The instances of individuals who have died of _apoplexy_, either of the cerebrum or cerebellum, during coition, are by no means rare. We can readily imagine, that if there be a marked disposition to this disease, and that if it be disposed to come on, the derangement in the respiration and circulation produced by the venereal action might hurry it. This has happened more than once during the digestion of a full meal. Most old men who have died during coition, have been affected with apoplexy. Hence, authors have generally placed venereal excesses among the causes of this affection.
We will mention Cœlius Aurelian, Areltœus, Lomnius, Tissot, Pinel, Cruveilhier, Londe, &c. Henry Van Hers mentions a man, forty years old, who was attacked with apoplexy while with his wife, the first night of his marriage. The attack, however, could not have been very severe, as it yielded readily to treatment: but the patient indulging in the pleasures of love a few days after his recovery, was again attacked, and died. (_Dict. des Sc. Med._, _art. Apoplexie_.) Hoffmann mentions one. It was that of a soldier, who died in the act of coition. It was found, on opening his body, that blood was effused in the brain. Serres’ work on the comparative anatomy of the brain states a similar instance. It is that of a man, thirty-two years old, who became affected with apoplexy during coition, and after drinking more freely than usual. Firm erection of the penis, which continued nearly until death had closed the scene, was added to the violent symptoms of apoplexy. The cerebrum was healthy; but the median lobe of the cerebellum exhibited traces of severe irritation; and the substance of the cerebellum was broken in several places; and small abscesses, filled with blood, were grooved along the superior vermicular process.
In some individuals, apoplexy supervenes so soon after venereal excesses, that we might reasonably anticipate that they contributed to its invasion. Thus, a steward, forty-nine years old, whose case is mentioned by Andral, fell down in the street, on coming from a house of ill-fame. He was immediately carried to the Maison de Santé, near, where he died shortly afterward. On opening his body, two apoplectic lesions were found; one in the right hemisphere of the cerebellum, the other in the left hemisphere of the cerebrum.