naturally strengthened for the very purpose of enabling him to support them. Those incidental to crucifixion were not more severe in his case than in that of others. His deportment throughout the whole scene, whether in the garden, before the tribunals of the Sanhedrim and of Pilate, or at Golgotha, evinced the utmost piety, fortitude, and self-possession. The circumstance of Simon the Cyrenian having been compelled to assist in bearing his cross, by no means proves that mere weakness disabled Christ from bearing it alone. The contrary appears from his immediately afterward addressing the Jewish women who bewailed his fate, and bidding them weep not for him, but for themselves and their children. On arriving at the fatal spot he refused the cup of medicated wine, usually given as a cordial to crucified persons; and after praying for his executioners, assuring the penitent malefactor of eternal happiness, providing for the future support of his widowed mother, and actively concurring in the fulfilment of prophecy, he suddenly expired amid loud and fervent ejaculations, which alone were sufficient to show that he retained all his faculties of mind and body to the last moment of his life. The opposite opinion is so manifestly unfounded and erroneous, that to illustrate it by quotations from the writings of authors who have taken that view of the subject, would be a mere loss of time and labor. Some of the principal expositions of this class will, however, be stated and refuted in the following chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

DEMONSTRATION OF THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE

DEATH OF CHRIST.

SECTION I.

In the preceding chapter it is presumed to have been demonstrated that neither the ordinary sufferings of crucifixion, nor the wound inflicted by the soldier's spear, nor an unusual degree of weakness, nor the interposition. of supernatural influence, was the immediate cause of the Saviour's death. The first of these conditions was inadequate, the second followed instead of preceding the effect, and the third and fourth had no existence. What, then, it will be asked, was the real cause? In conformity with the inductive principles announced at the commencement of this inquiry, it must have been a known power in nature, possessing the requisite efficacy, agreeing with all the circumstances of the case, and by suitable tests proved to have been present without counteraction. It will be the object of the ensuing observations to show that the power in which these characters perfectly and exclusively concurred was AGONY OF MIND, PRODUCING RUPTURE OF THE HEART. To establish this conclusion numerous details will be adduced, but the argument itself is short and simple. In the garden of Gethsemane Christ endured mental agony so intense that, had it not been limited by divine interposition, it would probably have destroyed his life without the aid of any other sufferings; but having

been thus mitigated, its effects were confined to violent palpitation of the heart, accompanied with bloody sweat. On the cross this agony was renewed, in conjunction with the ordinary sufferings incidental to that mode of punishment; and having at this time been allowed to proceed to its utmost extremity without restraint, occasioned sudden death by rupture of the heart, intimated by a discharge of blood and water from his side, when it was afterward pierced with a spear.

In reference to their influence on the functions of body and mind, the human passions are naturally divisible into two opposite classes, the exciting and the depressing: the former giving rise to energy and animation, the latter to debility and torpor. Provided they are sufficiently strong or long-continued, passions of either class may induce death, either by simple exhaustion of vital power, or by some special injury to the heart, brain, or lungs. Agony, or the conflict between two exciting passions having opposite objects, is in this respect peculiarly efficacious; and when intense, produces violent palpitation, bloody sweat, oppression of the chest, loud cries, and ultimately rupture of the heart. Such rupture is usually attended with immediate death, and with an effusion into the pericardium (the capsule containing the heart) of the blood previously circulating through that organ; which when thus extravasated, although scarcely in any other case, separates into its constituent parts, so as to present the appearance commonly termed blood and water. In support of these statements several proofs and illustrations will now be proposed, and others will be inserted at the end of the volume. It must not, however, be expected that many distinct examples of this kind can be cited; since, while few it may be hoped have occurred, still fewer have been duly authenticated and recorded. For the satisfaction of persons not familiar with anatomy, it may be proper to

premise that the heart is a double muscular bag, of a conical form, lined within and without by a dense membrane, and loosely enclosed in a receptacle of similar material, called the pericardium. It consists of two principle sacs, the right and the left, which lie side by side, and adhere firmly together, so as to form a strong middle wall, but have no internal communication. Each of these is subdivided into two connected pouches, or chambers, termed auricle and ventricle, whereof the auricle is round and thin, the ventricle long and fleshy; the two former constituting the base, and the two latter the body of the organ. Placed in the centre of the vascular system, the heart promotes and regulates the circulation of the blood, received on each side from two or more large veins of a soft and compressible texture, and discharged through a single artery which, being firm and elastic, is kept constantly pervious. Returning from all parts of the body except the lungs, blood of nearly a black color, and become unfit for the purposes of life, is poured by two principal veins, called venæ cave, into the right auricle, whence, after a momentary delay, it is transferred to the corresponding ventricle, its reflux being prevented by a membranous valve interposed between them. By the powerful contraction of the ventricle it is transmitted through the pulmonary artery to the lungs, where by minute subdivision, and contact with atmospheric air inhaled through the windpipe, it is purified, and acquires a bright crimson color. Returning from the lungs by the four pulmonary veins, the renovated blood next passes into the left auricle, and from thence in a similar manner and at the same time as on the right side into the left ventricle, by the contraction of which it is distributed with great force through the aorta to the remaining parts of the body, whence it was originally derived.

While undisturbed by accident or disease, the actions

just described are maintained during the whole of life with admirable energy and regularity, but are liable to be deranged or interrupted by various causes, and particularly by the passions of the mind. Thus it is observed. by Baron Haller, the father of modern physiology, that excessive grief occasions palpitation, and sometimes sudden death; that the corporeal effects of anger and terror are nearly alike, including increased strength, and violent motions both in the heart and throughout the body, and producing bloody sweats, and other kinds of hemorrhage.*

"Anger"—says Senac,-" has in certain cases torn the fibres of the heart, and even opened the ventricles. It is not, therefore, extraordinary that it should be followed by palpitation, and, accordingly, various physicians have observed such a result. . . . But fear and terror are not less powerful causes, especially when they seize suddenly. In that case the nerves act with violence on the heart, and derange the order of its movements. The blood is at the same time propelled in these passions by a general shock, or commotion of all the parts of the body: it therefore necessarily accumulates in the two trunks of the venæ cavæ, rushes into the auricles, and overcharges them, as well as the ventricles. Here, then, are two causes, one the consequence of the other, which, as is proved by numerous examples, produce palpitation. Dilatations are, as we have already stated, frequent results of fits of passion. Grief and sadness do not act so suddenly, nor with equal force; but, as we have said, these secret and silent passions induce similar disorder." -"If any one "-remarks Corvisart,-" can seriously deny, or even doubt the fatal physical influence of the passions on the heart, let it suffice him to know that a fit of anger may produce rup*Haller, Element. Physiolog. Corp. Human, vol. v. pp. 50, 583, 586,

587.

Senac, Traité du Coeur, vol. ii. p. 515.