Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-10-08
FRIGHTENED TO DEATH.
The shock Which Ends Life with a
Broken Heart.
british Hedic0i Jourual.


The serious effects Of shock to the nery-
Gus system, especially by fright, are con-
stanuly witnessed, the results being most
commonly syncOpe and commissions.
Death itself Is, fortunately, comparatively
rare. 1t IS reported i'm the newspapers To
have occurred at BrOckley, in the case of
girl, aged Is, who was frightened to
death by a man dressed as Il ghost, near
the Depttord Cemetery. The pathology OF
emotional death IS OF great interest, and
varies in different cases. In some
instances, fatal issue results from
sangulneous apopleXy; in others, and
much more frequently, from shock to
the heart. Examples Of the former are
recorded by DR.. ID. Hack luke, i'm his in
tiuence OF the Mind pen the Body
Thus, woman at Bradford received a
fright from man throwing a stone against
her window. He had previously threat
ened her. She soon afterwards complained
Of numbness, and rapidly became insens-
bic. There was right hemiplegia. She
died in seven hours, and, on post mOrtpm
examination, a lot of blood was found in
the left lateral yentricle. The cerebral
vessels appeared to be healthy. In the
well known example of death from the
heart which occurred in John Hunters
own case. we have an illustration of the
cardiac class. The organ was extensively
diseased and the left ventricle was
strongly contracted. Other instances Of
death from emotion, i'm which the stIess
had evidently fallen upon the heart, and
not upon the brain. are recorded i'm the col
lection Of cases Of death from powerful
emotion to which we have referred
In some cases, however, there was no
evidence of disease Of the heart or of any
organ of the body, as might, indeed. be
expected. For instance, man is report
ed to have died at Twickenham after Wit
Messing the death of a neighbor. He made
the remark: Il have never seen any one
dead before, and hope | never shall
again There was u pOst-mOrtem eNami-
nation made by DR.. Ward. but nothing
was found to account for death: both VEN
tricles of the heart contained only a little
fluid blood, the organ itself being normal
in size and healthy. There is no reason
to doubt that, in such instances, fatal
syncOpe may arise simply from the action
of the heart being inhibited, whether by
direct eNcitation of the vagus, as main
tanned by Brown-Sequard. or Of the ac-
celerat0rs OF the heart in the
first instance, followed by eNhaus-
ton, and the unantagOniZed play of the
former. Anyway, If the heart, as in
Hunters case, be strongly contra cted on
its contents, and the blood expelled, one
efficient cause Of sYncOpe with fatal re-
suits is present, Probably this was the
pathological explanation of this unfOrtu-
nate girls death, from the silly practical
joke played upon her. She arrived home
after her fright in the road by the Dept
ford Cemetery. at Brockley, looking very
i'll and excited. She is said to have taken
of her waterproof, drawn a chair to the
table to take supper, then fallen forward
with her head on the table, and died after
a short struggle Mr.. Hollis, the medical
man who was called in, made post
norton examination, and reported that
all the organs were healthy, but that the
state of the heart, combined with the
FRIGHT would account for death.