ntact of air, which, after a succession of muscular
twitchings, becomes endowed with voice, and heralds its advent by a loud
but brief succession of cries. But though this is the general rule, it
sometimes happens (from causes it is unnecessary here to explain) that
the infant does not cry, or give utterance to any audible sounds, or if
it does, they are so faint as scarcely to be distinguished as human
accents, plainly indicating that life, as yet, to the new visitor, is
neither a boon nor a blessing; the infant being, in fact, in a state of
suspended or imperfect vitality,--a state of _quasi_ existence, closely
approximating the condition of a _still-birth_.

2461. As soon as this state of things is discovered, the child should be
turned on its right side, and the whole length of the spine, from the
head downwards, rubbed with all the fingers of the right hand, sharply
and quickly, without intermission, till the quick action has not only
evoked heat, but electricity in the part, and till the loud and sharp
cries of the child have thoroughly expanded the lungs, and
satisfactorily established its life. The operation will seldom require
above a minute to effect, and less frequently demands a repetition. If
there is brandy at hand, the fingers before rubbing may be dipped into
that, or any other spirit.

2462. There-is another condition of what we may call "mute births,"
where the child only makes short ineffectual gasps, and those at
intervals of a minute or two apart, when the lips, eyelids, and fingers
become of a deep purple or slate colour, sometimes half the body
remaining white, while the other half, which was at first swarthy,
deepens to a livid hue. This condition of the infant is owing to the
valve between the two sides of the heart remaining open, and allowing
the unvitalized venous blood to enter the arteries and get into the
circulation.

2463. The object in this case, as in the previous one, is to dilate the
lungs as quickly as possible, so that, by the sudden effect of a
vigorous inspiration, the valve may be firmly closed, and the impure
blood, losing this means of egress, be sent directly to the lungs. The
same treatment is therefore necessary as in the previous case, with the
addition, if the friction along the spine has failed, of a warm bath at
a temperature of about 80 deg., in which the child is to be plunged up to
the neck, first cleansing the mouth and nostrils of the mucus that might
interfere