Note 48 — SUFFOCATION.

Rozier and Sir Humphrey Davy conclude from their experiments that carbonic acid kills by exciting a spasmodic action, in which the epiglottis is closed, and the entrance of this fluid into the lungs altogether prevented. Dr. Babington appears to entertain a different opinion, (see “a case of exposure to the vapour of burning charcoal,” Medico-Chirurg. Trans. vol. 1, p. 83,) and asks how we shall explain the fact, that the loss of irritability in the muscles of animals which have been destroyed by immersion in noxious airs, is comparatively greater than in such as are hanged or drowned, unless we suppose that the carbonic acid exerts a deleterious influence on the nervous and muscular systems? The farther consideration of this subject will be more properly entertained under the head of poisons.