Selected quad for the lemma: water_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A37394
|
The Hertford letter: containing several brief observations on a late printed tryal, concerning the murder of Mrs. Sarah Stout.
|
P. D.
|
1699
(1699)
|
Wing D75; ESTC R213503
|
15,345
|
28
|
THE Hertford Letter CONTAINING Several Brief Observations On a late Printed Tryal Concerning the MURDER OF Mrs. Sarah Stout LONDON Printed and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1699. THE Hertford Letter SIR I Am favoured with Yours of the 20th ult whereby I perceive your pleasure is That I should give you my Sentiments concerning Mrs. Sarah Stout's Death the Trial c. In answer I am very sensible of my own weakness and how unfit I am to enter into a Controversie wherein so many Doctors have been worried already Nevertheless in obedience to your reiterated Commands though in doing it I may expose my own Ignorance I shall give you my thoughts concerning the Natural Cause of Drowning Floating of Dead Bodies afterwards the various Sentiments of the Doctors the manner of her Death the Letters produced in Court her Melancholiness why no mention was made of the Money and lastly concerning two publick Experiments whereof one was made here and the other in the River of Thames It is a common Observation of most People not used to dive that upon their Plunging themselves in the Water whether it be voluntarily or involuntarily they find a great Confusion of their Spirits so that it is morally impossible for them to regulate their Actions in this Surprize by the Dictates of Reason in this Consternation they lay hold on any thing that comes in their way not considering whether it may contribute to their Sinking or Swiming In this hurry of the Spirits occasioned partly from the noise their fall makes in the Water and partly from its running into their Ears Nostrills c. The whole Animal Oeconomy is brought into Disorder in this Confusion it is no ways Suprising that Water wherein they are immersed should insinuate it self into some Vacuities no ways adapted for its reception and it being obvious to all That no Man doth or can live without Respiration whatever Element soever he is in if in the Air he sucks that in which naturally flows into the Lungs if in Water what comes into the Mouth as long as his Senses continue he swallows that down the Gullet as long as he doth not Breath there is little danger of Drowning but on the first Inspiration if he is at the surface of the Water 't is much if he doth not swallow down the Wind-pipe with the Air some small quantity of Water but if he is totally immersed in it 't is not improbable that upon Inspiration a far greater quantity of Water than Air will enter into the Cavity of the Lungs In every Expulsion of Air out of the Lungs the Epiglottis is lifted up if the Mouth at the same time should be full of Water 't is impossible but some of it will pass down the Wind-pipe as is observable in those that accidentally Laugh while they are a drinking if a drop falls into the Aspera arteria it will cause a Coughing which is a Convulsive Motion of the Lungs c. whereby Nature doth commonly throw up any thing that doth casually fall upon them by this strugling of Nature to expel the Water already slip'd down the Epiglottis is lifted up and instead of ejecting the Water just swallowed the Mouth being full of it a great deal more forceth it self down by its natural gravity which gravitates the more by reason of the Cylinder or Cone of the Air that continually presseth on its Superficies as soon the Senses are gone the Epiglottis is kept open by the force of the Stream that runs into the Wind-pipe till the Bronchia and all their Ramifications are filled as long as the Senses continue they swallow most of the Water that comes into their Mouths into their Stomachs but when they are near suffocated the Water runs into those Ducts where it meets with the least resistance So long as Life continues there is a Convulsive Strugling of Nature to expel out of the Lungs all those things that are noxious to them especially Water being never used to be Receptacles for any thing but Air they use their utmost Efforts to eject it by a violent Contracting their Lobes nearer together by these Exorbitant Contractions the Water contained in the Ramifications of the Bronchia c. are sometimes forced in to the Cavity of the Thorax either by dilating the Pores of the thin Membrane that invests the Lungs as Quick-Silver is forced by the pressure of a Hand thro' a piece of Leather or by the rupture of their Tunicle or by some minute Vessels not yet described by Anatomists If any Practitioner in Physick c. shall assert that Anatomy is brought to a Ne plus ultra and that all Ducts through which the Juices of Animals are strained are detected I would desire them to tell me through what Vessels the Pus in an Empyema where the matter lies on the Midriff when there is no Ulcer of the Lungs is expectorated or through what passages when 't is carried off by Urine 't is conveyed into the Kidneys or how bitter Injections cast into the Thorax can affect the Mouth with its taste as the Observations of Physicians do demonstrate or let them read a Treatise of Robert Boyle Esq called New Experiments Physico-Mechanical touching the Spring of the Air where amongst many curious Observations about the Lungs he asserts That the diligent Wallaeus relates that he divers times observed in the Dissection of Live Bodies that the Membrane that invests the Lungs had Pores in it as big as the longer sort of Peas p. 343. Water is as frequently found in the Cavity of the Abdomen as of the Thorax but by what Ducts or Passages when there is no visible Rupture of the Coates of the Stomach nor Guts they are carried there I leave it to the Microscoptical Anatomist to determine I conceive it enough for me at present to tell you that it is Fact I am conscious you are not ignorant that there are many things that happen in the Animal Oeconomy that cannot be proved a Priori yet when they are a Posteriori they are admitted by the Schools as undeniable Arguments if any are so Sceptical as to deny what is not capable to be proved a Priori they would be put to it to prove the Circulation of the Blood Motion of the Animal Spirits or where or how the Chile is Transcolated through the Coats of the Guts As soon as the Lungs Stomach c. are full of Water the Body naturally sinks and rises no more till there is a Putrefaction in the inward parts which in cold Countries is longer than in hotter Regions but the sooner Putrifaction is begun the sooner the Corps float whereof no certain Calculation can be made the time of their rising differing with respect to the Region and in the same Climates with respect to the Seasons of the Year in these parts according to the common reckoning they float in Nine or Ten Days The common Cause assigned for Floating of Bodies drown'd is
