550 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ilar action is exerted by some other substances the Para- 

 guay tea, especially, which, it is well known, enables the na- 

 tives of the Andes to subsist for a long time on an incredibly 

 small amount of food. 6 B, September 12, 1870, 426. 



RIGIDITY OF THE JAWS IN DROWNING PERSONS NOT A SIGN 



OF DEATH. 



A recent writer assures us that the rigidity of the jaws in 

 a person taken out of the water after long immersion, instead 

 of being a sign of death, is really an indication that life is 

 still present, as it disappears only when life is actually ex- 

 tinct. This, of course, is not to be confounded with the stiff- 

 ening of the entire body after death, but refers entirely to 

 the local symptom. We are therefore advised, under the 

 circumstances indicated, not to lose hope, but to continue to 

 make use of all the methods that present themselves as ap- 

 propriate for the restoration of suspended animation, whether 

 by the injection of air into the lungs, or by other means. 1 

 B, September 4, 163. 



CONTRACTION IN RIGOR MORTIS. 



In an abstract in The Academy of an article by Mr. E. 

 Walker, lately published in Pniiger's Archiv, it is stated that 

 in the rigor mortis of muscle produced by heat there is a 

 diminution in the volume of the muscle. He shows, also, 

 from another series of experiments, that the force of contrac- 

 tion in rigor mortis may equal or even exceed that excited 

 in the living contraction of the muscle. In experiments in 

 which muscle was frozen and thawed, sometimes quickly and 

 sometimes slowly, he found that when slowly frozen and 

 slowly thawed it preserved its contractility, but when these 

 operations were quickly conducted this was soon lost. In no 

 instance did the mere act of freezing cause the muscle to pos- 

 sess an acid reaction. Rigor mortis will take place even at 

 a temperature of 32 Fahrenheit. 13 A, June 15, 316. 



DISTINGUISHING REAL FROM APPARENT DEATH. 



A new mode of distinguishing between real and apparent 

 death has been recently submitted to the consideration of the 

 Academy of Medicine in Paris. It consists in the insertion 

 of a bright steel needle into the body ; and it is 6aid that 



