10 APRIL 1847, Page 16

DR. STROUD ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF

CHRIST.

THE religious importance of the Crucifixion and the pbsznomena which accompanied it have naturally excited the attention of theologians of all ages; and, among other circumstances, the rapid death of Christ has given rise to much discussion. In ordinary cases the extinction of life by the cross was a slow process. No great blood-vessels were injured in nailing the extremities to the beams ; the body was supported in a sort of sitting position by a projection ; and the victim, after lingering from two or three to occasionally seven days, finally sank through exhaustion, not from the severity of the pain.

Familiar with these facts, the early Fathers directed their attention to the

comparatively quick process of the death of Christ, as much as to the other

and more striking natural pluenomena that attended it. Later theolo- gians, following in their path, have received their views of the fact, and adopted the theories by which it is explained ; which theories are all re- solvable into a miraculous interference. In order to fulfil the prophecies, it was necessary that the Messiah's bones should not be broken, as the bones of the malefactors who suffered with him were broken when the Jews wished the bodies removed on account of the approaching feast. Some divines have therefore held, that Christ's death took place by the direct interference of God ; others, that he dismissed himself—gave up the ghost. Since anatomy and physiology have been more studied and science has been applied to the illustration of Scripture, some authors have attempted to explain the death upon natural grounds. It has been as- cribed to the previous exhaustion of the agony in the garden, the haras- sing scenes with the Jews and before Pilate, and the scourging preparatory to the crucifixion. Others have held that Christ was not actually dead, but only in a swoon; and that his death was caused by the spear of the Roman soldier, who, while discharging an act of duty in ascertaining the death, was unconsciously fulfilling the prophecy which declared the Messiah should be pierced. Some of those who adopt this last view ad- mit that the blood mixed with water that flowed from the wound was miraculous. The advocates of death from exhaustion consider the water was serum collected in the pericardium, which was pierced as well as the heart.

"Such an effusion," says the elder Grfiner, "could scarcely have taken place except from the left side; under which, besides the lung, lies the pericardium full of water when a person dies after extreme anxiety, as likewise the heart, con- nected with the arch of the aorta. The lung, slightly wounded, might have yielded a little blood, but certainly not water. That conjecture is therefore the most probable, and the most in accordance with forensic medicine' which derives the blood from the [left] ventricle of the heart, and the water from the peri- cardium."

Dr. Stroud differs from all these conclusions. He considers that the

death was not miraculously produced : such an opinion is contrary to the spirit and express words of Scripture. The death of Christ is always charged upon the Jews, and no intimation is given of what would be a spe- cies of suicide or escape. Dr. Stroud argues that it was not caused by the spear : the Scriptural narrative asserts the death; the best witness, St. John, a bystander, speaks of it as a positive fact, though one of the soldiers, in a case of so much importance and where his own life was at stake, made assurance doubly sure. As little will Dr. Stroud admit that the death was caused by exhaustion. In the garden, indeed, Christ's agony was so excessive as to produce a bloody sweat,—a physical phmnomenon only induced by the severest emotion, and then rarely. But Christ was supernaturally comforted ; without which it is probable that he would then have died. Through the whole of the following scenes he displayed the greatest firmness, dignity, and calmness ; there was nothing in them to produce an exhaustion to terminate so quickly in death ; and the "loud voice" with which he cried immediately before expiring, clearly indicates the emotion of strength, not of depression. Neither on this nor on any other of the views would blood and water have flowed from the wound. Sufficient serum could not have collected in the peri- cardium within the time; nor would it, under the circumstances, have

been distinguishable from blood by a common observer.

"In the ordinary state of things, the quantity of water found in the pericar- dium after death is so minute, that in a case like that under consideration it would have been absolutely impercePtiblc, 14110! Pt•atts thlicg sMaLlItlantity of water,

not exceeding a few drachms, has frequently been found in the pericardium of executed persons; but, except under very peculiar or morbid circumstances, the eminent anatomists John and Charles Bell deny the occurrence altogether. • "The slight discrepancy observable between writers on this subject may, as Klefeker has remarked, be referred to their having described the state of the peri- cardium under very different circumstances. Naturally it exhibits scarcely any- thing which deserves the name of liquid; but after some forms of violent death, more especially when attended with obstructed circulation, it may contain a little serum, either pure or mixed with blood. An effusion of the latter kind is said to have been noticed in stags killed after hard chase; and in some rare instances of sudden death occasioned by strong mental emotion, the pericardium has been found distended with blood; owing probably, as Morgagni suspected, to organic disease and the rupture of vessels; but for the statement of the Griiners, that after death accompanied with anxiety the pericardium is full of water, there is no evidence.

"Whether, however, such conditions are of common occurrence or not, their occurrence at the death of Christ is disproved by the well-known facts of the case. Neither the period of three hours occupied by his peculiar mental sufferings, nor that of six hours which comprised the entire crucifixion, were sufficient to occa- sion in a young and vigorous person such an effusion of blood or serum into the pectoral cavities as is here supposed. Had it really happened within so short a epees of time, it would have produced symptoms of debility and suffocation quite incompatible with the intelligence, the presence of mind, and the loud and pious exclamations which immediately preceded his death; and the manner of that

death, instead of being sudden and unexpected, would have been slow and pro- gressive. Still less, if possible, would such an effusion have accorded with the discharge of blood and water from the side of Christ, when afterwards pierced by the soldier's spear. As this remarkable fact was witnessed by the Apostle John, a person of humble rank, destitute of medical or other learning, and at the time of observation probably removed to some distance from the cross, whilst the sol- diers were occupied in despatching the crucified persons, it is obvious that the discharge of blood and water mast have been considerable, and the distinction between the two substances strongly marked. Bloody serum, whether originally effused in that state or resulting from subsequent mixture, would not have pre- sented this character; for it would neither have issued rapidly nor in sufficient quantity, nor would its distinction from ordinary blood have been so striking as to have attracted the attention of an uninformed and somewhat distant spectator. Moreover, unless blood has been previously extravasated, little or none can by any kind of wound be extracted from a dead body, except by the action of gravity; the heart being usually empty, or if otherwise, devoid of power to expel its con- tents. This important fact, overlooked by most other writers, was perceived and acknowledged by the Grimers; who nevertheless failed to discover the true expla- nation, and were induced to adopt the inadmissible opinion that Christ was not actually dead when pierced by the soldier's spear, but merely in a faint and lan- guid condition, which allowed the heart to act feebly, and, on being wounded, to pour forth its blood preceded by the water, which they suppose had previously collected in the pericardium."

The immediate cause of Christ's death has therefore yet to be sought ; and, in Dr. Stroud's view, it was literally a broken heart. Although this popular phrase is now oftener used to signify a protracted dying from depression, yet its terms are strictly correct; as is known instinc- tively or by conjectural induction to great poets and moralists. Shak- spere attributes the death of Cmsar, not to the daggers of the conspira- tors, but the ingratitude of Brutus—" then burst his mighty heart"; and the word of the poet exactly represents the thing. In cases of very violent emotion either of joy or grief, one of the ventricles of the heart is ruptured; death almost instantly ensues and it is only under this predicament that the conditions of "the blood and water" are fulfilled. "The immediate cause [of rupture of the heart] is a sudden and violent contrac- tion of one of the ventricles, usually the left, on the column of blood thrown into it by a similar contraction of the corresponding auricle. Prevented from return- ing backwards by the intervening valve and not finding a sufficient outlet for- wards in the connected artery, the blood reacts against the ventricle itself, which is consequently torn open at the point of greatest distension or least resistance, by the influence of its own reflected force. A quantity of blood is hereby discharged into the pericardium; and having no means of escape from that capsule, stops the circulation by compressing the heart from without, and induces almost instanta- neous death. In young and vigorous subjects, the blood thus collected in the pericardium soon divides into its constituent parts, namely, a pale watery liquid called serum, and a soft clotted substance ofa deep red colour termed crassamen- turn; but, except under similar circumstances of extravasation, this distinct se- paration of the blood is seldom witnessed in the dead body. When, however, the action of the ventricle is less violent, instead of bursting under the continued in- jection from the auricle, it merely dilates; but as, in consequence of this over- distension, its power of contraction is speedily destroyed, death takes place with equal certainty, although perhaps with less rapidity; and in this case, as well as in the former one, the blood remaining within the heart has been found divided into serum and crassarnentum.

"In exact conformity with the foregoing statement, Dr. Hope observes—' It is generally in the left ventricle that the rupture [of the heart] takes place; a cir- cumstance which at first appears remarkable, since this ventricle is the stronger; but for the same reason it contracts more energetically, and . . . it is only strong muscles which undergo rupture from the energy of their own contraction. Hence rapture of the auricles is much more rare than that of the ventricles. The exciting causes of rupture are generally considerable efforts, paroxysms of passion, external violence, as falls, &c.'" The question of the death of Christ in his human character is discussed in the first section of Dr. Stroud's volume. A second part deduces various religious conclusions from the author's view. Into these our limits for- bid our following him ; but we may state generally, that, in his opinion, Christ's intense agony was the price of the redemption, and was not caused by the apprehension or actuality of physical sufferings, which were less than is popularly supposed. "The interruption of the communion with God," as shown in the garden and the last exclamation on the cross, and the consequent pressure of the accumulated guilt of the human race upon Christ's mind, was the exciting cause of his rapid and sudden death. In this point of view the theory is interesting; giving a more dramatic character to the catastrophe of Easter, and suggesting many reflections which cannot be indulged in here. Dr. Stroud's vo- lume is the result of long inquiry and induction; twenty years having elapsed since the first conception of the theory. Proof is indirectly furnished of this long gestation by the vast amount of curious reading, medical, critical, historical, Scriptural, and theological both old and new, which the book displays. Sometimes the evidence may be over-accumu- lated, and there are repetitions of the same thing in different parts. Dr. Stroud, too, is somewhat formal in his logic,—" this effect, defective, comes by cause." We offer no apology for the latter : the over-accumu- lation and repetitions are felt to be defects in a merely literary point of view ; but on a subject of this logical and theological nature, over- proof is much better than under-proof; and it is not easy to allow for the operation of evidence upon all minds, some requiring much more than others.