The child, wrapped in flannel, is to be laid on its back upon a table placed near the fire.  Its head is to be slightly extended, and the nostrils held between the fingers and thumb of one hand, whilst with the fingers of the other slight pressure is to be made upon the pit of the stomach, so as to prevent the air from passing into that organ.  The lungs of the child are now to be filled with air, by the operator applying his own lips—­with a fold of silk or muslin intervening, for the sake of cleanliness—­to those of the child, and then simply blowing in its mouth, he is to propel the air from his own chest into that of the infant.  Previously, however, to his doing this, he should make several deep and rapid inspirations, and, finally, a full inspiration, in order to obtain greater purity of air in his own lungs.

When the chest of the child has been thus distended, it is to be compressed gently with the hand, so as to empty the lungs; and then the inflation, with the alternately compressing the chest, must be repeated again and again, until either the commencement of natural respiration is announced by a sneeze or deep sigh, or until after long-continued, steady, persevering, but unavailing, efforts to effect this object shall have removed all ground of hope for a successful issue.

Whilst these efforts are being made, some other individual must endeavour to maintain or restore the warmth of the infant’s body, by gently but constantly pressing and rubbing its limbs between his warm hands.  And after respiration is established, the face must still be freely exposed to the air, whilst the warmth of the limbs and body is carefully sustained.

It will sometimes happen—­and to this circumstance the operator should be fully alive—­that when the child begins to manifest symptoms of returning animation, its tongue will be drawn backwards and upwards against the roof of the mouth, filling up the passage to the throat, and preventing further inflation of the lungs.  This is to be remedied by the introduction of the fore-finger to the upper and back part of the child’s tongue, and gently pressing it downwards and forwards, by which the difficulty will be removed, and the air again passes.

The warm bath.—­More reliance may be placed upon the above measure to restore animation, than upon the warm bath.  Still this is sometimes useful, and therefore must not be neglected.  Whilst inflation is going on, the bath may be got ready, then resorted to, and if unsuccessful, inflation may and ought again to be followed up.[FN#28] If the bath is useful at all, it will be so immediately upon putting the infant into it; respiration will be excited, followed by a cry; and if this does not occur at once, it would be wrong to keep the child longer in the bath, as it would be only losing valuable time which ought to be devoted to other efforts.  The temperature of the bath should be about 100 degrees; and if, upon plunging the infant into it, it fortunately excite the respiratory effort, it should then be taken out, rubbed with dry but hot flannels, and, when breathing is fully established, laid in a warm bed, or, what is still better, in its mother’s bosom; letting it, however, have plenty of air.