186 OP THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS. 



directly contract them : we feel an uneasy sensation in the chest 

 from the retardation which occurs to the blood, and we inspire 

 to remove it j the uneasiness being removed, our effort ceases, 

 and expiration spontaneously ensues. It is true that the uneasi- 

 ness is so great that we are forced to inspire, and that respiration 

 continues while we are asleep. But the same is true of all volun- 

 tary muscles : — if you irritate any part of a person asleep, an 

 effort of some kind is made to remove it ; and if you cause 

 strong pain or titillation in a person awake, he will be compelled, 

 whatever restraint he may attempt upon himself, to make an 

 effort to remove it by motion of some part, as forcibly as he is 

 compelled to remove the uneasiness in the chest by inspiration,* 

 and while history records examples of men standing motionless 

 in the midst of fire till they were consumed, we read of suicides 

 so determined as to have accomplished their purpose by merely 

 holding their breath, when deprived of access to instruments of 

 destruction. 



* Dr. Wilson Phillip, Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal. 1809. 



