[42]. This was the opinion of Boerhaave and Morgagni. M. Portal also coincides with them, and observes that the examination of the bodies of executed criminals formerly carried to him at the Jardin des Plantes for his lectures, has confirmed him in this idea.
[43]. See 3 Foderè, 130.
[44]. See several cases cited by Foderè, T. 3. p. 134.
[45]. Memoires de l’Academie Royale, &c. 1704.
[46]. State Trials, vol. xii.
[47]. In consequence of plants, in the absence of the sun, giving off nitrogen and carbonic acid gases, the custom of sleeping with flowers in the bed chamber is deleterious, and may even, under certain circumstances prove fatal; a melancholy proof of this occurred in October, 1814, at Leighton-Buzzard, in Bedfordshire. “Mr. Sherbrook having frequently had his pinery robbed, the gardener determined to sit up and watch. He accordingly posted himself with a loaded fowling piece, in the green-house, where it is supposed he fell asleep, and in the morning was found dead upon the ground, with all the appearance of suffocation, evidently occasioned by the discharge of Mephitic gas from the plants during the night.” Observer of 16th, and Times of 17th October, 1814; see also Currie’s “Observations on Apparent Death,” &c. p. 181.
[48]. Rozier and Sir Humphrey Davy conclude from their experiments that carbonic acid kills by exciting a spasmodic action, in which the epiglottis is closed, and the entrance of this fluid into the lungs altogether prevented. Dr. Babington appears to entertain a different opinion, (see “a case of exposure to the vapour of burning charcoal,” Medico-Chirurg. Trans. vol. 1, p. 83,) and asks how we shall explain the fact, that the loss of irritability in the muscles of animals which have been destroyed by immersion in noxious airs, is comparatively greater than in such as are hanged or drowned, unless we suppose that the carbonic acid exerts a deleterious influence on the nervous and muscular systems? The farther consideration of this subject will be more properly entertained under the head of poisons.
[49]. Comparative anatomy would furnish us with a variety of beautiful arguments, if it were necessary, to support these views. The bird whose muscular exertion is so great during its flight, is provided with a more than ordinary extent of pulmonary apparatus; and amongst insects we find that many of the coleopterous species disclose avenues of air, in the act of flying, which, in their quiet state, are closed by the cases of their wings, thus procuring for themselves a larger supply of oxygen, at a period when from their exertions they most require it. Flat fish who, having no swimming bladder, remain at the bottom, and possess but little velocity, have gills that are quite concealed, while those who encounter a rude and boisterous stream, as trout, perch, or salmon, have them widely expanded. For further observations upon this subject, the author begs to refer to his paper in the 10th vol. of the Linnean Transactions, entitled “On the Physiology of the Egg,” by J. A. Paris, M. D. &c.
[50]. This was the peine fort & dure of our ancient law, which was inflicted on prisoners who stood mute out of malice, or who feigned themselves mad, or challenged peremptorily more than the number of Jurors allowed by law, thus refusing their legal trial. “The manner of inflicting this punishment may be best found from the Books of Entries and other law books, all of which generally agree, that the prisoner shall be remanded to the place from whence he came, and put into some low dark room, and there laid on his back without any manner of covering, except for the privy parts, and that as many weights be laid upon him as he can bear and more, and that he shall have no manner of sustenance but the worst bread and water, and that he shall not eat the same day in which he drinks, nor drink the same day on which he eats, and that he shall so continue till he die.” Some authorities say till he answers. See 2 Hawk. P. C. 330. c. 30. § 16. 4 Bl. Com. p. 319. Jac. Law Dict. tit. Mute. The memory of this barbarous punishment remains “as a monument of the savage rapacity with which the lordly tyrants of feudal antiquity hunted after escheats and forfeitures,” for when the criminal died mute, the lord in some cases lost his escheat; (see 4 Bl. Com. 323). But its execution is no longer permitted by our laws. By Stat. 12 Geo. 3. c. 20, sentence may be passed on those who stand mute as if they had been found or pleaded guilty.
[51]. This, however, can but rarely occur; and it seems to have been wisely ordained by Nature, that the stomach should lose the power of rejecting its contents, whenever the brain loses its sensibility. See Paris’s Pharmacologia, edit. 5, vol. 1, p. 150.