the subject as it
then stood, and with its history in the past. He held that the heart's
action, "the contractile power of the cardiac walls," is the main spring
or _primum mobile_, from which the circulating force proceeds,
notwithstanding the great discrepancies as to what that force is; and
while he objected to my theory, that it did not show any distinct
measure of force, he said that, while Borelli estimated the contractive
power of the heart at 180,000 pounds, Keill stated it at five ounces,
Sir Charles Bell at 51 pounds, Carpenter at 51½, and Hales at 50. He
abandoned, however, Harvey's idea that the heart was the only organ of
circulation. He believed that it was assisted by the contractile power
of the arteries, by the movement of the ribs and chest in respiration,
by capillary attraction, muscular contraction in exercise, and several
other forces; one of which, the attraction of the venous blood for the
pulmonary cells, had been recently pointed out by Dr. Draper. The author
did not suppose he was bringing forward any new truths; "but," said he,
as an introduction to his account of my theory, "are we not sometimes in
danger of forsaking old truths for new theories?"

Of my theory, he says: "The mere statement of it must satisfy our
readers that it is wholly untenable. It is well known that heat is
generated in every part of the system as well as the lungs. Whenever
oxygen and carbon unite, there it is developed; but it is imparted to
the _solids_ equally with the fluids; it maintains the temperature of
the whole body by radiations from the points where it is generated." ...
"It is believed that all those functions of the organism which are
necessary for the preservation of life, contribute directly or
indirectly to the production of animal heat; so that it is developed at
every point at which metamorphosis is occurring, and therefore not
merely in the lungs, but in the whole peripheral system."

The writer then observes, that "the heat of the venous blood as it
reaches the right side of the heart (according to Davy), varies only two
or three degrees from that of the aorta. Granting, then, that the blood
receives three degrees in the lungs, it is very evident that the
expansion produced by it would be too small to be appreciable. The
cause, then, is insufficient to produce the effects." The writer gives
me credit for having ingeniously supported my theory, and then politely
bows me out of the department of physiology into my more appropriate
sphere of educating girls.

In my reply, this sentence from Cuvier was chosen as a motto:
"Respiration is the function essential to the constitution of an animal
body; it is that which, in a manner, animalizes it; and we shall see
that animals exercise their peculiar functions more completely according
as they enjoy greater powers of respiration."[5] My reasoning was to
this effect: "It is in vain to say that cannot be, which is." When
two events are so conjoined in nature that one is the only invariable
antecedent of the other, then, according to all logic, we are bound to
conclude that the first is the physical cause of the second, even though
we cannot understand how it should be. Of the circulation, such living
respiration as produces heat is the invariable antecedent, and nothing
else is. The heart's action, as stated by our reviewer himself, is not
therefore respiration, and not the heart's action or anything else, is
the cause of the circulation. This argument is upheld by the fact that
circulation, varies not only as respiration, but as its products
digestion, strength, and, according to Cuvier, animal vitality vary. All
begin with respiration, end with it, and are as it is. If respiration
ceases, restore it before the organism is deranged, and they are all
restored. We must conclude, then, that respiration is the cause of
circulation, although we could not see how it should be. 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.

As to any deficiency of power, my reviewer had omitted to notice that
not only the ordinary expansion of the water of the blood by calorie had
been assumed, but also its vaporization, or the change of such a portion
as was needed into steam, the lungs being _in vacuo_; so that nature
here had not failed of her usual abundance. And had not this power been
kept in check by the pressure of the surrounding air hindering the
perfect vacuum of the lungs, there was reason to fear, rather its excess
than its deficiency. 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. 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;
and it sets forth the manner in which they operate for this end. And
thus, while it indicates the wisdom of the Almighty in the formation of
the animal frame, it shows itself to be His true interpreter.


SECTION III.

Uses of the Theory--Proofs.--Publication of a Work, in 1849, entitled
    "Respiration and its Effects, more, especially in relation to
    Asiatic Cholera and other Sinking Diseases."--Examples.

TO DR. MARCY.--The theory of the two chief motive powers which operate
at the centre was, we conceive, completed by the addition of steam
formed in the vacuum of the lungs, as available to give to the blood its
due velocity. We also believe that complete proof _a priori_ had been
adduced of the fallacy of the theory that the _primum mobile_ is in the
heart; and, also, that proof _a priori_ had been given that it begins at
the lungs, and is the product of respiration. It remained to apply this
theory to use, and to find proofs _a posteriori_.

