Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright.

Date:
1850
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    have diecT of one or other form of suffocation. Of course it is not to be relied upon singly: an interruption to the passage of blood along the pulmonary artery, or its immediate branches, would occasion corresponding accumulation in the right cavities of the heart: and if the interruption were complete and persistent, death would occur in the same space of time as in suffocation, and, the lungs excepted, would leave similar morbid appearances. The vessels of the brain would be turgid, and the right side of the heart completely filled with black blood, but the lungs would be paler and less distended than natural. I have several times produced these conditions by putting a ligature round the pulmo- nary artery of a dog. In such case, death results from the right side of the heart standing still upon its contents—it has become filled to fulness, and can act no longer. If an incision be made, and blood allowed to escape, the contrac- tions will be renewed as the mechanical obstruction is lessened. This is precisely the condition that obtains in death from suffocation, except that the interruption to the passage of blood is in the capillaries of the lungs, instead of in the pulmo- nary artery alone. The capillary circulation, however, is not absolutely at rest, for it may be seen slowly continuing some time after death. The right side of the heart becomes loaded, because the circulation through the lungs is not rapid enough to enable them to receive the blood which it would fain transmit.*'*' Neither has the retarded circulation through the brain, nor the presence of black blood in its arteries, any direct share in causing death in suffocation. An animal will live a long time with both its internal and external jugulars tied. Of a series of experiments which I performed ten years ago,**' the following was one. Each of the common carotid arteries, of a strong healthy dog, was secured with a ligature. The left internal jugular vein was then opened, and the animal instantly plunged under water. Life was extinct in two minutes and forty seconds. The post-mortem appearances were, congestion of the lungs, and complete distension of the right cavities of the heart, with black blood: the substance of the brain was paler than usual, and its large vessels, and sinuses, only moderately filled. In this instance, not only was half the cerebral circulation arrested by tying (/i) Some of Dr. Kay's Experiments, especially the 15th and 16th, are excellently Illustrative of this fact.—On Asphyxia, p. 162. (/) Prize Essay on Asphyxia from Submersion.—Vide Traill's Medical Jurisprudence, 2nd edition, p. 78.