THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. By) | 
chemical stimulants, such as ammonia or acetic acid, are 
brought under the patient’s nostrils. This is the mode of 
treatment for drowned persons, whose condition is brought 
on by ceasing to breathe the air, not by taking in too much 
water. A very effective method in cases of apparent death, 
caused by inhaling a poisonous gas, such as carbonic acid 
or sulphuretted hydrogen, consists in making the patient 
draw in large quantities of pure oxygen. And, again, it 
has very lately been proposed, as Hallé suggested without 
success early in this century, to adopt the use of strong 
electric currents for stimulating movement in persons who 
are in a state of syncope. 
In all the cases of seeming death we have just men- 
tioned, one mark of vitality persistently remains, that is, 
pulsation of the heart. Its throbs are less strong and fre- 
quent, but they continue perceptible on auscultation. They 
are regularly discernible in the deepest fainting-fits, in the 
various kinds of asphyxia, in poisonings by the most vio- 
lent narcotics, in hysteria, in the torpor of epilepsy, in 
short, in the most diverse and protracted states of lethargy 
and seeming death. 
Yet, this result, now a practical certainty, was unknown 
to physicians of old, and it cannot be denied that, in former 
times, seeming death was quite often mistaken for true . 
death. The annals of science have recorded a certain num- 
ber of errors of this kind, many of which have resulted in 
the interment of unfortunate wretches who were not dead. 
And for one of these mistakes that chance has brought to 
light either too late, or in time for the rescue, even then, 
of the victim, how many are there, particularly in times 
of ignorance and carelessness, that no one has ever known! 
How many live men, have only given up their last breath 
after a vain struggle to break out of their coffin! The 
facts collected by Bruhier and Lallemand in two works 
that have become classic compose a most mournful and 
