’ 
‘to refpiration ; 
DEATH. 
an ¢ffufion of a watery fluid into the cavity of the thorax 
between the lungs an ses ribs, piacere! retains the lungs 
n a com reffed and contra ate; it is the more 
{fpeedily fatal, if conte with te dropfy of the belly, a 
of the pericardiu m ’ prefling the 
‘cavity of the cheft; fons latter, by occupying a larger {pace in 
‘that cavity., An 
ppofite morbid condition has fometimes, 
piste rarely, pre luces death, by a mechanical impediment 
namely, an univer adhefion of the lungs to 
aphragm, which altogether prevented the play 
of the lungs, and the proper enieon of the cheft. cafe 
of this defcription is recorded by Dr. Maeet in ihe Edi. 
burgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. i. p. 412. It is 
probable that a convulfive flate of the nates of refpiration 
occafionally produces a fatal interruption to the mechanical 
a& of refpiration in fome ae difeafes. See Lancifi 
de fubitaneis mortibus, = i. eo ae 
€ more common ae of a fatal interrupton of the 
funétion of the lnagss confi of impediments 2 hie chemi- 
e fupport 
cefs of cae air, or 
Thus life is fsccdily deftroyed by 
hanging or drowning ; the preffure of the rope geen 
the paflage of the wind-pipe in the former cafe, and wa 
preventing the accefs of air in the latter. See ed 
LATION and Drowninc. In the fame way the introduc- 
tion of any foreign fubftance, as particles of food, &c. into 
the piottis may occ alion a fatal eh aay te to eeen 
an e perfon is faid to be chok 
cafes of fuffocation, the breathing of the deleterious airs 
generated in mines, at the bottom of wells, or in clofe rooms 
by the burning of charcoal fires, the fermentation of haere 
or the refpiration of a crowded people, are the principal. Of 
ae firit we have inftances in the choke-damp, as it is called 
y miners, confifting of carbonic acid, and — pro 
it thofe who are unfortunately immerfed in it ; of the 
laft, the fatal i naan in the black-hole ae iCaleatea 
affords a memorable example. 
Many difeafes mane fatally by impeding ae —— 
changes of the in its paffage through ungs. 
Some operate by obftruting the entrance a air on the 
paflages, fuch as croup, in which the wind-pipe is ftuffed up 
by a fecretion of lymph from its internal {urface, which pro- 
Bo 
of 
pach by the fndden filling up of the air-cells and paflages 
with blood. A fimilar refult follows the burfting ae large 
abfcefs, or vomica, in the lungs, as fometimes-occurs in pul- 
monary confumption, or after acute inflammation of thofe or- 
gans ; it follows likewife from the rapid effulion of lymph into 
the cells, in the latter samen and more gradually from a 
eee fecretion of mucus in the peripnreumonia notha, a 
old and debilitated perfons. 
droptical glia into the fubftance of the lung 
, arrefts the procefs of Sa iia in a fimila 
merous are the morbi o s in the ee of 
breathing, by which life is annihilated 
Bichat is difpofed indeed to affirm, that in the majority 
of flow difeafes of every kind, death begins in the lungs. 
But, although a difficult and laborious refpiration is one o 
the moft obvious fymptoms of departing life, yet an accurate 
obferver will remark, in many cafes, a previous failure in the 
funGtions of the brain, or of the heart and arterial fyftem ; 
OL. 
and this affection of the Jungs muft be confidered, under 
fuch circumftances, as fec Seo in this circle of affociated 
and aoa senten: fun 
Them morbid affections ae terminate me by abi! 
mifts. The di 
membranes, = been found thickened, Gadus ted 
converted into bone, conneéte 
effufions of blood, or of its — pare Be difte 
by abfceffes, tumo d excrefcences from the 
cranium. nd befide thefe eipable and evident caufes of 
the death of the brain, ie fame confequence has refulted 
from concuffion, as it is termed, and even from flight blows, 
ere no perceptible ete had been srotieed In 
thefe various morbid aff-Gions of the encephalon, the fymp- 
ms, precede death, are thofe o ae a a pal 
a Fatty, epilepfy, frenzy, fever, hae nia, 
other thefe difeafes deftroy life by elias or 
iets oF - brain in fome of the He juft ftated. 
The funétions of the brain may be deftroyed by feveral ve- 
getable and animal poifons ; the former, when taken into the 
ftomach, affeGting the brain through the medium of the 
nerves of that o rgan ; thelatter, being inflilled into a wound, 
metimes deranging the fenforium by means o 
mal, by the abforben 
and the brain, a clofe connegtion throu 
bane, or fpirituous liquors, &c., but a blow on the epigaftric 
region, or the wind of a cannon pall, as has been affirmed, 
ave iis eat shag heey death. 
win may have eine 
upon it, that the fenforial power, (or excitability, or nervous 
energy, or by what other term we may chufe to defignate it, ) 
is diminifhed ie exhaufted by long continued or exceflive 
action, as we y the abftraction of thofe matters ne- 
ceffary to the oe of the y cath is occa- 
fioned by the exceffive vafcular action in fevers, whic - 
aufts the nervous er e orbid ftr re of 
convulfions fometimes exhaufts life; and even long con- 
tinued violent pain, or thofe Ife culate feelings which 
come under the sie aan of irritation, not unfrequently 
r down the 
cod 
Or it may be exhanfted tb ae ‘Nichanges of the blood i 
in 