Although some of my friends regarded my theory as an _ignis fatuus_
which led me into nothing but evil, yet it has enabled me, by plans of
exercise, to endure for many years, in-door sedentary labor--and yet
enjoy health; and in unusual emergencies, more than once to save my own
life and that of others.

In the cold winter of 1835, I took, at Troy, the old summer stage, at
midnight, to cross the Green Mountains. I was alone in the large and
ill-closed vehicle; the thermometer was sinking as I proceeded on my
way, until it had reached 25° below zero, a degree of cold to which I
had never before been subjected. When I had traveled alone twenty miles,
I found myself in imminent danger of perishing. Ordinary expedients to
get warmth were no longer availing; numbness and cold at the vitals were
overcoming me; and I knew that to give way to them was to die. I thought
of my theory; but I was fearful that I should commit sin if I tampered
with the sacred "breath of life." But my necessity was urgent, and I
aroused, stood up, and breathed that dense air with violence. It felt
for the moment cold to my lungs, but soon came heat with a rush, and
with it pain, as if the whole surface of the throat and lungs were
blistered; and my first thought was that I should die, justly punished
for my temerity. But soon I was restored to genial warmth; and rejoiced
in having successfully made an important physiological experiment.

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; and in her case there was no doubt that the cause was the
same as that of death by drowning. The carbonic acid gas which she had
inspired, being heavier than atmospheric air, settled as water in her
lungs, and in the same manner prevented the access of oxygen to their
living tissues. And hence arose the reflection that the ordinary
carbonic acid gas, which is always the residuum of respiration, might,
from weakness, settle in the lungs, and thus become the cause of disease
and death. The presence of carbonic acid in the lower bronchial tubes
and cells, existing in quantities sufficient to prevent the natural
combustion by breathing, was brought to my mind in March, 1847, while
searching for the cause of an agonizing paroxysm of sick headache. The
distressed feelings of obstructed life with which I was tossing and
struggling, together with the agonizing pain in the head and pressure on
the stomach, might well arise from such a cause. Standing (for position
is important) in a full current of air from an open window, I commenced
a species of violent artificial breathing, for the purpose of ejecting
the supposed heavy gas, and filling my lungs with pure air. This was
done by contracting the chest on every side to its smallest possible
dimensions, and at the same time throwing out the air violently and from
the bottom of the thorax, as if under the operation of an emetic; then
alternating by opening the chest to its greatest capacity, and drawing
in, by successive inhalations, all the fresh air possible, and pressing
it down to the lowest depths of the lungs. This process at first gave
such intensity and sharpness to the pain in the head, that it required
much resolution to continue it; nevertheless it was persevered in. After
a few minutes, the pain diminished, and soon entirely ceased. This was
followed by free perspiration, and equalized, warmth and circulation.
Perfect repose and quiet sleep ensued. Friends, who a short time before
had seen a countenance like that of a dying person, and knew how slow
was ordinary cure, were astonished, an hour afterwards, to behold, on my
awaking, the full glow of restored health.[6]

On the re-appearance of cholera, during the summer of 1849, my mind was
peculiarly affected, from the belief that a false theory of circulation
prevailed, although there was a true theory, which, if generally
believed, might lead to the knowledge of the cause and cure of this
terrific malady; and thus thousands of lives be saved which would
otherwise be lost. This thought almost distracted me; and believing that
my sex stood in the way of my theory's being acknowledged, I sometimes
wished that it might please God to take me out of the world. Then coming
to better thoughts; I cast away despondency as unworthy of me; and
determined to proceed to the further investigation and development of
the great truth, of which I had, as I believed, been made the unworthy
recipient. I studied my theory anew, while I read the most approved
works on cholera; and I came to the belief that imperfect respiration,
caused by the want of due oxygen in the air, was the principal
predisposing cause of the premonitory symptoms; while the death that
supervened was often caused by the settling of carbonic acid gas, the
residuum of animal combustion, in the lower air-cells of the lungs. The
symptoms of the cholera, as treated by the best writers, were full of
new proofs of the truth of my theory, especially of its last step, the
formation of steam or vapor in the lungs. Without that, the collapse of
cholera was a fearful mystery; with it, everything was plain. 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."

While thus occupied, the debilitating air of the season weighed upon my
health and spirits. I had been affected for about three days with what I
regarded as the ordinary complaints of the season, when one night, after
my family had retired, I found myself suddenly very ill--my symptoms
being coldness, debility, and spasmodic pains. I believed myself to be
attacked with cholera. I efficiently practised the artificial
respiration in fresh air as before described. Gaining strength as I
proceeded, I soon found a death-like coldness giving place to genial
warmth. Violent exercise, with artificial breathing, was kept up some
time, with such rests and full free breathings as nature required; after
which, I slept, perspired profusely, and was well in the morning.

