Rescuing the drowned: cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the origins of emergency medicine in the eighteenth century

The concept of a medical emergency, i.e., a time when immediate action is required to stabilize and restore the vital functions, is absent in the tradition of ancient medicine, which seeks to cure the sick. The theoretical and conceptual development of a prompt medical assistance definitely owes much to the refinement of instruments and surgical techniques that were develop in the early modern age, allowing the extension of therapeutic action to "healthy" individuals who are suddenly life-threatened due to an accident or to some external events that affect their vital functions. But it is especially in the eighteenth century that the epistemic basis of medical emergency is structured, when the Enlightenment gave rise to the ethical and political imperative of public assistance that required the planning of first aid at multiple levels, and medicine developed the concept of life-saving treatment. In particular, eighteenth century medicine, studying systems to assure immediate relief to the victims of accidents-especially to the drowned-allowed the development of specific and methodological systems of resuscitation and emergency treatment.