The first Italian work on resusciation. Testa’s work is also one of the earliest on the subject published after the foundation in 1767 of Amsterdam’s pioneering Maatschappij tot Redding van Drenkelingen, the first organization devoted to rescuing and reviving persons apparently drowned. Prior to 1767 anyone taken from the water apparently lifeless was presumed dead and no attempts were made to revive them; however, after the Amsterdam society began publishing reports in 1768 its methods were rapidly adopted throughout Europe. Testa’s book contains three references to the Maatschappi, as well as to numerous other authorities on drowning both ancient and contemporary. He carefully described the symptoms of drowning—water in the lungs, cessation of respiration, accumulation of blood in the head and chest—but denied that these were the cause of death, instead ascribing drowning deaths to phlogiston (inflammable air) retained in the lungs. Testa believed that drowning was a gradual death, therefore resuscitation was possible even if all perceptible signs of life were absent. Testa’s hypothesis on the causes of drowning was not widely accepted. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.