This was an occurrence which sunk deep into my mind; and the more so, as
I could not speak much of it, for the truth was too improbable to be
believed. But the successful issue of this, my first experiment upon the
dreaded disease, prepared me to act with boldness and efficiency in a
case which occurred in my own house about a week after.

On the 14th of August, 1849, Jane Phayre, an Irish woman in my service,
of about twenty-five years of age, having been ill for four days with
diarrhœa, was suddenly struck with what the French call cholera
_foudroyant_--from fright. Alarmed by unwonted sounds near her window in
a basement room, she mounted the window-seat to look out at the top
sash, and found her face close to that of a man dying of cholera, who in
his death-cramps was brought from a steamboat on a litter, and thus
rested upon the pavement. The cover was lifted from his face, and the
sight and the smell struck her with faintness and trembling; and with
difficulty she reached her bed. I was called to go to her quickly by
Eliza Fagan, who said that Jane was very bad. She had a clay-cold
death-look, and a frightful blackness around her eyes. Her face, as I
saw it, was livid, pinched in features, and corpse-like, and her pulse
but a feeble flutter; and she seemed only to breathe from the top of her
lungs. She tried, as she afterwards told me, to say, "I am dying," but
her speech was husky and inarticulate. She says her sight and hearing
were gone; and while Eliza and I were dragging her out of doors, she
could not see the window, and did not feel her feet. We placed her in an
upright position, with her back resting against a board-wall, a fresh
breeze blowing full in her face. Her senses were now partially restored.
I told her to breathe violently, for she must get the bad air out of her
lungs and the good air in; and I showed her how she must do it. At first
she said, "I can't, for something rises up in the inside." When I told
her, sternly, that her life depended on it, and she must, she tried to
obey me. At first, it gave her severe headache, but as soon as deep
breathing was fairly begun, while I was watching her face with intense
anxiety, the color changed from the clay-cold death-look to the full
flush of the warm hue of life, and she joyfully exclaimed, "Oh! I feel
well!"

When the removal of carbonic acid gas had made way for oxygen to be
brought to the yet uninjured lungs, the carbon of the venous blood
ignited, the motive power was furnished, the blood was again moved
forward into the arterial system, and the dammed up venous current,
receiving the suction force, rushed on so violently as at times nearly
to produce suffocation; but the struggle was soon over, and the lungs,
free both from carbonic acid gas and an unnatural quantity of venous
blood, once more received pure air--and to the relieved sufferer
respiration became delightful--the circulation passed freely through an
unbroken system--and THE CHOLERA WAS CURED.

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? The result is
a proof, _a posteriori_; that the theory on which the experiment was
made is true.

Other cases occurred, where, under different circumstances, cures of
cholera were effected. One, as instantaneous, and in some respects as
remarkable as that of Jane Phayre, was that of my friend and former
pupil, Mrs. Gen. Gould, of Rochester, who sent for me, believing herself
to be dying of cholera. I have her letter, which, by permission, is
published in my work on Respiration; and also a letter from her
physician, Dr. Bloss, of Troy, testifying that her disease was cholera,
and that he had little hope of her restoration. This letter is published
in the appendix of a report on my theory, read in Buffalo, August 8th,
1851, to a convention of the New York State Association of Teachers.

In my journeying to New York city, to attend their previous convention
in August, 1850, an accident obliged me to walk for some distance, in
the middle of a hot day. The convention sat in Hope Chapel, which was
poorly ventilated; and in the evening, I sat under a large gas-burner.
On entering my room at the New-York Hotel, which was on the ground
floor, situated where the only air was from a confined, central
enclosure, I perceived at the only window a strong smell of fresh paint
from the outer walls, so that I was obliged to close it. Being
excessively fatigued, I slept heavily--till at early dawn I awaked to
find myself in a dying state. Attempting to move my arms, they were like
lead by my side--and my breath was but a feeble gasp. Without the
knowledge of my theory--my bane, as many of my friends have thought--I
should then have had no antidote. But I knew where was the destroying
agent, and what was the only means by which I had a chance of removing
it; and I used the little strength I had left to breathe deeper, and
then to strive for a better position. Long and doubtful was the
struggle. It was ten o'clock when, with tottering steps, I got into a
carriage, and sought the free fresh air, which enabled me to take a
little food. In the evening, I went into the Teacher's Convention,
having first ordered from my publisher a sufficient number of my books
on Respiration to present one to each member; and then, at my request, a
Committee of Investigation was appointed by the convention to report on
my theory. They reported favorably to the succeeding convention at
Buffalo, which adopted the report, and I published and circulated it.
This committee I had been allowed to choose, and it consisted of my
friend, Prof. Twiss--the first believer in the theory--and Mr. Fellows,
that Professor of Natural Philosophy, who formerly assisted in making my
apparatus.

