DEATH. 



805 



is considered by Blumenbach a valuable cri- 

 terion of the reality of death. The flexibility 

 of the joints obviously depends upon the re- 

 laxation of the muscles. 



'Rigidity is a change which has attracted 

 great attention from its importance as an evi- 

 dence of death. Its period of accession de- 

 pends principally upon the nature of the ma- 

 lady. After long and exhausting illnesses, 

 its appearance is early, but the duration is brief, 

 and the intensity trifling. The same remark 

 applies to the modifying influence of old age. 

 \\ hen the individual has been cut oft' by sud- 

 den accidental causes or by acute diseases, 

 it comes on for the most part much later,*' 

 lasts longer, and is more intense than in the 

 former instances. It may appear within half 

 an hour after death or may be delayed twenty 

 or thirty hours, according to the circumstances 

 just mentioned. The mean duration is from 

 twenty-four to thirty-six hours ; but it may 

 last six or seven days according to Nysten, 

 whose researches upon this subject are very 

 valuable. \Ve remember observing it once on 

 the eighth day after death in the body of a 

 criminal who had been executed by hanging, 

 but are not aware at what time it had com- 

 menced. The parts which first present this 

 change are the neck and trunk ; it then appears 

 in the lower extremities, and lastly in the 

 upper. Its departure observes the same order. 

 It is yet to be proved that rigidity is not an 

 invariable consequence of death. Nysten at- 

 tributes Bichat's assertion of its non-appear- 

 ance in some cases of asphyxia, to the lateness 

 of its developement. If it could be wanting 

 in any case, it would probably be so in sub- 

 jects attenuated and of flabby fibre. Louis in 

 hisLetterson the Certainty of the Signs of Death 

 declares that he never found it absent even in 

 the infirm and age-worn patients of Salpetriere, 

 and Fodere gives a similar testimony to its 

 universality .f 



The seat of rigidity is the muscular sub- 

 stance. Of this we may be assured by the 

 following facts. (1). It is observed in all those 

 animals (including many of the invertebrata) 

 winch have a distinct muscular tissue. (2). Its 

 intensity is in a direct ratio with the develope- 

 ment of this tissue. (3). It is destroyed by 

 division of the muscles, a fact first noticed by 

 Nysten.J (4). It remains when the cellular 

 membrane, skin, aponeurosis, and ligaments 

 are removed. (5). When very strong, it ren- 

 ders the muscles prominent as in voluntary 

 contraction, or in that spasm which is induced 

 by rammollissement of the brain and spinal 

 marrow. Ch. Louis makes a remark of this 

 kind in his admirable memoir upon some cases 

 of sudden death.|| 



In hemiplegiac subjects rigidity is observed 



* We very recently however observed the phe- 

 nomenon only an hour and a half after the death 

 of a boy by acute peritonitis. 



f Med. Leg. t. ii. p. 361. 



j Rech. de Physiol. et Pathol. Chim. 



Devergie, Diet, de Med. et Chir. Prat. Art. 

 Mart. 



|| Rech. Anat. Path. p. 500. 



to be no less strong in tlic paralysed limbs 

 than in those which \\erc unahVctcd by the 

 disease. The temperature of the body has been 

 said to influence it. Beclard* speaks of cooling; 

 as being always antecedent to rigidity, and 

 Nysten has made a similar statement. But we 

 have had many opportunities of disproving this 

 observation. Ch. Louis noticed the pheno- 

 menon in some of the cases just adverted to, 

 while the bodies were quite warm. Its occur- 

 rence in cold-blooded animals is, we think, a 

 sufficient refutation of the idea that it bears 

 any necessary relation with the loss of heat. 

 Moreover Devergie has very properly pointed 

 out the inconsistency of this notion with the 

 fact that rigidity appears first upon the trunk, 

 the region winch is the last to be deserted by 

 caloric. 



The cause of rigidity is referred by most 

 authors to a sort of lingering vital contraction. 

 It is often spoken of as the last effort of life: 

 " 11 semble que la vie," says Nysten, " se 

 refugie en dernier lieu dans ces organes, et 

 y determine le spasme qui constitue le roi- 

 deur. 1 ' f This author not only refers it to con- 

 traction, but endeavours to explain how a very 

 low degree of the ordinary kind of contraction 

 may be sufficient to stiffen the muscles though 

 not to move the part with which they are con- 

 nected. Supposing that a muscular effort equal 

 to 20 would completely bend the elbow, one 

 equal to 10 would semiflex it; one equal to 

 5 would bend it a quarter of the distance ; 

 while a force equal to l-20th only, would perhaps 

 produce no motion at all, nothing but rigidity ! 

 Beclard alleges three causes ; the last contrac- 

 tion of muscular fibres, the general cooling of 

 the body, and the coagulation of the fluids. 

 The second of these we have already disposed 

 of. Notwiil islanding the high authorities in 

 favour of the opinion that rigidity is caused 

 by a vital contraction, we confess that to us it 

 appears a very untenable position. All mus- 

 cular contraction in its normal condition alter- 

 nates with relaxation ; and although rigidity 

 might be supposed to bear some analogy to 

 the tonic spasm of tetanus, it differs widely 

 from the latter in one important respect, that 

 when overcome by violence it does not return. 

 When we consider that the continuance of 

 the phenomenon in question is long after 

 the cessation of any vital action; that the 

 usual time of its accession is precisely that 

 which we have every reason to consider the 

 most unfavourable for the occurrence of any 

 vital action, viz. when all animal heat is ex- 

 tinct, and when sanguineous congestions in the 

 depending parts of the body prove the capil- 

 laries to have lost their contractility; it is diffi- 

 cult to regard the process as of a vital cha- 

 racter. The mere fact that the rigidity comes 

 on and remains long after the muscles have 

 ceased to respond to the stimulus of galvanism, 

 reduces the hypothesis to the last degree of 

 improbability. Moreover we should scarcely 

 expect the last act of life to be performed in 



* Anatomic Generale, p. 127. 

 t Op. cit. v. art. 3. 



