114 PATHOLOGY. 



The fimctions of any one of tlie tJiree being arrested, the 

 functions of the other two are also speedily extinguished." — 

 (Watson's Principles and Practice of Physic.) 

 Death, it is observed, occurs as follows : — 



1. Death beginning at the heart — syncope — asthenia. 



2. „ „ „ lungs — apncea. 



3. ,, „ „ brain — coma. 



4. „ „ „ blood — necrsemia. 



DEATH BEGINNING AT THE HEART. 



Death beginning at the heart may occur in two ways : — 1st. 

 Suddenly, or by syncope ; and 2d. By a gradual cessation of the 

 lieart's action. Syncope may occur in two ways : — 1st. By the 

 heart losing its irritability, so that it ceases to contract — 

 asthenia ; and 2d. By tonic spasm, in which it remains rigidly 

 contracted. Death from tonic spasm of the heart is rare amongst 

 the lower animals. I have, however, seen one instance, where a 

 valuable horse died from this cause in consequence of a sudden 

 fright. 



In both these cases death is instantaneous. In the first case, 

 each chamber of the heart is found after death to be filled with 

 its proper kind of blood, upon which it has been unable to 

 contract. Sir Benjamin Brodie, in some experiments recorded 

 in the Philosophical Transactions for 1811 and 1812, found 

 that when death was occasioned by the upas antiar, that the 

 heart v/as full after death, with purple blood in its right and 

 scarlet blood in its left cavities. This proves that the heart has 

 ceased to contract upon the contained blood. In the second 

 case, the heart appears very small and hard, the ventricles, 

 particularly the left, firmly contracted and containing no blood, 

 and the heart substance very firm. This state of the heart was 

 supposed to depend upon concentric hypertrophy, but its true 

 nature was pointed out by Cruveilhier and Dr. G. Budd. Should 

 any doubt remain as to its true nature, if the heart be kept for 

 a few days, it will, if the condition be that of spasm, lose this 

 tonicity, and may easily be restored to its regular dimension by 

 a little manipulation. Both conditions of the heart — namely, 

 loss of irritability and tonic spasm — may arise from similar 

 causes. Shock, for example, may produce the one or the other 



