[13]. Phil. Trans. 1667, vol. ii, p. 539.
[14]. Hunter on the Blood, p. 54.
[15]. Medical Reports, p. 75.
[16]. Zoonomia, vol. 1, p. 40.
[17]. An Essay on Respiration by J. Bostock, M. D.
[18]. A question has arisen, says Mr. Brodie, (Manuscript Notes) whether the whole of the brain is essential to the function of respiration, or whether the power of calling the respiratory muscles into action may not reside in some particular part of that organ? It has been stated by Le Gallois that if you expose the cavity of the cranium, and remove the upper part of the brain, the muscles of respiration continue to act as usual; if, however, the dissection be continued, as soon as that portion of the Medulla Oblongata is removed which corresponds to the Corpora Olivaria, their action is immediately suspended. The theory which such an experiment naturally establishes has received no inconsiderable support from the history of a fœtus, published by Mr. Lawrence in the Medico Chirurgical Transactions: in this monster the Cerebrum and Cerebellum were entirely absent, but the Medulla Spinalis was continued for about an inch above the Foramen Magnum of the occiput, so as to form an imperfect Medulla Oblongata, and to give origin to several nerves. Death did not take place immediately after birth, as in other instances of cerebral deficiency, but the child breathed for four days after it had been expelled from the uterus.
[19]. Lower, as early as the year 1667, shewed that if the nerves which go to the diaphragm in a dog be divided, he breathes “like a broken-winded horse.” Phil. Trans. vol. ii, p. 544.
[20]. While this work was in progress we have read an account of a person who, being in a state of debility, died suddenly from the shock of a shower bath at Brighton. In this case Syncope was probably occasioned in the same manner as by a blow on the head.
[21]. Trance. Although this term is extremely familiar, it does not appear that any precise meaning is attached to it; the popular notion is that the body may for a time be abandoned by the soul, and remain for a certain period in a deep sleep, during which the exercise of the vital functions is so obscure, that the individual is reduced to a state of close simulation of death.
[22]. A great question has arisen upon this subject, whether rupture of the heart ever takes place in the sound state of that organ? And it has been answered by several pathologists in the affirmative. Fischer’s case from the Journal der Practischen Heilkunde, may be seen in the Medical Repository, Vol. 11, p. 427, and Vol. 12, p. 164. Harvey found in a male subject a rupture in the aortic ventricle, capable of admitting a finger, and remarked that the parietes of the cavity possessed their natural strength and thickness (Exercitat III. De Circulo Sanguinis, T. p. 1. 281.) Bohn also gives a case of a man who had died suddenly, when a fissure was discovered in the Ostium Aortæ. Portal has informed us, that in a rupture of the basis of the heart, which he examined, the structure of the organ was as firm and compact as in the natural state, and that in another case the parietes of the heart displayed their natural solidity. (Memoires de l’Academie des Sciences, a Paris, 1784, p. 51.) Soemering considers it as having been very correctly remarked by Portal, that the Aortic ventricle commonly bursts without any previous weakening of the substance of the heart. (See Soemering’s German Translation of Baillie’s Morbid Anatomy, with Additions.) Dr. Whytt has likewise seen the heart burst from protracted grief, and therefore does not regard the term, “BROKEN HEART,” in the light of a mere metaphor. On the contrary, Boerhaave has recorded two cases, and believes that the rupture was occasioned by the morbid accumulation of fat; Kreysig suspects that in most of these cases of ruptured heart an insidious inflammation had been established, and he considers that the quantity of adipose substance in which ruptured hearts are so commonly found enveloped, furnishes an evidence of this inflammatory state (Sopra i Malattée del cuore.) We are decidedly of opinion that such ruptures take place in consequence of a morbid state of the heart capable of diminishing the cohesive power of its fibres. See a Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest by R. T. H. Laennec, M. D. translated by J. Forbes, M. D. London, 1821.