Laura Keene dress

[Steve]

Roger, I've always guessed that the discrepancy was due to the fraility of memory over 40 years later. With Leale misremembering with more contemporary (1909) medical procedures.

However, the notion that Leale provided some type of artificial respiration seems to not only be not mentioned but contradicted by his 1865 account:

As soon as I removed my finger a slight oozing of blood followed and his breathing became more regular and less stertorous.

But just now posting on this thread and reading over the 1909 passage, I realize we've been reading, discussing, and debating it through a present-day lens instead thinking about it through a 1909 lens.

Leale gave his talk knowing that he was later going to try to publish it. He gives a detailed step-by-step description on how to provide artificial respiration to someone who has stopped or has trouble breathing. It's so detailed, in fact, that it comprises three paragraphs of the speech in its printed form.

Think about medical treatment and the majority of the public's knowledge of first aid practices in 1909. There's no 911 service, no automobile ambulance services, and no movies or TV shows or visual media with characters performing first aid techniques. At the time people would fetch a doctor for a house call. If a person has trouble or stopped breathing fetching a doctor may take too much time.

I'm wondering if Leale inserted the description of artificial respiration into his account hoping that some readers, who wouldn't normally read something on first aid techniques, would remember enough about artificial respiration if they were in an emergency situation where they could keep a patient alive long enough for a doctor to arrive.

It would be analogous to say, telling people to time chest compressions to the BeeGee's or a character doing the heimlich maneuver on a TV show or movie. A vivid description which would grab readers' attention. Maybe Leale thought the potential benefits to the public would outweigh the desire for accuracy.