Physiological Researches on Life and Death

by Xavier Bichat

In the ordinary state of health however, a series of strong expirations will not be found to quicken the pulse. Of this I cannot assign the reason.

From what we have now said, it follows, that the experiment, in which, on the opening of the cock of the syringe, the blood is thrown out with augmented force, is not so conclusive as might at first be imagined. I confess that it embarrassed me much for many days, I hold then my former conclusions to be good.

In the red and cold-blooded animals, the action of the lungs has not so immediate a connexion with that of the heart, as it has in the red and warm blooded animals.

I tied the lungs of two frogs at their basis, having previously exposed them, by incisions made laterally into the breast, the circulation however continued as usual for a considerable time. After this experiment, I have seen on opening the breast, the movements of the heart precipitated, a circumstance depending no doubt upon its contact with the air.

I shall finish this chapter by the examination of an important question, and inquire into the reason, why when the chemical functions of the lungs are stopped, the pulmonary arteries, the black-blooded cavities of the heart, and in a word all the venous system, are found so much more full of blood, than the aortic system. In such case the circulation appears at first to be interrupted in the lungs, and then in the other parts, according to their proximity to the lungs.

This phenomenon must have been observed by all who have opened the asphyxiated subject. It has been explained by Haller and others, from the tortuosity of the vessels; but this opinion I have sufficiently refuted.[85]

But before I proceed to assign a more real cause, I shall observe, that the lungs, (when the blood is first arrested, because it finds in them the first obstacle to its progress,) are found in a singularly various state, according to the kind of death of which the individual has died. In sudden, in instantaneous death, neither the lungs, nor the black-blooded heart are very much distended.

I have observed this fact, 1st. In the bodies of two persons who had hanged themselves and were brought into my amphitheatre. 2dly. On two subjects who had fallen into the fire, and were instantly suffocated. 3dly. On dogs which I have suddenly drowned. 4thly. Upon guinea-pigs, which I have killed in a vacuum, or in different gases, or otherwise.

On the contrary, arrest the phenomena of respiration in a gradual manner; drown the animal by plunging him in water, and taking him out alternately, asphyxiate him by placing him in a vessel of gas imperfectly closed, continue as long as possible such state of pain and anguish, and the lungs will be found extremely full of blood.

Between the extreme fulness, and the almost complete emptiness of the pulmonary vessels, there is a variety of degrees; now by the manner in which we kill the animal, we can determine any one of these degrees at will: It is in this way that we must explain that state of fulness in the lungs of such subjects, as are usually brought into our amphitheatres: in the greater number of cases, the attacks of death are slow and gradual.