3 
DEATH. 
the medium, in which the precefs tekes place ; the different 
degrees of temperature and moifture, under which it is car- 
ried on; and the flage of the procefs itfelf, Thefe varieties 
h 
carbon, and nee ee fubfides; the re- 
fiduary matter, confifting oe a and falts, cecone: more 
confiltent, and o colour, aa laftly forms a friable 
and rather devaactecne lubltance particularly ufeful as a ma- 
nure. The bones, being of a m ore durable nature, re- 
tain their compofition and eee: for a great length of time ; 
yet if expofed for a feries of ages to air and moifture, their 
animal portion finally decays, and the earth crumbles away 
intoaduft. Thus at length every trace of our material 
exiftence completely difappears. ‘ Putrefaétion,”? fays a 
modern phyfiologift, “ when confidered philofophically, is the 
( Circulus eterni motus. Beccher.) Nothing 1 therefore can be 
more clearly proved than the metemplycofis of matter; and 
e may rea afonably conclude, that this tenet, like moft o 
the religious rites and fabulous conceptions of antiquity, 
is only a myfterious veil, dexteroufly interpofed between the 
people and the knowledge of nature by the hard of philo- 
fophv.”’ Richeraud, Elemens de Phyfiologie, tom. ii, 
Bh 
491. 
hep dead animal matter is accumulated i ina confider- 
p o othe 
it is placed in a running ftream of water, the chan 
enfue are very different from thofe firft detailed. All the foft 
parts are diminifhed in fize, and converted into a peculiar 
pa matter, poffefling much of the appearance and proper- 
tics of {permaceti. This was obferved firft at the burial 
ground of the Innocents in Paris, where the poorer people 
were buried in vaft numbers in large pits. Every part of 
the body undergoes this change. oT e fubftance in suction 
eae all the properties of foap, with an excefs o wal 
matter: and is ftated by Fourcroy to confift of adipo 
fubftance, combined with ammoniac. It is applicable to all 
thofe manufadtures in which tallow is ufed. See ApipocireE. 
Dears, in Pathology. It has already been fhewn, that, 
when done ccurs before the natural changes, induced b 
old age, in the animal economy, have brought life to a con- 
clufion, it happens in confequence of fome fudden difturbance 
of the fyftem, or of ee more gradual operation of difeafe. 
In the former cafe, and in fome of the more rapid inftances 
of the latter, an interruption of the fun¢tions of the heart, 
the lungs, or ig rain, has been fhewn to be the immediate 
caufe of death ; i. e. death in fuch cafes begins in one or the 
6 
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Morbid Coupee Er Death -Difeales adi direly impede 
the fun€tions of the heart are, eompared with sa that ob. 
firya the brain and the lungs in their a@tion ct few, and 
of fomewhat rare occurrence. Death is, Ce thus pro- 
ue ho mie 5 as ogy an ea ee of the heart, or of 
wounded from e ae aa rceé. Several Conaae of Sig 
opening, into the fac of 
ECE farily, prevented the continuance 
of the motion of the heart. The fub 
rendered thin by dilatation. An obftruétion to the heart's 
action is alfo occafioned by a dropfy of the pericardium, 
when that invelting membrane is diftended with a watery ef. 
fafion from its veffels. The heart is or rae iat oi 
the contrary condition of that membrane, namely, w 
adheres firmly to the furface of the heart. See Cites Find 
Lines, § 1185. 
t is the opinion of Morgagni, that the heart, being a 
mufcular spain tiy is, like other mofcles, liable to fpafm or 
t de ath is in fact fometimes the refule 
a {pafm of the heart He quotes = opinion of Perseaius 
who taught pile fudden death, when it originated from no 
very evident e, mult be et hard to fuch a fpafm; and 
-he obfervea, fae i convulfion of the he art is more than once 
To 
mentioned by Hippocrates. See . 
this caule Bichat attributes the ane death, muck h is fome- 
id ; 
circumftances influence the heart diredlly, aed che brain pa 
in a fecondary way; yet it muft be admitted, that the 
? 
fues.. The death, in this cafe, is a perman mA fyncope, aud 
differs from a een ean only in ri duration. See 
Bichat, loc. cit. 
As the fundtion of re{piration i is two-fold, — partly 
of mechanical, and partly of chemical operations ; fo death 
may begin in the lungs, when either the one or the other of 
thefe ations is interrupted, by external accident, or by dif- 
afe. The mec anical act of refpiration i is arrefted partially 
or completely by t f the {pine of the neck, and 
the confequent co afer of the fil marrow, in that 
: n 
ome dife 
chanically impeding the 
m1 air 
The hydrothorax, or droply of the chet w which ‘eanftl rt 
