is produced ly certain vegetable Poisons. 179 



hiedium other poisons when applied to wounds affect the 

 vital organs, but from analogy we may suppose that they 

 enter the circulation through the divided blood-vessels. 



IV. 



The facts already related led me to conclude that alcohol, 

 the essential oil of almonds, ihe juice of aconite, the oil of 

 tobacco, and the woorara, occasion deaih simply by destroy- 

 ing the functions of the brain. The following experiment 

 aj)pears fully to establish the truth of this conclusion. 



Exp. 30. The temperature of the room being 53^ of 

 Fahrenheit's thermometer, I made two wounds in the side 

 of a rabbit, and applied to ihem some of the woorara in the 

 form of paste. In seven minutes after the application, the 

 hind legs were paralysed, and in fifteen minutes respiration 

 had ceased, and he was apparently dead. Two minutes af- 

 terwards the heart was still beating, and a tube was intro- 

 duced through an opening into the trachea, by means of 

 which the lungs were inflated. The artificial respiration 

 was made regularly about thirty-six times in a minute. 



At first, the heart contracted one hundred times in a 

 minute. 



At the end of forty minutes, the pulse had risen to one 

 hundred and twenty in a minute. 



At the end of an hour, it had risen to one hundred and 

 forty in a minute. 



At the end of an hour and twenty-three minutes, the 

 pulse had fallen to a hundred, and the artificial respiration 

 was discontinued. 



At the commencement of the experiment, the ball of a 

 ihermorneier being placed in the rectum, the quicksilver 

 rose to one hundred degrees; at the close of the experiment 

 it had fallen to eighty-eight and a half. 



During the continuance of the artificial respiration, the 

 blood in the femoral artery was of a florid red, and that in 

 the femoral vein of a dark colour, as usual. 



It has been observed by M. Bichat, that the immediate 

 cause of death, when it takes place suddenly, must be the 

 cessation of the functions of the heart, the brain, or the 

 lungs. This observation may be extended to death under 

 all circumstances. The stomach, the liver, the kidneys, 

 and manv other organs are necessary to life, but their con- 

 stant action is not necessary; and tlie cessation of their 

 functions cannot tlierclore be the immediate cause of death. 

 As in this case the action of the heart had never ceased ; as 

 the circulation of the blood was kept up by artificial respi- 



M 2 ratiou 



