AND ANIMAL LIFE. 7 



piration, and prove the necessity for those ex- 

 terior nerves of respiration."* 



X. I have not brought forward the above ex- 

 tracts as additional authority to strengthen my 

 opinion, but for the purpose of shewing that his 

 ideas in regard to the phenomena of inspiration 

 and expiration are not consistent with more en- 

 larged views on this subject. The sympathy 

 of which he speaks, existing between the nerves 

 which govern the muscles of inspiration and the 

 state of circulation and respiration, arises from 

 the painful anxiety occasionally felt from accu- 

 mulation of blood in the lungs, whether from 

 mental emotions, fatigue, or disease : and as this 

 state of the chest is accompanied by the sensa- 

 tion of dissolution, the individual makes repeat- 

 ed involuntary inspirations, and these inspirations 

 are proportionate in degree to the severity of the 

 cause and the strength of the constitution. The 

 sudden catches are referrible to acute and instan- 

 taneous sensations, produced by conditions in 

 the mode of circulation which are incompatible 

 with the continuance or well-being of life. The 

 nerves appear more intimately linked by sympa- 

 thy to the state of the circulation and respiration, 

 because, in those extreme cases of inspiration to 

 which he alludes, the action of the system is so 

 oppressed that the means which Nature employs 



* Ibid. p. 



