MODES OF DEATH. ■ 123 



DEATH BEGINNING WITH THE BLOOD. 



Necrccmia, or death hcginning vnth the hloocl. — In rinderpest, 

 splenic apoplexy, black-quarter or quarter-ill, braxy, purpura 

 hsemorrliagica, and scarlatina, death may be said to be due to 

 the death and decomposition of the blood, the action of the heart 

 ceasing because the blood is no longer capable of affording the 

 necessary stimulus. 



At an early stage of these diseases, when they occur in their" 

 worst form, the blood exhibits changes in its composition, mani- 

 fested by petechice and vibices on the skin and mucous mem- 

 branes, extravasations into the subcutaneous and muscular tissues, 

 and by congestion of, and haemorrhages into, the internal organs. 



The blood is Huid, of a dark colour, and possesses pathogenic 

 properties, as manifested in its deleterious operations on other 

 animals and on man. — (See Malignant Pustule.) It decomposes 

 rapidly, and wherever a spot of extravasation — ecchymosis — may 

 be found, there, almost simultaneously with the extravasation, 

 will the presence of a gas, resulting from the decomposition of the 

 blood, be detected, whilst a peculiarly putrid odour is exhaled 

 from the surface of the body, and from the excretions. 



" The blood," says Dr. Williams, " the natural source of life to 

 the whole body, is itself dead, and spreads death instead of life. 

 Almost simultaneously the heart loses its power; the pulse 

 becomes weak, frequent, and unsteady ; the vessels lose their 

 tone, especially the capillaries of the most vascular organs, and 

 congestions occur to a great amount ; the brain becomes inactive, 

 and stupor ensues ; the medulla is torjDid, and the powers of respi- 

 ration and excretion are imperfect ; voluntary motion is almost 

 suspended ; secretions fail ; molecular nutrition ceases ; and, at a 

 rate much more early than in other modes of death, molecular 

 death follows close on somatic death — that is, structures die, 

 and begin to run into decomposition as soon as the pulse has 

 ceased ; nay, a partial change of this kind may even precede the 

 death of the whole body {Somatic Death — Dr. Peitchard) ; 

 and the foetid aphthous patches in the throat, the offensive 

 colliquative diarrhoea of persons in the last stage of various 

 fatal diseases, parts running into gangrene, as in the carbuncle 

 plague, the sphacelous throat of malignant scarlatina, and the 

 sloughy sores of the worst forms of typhus, and in the large 



