116 PATHOLOGY. 



presents some symptoms of its approach, however brief those 

 symptoms may be, as from haemorrhage, the operation of some 

 13oisons, as aconite, hydrocyanic acid, upas antiar, tobacco ; from 

 lightning, electricity, and various animal poisons, as snake-bites ; 

 the operation of debilitating influences, as well as diseases which 

 tend to weaken and paralyze muscular force, and to produce 

 asthenia. 



In death from gradual asthenia the pulse becomes very 

 feeble, frequent, and often irregular; the respirations feeble, 

 sometimes sighing; the muscular debility extreme. Pallor of 

 the membranes comes on gradually, or in some cases they may 

 present an unhealthy reddened or brownish-red appearance from 

 the blood remaining in the veins, the extremities become cold, 

 and edematous. 



In various wasting diseases, such as pleuro-pneumonia-bovina, 

 diarrhoea, polyuria, or any disease which more gradually exhausts 

 the powers of life, death is caused by anaemia and asthenia. 

 The blood gradually diminishes in quantity and deteriorates in 

 quality, therefore the supply to the substance of the heart 

 becomes diminished, and in a condition unsuited to nourish 

 the heart properly. The power of the heart, as well as of the 

 muscles generally, is gradually lessened, and at length ceases 

 altogether; and when death is so produced the heart is not 

 contracted and empty as in death from anaemia, nor so full and 

 enQ;orfTed as in death from asthenia. This form of deatli is called 

 by Watson death hj inanition, and its typical form is that 

 occurrinnf from starvation. 



DEATH BEGINNING AT THE LUNGS. 



By this it is meant that the function of breathing is the first 

 to fail, improperly termed death from asphyxia — literally pulse- 

 lessness — more correctly termed death by apnoea, privation of 

 breath, or suffocation. 



This form of death is caused by diseases of the lungs or 

 bronchial tubes, pleurisy terminating in hydrothorax, where air 

 is prevented from entering the lungs by the pressure of the pleu- 

 ritic fluid, mucus, pus, or blood, filling the tubes and air cells ; 

 Ijy laryngitis, sj)asm of the glottis, or when tumours press u]}oii 

 the larynx or trachea ; by oedema of the glottis ; diseases of the 



