The reason of this anatomical fact is simple. The circulation which has been suddenly interrupted, has not had time to fill the vessels of the lungs, as happens when death begins, by affecting the lungs or the brain. The truth of this fact I can vouch for, having frequently ascertained it by dissection, and in general, as often as death commences by the heart, or the larger vessels, such vacuity of the lungs may be considered as universal. I have remarked it in the bodies of persons who have died from great hemorrhage from wounds or aneurismal rupture and violent passion, as well as in those who have suffered by the guillotine. The same phenomenon may be seen, by inspecting the lungs of any animal, which is killed in our butcheries. In killing the animal slowly by the lungs, that organ might be filled with blood. Its taste would then be different from that which it naturally possesses, and resemble that of the spleen. Our cooks know well how to take advantage of that state of infiltration in which the latter viscus is generally found. FOOTNOTES: [73] Life is so obscure in the tendons, ligaments, &c. that it is impossible to fix the moment when it ceases in these parts. How then has Bichat been able to compare the quickness of their death with that of the other organs? Upon what data has he been able to determine that it takes place more slowly? [74] The secretion of mucus, the growth of the nails, the beard and the hair often continue on the dead body long after the last traces of irritability have disappeared in the muscles of locomotion, in the fleshy coats of the intestines, &c. [75] Since more care has been taken in examining the lesions of different organs in post mortem examinations, there is no longer found those fatty polypi, which were formerly considered as causes of death. It is probable that those yellowish concretions of albuminous matter which are found between the pillars of the auricle, and which seem to be fixed there, were mistaken for polypi. There is sometimes found in individuals formerly affected with the venereal disease, vegetations near the valves; but these productions are commonly too trifling to oppose the expulsion of the blood contained in the cavity.