228 EFFECT OF THE PASSIONS. 



longed by artificial respiration," ' as also in 

 drowning. 



In death by thirst, the fluids of the body, which 

 are so necessary to the creation of electricity, are 

 exhausted and the whole system tortured while 

 the vital current is gradually arrested. 



The excitation of the electric current can be 

 increased by violent passion to such an intensity 

 that disintegration and death will ensue, as a 

 wire will be disintegrated by a powerful voltaic 

 current. Joy may kill by an intense electro- 

 dynamic action. Fear may produce an electro- 

 static condition, so that the heart ceases to beat. 

 If this condition continues, the power of recu- 

 peration is lost, and death ensues. 



A blow originates in the will. The result is a 

 small lightning bolt, transmitted over electrodes, 

 impinging against another body. No doubt if the 

 points of contact in the two bodies were visible, 

 we should see the electric fluid passing from one 

 to the other. A diminution and even reversal 

 of its own proper current has been found by 

 M. DuBois Reymond to follow severe injuries 

 of the nerves by mechanical, thermal, or chemical 

 agencies. A sudden blow or shock to the emo- 

 tional part of our being may arrest the vital cur- 

 rent, as well as a blow on the physical frame. 

 Often preceding death the pulse flickers and the 

 ebbing current of life subsides into scattering 

 vibrations, before its final equilibrial rest. 



1 Ouain's Anatomy. 



