ON DEATH. 39 



no red blood to the brain. The organs of organic life cease, 

 because the arterial movement is extinct, and because they 

 have not the excitement of red blood. 



Q. Explain this motion or arterial impulse which you 

 say is so important? 



*ft. Habitual movement is alike essential to animal as 

 well as organic life; without it they all languish. You 

 see muscular motion; the motion given to the brain by the 

 pulsation of the arteries; the movement of the thoracic 

 viscera in respiration and that of the heart; and in the 

 abdominal organs there is the pulsation of the arteries, the 

 capillary and oscillatory motions, the contractions and 

 dilatations of the stomach and bowels. You observe how 

 conspicuous a share in the general motion, arterial impulse 

 has; now in the death of the red blood heart, it is extinct. 



Q. Has not the death of the red blood heart, an indirect 

 effect in inducing general death? 



tf. Yes it does so through the medium of the brain. 



Q. Is there any relation between the quantity of blood 

 conveyed to a part and the vital forces of that part? 



*ft. A very important one; the vital forces are exalted 

 or diminished as the quantity of blood sent to an organ is 

 increased or diminished. 



On the Influence, of the Death of the Heart on General 

 Death. 



Q. Can you trace the influence of the death of the heart 

 in the production of general death? 



JL. The death of the heart arrests the impulse of blood 

 on the brain, and thus animal life is first extinguished. 

 This influence on the brain is of two kinds; first, the mo- 



