Ars chirurgica a compendium of the theory and practice of chirurgery in seven books ... shewing the names, causes, signs, differences, prognosticks, and various intentions of curing all kinds of chirurgick diseases ... : to which is added Pharmacopoeia chirurgica, or, The medical store, Latin and English ... / by William Salmon ...

III. By Internal Suffocation.

XVIII. If a Man, naturally a∣bounding with good Humours, and who keeps a wholsom Diet, should die suddenly, or be accidentally found dead, and no Symptoms of external Violence be found on him, you are to enquire whe∣ther he lay last in a new Room, lately done with Lime and Mor∣tar, or Plaister; or whether he had been shut up in a close Place, where Damps come; or in a close Room, where was no Chimney, and in which Char∣coal was burnt; or whether it was an Apoplexy, which many times after Death is attended with a Flux of Blood, or Hu∣mours; or faint away and die, by the heat of a Bath, or the like.

XIX. 'Tis possible, that Air containing an inimical Sulphur, may kill, if long and liberally ta∣ken in; as is the Air of subter∣raneous Vaults, Damps in Mines, new Plaistered Rooms, and the Fumes of Charcoal, not having a Vent to get out at.

XX. So also, where there be∣ing no great quantity of Air, the Place is so close, that what is within cannot get forth, nor any fresh come in: For the Principle of Life is maintained by a due Ventilation, and a moderate Refrigeration, without which, the vital Flame will necessarily go out: So that, People which die through the Heat of a Bath, it is not because the Spirits are

evacuated, but for want of Re∣frigeration, to keep the Flame alive.

XXI. And such who die in new Plaistered Houses, or in the Steams of Charcoal, or in Mines with Damps, or in stinking Caves, Vaults, or Charnel Houses; Die, not so much for want of Air, as because the cold Air is not attra∣cted, which is absolutely neces∣sary for Respiration; to which add, the stinking and inimical Sulphur, contained in the Air of such impure Places; which, as it were, with a kind of violence, smites the Vital Powers. These Die, not through any fault of the Brain, but for want of Ven∣tilation, and by the Malignity of the impure Sulphur.

XXII. But, such who die of an Apoplexy, have a Suffocation of the Animal Spirits, from Matter filling the Ventricles of the Brain; which pressing hard upon the Meninges, compress the Brain, with the little Vessels which carry the Blood, and convey the Spirits to their respective Parts; which failing, the Person pre∣sently dies.

XXIII. Now, in Respiration we attract two Things, 1. The Air it self. 2. Its Quality: So that, should we have never so much of the Air, yet, if it be of a hot Sulphureous Quality, the Creature will be as well Suf∣focated, as if it inspired no∣thing at all; whereas, had it been of a cool Nitrous Quali∣ty, it would have refreshed the Spirits, both Vital and A∣nimal, and maintained Life; which is overcome by the Blood and Spirits being too much heated.

XXIV. Lastly, Galen says, the only Symptom which is common to all such as have the use of In∣spiration intercepted, is that of Frothing. But dying by the means of Sulphureous Fumes, is a less violent Death, than that of being stopt at Mouth and Nose, or being Strangled with a Cord or Rope.