*76 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNOI76I. 



usually accompanies the separation of the soul and body, as was possible, under 

 any drcumstances whatever. 



The above-mentioned appearances (as they showed tlie immediate cause of his 

 Majesty's death) were thought sufficient to form the report to his present Majesty, 

 and his Council. But as the very eminent and amiable character of his late Ma- 

 jesty must make the nature of his death the object of ever}- one's attention and 

 inquiry : and as the case was exceedingly singular and extraordinary in it>elt"; and 

 as the heart must have been merely passive, and consequently there must 

 have been some other concurrent circumstances necessar)- to produce such an 

 effect ; I judged, at the time when the report was drawn, that a more minute 

 and exact detail would not only be expected by the world, but would be highlv 

 proper, as our inquiry furnished sufficient matter. 



Two questions naturally arise on the fece of our report ; viz. by what means 

 the right side of the heart became so charged with blood, as to be under a neces- 

 sity of bursting ? and how it could happen, that, as the ventricle (when under 

 great distentions) generally makes one continued cavity with the auricle, and is 

 much thicker and stronger than the auricle, the blood should nevertheless force 

 its way, by bursting the ventricle, rather than the auricle, seemingly in contra- 

 diction to the known property of fluids, to force their way where the resistance 

 is least. 



On examining the parts, we found the two great arteries, (the aorta and pul- 

 monar)- arterj', as far as they are contained within the pericardium) and the right 

 ventricle of the heart, stretched beyond their natural state ; aiKl, in the trunk of 

 the aorta, we found a transverse fissure on its inner side, 1 ^inch long, through wliich 

 some blood had recently passed, under its external coat, and formed an elevated 

 ecchymosis. This appearance showed the true state of an incipient aneurism of 

 the aorta ; and confirmed the doctrine, which I had the honour to illustrate, by 

 an experiment, to the satisfaction of the h. s., inthe year 1728; (See Riil. 

 Trans. N° 402) viz. that the external coat of the arteiy may (and does) often con- 

 troul an impetus of the blood, capable of bursting the internal or ligamentous 

 coat ; although this last is by much the thickest, and seemingly the strongesL 



In r^ard to this distention of the aorta ; as his Majesty had, for some years, 

 complained of frequent distresses and sinkings about the r^on of the heart ; and 

 as his pulse was of late years observed to fall ver)- much on bleeding ; it is iK)t 

 doubted, but that this distention of the aorta had been of long standing, at least to 

 some degree ; and as the pulmonary arter)' was thereby necessarily compressed, 

 aiKl a resistance, greater than natural, thereby exposed to the blood's discharge 

 out of the right ventricle, it is reasonable to conclude, that a distention and con- 

 iequent weakness of the pulmonar)' artery and right ventricle, to some degree, 

 pere nearly coeval with that of the £K>rta. But that ttie a<Mta had sufiered a more 



