pains which he must have experienced | extreme terror. On this subject Dr. had he sustained passively the natural Stroud writes thus :results of what his enemies had done, allowing himself to linger still till human nature sank under physical pressure. Martyrs at the stake called sometimes for more faggots; it would have been a great relief to them to have been able to dismiss their spirits; and it seems to us that it must have been a great mitigation of the Saviour's distress if he felt himself both able and at liberty, by an act of his own will, to terminate the scene without going through that climax of suffering which is implied in the involuntary endurance of that which we call death. If it can be shown on the contrary, as Dr. Stroud thinks, that his death was the result of causes operating upon the human frame, to the experience of which he had graciously consented beforehand, it seems to be more accordant with some scriptural phraseology, and to enhance our obligations to his self-sacrificing love. 2. The physical effects produced by the distress which the Redeemer endured in the garden, before his human enemies had touched him, were also extraordinary. Almost as soon as he arrived there, he was seized with consternation and grief. The serene state of mind in which he had addressed his disciples in those discourses which he had delivered after supper, and in that prayer which is recorded by John, was no longer perceptible: it was succeeded by agitation and dismay. He retired and prostrated himself, praying that if it were possible that hour might pass from him, and then returned to the three friends whom he had left together, and whom he found sleeping. He retired and prayed again, and again returned. A third time he retired and prayed, and a messenger from heaven appeared to him. Now came the agony. "Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground," or, according to the rendering preferred by Dr. Stroud, "His sweat became as it were clots of blood dropping to the ground.” In reference to this astonishing fact medical science shows that a bloody perspiration may be the result of mental anguish, but that the cases in which this effect have been known to occur have been few, and have never been produced but by the excitement of "From the foregoing testimonies of eminent authors, to which many more might be added, it thus appears that one of the principal corporeal effects of the exciting passions is palpitation, or vehement action of the heart; and it will now be shown that, when this action is intense, it produces bloody sweat, dilatation, and ultimately rupture of the heart. By those acquainted with the structure and functions of the animal frame such results might readily be anticipated; but to others, authentic records of their actual occurrence will furnish the best proof of the fact. Perspiration, both sensible and insensible, takes place from the mouths of small regularly organized tubes, which perforate the skin in all parts of the body, terminating in blind extremities internally, and by innumerable orifices on the outer surface. These tubes are surrounded by a net-work of minute vessels, and penetrated by the ultimate ramifications of arteries which, according to the force of the the heart, discharge either the watery parts of local circulation, depending chiefly on that of the blood in the state of vapour, its grosser ingredients in the form of a glutinous liquid, or in extreme cases the entire blood itself. The influence of the invigorating passions, more especially in exciting an increased flow of blood to the skin, is familiarly illustrated by the process of blushing, either from shame or anger; for during this state the heart beats strongly, the surface of the body becomes hot and red, and if the emotion is very powerful, breaks out into a warm and copious perspiration, the first step towards a bloody sweat. Of the latter affection several instances are related in the German Ephemerides, wherein Kannegiesser remarks,- Violent mental excitement, whether occasioned by uncontrollable anger, or vehement joy, and in like manner sudden terror, or intense fear, forces out a sweat, accompanied with signs either of anxiety or of hilarity.'- After ascribing this sweat to the unequal constriction of some vessels and dilatation of others, he further observes,- If the mind is seized with a sudden fear of death, the sweat, owing to the excessive degree of constriction, often becomes bloody.'— The eminent French historian De Thou mentions the case of an Italian officer who commanded at Monte-Maro, a fortress of Piedmont, during the warfare in 1552, between Henry II. of France and the emperor Charles V. This officer, having been treacherously seized by order of the hostile general, and threatened with public execution unless he surrendered the place, was so agitated at the prospect of an ignominious death, that he sweated blood from every had his filial communion with God been interrupted: on suddenly losing it, and finding himself exposed without protection to the horrors of his responsibility, and the malignity of the powers of darkness, he was as it were taken by surprise, and nearly destroyed by consternation and distress." He adds, "The more minutely the subject is examined, the more perfect will be found the accordance between the sufferings of Christ and the cause here assigned for them. These sufferings presented two successive stages,-consternation, and agony,-conditions which, although frequently confounded by commentators, are not only different, but actually opposite to each other. The natural contrast which subsists between the exciting and the depressing passions, as likewise between their respective effects, has been already mentioned. Excessive fear and grief debilitate and almost paralyse the body, whilst agony or conflict is attended with extraordinary strength. Under the former the action of the heart is enfeebled; and if, owing to constriction of the cutaneous vessels, perspiration ever occurs, it is cold and scanty. Under the latter the heart acts with great violence, and forces a hot, copious, and in extreme cases a bloody sweat through the pores of the skin."