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.
The last cause of suffocation which we have to mention is mechanical
obstruction, from the entrance of foreign bodies into the aperture of
the glottis; instances of this kind are too numerous and familiar to
require many observations: it is thus that _Anacreon_ is said to have
perished from a grape-seed; _Gilbert_, the poet, terminated his
existence in a similar manner; he was a man of great appetite, and in
the midst of a festival went into a neighbouring room, but did not
return to the great surprise of his convivial companions. He was found
stretched on a couch without any signs of life. The assistance
administered by his kind but uninformed friends was useless; on opening
the body a small piece of mutton was found, that had stopped at the
entrance of the larynx, and completely prevented the passage of air into
this organ. In Oct. 1821, two inquisitions were taken at Mildenhall,
before the Coroner of Bury St. Edmonds in Suffolk; in the one case it
appeared that _John Harris_ had eaten some honey, from the honey-comb,
and that a bee, having been concealed in it, entered the glottis, and
occasioned almost immediate death by suffocation; the other case was
that of an infant, _Mary Bacon_, who fell with her face upon a quantity
of slacked lime, when a particle of it getting into the wind-pipe,
produced inflammation of the lungs, and sloughing of the trachea, of
which she died. We have no doubt but that persons, during the state of
intoxication, or that of a spasmodic paroxysm, have often perished from
suffocation, when the death has been attributed to other causes; if the
stomach should reject its contents during a state of insensibility[51],
such an occurrence is by no means unlikely. We have lately received the
history of a case of this description, which occurred in the St. James’s
workhouse, and fell under the particular notice of Mr. _Alcock_. The
patient was seized after a hearty meal of pork with an epileptic fit,
during which he died; when upon opening the trachea, it was found to
contain a quantity of animal matter resembling the pork upon which he
had recently dined.