Any one who is familiar with hospital work must know that all do not die in the same way. For some it is the long lingering disease, chronic in form, which after a long and tedious course the thread of life is finally broken, and we hardly know the instant at which the change was completed. For others, it is the short, acute attack, which snaps the life away in a very instant, only after a very short duration. For some it is to die from accidental causes, while for others it is only the passing out from the period of old age. For some the mind may be active and the intellectual faculties useful up to the last moment, while for others the contrary is all but too true. Although there may be many different kinds of disease infecting the human race, yet we find that death ultimately results from the stoppage of any one, or maybe, all three of the vital organs, namely the heart, brain or lungs. Anything whatsoever which plays upon the body, to such an extent, as to affect the functions absolutely, of either the heart, brain or lungs, will result in the death of that body. And since these organs are of such vital importance to us, and since the stoppage of any one of them will result in death, they have been termed the vital organs. =Modes of Death.=—There are, then, only three modes of death: syncope, or the stoppage of the heart; coma, or the failure of the brain to perform its functions; apnea, or the stoppage of the lungs. _Syncope._—For the heart to properly perform its function, namely that of propelling the blood to all parts of the body, it must first be properly nourished itself. If for any reason the heart does not get this proper nourishment, say the coronary arteries should become clogged, or a fatty infiltration, or a lack of red blood corpuscles, we would have a condition in the body known as anemia. The heart must also have a proper nerve supply from the brain, and if because of any disease, the vaso-motor or the vaso-constrictor fibers should become affected, the heart would cease to contract and expand, and hence the complete stoppage of the heart. A condition of this kind is known as asthenia. But whether it is death by anemia or asthenia, the state of suspended animation, common to both these forms is expressed by the single term—syncope. _Coma._—In cases of apoplexy, where we have the blood escaping from the ruptured vessels, compressing the brain, we find death ensuing. Also in accidental cases such as fracture of the skull, the injury will often cause death. These are examples of coma, and can be explained in this way, viz.; the power of the brain becomes inactive either through the result of an injury or a disease, and when this inactivity occurs the respiratory apparatus subsides and the heart deprived of its normal stimulus through the vaso-motor and constrictor fibers, soon ceases to beat, and death is the result.