THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. 



chemical stimulants, such as ammonia or acetic acid, are 

 brought under the patient's nostrils. This is the mode of 

 treatment for drowned persons, whose condition is brought 

 on by ceasing to breathe the air, not by taking in too much 

 water. A very effective method in cases of apparent death, 

 caused by inhaling a poisonous gas, such as carbonic acid 

 or sulphuretted hydrogen, consists in making the patient 

 draw in large quantities of pure oxygen. And, again, it 

 has very lately been proposed, as Halle' suggested without 

 success early in this century, to adopt the use of strong 

 electric currents for stimulating movement in persons who 

 are in a state of syncope. 



In all the cases of seeming death we have just men- 

 tioned, one mark of vitality persistently remains, that is, 

 pulsation of the heart. Its throbs are less strong and fre- 

 quent, but they continue perceptible on auscultation. They 

 are regularly discernible in the deepest fainting-fits, in the 

 various kinds of asphyxia, in poisonings by the most vio- 

 lent narcotics, in hysteria, in the torpor of epilepsy, in 

 short, in the most diverse and protracted states of lethargy 

 and seeming death. 



Yet, this result, now a practical certainty, was unknown 

 to physicians of old, arid it cannot be denied that, in former 

 times, seeming death was quite often mistaken for true 

 death. The annals of science have recorded a certain num- 

 ber of errors of this kind, many of which have resulted in 

 the interment of unfortunate wretches who were not dead. 

 And for one of these mistakes that chance has brought to 

 light either too late, or in time for the rescue, even then, 

 of the victim, how many are there, particularly in times 

 of ignorance and carelessness, that no one has ever known ! 

 How many live men have only given up their last breath 

 after a vain struggle to break out of their coffin ! The 

 facts collected by Bruhier and Lallemand in two works 

 that have become classic compose a most mournful and 



