Note 37 — SUFFOCATION.
Reading edition
See a very curious paper upon this subject by Mr. Robertson, in the Philosophical Transactions, 1757, vol. 1. p. 30; from which it appears that the author made ten experiments, in which, with the exception of one person, he found all the men specifically lighter than water, and hence he concludes that drowning might be avoided, if the person who falls into the water were not deprived of his presence of mind.