Syncope
the name given to that form of death characterized by failure and cessation of the heart's action as its primary feature. The term is also applied to the state of fainting produced by a diminution or interruption of the action of the heart, and of respiration, accompanied with a suspension of the action of the brain and a temporary loss of sensation, volition, and other faculties. Fatal syncope is usually the result of some nervous "shock," resulting from some severe lesion of organs, or from a want of blood, or an altered and abnormal state of blood pressure. Ordinary syncope is caused chiefly by weakness, mental emotion, etc. The fainting patient should be placed on a couch and the head kept low; while great caution must be observed in stimulating the action of the heart. a