Syncope

“ In all the syncopes, which I have seen induced after convulsive fits, the pulse has continued natural, though the organs of sense, as well as the locomotive muscles, have ceased to perform their functions; for it is necessary for the perception of objects, that the external organs of sense should be properly excited by the voluntary power, as the eye-lids must be open, and perhaps the muscles of the eye put into action to distend, and thence give greater pellucidity to the cornea, which in syncope, as in death, appears flat and less transparent. ”

“ When fear has still more violently affected the system, there have been instances where syncope, and sudden death, or a total stoppage of the circulation, have succeeded: in these last cases, the pain of fear has employed or exhausted the whole of the sensorial power, so that not only those muscular fibres generally exerted by volition cease to act, whence the patient falls down; and those, which constitute the organs of sense, whence syncope; but lastly those, which perform the vital motions, become deprived of sensorial power, and death ensues. ”

“ The clinical features are indefinite, and the condition frequently passes unrecognized during life. In most cases there is no hint of danger until the fatal syncope sets in, which may be after any slight exertion or shock, the patient becoming suddenly faint, gasping and cyanosed, and the heart stopping altogether before the respirations have ceased. ”

“ All the above symptoms may be readily caused by even slight currents, whether galvanic or faradic, passed through the head. The syncope thus produced is to be carefully differentiated from the syncope caused psychically by excitement or fear of the application of electricity. Hysterical women, and even persons who show no special signs of nervous instability, may faint at the suggestion of the application of electricity. ”

“ Some patients have syncopal attacks with the least injury or with any mental shock. Such patients as soon as restored are as well as ever. Other patients who faint or have attacks of syncope should remain at rest on a couch or bed for some hours. ”

“ The blood may remain in the ordinary quantity; but if the bloodvessels do not keep up their usual support, and exert a sufficient pressure on their contents, the same kind of syncope will occur as that from blood-letting. The late Sir George Lefevre related the case of a lady who fainted whenever she left her bed, and assumed the upright posture ”

“ Such a state of the valves of the heart necessarily places the life of the individual in extreme jeopardy, a rupture may be induced, and thus prove instantly fatal, or the action of the heart may be suddenly arrested, and a fatal syncope be the result ”

“ If in old age, ossification exists only in the arteries, the circulation is unaffected; if at the origin of the aorta or in the heart, it is irregular. An artery might become a bony canal, and the blood would circulate there as usual, with the difference only of pulsation. What I have said of the chronic affections of the heart may be said of the acute ones. Syncope arrests its motion, it arrests also the pulse. Certain passions, as anger, fear, &c. seem to be a stimulant to it; they hasten also the arterial motion. All kinds of inflammation of the pericardium affect the pulse. ”

“ How different again are all these from the aerial pastimes of the snipe, in which the bird, in its violent descent, is able to produce such wonderful, far-reaching sounds with its tail-feathers! The snipe, as a rule, is a solitary bird, and, like the oscillating finch mentioned early in this paper, is content to practise its pastimes without a witness. In the gregarious kinds all perform together: for this feeling, like fear, is eminently contagious, and the sight of one bird mad with joy will quickly make
Music and Dancing in Nature, 283
the whole flock mad. ”

“ At the first glance, I knew it was the lodge of a chief, for over the spot where he lay, hung his medicine bag, his bow and arrows, and immediately under them, two scalps of my own nation. At the sight of the scalps I drew my knife, intending to kill him, but I thought of Sinepaw and stopped. Where was she? Fifteen men and women lay sleeping on the ground, and all so wrapped in their robes, that I could not distinguish them; so I drew my own robe over my face, and sat down to listen to their breathing, for I knew there was music in the breath of Sinepaw, different from that of all other women. ”

