DE HAEN thought that death was produced in drowning by the water flowing into the lungs, and thus stopping the passage of the blood in the arteries. This belief gave origin to the very erroneous and mischievous practice, which still continues amongst the more ignorant, of suspending drowned persons by the heels, or of rolling them over barrels. Footnote 29: _Mr. Coleman_ examined the lungs of a cat which had been drowned, by placing a ligature on the trachea, removing the lungs from the thorax, and then making an opening in the trachea under water, so as to collect the air which issued from the orifice; the whole quantity of air thus obtained, amounted only to half a drachm; yet the same lungs when inflated, required as much as two ounces of air, by measure, for their distention. Nor would the presence of water appear to be immediately fatal, when introduced into the lungs; Dr. _Goodwyn_ poured two ounces of water into the lungs of a cat, through an opening made between the cartilages of the trachea; the animal had an immediate difficulty of breathing, and a feeble pulse, but lived several hours afterwards without much apparent inconvenience; it was at length strangled, and the water was found in the lungs. From which it would appear, that the admission of a certain portion of water, does not tend to hasten death. The author of this note was present at an experiment made by Mr. _Brodie_, in which he drowned a guinea pig, whose trachea had been previously perforated; so that in this case, no spasm of the glottis could arrest the ingress of the water into the pulmonary air cells; but this produced no modification of the usual symptoms; nor did it prevent the resuscitation of the animal, which was afterwards effected by the appropriate methods. Footnote 30: An animal also dies sooner by drowning, than by simple strangulation; Mr. _Brodie_ considers that the abstraction of heat in the former case is quite sufficient to account for this difference. Footnote 31: _Foderè_, 90. Footnote 32: _Walther_, de Morbis Peritonai, et Apoplexia. 3 _Foderè_, p. 106. Footnote 33: See the Reports of the Edinburgh colleges, in the case of Sir _James Standsfield_, as printed in the Appendix, p. 225, also Extracts from Medical Evidence in the case of _Spencer Cowper_, Esq. for the murder of _Sarah Stout_, ibid. p. 230. 3 _Foderè_, p. 93. 100. 108. The case of _Servin_, ib. 125. of _Paulet_, ib. 126. Footnote 34: Medicine Légale, vol. iii. p. 85. Footnote 35: During such a state of the body there would be but a feeble call for oxygen; it is muscular action which so rapidly expends this important principle. Footnote 36: In an experiment with a drowned cat, Mr. _Brodie_ found less than a drachm of water in the bronchial vessels. Other physiologists have ascertained the same fact by drowning animals in different coloured fluids. Footnote 37: