THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. 319 



dition all physiological manifestations remain suspended ; 

 yet they are not, as it was long supposed, suspended abso- 

 lutely. Bouchut has proved that, in the gravest cases of 

 fainting, the pulsations of the heart continue, weaker and 

 rarer, and harder to be heard than in normal life, but 

 clearly distinguishable when the ear is laid on the precor- 

 dial region. On the other hand, the muscles retain their 

 suppleness and the limbs their pliability. 



Asphyxia, which properly is suspension of breathing, 

 and consequently of the blood's revivification, sometimes 

 passes into a serious fainting condition followed by seem- 

 ing death, from which the sufferer recovers after a period 

 of varying length. This state may be induced either by 

 drowning or by inhaling gas unfit for respiration, such as 

 carbonic acid in deep wells, emanations from latrines, or the 

 choke-damp of mines, or by suffocation. In 1650 a woman 

 named Ann Green was hanged at Oxford. She had been 

 hanging for half an hour, and several people, to shorten her 

 sufferings, had pulled her by the feet with all their strength. 

 After she was placed in her coffin it was observed that she 

 still breathed. The executioner's assistants attempted to 

 end her existence, but, thanks to the help of physicians, 

 she came back to life, and continued to live some time after- 

 ward. Drowning occasions an equally deep insensibility, 

 during which, very singularly, the psychical faculties re- 

 tain some degree of activity. Sailors, after timely resusci- 

 tation from drowning, declare that, while under water, they 

 had returned in thought to their families, and sadly fancied 

 the grief about to be caused by their death. After a few 

 minutes of physical rest, they suffered violent colic of the 

 heart, which seemed to twist itself about in their chests ; 

 afterward this anguish was followed by utter annihilation 

 of consciousness. It is very difficult, moreover, to deter- 

 mine how long apparent death may be protracted in an or- 

 ganism under water. It varies greatly with temperaments. 



