I confess, however, that this explanation is subject to a difficulty which I cannot solve. Persons asphyxiated by mephetic vapours, perish nearly in the same way as those who are drowned; if the cause of their death be different, its effects are the same, as may be seen by opening the carotid of two dogs at the same time, that into the lungs of the one are injected the vapours of charcoal, and into those of the other, a certain quantity of water, which water, as in the drowned, is soon reduced into a state of foam. Notwithstanding this similitude of the last phenomena of life in the two cases, the members in the first remain for a certain time warm and supple, while those in the second, especially if the body be plunged into water during the experiment, become very suddenly stiff and frozen. Let us return, however, to our subject. We may conclude from the various facts and considerations related in this chapter, 1st, That when the chemical functions of the lungs are suspended, the functions of all the other organs are suspended also, from the presence of black blood within their substance. 2dly, That the death of the organs in general, coincides with that of the brain, and the heart, but is not immediately derived from them. 3dly, That if it were possible for the brain and heart to receive an influx of arterial blood, while the others were dying, from that of the venous blood, they would doubtless continue to exert their accustomed actions. 4thly, That, in a word, asphyxia is a general phenomenon, developed at the same time in all the organs, but especially in one of them. From this manner of regarding the influence of the black blood upon the different parts of the body, it appears that death is very soon the result of its circulation in the arteries. Nevertheless, certain organic defects have sometimes prolonged after birth, the mixture of the two sorts of blood, a mixture which is known to be made in the fœtus. Such was the malconformation mentioned by Sandeford, in a child, the aorta of which arose by a branch from each of the ventricles. Such also appears, at first sight, to be the opening of the foramen ovale in the adult.