Interrupted blood supply to the respiratory centre the probable cause of death from air admitted rapidly and in large quantity through wounded veins : with sketches from nature / by P.D. Handyside.

  • Handyside, P. D. (Peter David), 1808-1881
Date:
[1837]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Interrupted blood supply to the respiratory centre the probable cause of death from air admitted rapidly and in large quantity through wounded veins : with sketches from nature / by P.D. Handyside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    13/18 (page 13)
    This view seems the more probable, from considering the intc- restino- experiments already adverted to, and which 1 had recently the favour of witnessing Sir A. Cooper perform. Tn all these experiments the manual compression for the period of a minute and a-half of the vertebral and carotid arteries in rabbits was followed by death, preceded always by violent convulsions, similar exactly to those which have been observed to occur on depriving the parts of the cerebro-spinal axis, on which these vessels ramify, of their sup- ply of blood, through means of the admission of air, either casually on the operating table, or intentionally in experiments on animals. Finally, then, the phenomena which have been detailed, and theremarks made, afford proof, that, although the heart is the organ primarily and directly affected, the encephalon and its adjacent por- tion of the spinal cord, arc the parts ultimately and indirectly in- fluenced, and being arrested in their presiding functions, thus pro- duce the fatal result. Concluding Remarks. The foregoing case of suicide is interesting and valuable, in a variety of points of view deserving of brief notice here, both in its medico-legal bearings, and as compared with other instances of death from the entrance of air into the circulation. 1. It differs little from cases of suicide generally, in which, ac- cording to Osiander* * and other writers, the weapon is always dropped from the hand before death. 2. It differs from cases of cut-throat, generally, in the cir- cumstance, first, that more than one incision were made, and se- condly, that both hands were employed for this purpose. The latter circumstance seemed more than probable, from regarding attentively the appearance of the edges of the wounds, since the peculiarity of direction and depth in an incision, made in this way, bears always a corresponding relation to the hand which has been used in inflicting it. But, if taken in connexion with two other cases on record, one detailed by Osiander,-f- and parallel in both particulars, just specified, to that under notice, the other narrated by Dr Gairdncr]; and corresponding to the present case in respect of several incisions having been made, we shall be guarded against forming erroneous deductions as to any other case which may pre- sent such peculiarities, not being a case of suicide. ling air upon the brain through one of the carotid arteries. (Op. cit. p. 270.) Again, cases of sudden death are mentioned by Morgagni, (Op. cit. § 19, § 24.) and other authors who have written on gaseous apoplexy, in which air was found in the vessels of the brain. * F. B. Osiander, iiber den Selbsttnord, Hannover, 1813. s. 15C. + Op. et loc. cit. £ Case of Attempt at Suicide, in the xvi. Volume of this Journal, p. 353.