ON DEATH. 



*#. By the fact, that the left heart does act for some time 

 after black blood is thrown into it; which of itself proves 

 that it must throw black blood into the organs. 



Q. Is there not other evidence of the injection of the 

 organs with black blood in asphyxia? 



Jl. Dissection has given beautiful evidence of it in the 

 muscles. In them you see the black drops of blood oozing 

 from the vessels of the cut muscle, while the colouring 

 matter of the muscular fibre preserves them red. Again, 

 this black blood is seen in the arteries of the nerves. It 

 is stagnant in the skin, because the black blood does not 

 sufficiently excite the capillary circulation to action. The 

 passage of black blood into the mucous and serous mem- 

 branes is clearly evidenced by exposing these tissues, 

 and shutting the stop-cock in the trachea. 



Q. What phenomena are accounted for by the left heart 

 circulating black blood? 



A. Besides explaining many other pathological facts, 

 it accounts for the existence of black blood in the arteries 

 after death; it likewise explains the darkness of the mu- 

 cous membranes after death. 



Q. What effect has the black blood on the tissues ? 



#. Defective in exciting power, the vital forces of the 

 organs penetrated by black blood diminish; this is from a 

 destruction of their own vital forces that the organs suffer, 

 not from direct dependence on the heart or brain. The 

 destruction of organic life is an independent process, as 

 that of animal life, connected as the two may be. 



Q. What effect has asphyxia on the white organs, or 

 those to which no blood is ordinarily sent? 



*ft. The question cannot be answered. 



