Medicine, an unnatural collection of water in any part of the body. See Medicine Index.

Dropwort. See Filipendula, Botany Index.

Water-Dropwort. See Oenanthe, Botany Index.

Drosera, Ros Solis, or Sun-Dew. See Botany Index.

Drowning, signifies the extinction of life by a total immersion in water.

In some respects, there seems to be a great similarity between the death occasioned by immersion in water, and that by strangulation, suffocation by fixed air, apoplexies, epilepsies, sudden faintings, violent shocks of electricity, or even violent falls and bruises. Physicians, however, are not agreed with regard to the nature of the injury done to the animal system in any or all of these accidents. It is indeed certain, that in all the cases above mentioned, particularly in drowning, there is very often such a suspension of the vital powers as to us hath the appearance of a total extinction of them; while yet they may be again set in motion, and the person restored to life, after a much longer submission than hath been generally thought capable of producing absolute death. It were to be wished, however, that, as it is now universally allowed, that drowning is only a suspension of the action of the vital powers, physicians could as unanimously determine the means by which these powers are suspended; because on a knowledge of these means, the methods to be used for recovering drowned persons must certainly depend.

Dr de Haen, who has written a treatise on this subject, ascribes this diversity of opinion among the physicians to their being so ready to draw general conclusions from a few experiments. Some, having never found water in the lungs, have thought that it never was there; and others, from its presence, have drawn a contrary conclusion. Some have ascribed the death which happens in cases of drowning to that species of apoplexy which arises from a great fulness of the stomach. But this opinion our author rejects, because in 13 dogs which he had drowned and afterwards dissected, no signs of such a fulness appeared. Another reason is drawn from the want of the common marks Drowning of apoplexy on the dissection of the brain, and from the actual presence of water in the lungs. He is of opinion, that the death of drowned persons happens in consequence of water getting into the lungs, and stopping the blood in the arteries. He then discusses the question how far the blowing of air into the lungs is useful in recovering drowned people. If their death is to be ascribed to the water entering the lungs, this practice, he observes, must be hurtful, as it will increase the pressure on the blood-vessels, or may even force the water into them; which, on the authority of Lewis's experiments, he alleges is possible. But, in spite of this reasoning, he asserts, that from experience it has been found useful. He allows, that the practice of suspending drowned people by the feet must be hurtful, by determining the blood too much to the head; but he observes, that remedies in some respects hurtful may be used when the advantages derived from them preponderate; and is of opinion, that the practice above mentioned may be used by agitating the viscera against each other, and thus renewing their motions. Cutting the larynx in order to admit air more freely to the lungs, he reckons to be of little or no use; but acknowledges, however, that it may sometimes prove beneficial on account of the irritation occasioned by the operation.

Dr Cullen, in his Letter to Lord Cathcart concerning the recovery of persons drowned and seemingly dead, tells us, that "From the dissection of drowned men, and other animals, it is known, that very often the water does not enter into the cavity of the lungs, nor even into the stomach, in any quantity to do hurt to the system; and, in general, it is known, that, in most cases, no hurt is done to the organization of the vital parts. It is therefore probable, that the death which ensues, or seems to ensue, in drowned persons, is owing to the stopping of respiration, and to the ceasing, in consequence, of the circulation of the blood, whereby the body loses its heat, and, with that, the activity of the vital principle."

In the Phil. Trans. vol. lxvi. Mr Hunter gives the following theory. The loss of motion in drowning seems to arise from the loss of respiration; and the immediate effect this has upon the other vital motions of the animal, at least this privation of breathing, appears to be the first cause of the heart's motion ceasing. It is most probable, therefore, Mr Hunter observes, that the restoration of breathing is all that is necessary to restore the heart's motion; for if a sufficiency of life still remains to produce that effect, we may suppose every part equally ready to move the very instant in which the action of the heart takes place, their actions depending so much upon it. What makes it very probable, that the principal effect depends upon throwing air into the lungs, is, that children in the birth, when too much time has been spent after the loss of that life which is peculiar to the fetus, lose altogether the disposition for the new life. In such cases there is a total suspension of the actions of life; the child remains to all appearance dead; and would die, if air was not thrown into its lungs, and the first principle of action by that means restored. To put this in a clearer light, Mr Hunter gives the result of some experiments made on a dog in 1755.—A pair of double bellows were provided, which were so constructed, that by one action air was thrown into the lungs, and by the other, the air was sucked out which had been thrown in by the former, without mixing them together. The muzzle of these bellows was fixed into the trachea of a dog, and by working them he was kept perfectly alive. While this artificial breathing was going on, the sternum was taken off, so that the heart and lungs were exposed to view. The heart then continued to act as before, only the frequency of its action was greatly increased. Mr Hunter then stopped the motion of the bellows; and observed that the contraction of the heart became gradually weaker and less frequent, till it left off moving altogether; but by renewing the operation, the motion of the heart also revived, and soon became as strong and frequent as before. This process was repeated upon the same dog ten times; sometimes stopping for five, eight, or ten minutes. Mr Hunter observed, that every time he left off working the bellows, the heart became extremely turgid with blood, and the blood in the left side became as dark as that in the right, which was not the case when the bellows were working. These situations of the animal, he observes, seem to be exactly similar to drowning.

Dr Edmund Goodwyn, in a treatise lately published on this subject, has endeavoured to ascertain the effects of submersion upon living animals in a more accurate manner than had hitherto been done. His first care was to determine the symptoms which took place before death; and to observe these, he procured a large glass bell in which the animals were to be immersed. Having inverted, and filled this with water, he put into it several cats, dogs, rabbits, and smaller animals, confining them among the water till they were apparently dead. In these experiments he observed, that immediately after submersion the pulse became weak and frequent; there was an apparent anxiety about the breast, and struggling to relieve it. In these struggles the animal rose to the top of the water, throwing out a quantity of air from the lungs. After this the anxiety increases, the pulse becomes weaker, and the struggles more violent; he rises again to the surface, throws out more air from the lungs, and in his efforts to inspire, a quantity of water commonly passes into the mouth. The skin about the face and lips then becomes blue, the pulse ceases, the sphincters are relaxed, and the animal falls down without sense or motion. On dissecting the bodies of drowned animals, our author met with the following appearances: 1. The external surface of the brain was darker, but the vessels of it were not more turgid than usual, nor was there any appearance of extravasation. 2. The pulmonary arteries and veins were filled with black blood, and the lungs themselves contained some frothy liquor. 3. Notwithstanding these symptoms, the right auricle and ventricle were still contracting and dilating; the left sinus venosus and auricle moving feebly, but the left ventricle at rest. 4. The right and left auricles of the heart, the right ventricle, and the left sinus venosus, were filled with black blood; but the last ventricle only half filled with the same, and a quantity of the same black blood was also contained in the smaller branches of the arteries proceeding from the left ventricle.

This investigation was followed by a most careful