-Pp. 111, 112. part of his body.'-The same writer relates a | awful conflict;"-that "never before similar occurrence in the person of a young Florentine at Rome, unjustly put to death by order of Pope Sixtus V. in the beginning of his reign, and concludes the narrative as follows: When the youth was led forth to execution, he excited the commiseration of many, and through excess of grief, was observed to shed bloody tears, and to discharge blood instead of sweat from his whole body; a circumstance which many regarded as a certain proof that nature condemned the severity of a sentence so cruelly hastened, and invoked vengeance against the magistrate himself, as therein guilty of murder.'-Amongst several other examples given in the Ephemerides, of bloody tears and bloody sweat occasioned by extreme fear, more especially the fear of death, may be mentioned that of a young boy who, having taken part in a crime for which two of his elder brothers were hanged, was exposed to public view under the gallows on which they were executed, and was thereupon observed to sweat blood from his whole body.'-In his commentaries on the four Gospels, Maldonato refers to a robust and healthy man at Paris who, on hearing sentence of death passed on him, was covered with a bloody sweat.'-Zacchias mentions a young man who was similarly affected on being condemned to the flames. Schenck cites from a martyrology the case of a nun who fell into the hands of soldiers; and, on seeing herself encompassed with swords and daggers threatening instant death, was so terrified and agitated, that she discharged blood from every part of her body, and died of hemorrhage in the sight of her assailants;'-and Tissot reports from a respectable journal that of a sailor who was so alarmed by a storm, that through fear he fell down, and his face sweated blood, which during the whole continuance of the storm returned like ordinary sweat, as fast as it was wiped away.""-Pp. 85—88. In applying these facts to the case of our Lord, Dr. Stroud remarks that "to advance the divine glory, to magnify the law and make it honourable, and to accomplish the redemption of mankind, Christ voluntarily consented to bear in his own person the retribution due to human depravity, and in that capacity to lose for a time all sense of God's friendship, and all enjoyment of his communion, although conscious that the misery thence arising would occasion his death;"-that "the scene at Gethsemane was a wise and necessary prelude to that at Calvary, a foretaste or trial, which prepared him for the last * * "It has been suggested that the bloody sweat of Christ might be attributed to relaxation of the cutaneous vessels, in conjunction with a dissolved state of the blood; but the explanation is inadmissible, since, as has been shown, his condition at the time was not that of weakness, but of strength, and the blood which issued with his sweat was not liquid, but clotted. Besides, except under peculiar circumstances, and in connexion, there is reason to believe, with violent action of the heart, relaxation of of the cutaneous capillaries is not productive of bloody sweat, which on the contrary requires and implies a strong expulsive force.-' In all hemorrhage,' says Harvey, the more vehemently the arteries pulsate, the more speedily will the body be emptied of its blood. Hence also, in all fainting, fear, and similar affections, when the heart beats languidly, weakly, and without impulse, all hemorrhage is checked and restrained.'"-Pp. 112, 113. * "The intense grief and consternation which the Saviour experienced at the commencement of his sufferings in the garden, and under the shock of which he fell prostrate to the earth, might possibly have destroyed him by simple exhaustion, but would never have produced the bloody sweat reported by Luke; who, independently of his guidance by the Holy Spirit, was, as a physician, peculiarly well qualified to notice and record such an Occurrence. He therefore ascribes this sweat to a cause by which it is fully and solely explained, namely, the communication of supernatural strength:'There appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.'-It was then that,-falling into an agony, [Christ] prayed most earnestly, and his sweat became as it were clots of blood dropping to the ground:'-implying that he was no longer prostrate as at first, but on his knees. Attempts have been made to explain away the strong terms used by the evangelist, but they certainly denote a sweat mixed with blood in a half-coagulated state, so profuse as to fall from the head and neck (the parts chiefly liable to be uncovered, and from which sweat of any kind is most readily furnished), in thick and heavy drops to the ground. Unless Luke meant to convey this meaning, his employment of such expressions is unaccountable."-Pp. 114, 115. 3. A third fact connected with the death of our Lord was equally extraordinary. "When they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it," adds the apostle John, "bare record, and his record his true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." Neither water nor any fluid having the appearance of water, is usually found in the body after death. An eminent surgeon who had witnessed hundreds of dissections, and taken accurate notes of the condition of the blood in nearly one hundred and fifty of the bodies which he had examined said, in a letter quoted by the author, "I have never found clear serum, such as I could suppose to be separated from the blood in its coagulation, collecting in any part of the body after death." Dr. Davy, who published detailed accounts of above two hundred inspections, in which particular attention had been given to the condition of the blood in the heart and great vessels, although he had found the blood either wholly solid, wholly liquid, or in various intermediate conditions, "met with only a single instance, and that under very peculiar circumstances, in which a portion of clear serum was detached from the crassamentum." Dr. VOL. X.