Physiological Researches on Life and DeathBichat, Xavier
Science
Physiological Researches on Life and Death
Bichat, Xavier
Death (Biology); Life (Biology)
It is not by passing the water through the lungs, as the fish
does through the branchiæ, that the frog obtains the air held in
solution by the water in which he is immersed, the skin is in
this case the sole respiratory organ. M. Edwards is satisfied
that this mode of respiration is not sufficient to support life,
except between certain limits of temperature; a frog immersed in a
volume of water which is not changed, continues to live so much the
longer as the temperature of this fluid approaches nearer 32°. At
this degree frogs are not torpid, as might be supposed, only their
motions are slower.
As long as the animal immersed in the water remains perfectly
alive, which may be known by the vivacity of his motions, it is
certain that the respiratory phenomena continue to be performed
by him; we see in fact on the membranes in the interstices of the
toes, the vessels filled with vermilion blood. When the black
colour begins to appear, the animal soon becomes immoveable and
insensible.
CHAPTER XIII.
OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE DEATH OF THE BRAIN OVER THAT OF THE BODY IN
GENERAL.
From the consideration of what has been said in the preceding
chapter, nothing can be more easy than to form an accurate idea of
the manner in which the phenomena of general death, commencing by
the brain, are concatenated. The series is as follows:
1st, The cerebral action is annihilated. 2dly, There is a sudden
cessation of sensation and voluntary motion. 3dly, A simultaneous
paralysis of the intercostals and diaphragm. 4thly, An interruption
of the mechanical phenomena of respiration and the voice. 5thly,
An annihilation of the chemical phenomena of the lungs. 6thly, A
passage of black blood into the arteries. 7thly, A slowness of
circulation owing to the influx of such blood into the arteries,
and the absolute immobility of all the parts, of the intercostals
and diaphragm in particular. 8thly, The heart dies and the general
circulation ceases. 9thly, The organic life vanishes. 10thly, The
animal heat, which is the product of all the functions, disappears,
11thly, The white organs die.
Though in this kind of death, as well as in the two preceding
kinds, the functions are suddenly annihilated; the parts retain,
for a certain time, a number of the properties of life. The
organic sensibility and contractility, continue for some time, to
be manifest in the muscles of the two lives; and in those of the
animal life, the susceptibility of being affected by the galvanic
fluid is very great in the muscles of the animal life.
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