176 DR. PHILIP ON THE NATURE OF DEATH, 



subject I shall commence with those causes of disease whose operation most resembles 

 that of the wholesome stimulants of life ; and in pursuing, by means of the various 

 experiments which tend to unfold the laws of the animal economy, the consequences 

 of these causes, we shall be led to the effects of such as have nothing in common 

 with them. 



IT appears, from what was said of the nature of sleep, that all degrees of excitement 

 in the parts of the brain and spinal marrow associated with the nerves of the sensitive 

 system, are followed by proportional exhaustion. The only limit to this law is the ca- 

 pability of bearing in those parts. Exhausted by mental excitement, the criminal is 

 often awakened for his execution ; and the soldier, both by mental and bodily excite- 

 ment, sleeps by the roaring cannon. 



Now although the usual stimulants of the day never, except in old age, where we 

 have seen all our powers have long been in a state of decay, produce such exhaustion 

 as to endanger life, the exhaustion from stimulants of greater power cannot with 

 safety be frequently repeated, because by their continued operation the sensitive 

 parts of the brain and spinal marrow being both more exhausted than is consistent with 

 the due state of the functions before sleep takes place, and roused before they have 

 been refreshed to the usual degree by repose, a state of disease is induced ; and all 

 diseased states affecting the system generally, if their causes continue to operate, 

 necessarily prove fatal. 



Although in ordinary sleep the vital functions are for the time impaired in conse- 

 quence of the lessened sensibility rendering the act of respiration less frequent, the 

 state both of the vital and sensitive system is as much a state of health as in our 

 waking hours. The insensibility of the latter only extends to the effects of the daily 

 stimulants of life ; and there are ample means in the functions of health for the re- 

 storation of this system, the powers of the vital system, as I have already had occasion 

 to observe, being in no degree diminished, but only, in consequence of a slower respi- 

 ration, less readily excited. 



As soon as a diseased state of the sensitive system is established from the causes 

 just mentioned, it begins to affect the vital system otherwise than through the inter- 

 vention of respiration, the only medium, we have seen, through which the healthy 

 exhaustion of the former affects the latter ; for such is the sympathy between the 

 sensitive and vital parts of the brain and spinal marrow, that any deviation from the 

 healthy state of either is immediately felt by the other. 



The characteristic of the mode of death I am considering, is the tendency of its 

 causes to produce sleep in the first instance. So far their operation is the same, 

 but greater in degree, with the common stimulants of life. At this period, if the 

 cause of suffering be removed, the sleep is only more profound than on former occa- 

 sions ; and, as on them, it continues till the sensitive system again becomes obedient 

 to those stimulants ; if not, this system soon partakes of a species of debility so dif- 