-FOURTH SERIES. Stroud, however, has collected a great number of cases in which water, or serum, in a very large quantity, sometimes amounting to some pints, has been found in the pericardium, by which the heart is surrounded, when death had been caused by " a broken heart." Rupture of the heart, whether caused by intense grief or by physical disease, produces in many cases an effusion of blood into the pericardium, the effusion taking place during the last moments of life, and the extravasated blood divides into crassamentum and colourless serum, while that which continues in the vessels remains fluid. "The Commentaries of the Academy of Bologna, for 1757, contain an account by Galeati of a man who, after having long enjoyed good health, and taken much equestrian and other exercise, adopted a sedentary mode of life, in consequence of which he laboured for more than thirty years under various pains and ailments, and at length died suddenly. Besides several other lesions observed in the body, a small rupture was found in the left ventricle of the heart; and the pericardium was so distended as to occupy a third part of the cavity of the chest. On opening it, a large quantity of serum was discharged, and two pounds of clotted blood were seen adhering at the bottom.-In the London Medical Repository for 1814, Mr. Watson relates the case of a gentleman between fifty and sixty years of age, who died suddenly from the rupture of an aneurism of the aorta; and observes,-'The sac had burst by an aperture of nearly three-fourths of an inch in length into the pericardium, which, as well as the sac itself, was filled with coagula and serum, to the amount of about five pounds.'-The London Medical and Physical Journal for May, 1822, reports from the Paris Atheneum of Medicine, an instance of spontaneous rupture of the heart in a gentleman aged about sixty-five years, moderate habits, and in the full enjoyment of health. With the exception of the rupture, the heart was in every respect perfect, its substance being neither softer nor thinner than usual. The pericardium, which appeared much distended, had a blueish colour, and presented an evident degree of fluctuation, contained a quantity of serum and coagulated blood.””—Pp. 150, 151. 666 * of A man named James Brown, about twenty seven years of age, who had been at sea, and lost his left leg, and subsequently lived as a tramper about the country, was drinking with two others in a beershop in Blakeley Street, when he suddenly complained of illness, 22 lay down on one of the forms, and vomited a, little; and, ere a surgeon who had been sent for could arrive, expired. Mr. Ollier, on examination of the body, found it wholly free from any mark of violence, the stomach and liver were in a very diseased state, the heart-purse contained about a quart of blood and water, and there was a rupture in the great artery leading from the heart, which was produced by disease, and must have caused death almost instantaneously. An inquest was held on view of the body on Monday, by W. S. Rutter, Esq., coroner, when the jury found that his death had been caused by disease, and not otherwise.-A letter on the subject, addressed to the author by the late J. A. Ransome, Esq., of Manchester, confirms the foregoing narrative, and contains the following note from Mr. Ollier. The disease of the aorta was a thickening of its coats, without any ossific deposit. The size of the aperture was very small, and was situated just where it rises from the ventricle, and would not have been observed but for the consequences. The blood was separated, although indistinctly, into serum and crassamentum.'-As a proof of the equivalence of the terms, the same surgeon, when delivering his testimony at the coroner's inquest, judiciously used the more popular language above mentioned,-"The pericardium contained about a quart of blood and water.'" Pp. 400, 401. These facts, with others of the same kind, are deemed by Dr. Stroud sufficient to prove that the blood and water which flowed from the side of Christ, when pierced by the soldier's spear, were the result of a previous effusion into the pericardial sac of a quantity of blood, which had there separated into serum and crassamentum, and was derived from rupture of the heart. Rupture of the heart, produced by agony of mind, he concludes, therefore, was the true physical cause of the Saviour's death. In persons who die of what is called a broken heart, it is well known that the auricles are sometimes found much distended; the power of contraction is lost, and the circulation is in consequence stopped. When, however, the distension is followed by violent contraction, the result is often rupture, which generally takes place in the left ventricle; and unless the vital force happens at the time to be much depressed, the blood thus discharged into the pericardial sac divides into its constituents more readily than when it remains within its natural receptacles. These constituents are commonly termed blood and water. "An unfortunate female of this city," says a surgeon residing at New York, "literally and truly died of a broken heart, as was found on dissection; and there was every reason to believe that this consummation of her misery was the unavoidable consequence of her exquisite dejection of mind at that particular moment. . . . At the summit of the aortic ventricle was discovered the breach from which the effused blood had issued. It was irregularly lacerated, and measured about half an inch in diameter." A post mortem examination of a labouring man who had for ten years suffered great despondency of mind, owing to the unfaithfulness of his wife, and who had died suddenly, took place in the presence of a medical gentleman at Leamington. On opening the chest, the bag of the pericardium appeared much distended with fluid, and was of a dark blue colour. On cutting into it, a pint at least of transparent serum issued out, leaving the crassamentum firmly attached to the anterior surface of the heart. On further examination, to ascertain the source of the hemorrhage, it was found that the left ventricle, from the origin of the aorta downwards to within an