On some forms of sudden death, and sudden death in general / by Alex. Ogston, M.D.

  • Ogston, Alexander, Sir, 1844-1929.
Date:
[1869], [©1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some forms of sudden death, and sudden death in general / by Alex. Ogston, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    mentioned pneumonia, cellulitis, meningitis, encephalitis, cholera, liver disease, hydrocephalus, peritonitis, pericarditis, and bronchitis. To complete the table, deaths from wounds and injuries, drowning, poisoning, hanging, strangulation, burns, &c., have been retained, although, strictly speaking, they do not belong to cases of death occurring suddenly under ordinary circumstances. In Table II, an attempt has been made to reduce the first table of cases more to the level of ordinary experience of sudden death, and to place together merely such instances as would, by most inquirers into the subject, be comprehended under this designation. At the same time it must be remembered that such a thing as an absolute definition of what constitutes an ordinary sudden death is, in the very nature of things, out of the question, and that, in pro- portion as the subject is regarded from the practical rather than from the theoretical side, the difficulties of drawing a line of de- marcation multiply themselves. Hence cases of suffocation have been retained, since this accident, although rare and tolerably obvious to an eyewitness where occuring in adult life, forms a large pro- portion of the diseases of infancy where the termination of life is sudden and inexplicable. In truth, although the signs during the autopsy are perfectly diagnostic of this occurrence in many of the deaths of young children and even of adults, little or no idea can be formed from the circumstances or the accounts of the friends, as to the mode in which it had originated. In the second table, those cases where the symptoms during life, or the marks and appearances on the body after death, or the history of the case, where obtainable, would, with approximate certainty, indicate the agency at work, have all been omitted. Cases of drowning, where the wet clothes, &c,, would tell their tale; cases of wounds and injuries, cellulitis, poisoning, hanging and strangu- lation—where the mark of the cord would remain,—hydrophobia, burns, convulsions, childbed diseases, erysipelas, scarlatina, abortion, and enteric fever, have all been omitted; and if any still retained may seem liable to challenge, it may be urged that numbers of those omitted should by right have been retained, while it should further be borne in mind that the cases jnust be estimated as they occurred in practice, and not as our notions of probability would suggest to us. In the second table, purged and curtailed as it is, we find, still playing a very important part, many diseases which could hardly have been supposed likely to be represented in it, and these are all the more striking, as they preponderate over, or at least rival in importance, other maladies recognised as causes of sudden death. In fact, the two generally recognised causes, heart-disease and apoplexy, sink into the shade when compared with the numbers of pneumonias, brain diseases, &c. Cases of apoplexy stand as iS, or