class="x-ebookmaker-pageno" title="[Pg 34]"/> irritation, followed by a complete recovery. Still more instructive is the case, narrated by Rosenthal,[27] of a young woman, twenty-four years of age, who, in consequence of violent emotional excitement, became unconscious, and presented no signs of life, though tested by placing a mirror before the mouth, and by dropping melted sealing-wax upon the skin. On raising her eyelids, the pupils gave no reaction to light; the limbs remained perfectly flaccid, and the radial arteries were pulseless. Careful auscultation, however, detected a very feeble and intermittent sound in the cardiac region. The walls of the chest exhibited no movement, but the lateral surfaces of the abdomen presented a slow and almost imperceptible oscillation. Gentle faradization of the muscles and nerves of the face, arm, and hand, excited definite muscular contractions. By this method Rosenthal became satisfied that, although the patient had remained for thirty-two hours in this condition, she was only apparently dead. In fact, after continuing forty-four hours in a state of suspended animation, she awoke spontaneously, made a rapid recovery, and seemed to enjoy as comfortable health as an excitable, nervous temperament would permit.