Nothing is more common, on opening a newspaper, than to see one or more announcements of sudden death. These occurrences are so frequent that the great London dailies, except when an inquest is held, or when the deceased is a person of note, omit to record them. The narratives are much alike: the person, described to be in his usual health, is seized with faintness in the midst of his daily-avocation, and he falls down apparently dead; or he retires for the night, and is found dead in his bed. In many instances post-mortems are made, and an inquest held; but in other cases the opinion of the attendant doctor, that the death is due to heart-disease, syncope, asphyxia, coma, apoplexy, or “natural causes,” is deemed sufficient. The friends who are called in to look at the body will remark, “how natural and how life-like,” “how flexible the limbs,” “how placid the face;” and, without the faintest attempt at resuscitation, arrangements are made for an early burial.
DR. WILDER ON SUDDEN DEATH.
Dr. Alexander Wilder, Professor of Physiology and Psychology, in a letter to the author, says:—“There are a variety of causes for sudden death. The use of tobacco is one. Another is overtaxed nervous system. Men of business keep on the strain till they drop from sheer exhaustion. At the base of the brain is a little nerve-ganglion, the medulla oblongata, which, once impaired, sends death everywhere. Overtaxing the strength by study and mental stress will do this. The solar ganglion below the diaphragm is the real vital focus of the body. It is first to begin, last to die. A blow on it often kills. An emotion will paralyse it. Even undue excess at a meal, or the use of overmuch alcohol, may produce the effect.
“Tobacco impairs the action of the heart. An overfull stomach paralyses the ganglionic store, and breathing is likely to stop. It is dangerous in such cases to lie on the back. All these deaths are by heart-failure.” It is syncope where the heart fails first; asphyxia where the lungs are first to cease; coma when the brain is first at fault. “Natural causes” and “heart-failure” usually mean, like “congestion,” that the doctor’s ideas are vague.
Dr. Wilder continues:—“I would choose such a death if I could be sure it was death. But most of those things which I have enumerated may cause a death which is only apparent.”
The following briefly extracted cases from English papers are typical of thousands of others, and can be duplicated, with slight variation in terms, throughout the United States. The absolute proof of the reality of such deaths is not found in hasty diagnosis or in medical certificates, but in the presence of putrefaction:—
“SUDDEN DEATH AT ST. AUSTELLS.
“Mr. P. G—— died suddenly yesterday. Apparently in his ordinary health, he had been busily occupied during the morning; went upstairs, and was found lying on his face on the floor. Dr. Jeffery was called, and pronounced life extinct, and expressed the opinion that death arose from syncope.”—Western Morning News, September 14, 1895.
“SUDDEN DEATH IN PEASCOD STREET.
“An inquiry was held as to the circumstances attending the death of W. P——, which took place suddenly the previous evening. The deceased was forty-three years of age, and invariably enjoyed good health, except that he complained of headache at times. The jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes.”—Windsor Express, September 21, 1895.