106 MIDRIFF : PALPITATION. [BOOK I. 



Bruin, being muzzled, rams his nose tight into the 

 dog's mouth, and, blowing with all his might, you 

 may hear the wind whizzing: the dog swells all 

 over, by reason of the air entering the cellular mem- 

 brane, and he dies unless timely pulled off. A 

 dog which has " had a hurt" of this sort seldom 

 regains his proper wind ; he must be " a good one" 

 to face the bear again, " as long as he crawls." 

 Such is the polished language at those elegant 

 places of town amusements. 



35. The midriff has been already mentioned 

 (sections 25 and 31). It is termed diaphragm 

 by the learned ; and we have seen how materially 

 it is engaged in the business of respiration. But 

 for the action of this drum-head-like membrane, 

 neither the lungs on one side of it, nor the stomach, 

 bowels, and liver, on the other, would obtain their 

 full degree of motion, which is thus kept in tune, 

 as it were, by those organs acting alternately upon 

 each other : the action of the heart, too, is in unison 

 with that motion ; but when through agitation (oc- 

 casioned by great exercise, fright, &c.) it does not 

 keep time, the temporary disorder, termed palpi- 

 tation, is the consequence. We may infer that, 

 when the lungs have discharged their contents, the 

 lower or thinnest end of that organ, falling upon 

 the muscular border of the midriff, is by it repulsed 

 and excited to action. Any man can feel, when he 

 has expired all his wind, a kind of throbbing in- 

 ternally, lower down than the heart, until he inspires 

 a fresh portion of air. When the lungs are in such 

 5 



