238 CIRCULATION. 



was performed upon the heart of an alligator six feet in 

 length : 



The animal was poisoned with woorara, and twenty-eight 

 hours after death the heart, which had been exposed and left 

 in situ, was pulsating regularly. It was then removed from 

 the body, and after some experiments on the comparative 

 force, etc., of the pulsations, when empty, and when filled 

 with blood, was filled with water, the valves having been 

 destroyed so as to allow free passage of the fluid through the 

 cavities, and the vessels ligated. " The ventricles, still filled 

 with water confined in their cavity, were then firmly com- 

 pressed with the hand, so as to subject the muscular fibres to 

 powerful compression. From that time the heart entirely 

 ceased its contractions, and became hard, like a muscle in a 

 state of cadaveric rigidity." ' 



This experiment shows how completely and promptly the 

 heart, even of a cold-blooded animal, may.be arrested in its 

 action by mechanical injury. 



Cases of death from distention of the heart are not infre- 

 quent in practice. It is well established that the form of 

 organic disease which most frequently leads to sudden death 

 is that in which the heart is liable to great distention. We 

 refer to disease at the aortic orifice. In other lesions, there 

 is not this tendency ; but when the aortic orifice is contracted, 

 or the valves are insufficient, any great disturbance of the 

 circulation will cause the heart to become engorged, which is 

 liable to produce a fatal result. 



Most persons are practically familiar with the distress- 

 ing sense of suffocation which frequently follows a blow 

 upon the epigastrium. A few cases are on record of instan- 

 taneous death following a comparatively slight blow in this 

 region. We had an opportunity in the winter of 1854-'55 of 

 witnessing an autopsy in a case of this kind. A young 

 mulatto man, employed as a waiter at the Louisville Hotel, 

 received a blow in the epigastrium, while frolicking, which 



1 American Journal, Oct. 1861, p. 352. 



