42 ANALYTIC SECT. VII. 
body into a state of flexion; the extensors, de- 
prived of their vital force, contract at the same,t ty, 
but are overcome by the physical power of the 
flexors ; the body thus coils itself up, as it were, 
when the vital force is gradually extinguished. 
Moses, in his description of the patriarch Jacob’s 
death, has paid particular attention to this state 
of the body at the extinction of vitality: “ And 
when Jacob had made an end of commanding 
his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and 
gave up the ghost, and was gathered unto his 
fathers.” This is a brief and accurate history of 
dying, and describes that coiling of the body 
which precedes dissolution. 
Lxxix. Indirect diminution of the vital force, 
causing morbid contraction, may be exemplified 
_ by hemiplegia. A very considerable quantity of 
blood is required to keep the nervous system in a 
sufficient degree of healthy excitement ; but if it 
collect in too great abundance in the brain, or 
spinal marrow, convulsions and paralysis are the 
consequence. On this subject there can be only 
one opinion, viz. that congestion of blood is the 
cause of hemiplegia, and prevents the generation 
of a proper quantity of vital force. 
Lxxx. The followers of Haller readily admit 
that paralysis is caused by diminution of the vital 
force; but spasm and convulsion, according to 
them, proceed from an augmentation of it. “The 
