Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, a form of artificial ventilation, is the act of assisting or stimulating respiration in which a rescuer presses their mouth against that of the victim and blows air into the person's lungs.

[1][2] Artificial respiration takes many forms, but generally entails providing air for a person who is not breathing or is not making sufficient respiratory effort on their own.

The performance of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on its own is now limited in most protocols to health professionals, whereas lay first-aiders are advised to undertake full CPR in any case where the patient is not breathing sufficiently.

In 1773, English physician William Hawes (1736–1808) began publicising the power of artificial respiration to resuscitate people who superficially appeared to have drowned.

Thomas Cogan, another English physician, who had become interested in the same subject during a stay at Amsterdam, where in 1767 a society for preservation of life from accidents in water was instituted, joined Hawes in his crusade.

In the summer of 1774 Hawes and Cogan each brought fifteen friends to a meeting at the Chapter Coffee-house, St Paul's Churchyard, where they founded the Royal Humane Society as a campaigning group for first aid and resuscitation.

The earliest of these depots was the Receiving House in Hyde Park, on the north bank of the Serpentine, which was built in 1794 on a site granted by George III.

These barriers are an example of personal protective equipment to guard the face against splashing, spraying or splattering of blood or other potentially infectious materials.