SIGNS OF DEATH. 1037 



the heart still continues to act. 1 A surer test, however, is afforded by the 

 condition of the Muscular substance; for this gradually loses its irritability 

 after real Death, so that it can no longer be excited to contraction by elec- 

 trical or any other kind of stimulation ; and the loss of irritability is suc- 

 ceeded by the appearance of cadaveric rigidity. So long, then, as the muscle 

 retains its irritability and remains free from rigidity, so long we may say 

 with certainty that it is not dead; and the persistence of its vitality for an 

 unusual period affords a presumption in favor of the continuance of some 

 degree of vital action in the body generally ; whilst, on the other hand, the 

 entire loss of irritability, and the supervention of rigidity, afford conclusive 

 evidence that death has occurred. The most satisfactory proof, however, is 

 given by the occurrence of putrefaction; this usually first manifests itself in 

 the blue-green coloration of the cutaneous surface, especially the abdominal ; 

 but it speedily becomes apparent in other parts, its rate being usually in 

 some degree of accordance with the external temperature, though also much 

 influenced by the previous condition of the solids and fluids of the body, 

 these having been sometimes left by diseased actions iu a state that renders 

 them peculiarly prone to disintegration ( 80). 



888. With the final restoration of the components of the Human Organ- 

 ism to the Inorganic Universe, in those very forms (or nearly so) in which 

 they were first withdrawn from it, the Corporeal Life of Man, of which it 

 has been the object of the foregoing Treatise to sketch the leading features, 

 comes to a final close. But the Death of the Body is but the commence- 

 ment of a new Life of the Soul ; in which (as the religious physiologist 

 delights to believe) all that is pure and noble in Man's nature will be refined, 

 elevated, and progressively advanced towards perfection ; whilst all that is 

 carnal, selfish, and degrading, will be eliminated by the purifying processes 

 to which each individual must be subjected, before Sin can be entirely sub- 

 jugated, and Death can be completely "swallowed up of Victory." 



1 See also Norris, Humphry and Turner's Journal of Anat. and Physiology, vol. 

 i,p. 217. 



