494 KESPIEATION. 



those who immediately survived afterwards died of putrid 

 fever. 1 This frightful tragedy has frequently been repeated 

 on emigrant and slave ships, by confining great numbers in 

 the hold of the vessel, where they were entirely shut out from 

 the fresh air. This subject possesses great pathological in- 

 terest; the effects of an insuificient supply of air and the 

 accumulation in the atmosphere of animal emanations being 

 very important in connection with the cause and prevention 

 of many diseases. 



The condition of the system has a marked and important 

 influence on the rapidity with which the effects of vitiated 

 atmosphere are manifested, as we should anticipate from what 

 we know of the variations in the consumption of oxygen under 

 different conditions. As a rule, the immediate effects of con- 

 fined air are not as rapidly manifested in weak and debilitated 

 persons, as in those who are active and powerful. It has 

 sometimes been observed, in cases where a male and a female 

 have attempted suicide together by the fumes of charcoal, 

 that the female may be restored some time after life is ex- 

 tinct in the male. This is probably owing to the greater 

 demand for oxygen on the part of the male. 



The following interesting fact is reported by Bernard, 

 showing the relative power of resisting asphyxia in health 

 and disease : 



" Two young persons were in a chamber warmed by a 

 stove fed with coke. One of them was seized with asphyxia 

 and fell unconscious. The other, at that time suffering with 

 typhoid fever and confined to the bed, resisted sufficiently to 

 be able to call for help. We know already that this resistance 

 to toxic influences is manifested in animals, when they are 

 made sick ; we here have the proof of the same phenomenon 

 in man. As for the one who, in good health, had experienced 

 the effects of the commencement of poisoning, she had a 



1 A full account of the sufferings of these unfortunate men, by one of the 

 survivors, is to be found in the Annual Register, 1758, p. 278. 



