958  Thirty-third Communication from Dr. Thornton 
trary, considered suspension and drowning as extremely 
different; for hanging, they represent as destroying by 
inducing apoplexy, This also is the common, and a very 
natural opinion ; but I shall here prove it to be erroneous. 
The following experiment was Jong since made by professor 
Monro, at Edinburgh. A dog was suspended by the neck 
with a cord ; ina few minutes he ceased to struggle. The 
same experiment, exactly, was tried upon another dog, but 
an opening was previously made in the wind-pipe below the 
cord, so as to admit of air being forced into his lungs. In 
this state he was kept alive three quarters of an hour, when 
the cord was shifted below the opening into the wind-pipe, 
so as to intercept the ingress of air into the lungs, and the 
animal died in a few minutes. Upon examining the head, 
there was found vo rupture of vessels in the brain. To prove 
this point more clearly, I shall relate a still more decided 
experiment by the veterinary professor, Mr. Coleman. The 
carotids, or arteries, which carry blood to the head, may be 
secured without soon materially destroying the animal func- 
tions. This operation was first done, and then the animal was 
hanged,-and he died in a few minutes. Upon the brain 
being examined, there was. found a less congestion of blood 
than usual, and therefore no apoplexy. In apoplexy the 
irritability continues several hours, whilst in drowning or 
hanging, the animal functions are abolished in a few mi- 
nutes. In apoplexy, respiration together with the action 
of the heart and arteries go on, and the pulse often vibrates 
more forcibly than in health. In hanging or drowning 
respiration is suppresséd, and the pulse obliterated. In 
apoplexy there is the stértor apoplecticus very distinct ; —this 
is not to be discovered in hanging: and, lastly, after reco- 
very from apoplexy, the subject is generally paralytic; 
whereas no such event follows recovery from suspension : 
and where death ensues, the appearances in the brain, in 
the two instances, are ¢ntircly toto c@le different. . I press 
this distinction forward, as the proximate cause being ascer- 
tained Jeads to the right mode of treatment. This proximate 
cause I have sufficiently proved to be, in both hanging and 
drowning, a stoppage of air to the lungs, by which the ve 
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