Mr. Fellows carried the report to Buffalo, and when he read it in the
convention, editors immediately came to him to request copies for the
press. But, by the influence of physicians, they afterwards declined it
when offered. It seemed to be the general plan of the regular faculty
(in the Eastern, not the Western, States) to put the theory into a
condition resembling the algide state of cholera, where it would die of
coldness; but, by the aid of Divine Providence, it will, like its
author, restore itself by its own inherent vitality--the vitality of
immortal truth.


SECTION IV.

Proofs from Dr. Cartwright's Great Experiments on
    Alligators--Resuscitation of Dr. Ely's Child--Dr. Bowling, Editor of
    the Nashville Medical Journal, endorses Dr. Washington, who, in that
    journal, "crushes out" all Opposition to the Theory--Dr. Draper's
    Acknowledgment of it in New York--Homœopathists--Conclusion.

TO DR. MARCY. Thus, for thirty years, had I maintained, not only without
public support, but against discouragements, these great truths, of
which I had been allowed for myself such life-giving evidence. But early
in December, 1851, Dr. 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. 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 left 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 fœtal 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 instantaneous metamorphosis from amphibious to mammalian
life becomes perfectly intelligible, and the wisdom of the Creator is
fully vindicated; showing that His work has been truly interpreted."

In the _Boston Journal_, of April 21st, 1852, is an article from
Dr. Cartwright, entitled "Confirmation of the Willardian, or Important
American Discovery," in which the author endeavors to remove what
doubtless has been one cause of the delay in acknowledging its truth.
"Those members of the profession," he says, "whom science has only
_perfumed_, are the most apt 'to look down with proud disdain' on any
discovery originating 'with individuals not indoctrinated.' They do not
make the proper distinction between selfish quacks who seek publicity
'to line the pocket,' and those 'who, prompted by some mysterious
power,' come forward against their interest, and at the risk of their
reputation. 'Rather than to contemn and ridicule, it were better to
study the manifestations of that mysterious power.' They do not consider
that the truth thus brought to light, while they fail to acknowledge it,
is affording 'to selfish quackery' a capital to trade on."

To the same effect is the advice given to the profession by Dr. B. F.
Washington, of Hannibal, Mo. He says, in the Nashville _Journal of
Medicine_, July, 1854, "it is time for us to be acting; the honor of the
profession is in danger. 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. Quacks have already taken it up, and we
have inhalers and air cures of various kinds."[9]

The first appearance of Dr. Washington as the advocate of my theory was
in the _Nashville Journal_, March, 1854; and his fertile genius had
there brought a new illustration of its truth. It had, he said, opened
his eyes to the explanation of a fact which had puzzled him from his
boyhood. "In slaughtering animals, if the trachea was cut, scarcely any
hæmorrhage resulted; while, if that was left untouched, full hæmorrhage
occurred. By the Willardian theory, the fact is readily susceptible of
explanation. The blood, filling the trachea, suspended respiration, and
of course the impelling power of the blood was suspended, and the
hæmorrhage ceased. The engine could not work without steam. When the
trachea was not cut, respiration went on, and kept up the circulation,
until the animal was nearly exsanguineous, and the powers of life gave
way." This fact was clearly ascertained by Dr. W. K. Bowling, the
well-known editor of the _Nashville Journal_, and able professor of the
theory and practice of medicine in the university of that place. He sent
me the Journal containing this welcome endorsement of my theory from one
who was, as Dr. Bowling assured me, "an observer of superior tact and
learning," known by his medical compositions as well in Europe as
America. Since that time (March, 1854), that Journal, though not
excluding articles which oppose, has been understood to be in favor of
the theory. Dr. Washington has written repeatedly, answering all
objections;[10] and he has, in the Journal (as I have been assured by
one of the Editors), "crushed out all that would take up his glove, and
is left in undisputed possession of the field--looking in vain for an
opponent."