“ It is a pity that I did not ask you alone to this dinner—With a full moon it must be beautiful here, though on these heights I have always a throbbing of the heart. If you could see how it throbs at this moment; but look at my pulse, you can see it even through the glove."
She turned her palm, which was confined so tightly in the Danish glove as to be turned almost into a tube, and stretched it to Svirski. He took the hand in both of his, and looked at it.
"No," said he; "I cannot see the pulse clearly, but perhaps I can hear it." ”

“ A quivering pain runs from the top of my spine to the sharp stones that seem to pass through my pampooties, and grate upon my ankles. We stagger and groan beneath the weight; but at last our feet reach the slip, and we run down with a half-trot like the pace of bare-footed children.
A yard from the sea we stop and lower the curagh to the right. It must be brought down gently—a difficult task for our strained and aching muscles—and sometimes as the gunnel reaches the slip I lose my balance and roll in among the seats. ”

“ The men move like kittens, but it is their first experience of the kind, and most of them are excited, even nervous. As for Snipe, he rages to see how he is trembling.
And then all of a sudden the major's horse, rejoicing that the weight is gone, gives himself a thorough shake, rattling housing and stirrups and accompanying the shake with a loud b'r-r-r-r of satisfaction. All too late [220] Snipe springs from saddle and seizes both horses by the nostrils. Almost instantly booted heels are heard within, and manly, ringing voices. Somebody comes striding to the door and throws it open. ”

“ It is interesting to notice that in some species of Sycon, the gaps between the distal ends of the chambers are covered over by a delicate perforated membrane, thus leading on, as we shall see presently, to the next stage of advance. [219] The larva of Sycon is an amphiblastula (see p. 227) . Fig. 80 is a drawing of the young sponge soon after fixation; it would pass equally well for an ideally simple Ascon or, neglecting the arrangement of the spicules, for an isolated radial tube of Sycon. ”

“ Here the current, thirty fathoms deep, free of all obstruction, shot through the Euclataws in a clear, straight line, pitching down in a slant perceptible to the eye, a strip of smooth jade-green bordered to right and left by eddies, whirlpools, white-tipped waves where conflicting currents met and slashed up foam. The song of running water crooned gently between wooded banks,—that song which would presently fill the air with deep-toned antiphony to the whisper of the winds.
"Now," Rod commanded. "Stow your paddle till I shout." ”

“ We had one narrow escape. A wave appeared high above the rest, and there was the usual moment of intense exertion. It was of no use, and in an instant the wave seemed to be hurling itself upon us. With a yell of rage the steersman struggled with his oar to bring our prow to meet it. He had almost succeeded, when there was a crash and rush of water round us. I felt as if I had been struck upon the back with knotted ropes. White foam gurgled round my knees and eyes. The curagh reared up, swaying and trembling for a moment, and then fell safely into the furrow. ”

“ He looked at her with hot hungry eyes. His brain in its feverish intensity took note of trifles—the tortuous pattern of the braid on her gown, the gold sleeve-links at her wrists, the specks of brine that glistened on her temples under the wind-woven strands of her black hair; it recorded these things and remembered them afterward. And all the time the boat came nearer, and the slow, steady stroke of the oars measured his hour by minutes, till the sweat, sprung from the labor and passion of his nerves, stood out in beads on his forehead. ”

“ So, too, they tell of a race who have two feet but only one leg, and are of marvellous swiftness, though they do not bend the knee: they are called Skiopodes, because in the hot weather they lie down on their backs and shade themselves with their feet. ”

“ I have noticed great numbers of snipe bleating on the Norfolk Roads, and I am satisfied that it is made by the rapid vibration of the long feathers of the tail and wings. The sound is only made when the snipe is in the air and descending a little, rapidly, in an oblique direction against the wind.
e6 ↑ There is only one species of water-rat, and strictly speaking it is not a rat. It differs anatomically and in its mode of life from the rat. ”

“ I used to be a bit of a sprinter at school, and in the ordinary course of things could give Synge about 30 yards in the 100, but that night I could only just keep away, if it can be called keeping away from a man whose breath you can feel on your neck, and whose hand you can see coming over your shoulder. ”

