med. jur. A temporary suspension of the motion of the heart and arteries; swooning, fainting. This term includes persons who have been asphyxiated by submersion or drowning; by breathing mephitic gas; by the effect of lightning; by the effect of cold; by heat; by suspension or strangulation. In a legal point of view it is always proper to ascertain whether the person who has thus been deprived of his senses is the victim of another, whether the injury has been caused by accident, or whether it is. the act of the sufferer himself.