If he is fortunately brought to life, put him directly into a warm bed, and give him a dose of the _fever powder_, and let him drink freely of good sage punch, in order to promote a perspiration, which is here very requisite.
_Take sage about a pugil_ (that is as much as you can well take betwixt three fingers) _on this pour boiling water, one quart; to which add sugar and good old Jamaica rum, sufficient to make it agreeable, but not too strong_. Or instead of this give him some mulled wine.
A fever always attends a patient after the recovery of Drowning; therefore care should be taken when he is brought to himself, that he is not over heated by liquor; as this is liable to throw him into a disease as dangerous as the narrow chance he has just escaped.
Should however the above methods not succeed, you must not despair. If the lungs, or the larynx seem so contracted that it appears impossible to blow breath into him by the mouth, recourse must be had to _bronchotomy_, that is, opening the wind-pipe betwixt the third and fourth cartilage; to which a man should put his mouth and inflate the lungs; the throat should be tickled with a feather, a little pepper blown up the nostrils and the body here and there scratched with pins, or small wounds made in the legs and arms, and plentifully rubbed with salt. If there is salt enough to do it, the patient ought to be covered all over.
We have instances that patients, after two hours application, have been brought to life again; therefore every means possible should be tried. Of all the various stimulants, salt, or potashes, is the best; spirits must not be made use of, nor indeed vinegar, in the time of recovery; as that is liable to congeal the blood, and prevent it from circulation, till the recovery is procured; when the sage punch, or mulled wine, or some other cordial may be proper. Spirits of hartshorn, if it is on board may also, with propriety, be held to the nose, or poured a little down the throat, as that is stimulating, but not coagulating.
When at length the patient has recovered, let him take the forementioned draught No. IV. as also the warm sage punch No. V. and take all possible care for his recovery.—If Bronchotomy was obliged to be performed, let the wound carefully be washed, closed, and dress’d with dry lint; over which lay a compress with warm claret intermixed with _camphor spirits_; and the more to favour the healing, let his head constantly be inclined; rest should also be promoted as much as possible, for which purpose 8 or 10 drops of _liquid laudanum_ will be very proper; likewise silence should be strictly imposed on him; and that should be a material object to be observed, by those who tend him. In every respect else, let him be treated as is directed under the head of fevers and other circumstances, as they shall occur.