Infants appear to be less able to sustain the deprivation of oxygen than adults; and in some cases on record, life has been destroyed by circumstances that we should have _a priori_ considered as hardly adequate to such an effect. A case is related of a child, who was suffocated by some drunken men having repeatedly blown out a candle, and held the smoaking wick under its nose. The faculty of Leipsic investigated the circumstances, and declared the death to have taken place in consequence of suffocation. (_Valentini Pand: Med: Legal: Sect: 2._) 6. BY OTHER MODES, NOT INCLUDED IN THE FOREGOING SECTIONS. We have already stated that if the muscles of respiration be paralysed, the animal can no longer breathe; and it dies in a state of suffocation. There are several mechanical modes by which such a condition may be produced; a person buried in a heap of ruins, although his head should be free, will perish from the pressure of the surrounding rubbish preventing the due action of the respiratory muscles. It was in this way that criminals who obstinately refused to plead, often died under the pressure of the weights that were heaped upon their bodies.[50]. There is a mode of suffocation, described by _Galen_, as being practised by the slaves when brought into the presence of the judges or executioners; it consisted in swallowing their tongue, by which it is said they voluntarily terminated their own existence. Several more modern authors have noticed this incredible mode of suicide, as one that is resorted to by negroes: now to confute such an idea, we have only to shew the attachment of the muscles of this part, and the motions which they permit; equally absurd is it to suppose with other physiologists, that persons can occasion suffocation by a voluntary suspension of their breathing; for if such an attempt were even made, the effort would be ended when self-possession was once lost, for then the impulse of nature must instantly triumph over any struggle to oppose it. We are not, however, prepared to say that such an attempt might not, in certain cases, occasion such a cerebral congestion as to produce apoplexy.