the breaking of the Gall which you know is a vulgar Error so that I need say nothing in opposition to it The cause assigned by the Moderns is Putrifaction but how this Putrifaction renders the Body more boyant than 't was before is not obvious to every Eye therefore I shall give you my thoughts concerning its Modus agendi Putrifaction is a species of Fermentation by Fermentation the Air contained in the Cavity of the Breast Body Stomach c. tho' seemingly full of Water yet they contain great quantities of Air which is rarified with the other Juices proportionable to the Degrees of Putrifaction and this insensible dilatation of the Body increases gradually till the Corruption hath made a passage through the Skin so that a Person that is not above 20 Inches in Circuit when first drowned after he hath lain some Weeks in the Water will be at least 30 or 40 Inches in Circumference this gradual dilatation of the Body I conceive is the sole cause of its rising to the Surface of the Water after some certain time and also of its more or less boyantness afterwards Having given you my thoughts concerning the cause of drowning of the Floating of their Corps afterwards I shall now acquaint you with my Notions why Bodies thrown Dead into the Water do not sink and why some are more boyant than others It is observable that Humane Bodies after Death admit no Water especially Suffocated as the Experiment made some Weeks since doth evidently Demonstrate because as soon as Death seizes a Man the Sphincter Muscles in all parts do naturally contract themselves for which reason it is not so easie to inject any Liquids into the parts that have them as before by this Seclusion of Water the Vacuities which in drowned Creatures are full of Water are in those that come by their Death some other way full of Air which by natural Experiments is proved to be as Thousand Times lighter than Water and by the same sort of Experiments solid Flesh is observed to be but a little heavier than Water if you grant this which is easily demonstrated it will be no hard matter for any considerate Man to believe that Flesh which hath many large Cavities in it filled with Air may Float If you doubt the immediate Floating of Humane Bodies thrown Dead into the Water you may for your Satisfaction consult the Opinion of Sea-men who have been the last War in several Ingagements with the French or those that have been a Guiny Voyage where when they throw the Dead Negroes over-Board they never lay any weight to their Feet to sink them as they do to white Men it is certain that all those Negroes do immediatly Float I have spoken with several lately come from thence that if occasion were would attest it with an Oath Bodies are more or less boyant either in respect to themselves or in respect to the Medium wherein they Float If the Person Died in the very act of Inspiration the Lungs will be full of Air by which the Breast will be sensibly dilated that the filling of the Thorax with Air may be a cause of Floating is evident from those that can lye on their Backs without stirring hand or foot it being observable that those do fill themselves as full of Air as they can and that as long as they can hold their Breath they Float but on the very instant of Breathing they Sink If they have a large Chest or are very Lean they will Float the loftier If they are cast into Salt Water they will be more boyant than in fresh it being experimented that Ships will Sink some Inches lower under Water in the Thames than when they were at Sea if into deep Water all Men observing they can Swim more easily in deep than in shallow Water On the contrary if the Person died in Expiration had a small Chest was Fat and Fleshy or was thrown into fresh or shallow Waters he will Swim the more under Water I do not perceive so great a discordancy between the Doctors that were Evidences for the King and their Opposites as some seem to insinuate The Witnesses for the King deposed That it was their Opinion that no Person ever was or posibly could be drowned that had no Water in their Lungs Stomach c. and that as far as they had made any observations on drowned Persons they always found great quantities of Water in the inward parts of drowned Persons part thereof usually in lifting them out of the Water runs out of their Nose or Mouth that upon their dissection they had found considerable quantities of it in the Cavities of their Bodies and that it was their Judgment that the inward parts of drowned Persons would putrifie in less than six Weeks time Whether these are not undeniable Truths I leave it to the determination of your self and all unbiassed People that have made any real not notional Observations on drowned Bodies Their Learned Antagonists whose sole endeavour and business as far as I could perceive was to render it a mute Case by their strenuously urging That 2 or 3 Ounces of Water was sufficient to Drown a Person not from any Observations on Humane Bodies but from a private Experiment on a Dog or two that was half hanged as I am told and I am apt to think there was some Artifice used seeing the Experiment did not succeed when made publickly in the River of Thames by the same Person Dr. Sloane saith that Cases of this kind are very uncommon viz. for Mrs. Stout to be drowned without any Water in her and none of them have fallen directly under my Knowledge nor as I verily believe under any other Persons since the Creation of Man Then he tells you that Water swallowed by the Gullet into the Stomach will not drown the Person Who said the contrary But it is that which goes into the Wind-pipe and Lungs that Suffocates and confirms it with an Observation saying I have observ'd Some Spoonfuls if it went the wrong way to have choaked or suffocated the Person Note he doth not say drowned neither do I think any Person can properly be said to be drowned that hath not swallowed above 2 or 3 Ounces of Water but rather such are as the Doctor saith choaked or suffocated in the same Paragraph he tells you that Whether a Person comes Dead or a-live into the Water he believes some quantity will go into the Wind-pipe Then Water in the Wind-pipe is no certain Sign of a drowned Person I am of another Opinion which our Experiment doth seem undeniably to prove Being asked by the Judge Whether the parts would not putrifie in less than six Weeks if there had been Water His Answer was My Lord I am apt to think it would have putrified the Stomach less than the Lungs How direct and satisfactory this answer was to the Question you may determine I observe a general Question for what intention I cannot Divine