“ There were lapwings, black and white, like magpies, which rise up swiftly with their croaking cry and then swoop wildly to earth to dodge your shot.
There were plovers, handsomest of birds, in their golden spring raiment.
And, last and best, there was snipe, queen of the marshes, and the finest and hardest of shots; the jack snipe, smaller than a lark, which has blue and green stripes; the common snipe, which is about the size of a quail, and amazingly timid, and the great snipe, rarest of all, which is as big as a partridge. ”

“ A very delicate connective tissue, called the synovial membrane, lines the capsules of the joints, and covers the ligaments connected with them. It secretes the synovia, or joint oil, a thick and glairy fluid, like the white of a raw egg, which thoroughly lubricates the inner surfaces of the joints. Thus the friction and heat developed by movement are reduced, and every part of a joint is enabled to act smoothly. ”

“ This curious bird has the grey upper plumage and narrow, long, sharply-pointed wings of a Snipe, with the plump body and short strong curved beak of a Partridge. But the gallinaceous beak is not in this species correlated, as in the Partridges, with stout rasorial feet; on the contrary, the legs and feet are extremely small and feeble, and scarcely able to sustain the weight of the body. When alighting the Seed-Snipe drops its body directly upon the ground and sits close like a Goatsucker; when rising it rushes suddenly away with the wild hurried flight and sharp scraping alarm-cry of a Snipe. ”

“ The woodcock is not an inhabitant of this State. The rail is rarely seen; but the jacksnipe is very plentiful in the late fall and up to mid-winter, when the great majority of them depart for warmer marshes. They do not breed here. This bird, in its quick and upward bound and its swift zigzag flights, is a recognized test of the sportsman's skill. Snipes are often bagged here, but not in the romantic way. Snipe on hot toast is a breakfast dish fit for a king.
I had a sporting friend—a doctor—with whom I often went snipe-shooting. This doctor was the best snipe-shot I have ever known. ”

“ An ordinary Syphon acts by the pressure of the air on the upper water, which drives it into the ascending pipe, because there is a (partial) vacuum made there by the weight of the falling water in the descending pipe; this being always longer than the first. Thus, in Plate 29, fig. 5, A B shews the rising pipe of a Syphon, and C D the falling pipe, which is longer, and sinks to a lower level D, than that A of the water, which feeds the machine. E, in this figure, represents the vessel containing the mechanism on which the new effect depends: and which I shall now describe. ”

“ When the Snipe alights within sight, and you are concealed and silent, its movements can easily be observed. It first stands for an instant in a half crouching attitude, as if to listen, then raises itself and runs a few steps, when, if it be in any degree apprehensive of danger, it squats, and there remains until put up. ”

“ It is like hollow, mirthless laughter; the expression of a wild earnest joy by sounds which to human ears seem mournful rather than joyous, and therefore unnatural, uncanny, weird. The snipe has another amusing trick in flight; he will suddenly jerk himself to one side, throw his wings halfway back, and allow himself to fall like a lopsided shuttlecock, until, as suddenly recovering himself, he sets off again on his circular career. ”

“ I supposed the vial to be in the box when I took it, but when I got to my room and had an opportunity to examine the deadly trinket, I found it empty, just as you found it when you took it from my hair. Some one had taken the vial out before my hand had ever touched the box."
Like a man who feels himself suddenly seized by the throat, yet who struggles for the life slowly but inexorably leaving him, Sinclair cast one heartrending look toward the conservatory, then heavily demanded:
"Why were you out of your room? Why did they have to look for you? ”

“ Then he set some one else at a different job, and showed the lad how to place a lard-can every time the empty arm of the remorseless machine came to him; and so was decided the place in the universe of little Stanislovas, and his destiny till the end of his days. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year, it was fated that he should stand upon a certain square foot of floor from seven in the morning until noon, and again from half-past twelve till half-past five, making never a motion and thinking never a thought, save for the setting of lard-cans. ”