inch of the apex, was ruptured. A stout, muscular, working man, fortysix years of age, who had laboured for many years under great mental anxiety, was attacked with severe cardiac symptoms on the evening of Nov. 5, 1826, and, after great agony of body and mind, died on the 9th day of the same month. On opening the thorax, the pericardium was found distended, and emitted when divided a quantity of serous fluid; but the heart was entirely concealed by an envelope of coagulated blood in three distinct layers, owing to rupture of the left ventricle close to the septum, and nearer the apex than the base of the heart. Philip V. died suddenly on being told that the Spaniards had been defeated; and, on opening him, his heart was found ruptured. "Mental agony, or a violent conflict between opposite and distressing emotions, naturally occasions palpitation; and, when rapidly raised to the highest degree, produces either bloody sweat, or sudden death by rupture of the heart, an event usually attended with loud cries. In the latter case, although scarcely in any other, the blood inwardly effused separates after death into its solid and liquid parts, so as to present when exposed, the appearance commonly termed blood and water. Such is precisely the view which, in the simplest form of narrative, and without note or comment, the scripture gives of the death of Christ. In the garden of Gethsemane he was subjected for the first time to mental sufferings of overwhelming severity, which rendered his—' soul exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death;'—and, had he not received angelic succour, would apparently, without the aid of any external infliction, have proved fatal on the spot; but, having been thus seasonably counteracted, proceeded no further than to produce a bloody sweat. His sweat became as it were clots of blood dropping to the ground.' After a respite of some hours, during which he evinced the greatest fortitude and self-possession, these peculiar sufferings were renewed on the cross, where they again attained their highest intensity, and on this occasion were unattended with any intermission or relief. The consequence was that, after silently enduring them for three hours, he suddenly expired amidst loud and fervent exclamations, long before the outward punishment could have proved fatal; and, on his side having been afterwards pierced by a spear, immediately there came forth blood and water,'—implying that his heart had been previously ruptured. The correspondence of the several occurrences here related to the natural order of things is sufficiently obvious; and, as amidst the wide range of possibilities many other causes and effects might have been assigned, although none of them would have possessed this necessary character, so exact and critical a correspondence between the statement and the reality, and that in reference to a transaction so singular and uncommon, must undoubtedly be regarded as a strong internal evidence of truth."-Pp. 334, 335. In the second part of this treatise, Dr. Stroud applies his views of the immediate cause of the death of Christ to the elucidation of the doctrine of the atonement-of the types and prophecies of the Old Testament-of the narratives and symbols of the New Testament-of the doctrines and precepts of scripture —and of the evidence of the truth of Christianity. After this general survey, some of our readers will perhaps expect a few words illustrative of our opinion of the book, and of the soundness of its argument. The author, who is we are informed a physician of experience and acknowledged skill, has devoted much time to the investigation, a quarter of a century having elapsed since its original conception occurred to him, “during the greater part of which period," he tells us, "it has often been the subject of his thoughts, and not unfrequently of his conversation and correspondence." His attachment to evangelical truth is evidently cordial and discriminating: if we were required to specify the theological school to which he is attached, we should mention that of Dr. Pye Smith, to whom his volume is dedicated. He has read many good books, and accustomed himself to biblical criticism; but, as a writer, he evinces, we think, some deficiency of tact. If his arrangement had been more lucid, and his abstinence from repetition and digression more stringent, he might have produced a book of half the size of the present volume which would have been more generally read and more convincing. The redundancies are by no means worthless; but, in some cases, they divert the reader's mind from the principal topic, and obscure it from view. We shall As to the author's main position, we wish to speak with caution, but we are strongly inclined to think that he is right. If he has not absolutely proved that rupture of the heart, produced by mental agony, was the immediate cause of the Saviour's death, he has made it appear be glad to learn the judgment of emito us exceedingly probable. nent physiologists respecting his theory, as well as that of judicious and candid men who are accustomed to weigh scripture evidence. We are quite aware of objections that may be brought against his hypothesis, but are ready to avow that we do not at present see how it is to be refuted. It seems to us also to exhibit a greater conformity of the anti-type to the typical sacrifices offered under the law than can be seen without it. In the language of Moses it was the blood that made atonement for the soul; and by divine appointment all the blood of the victim was to be poured out at the bottom of the altar. "But," as Dr. Stroud observes, "here a formidable difficulty presents itself. The ordinary death of the cross did not furnish the requisite condition. Instead of occurring suddenly by the effusion of the life's blood, it was effected by slow exhaustion and protracted torture. The scanty drainings of blood from the transfixed extremities," he adds, "could not satisfy the demands of the Levitical law; and if under that dispensation one of the inferior animals had been thus slain, it could not have been accepted as a victim |