OF DEGENERATION AND DEATH. 55 



that, in cases where attempts at such reunion have not been successful, 

 the death of the separated part has resulted from the too prolonged 

 interruption of its regular nutritive operations, whereby chemical and 

 physical changes have taken place in it, and destroyed the peculiar struc- 

 ture and composition of its several parts. The ordinary phenomena of 

 Death, therefore, as well as those of Life, bear out the views which have 

 been here advanced. 



68. But it has been maintained by those who consider Vitality as 

 something superadded to an Organized Structure, essentially indepen- 

 dent of it, and capable of being subtracted from it, that Death frequently 

 takes place under circumstances, which leave the organism as it was ; so 

 that " the dead body may have all the organization it ever had whilst 

 alive." For such an assumption, there is not the least foundation. In 

 nearly all cases in which death takes place as a result of disease, the 

 connexion between changes of structure and composition, either in the 

 tissues or in the blood, and such a loss of the vital properties of some 

 part or organ as is sufficient to bring the Circulation to a stand, is so 

 palpable as to require no proof; and in by far the greater majority of 

 cases in which it is not at once obvious, a more careful scrutiny will 

 reveal it. It must be confessed on both sides, that our means of inves- 

 tigation, and our knowledge of the normal structure and composition of 

 the tissues and the blood, are not yet sufficient to enable us to detect 

 minute shades of alteration, nor to assert what extent of change is incon- 

 sistent with the continuance of life. But as no one has yet shown, by the 

 careful and exact microscopical and chemical examination of the solids 

 and fluids of a dead body, that it has all the organization it had whilst 

 alive, the assertion above quoted is totally unwarranted by experience, 

 and is contradicted by all our positive knowledge of the matter. 

 (See 1870 



69. But it has been urged, that Death may result from the sudden 

 operation of some agency of an immaterial character, which leaves no 

 trace behind it, such as a powerful electric shock, or a violent mental 

 emotion. Here, too, the argument entirely fails. It is impossible that 

 a powerful electric shock could be transmitted through a mass like the 

 animal body, composed of elements in such a loose state of combination 

 that they are always undergoing decomposition, without producing impor- 

 tant chemical changes in it ; and its imperfect conducting power renders* 

 it equally liable to physical disturbances. As a matter of fact it has 

 been noticed, that the bodies of animals killed by electricity pass into 

 decomposition with unusual rapidity ; showing that the ordinary chemical 

 affinities of their components have received a powerful stimulus ; and it 

 has also been ascertained, that when eggs in process of development 

 have had their vitality destroyed by an Electric shock, the minute vessels 

 of the vascular area ( 551) have been ruptured. Nor is it more difficult 

 to explain the immediate cause of death, as a result of Mental emotion. 

 In some cases, an obvious physical change has been produced, by the 

 too violent action of the heart, the movements of which are stimulated 

 by the emotion ; thus, even in a healthy person, rupture of the heart or 

 aorta has been known to take place, an occurrence to which those 

 affected by previous disease of that organ are much more liable. Where 



