Thomas Latta

[4][5] This was initially introduced by Latta in 1832 during a cholera epidemic which had reached Britain in the previous year and was killing huge numbers of people.

[6] Although his results were both remarkably good and effective in saving human lives, the research appeared to thereafter be forgotten for 70 years before rematerialising in wider use.

Basing his experiments on the theories of Dr William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, Latta had equally observed that cholera victims lost a huge proportion of water content from their blood.

Latta at first tried to administer the salt solution rectally, but on 23 May 1832 he wrote to the Central Board of Health notifying them of his intention to begin the treatment intravenously.

His letter described his method and response: "I attempted to restore the blood to its natural state, by injecting copiously into the larger intestines warm water.. trusting that the power of absorption might not be altogether lost, but by these means I produced, in no case, any permanent benefit..

She had apparently reached the last moments of her earthly existence, and now nothing could injure her – indeed, so entirely was she reduced, that I feared I should be unable to get my apparatus ready ere she expired.

Still persevering, I though she began to breathe less laboriously, soon the sharpened features, and sunken eye, and fallen jaw, pale and cold, bearing the manifest impress of death's signet, began to glow with returning animation; the pulse, which had long ceased, returned to the wrist; at first small and quick, by degrees it became more and more distinct ... and in the short space of half an hour, when six pints had been injected, she expressed in a firm voice that she was free from all uneasiness, actually became jocular, and fancied all she needed was a little sleep.

The standard use of saline solutions (largely for recovery procedures) did not begin until 1902, when electrolyte balance and the mechanisms of hypovolemic shock were better understood.

Thomas Latta also contributed publications on the subject of Arctic science, after having sailed as "surgeon and companion" with Captain William Scoresby on a whaling expedition, while still a medical student.