In the meantime, in 1856, Dr. J. N. Draper, Professor of Chemistry and
Physiology in the University of New-York, in an elaborate work on "Human
Physiology," has agreed that Harvey's theory of the paramount power of
the heart's action in the circulation must be abandoned; and that to
respiration must be assigned "the great duty of originating the blood's
circulation."[11]

Dr. Washington has not only defended me in every important position
which I have taken, and added new illustrations--but he has made the
theory available to showing new proofs of the wisdom of God in the
creation of man. Thus--steam is formed in the vacuum of the lungs at the
low temperature of 67°, while, if there were no vacuum, 212° of heat
would be required to produce it,--an impossible quantity, since it would
coagulate the albumen of the blood. But form the vacuum, and the boiling
of the blood with any degree of heat less than 101° could not cause any
such disaster, while the steam going off from the lungs through the
arterial system to the capillaries, gradually condenses, warming the
body by giving off its latent heat; and the latent heat of vapor is the
same however it is formed, and is always 1,114°. What divine wisdom and
economy are thus displayed!

Homœopathy has, we believe, never found any difficulty in receiving this
theory. We know that, at one of its conventions held in Providence, it
was ably supported; and Dr. Marcy, whom I have the honor to address,
was, as we have seen, one of its earliest defenders. He has never,
whether allopathist or homœopathist, been known to hesitate when his own
mind brought him clear conclusions;--the distinguishing mark, according
to Dugald Stewart, of intrepidity of character.

                                    With profound respect,
                                            EMMA WILLARD.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is here seen what an important work this theory does for the
venous circulation, and why the blood moves into the lungs. 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; and then how the same tube, by being folded
in the form of a figure eight (8), shows the two hearts united into one,
and both ventricles working by the same contractions to perform their
different tasks.

[2] Mrs. B. Ogle Taylor, of Washington, formerly Miss Julia Dickinson,
of Troy, was thus found dead; and the late Mrs. Cass thus lost her life.
"She was seized," says a newspaper account, "in a hot bath, which she
had taken soon after eating." She lived an hour, unconscious, and the
physician said she died of congestion of the brain. 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. First, the head would not be immersed,
and, second, the last blood which the lungs sent forth would go to it.

[3] What can the Smithsonian Institute do better to carry out the views
with which the benevolent Smithson gave his fortune, than thus to teach
mankind when life may, by free circulation, be made to confer
enjoyment--how it may be inadvertently destroyed--and how it may be
restored, when, by drowning or otherwise, it is suspended? Sudden deaths
often occur by mal-position. That of the late Secretary Marcy is
doubtless an example. After his blood was heated and his circulation
quickened, he laid himself down on his back, his head not raised.
Attention to the workings of such a piece of apparatus as might be made,
would have shown the fatal effects of such a position at such a time.

[4] A young physician, whom I paid for correcting the proofs, was not
successful in preventing mistakes, especially in regard to numbers.

[5] I had just been reading Cuvier, to see whether he believed in the
Harveian theory of the circulation. I found he did not. "The circulation
vortex," says he, "is sometimes simple, sometimes double and even triple
(including that of the vena porta); the rapidity of its movements is
often _aided_ by the contraction of a certain fleshy apparatus
denominated hearts." Thus showing that my theory gave to the heart all
the prominence that was given to it by this great philosopher, who had
not, however, advanced any opinion as to the cause of the circulation.

[6] One of them, my lamented niece, Jane Porter Lincoln, at my request,
immediately wrote an account of the experiment, which is now in my
possession.

[7] These physicians gave certificates of their witnessing and assisting
at this memorable experiment, which were published in the _Boston
Medical Journal_, February 1852.

[8] Dr. Cartwright also reported the case in a letter which was
published in the _Boston Medical Journal_, September, 1852. This
resuscitation was more wonderful than those detailed in my published
work on "Respiration." All cases of life thus restored are proofs _a
posteriori_ of the truth of this theory of the arterial circulation.

[9] Good systems of exercise have been made in some respectable
institutions for health, openly formed on the principles of this theory.
Such is that by Dr. Hamilton, of Saratoga.

[10] When the time shall come that, the truth of my discovery being no
longer denied, its originality shall be contested, it will be a
significant fact that, in the _Nashville Journal_, of September, 1854,
is an article against it from a physician signing himself "Justicia,"
which he thus heads, "The Willardian Notion." In evil report, it was
indisputably mine. This article also shows, that the Harveian theory is
still maintained by the opposers of mine.

[11] See Draper's Physiology, p. 142.





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