Wesley Corpus

"I. The Society will publish, in the most extensive manner possible, the proper methods of treating persons in such circumstances. "II. They will distribute a premium of two guineas among the first persons who attempt to recover anyone taken out of the water as dead. And this reward will be given, even if the attempt is unsuccessful, provided it has been pursued two hours, according to the method laid down by the Society. "III. They will distribute a premium of four guineas, where the person is restored to life. "IV. They will give one guinea to any that admits the body into his house without delay, and furnishes the necessary accommodations. "V. A number of medical gentlemen, living near the places where these disasters commonly happen, will give their assistance gratis." (II.) Such was the rise of this admirable institution. With what success it has been attended, is the point which I purpose, in the next place, very briefly to consider. And it must be allowed to be not only far greater than those who despised it had imagined, but greater than the most sanguine expectations of the gentlemen who were immediately engaged in it. In the short space, from its first establishment in May, 1774, to the end of December, eight persons, seemingly dead, were restored to life. In the year 1775, forty-seven were restored to life: Thirty-two of them, by the direct encouragement and assistance of the gentlemen of this Society; and the rest, by medical gentlemen and others, in consequence of their method of treatment being generally known. In the year 1776, forty-one persons were restored to life by the assistance of this Society. And eleven cases of those who had been restored elsewhere were communicated to them. So the number of lives preserved and restored, in two years and a half, since their first institution, amounts to one hundred and seven! Add to these those that have been since restored; and out of two hundred and eighty-four persons, who were dead, to all appearance, no less than an hundred and fifty-seven have been restored to life. Such is the success which has attended them in so short a time! Such a blessing has the gracious providence of God given to this infant undertaking!