402 HISTORY OF 



11. Not only over much compression, but also over much 

 dilatation of the spirit, is deadly. 



12. Joys excessive and sudden have bereft many of their 

 lives. 



13. In greater evacuations, as when they cut men for 

 the dropsy, the waters flow forth abundantly, much more 

 in great and sudden fluxes of blood, oftentimes present 

 death followeth; and this happens by the mere flight of 

 vacuum within the body, all the parts moving to fill the 

 empty places ; and, amongst the rest, the spirits themselves. 

 For as for slow fluxes of blood, this matter pertains to 

 the indigence of nourishment, not to the diffusion of the 

 spirits. And touching the motion of the spirit so far, 

 either compressed or diffused, that it bringeth death, thus 

 much. 



14. We must come next to the want of refrigeration. 

 Stopping of the breath causeth sudden death ; as in all suf 

 focation or strangling. Now it seems this matter is not so 

 much to be referred to the impediment of motion as to the 

 impediment of refrigeration ; for air over hot, though at 

 tracted freely, doth no less suffocate than if breathing were 

 hindered ; as it is in them who have been sometime suffo 

 cated with burning coals, or with charcoal, or with walls 

 new plastered in close chambers where a fire is made; 

 which kind of death is reported to have been the end of the 

 emperor Jovinian. The like happeneth from dry baths over 

 heated, which was practised in the killing of Fausta, wife 

 to Constantine the Great. 



15. It is a very small time which nature taketh to repeat 

 the breathing, and in which she desireth to expel the foggy 

 air drawn into the lungs, and to take in new, scarce the 

 third part of a minute. 



16. Again, the beating of the pulse, and the motion of 

 the systole and diastole of the heart, are three times quicker 

 than that of breathing; insomuch that if it were possible 

 that that motion of the heart could be stopped without 

 stopping the breath, death would follow more speedily there 

 upon than by strangling. 



17. Notwithstanding, use and custom prevail much in 

 this natural action of breathing; as it is in the Delian 

 divers and fishers for pearl, who by long use can hold their 

 breaths at least ten times longer than other men can do. 



18. Amongst living creatures, even of those that have 

 lungs, there are some that are able to hold their breaths a 

 long time, and others that cannot hold them so long, ac 

 cording as they need more or less refrigeration. 



