in which Death is produced by vegetable Poisons. 203 
of paste. In seven minutes after the application, the hind legs 
were paralysed, and in fifteen minutes respiration had ceased, 
and he was apparently dead. Two minutes afterwards the heart 
was still beating, and a tube was introduced through an open- 
ing into the trachea, by means of which the lungs were in- 
flated. The artificial respiration was made regularly about 
thirty-six times in a minute. 
At first, the heart contracted one hundred times in a minute. 
At the end of forty minutes, the pulse had risen to one hun- 
dred and twenty in a minute. 
At the end of an hour, it had risen to one hundred and 
forty in a minute. 
At the end of an hour and twenty-three minutes, the pulse 
had fallen to a hundred, and the artificial respiration was dis- 
continued. 
At the commencement of the experiment, the ball of a 
thermometer being placed in the rectum, the quicksilver rose 
to one hundred degrees ; at the close of the experiment it had 
fallen to eighty-eight and a half. 
During the continuance of the artificial respiration, the blood 
in the femoral artery was of a florid red, and that in the fe- 
moral vein of a dark colour, as usual. 
It has been observed by M. Bichat, that the immediate 
cause of death, when it takes place suddenly, must be the 
cessation of the functions of the heart, the brain, or the lungs. 
This observation may be extended to death under all circum- 
stances. The stomach, the liver, the kidneys, and many other 
organs are necessary to life, but their constant action is not 
necessary ; and the cessation of their functions cannot there- 
■\ 
fore be the immediate cause of death. As in this case the action 
