THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. 319 
dition all physiological manifestations remain suspended ; 
yet they are not, as it was long supposed, suspended abso- 
lutely. Bouchut has proved that, in the gravest cases of 
fainting, the pulsations of the heart continue, weaker and 
rarer, and harder to be heard than in normal life, but 
clearly distinguishable when the ear is laid on the precor- 
dial region. On the other hand, the muscles retain their 
suppleness and the limbs their pliability. 
Asphyxia, which properly is suspension of breathing, 
and consequently of the blood’s revivification, sometimes 
passes into a serious fainting condition followed by seem- 
ing death, from which the sufferer recovers after a period 
of varying length. This state may be induced either by | 
drowning or by inhaling gas unfit for respiration, such as 
carbonic acid in deep wells, emanations from latrines, or the 
choke-damp of mines, or by suffocation. In 1650 a woman 
named Ann Green was hanged at Oxford. She had been 
hanging for half an hour, and several people, to shorten her 
sufferings, had pulled her by the feet with all their strength. 
After she was placed in her coffin it was observed that she 
still breathed. The executioner’s assistants attempted to 
end her existence, but, thanks to the help of physicians, 
she came back to life, and continued to live some time after- 
ward. Drowning occasions an equally deep insensibility, 
during which, very singularly, the psychical faculties re- 
tain some degree of activity. Sailors, after timely resusci- 
tation from drowning, declare that, while under water, they 
had returned in thought to their families, and sadly fancied 
the grief about to be caused by their death. After a few 
minutes of physical rest, they suffered violent colic of the 
heart, which seemed to twist itself about in their chests ; 
afterward this anguish was followed by utter annihilation 
of consciousness. It is very difficult, moreover, to deter- 
mine how long apparent death may be protracted in an or- 
ganism under water. It varies greatly with temperaments. 
