/28 REPORT— 18G4. 



r 



\liis must be an effect primarily manifested on the blood, then on the heart, 

 and through the increased impetus of the heart, on the capillary circulation. 

 It was, however, soon apparent that the injection of the capillary sj'stem was 

 too quickly developed to be a sequence of mere overaction of the pulsatoiy 

 power of the central organ of the circulation, and the experiments on the web 

 of the frog's foot settled the question, I think, absolutely. It is possible 

 that the action of the nitrite is exerted immediately upon the extreme fila- 

 ments of the vaso-motor nerves, and that the heart beats quickly, because 

 the resistance to its force is taken off by the dilatation of the minute vessels 

 which it supplies with blood. At the same time the vascular currents of the 

 heart itself are quickened, and its movement is intensified proportionately. 



On the facts so far presented in this Report, two questions call for a mo- 

 ment's consideration. The first is: — Whether we ought dogmatically to 

 deny the possibihty of placing the human body in such a condition that it may 

 for some hours, or even some days, assume the appearance of temporary 

 death ? We are conversant of rare cases of disease, called cases of trance or 

 catalepsy, in which life, seeming for an interval suspended, is restored : we 

 have heard of other cases in which it is said that certain natives of India who 

 are called Fakirs, produce, by some secret art, an imitation of death so de- 

 terminate that the most iateUigent are deceived. I cannot but feel, after 

 what I have seen in the experiments on which the present inquiry is based, 

 that the explanation of the cataleptic state admits of a better solution than 

 ever before it chd, and that the validity of the Fakir experiment is rendered, 

 at the least, probable. I doubt not that in catalepsy there is formed in the 

 body itself a chemical substance which, without actually stopping the motions 

 of the heart and of respiration, suspends them so nearly that passive life only 

 is carried on, and that this condition is contimied ixntil such time as the sub- 

 stance is removed from the cii'culation. I conceive it is also qiiite reasonable 

 to presume that the Fakir holds in his hand some substance derived from the 

 vegetable world, which, more effective than the agent that has been before 

 us this day, possesses the power, when introduced into the body, of suspend- 

 ing the common signs of animation for a certain number of hours, and that 

 " in this borrowed likeness of slu'unk death " the facts of the phenomena are 

 presented and explained. 



The second question is : — Whether, from what we have learned in this in- 

 quiry, any knowledge may be gathered relative to the application of the nitrite 

 of amyl as a remedy in disease ? I have been too closely and intently occu- 

 pied in the task of obtaining elementary facts, to devote time to the practical 

 elucidation of this important point. Eut, subject to further and better ex- 

 perience, I should infer that in cases where in a healthy organism sudden 

 death is apprehended from failure of the heart, as for example in syncope 

 from severe pain, fright, or inhalation of chloroform, the cautious administra- 

 tion of the nitrite by inhalation might call into action the faihng organ and 

 give it time to recover from the shock to which it has been subjected. Again, 

 I believe that in tetanus the nitrite might be employed with advantage. 

 Paralyzing the extreme filaments of nerves, and reducing the muscidar power 

 of all the voluntary muscles in the same manner as does woorali, the nitrite 

 possesses advantages over woorali which the man of science wiU at once 

 recognize. It is more easily administered ; it does not necessarily destroy 

 the power of the muscles of respiration, and it is much more easily removed 

 from the organism by excretion. It might therefore in tetanus, for which 

 there is now no remedy, be employed to suspend the violent spasm, and give 

 the system time to 1-.: j-,7 off the primary evil. Physiologists have long felt 



