THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. 275 



ways that they require ; but, just as each lives on its own account, so 

 on its account each dies. And the proof that this is so is found in the 

 fact that certain parts taken from a dead body can be transferred to a 

 living one without suffering any interruption in their physiological 

 activity, and in the fact that many organs which seem dead can be 

 excited anew, awakened out of their torpor, and animated to extremely 

 remarkable vital manifestations. This subject we now proceed to 

 consider. 



II. 



Death seems to be absolute from the instant that the pulsations of 

 the heart are stopped without renewal, because, the circulation of the 

 blood no longer proceeding, the nutrition of the organs becomes im- 

 possible, and nutrition is demanded for the maintenance of physiological 

 harmony; but, as we have said above, there are a thousand little 

 springs in the organism which keep up a certain degree of activity 

 after the great main-spring has ceased to act. There is an infinite 

 number of partial energies that outlive the destruction of the principal 

 energy, and withdraw only by slow degrees. In cases of sudden death 

 especially the tissues keep their peculiar vitality a very long time. In 

 the first place, the heat declines only quite slowly, and the more so in 

 proportion as death has been quick. For several hours after death the 

 hair of the head and body, and the nails, continue to grow, nor does 

 absorption either stop at once. Even digestion, too, keeps on. The 

 experiment performed by Spallanzani to test this is very curious. He 

 conceived the idea of making a crow eat a certain quantity of food, 

 and killing it immediately after the meal. Then he put it in a place 

 kept at the same temperature as that of a live bird, and opened it six 

 hours later. The food was thoroughly digested. 



Besides these general manifestations, the dead body is capable, 

 during some continued time, of different kinds of activity. It is not 

 easy to study these on the bodies of persons dying of sickness, be- 

 cause they are not permitted to be made the subject of anatomical ex- 

 aminations until twenty-four hours after death ; but the bodies of be- 

 headed criminals, which are given up to savants a few moments after 

 their execution, can be of use in the investigation of what takes place 

 immediately after the stopping of the living machine. If the heart is 

 uncovered a few minutes after execution, pulsations are remarked 

 which continue during an hour or longer, at the rate of forty to forty- 

 five a minute, even after the removal of the liver, the stomach, and the 

 intestines. For several hours the muscles retain their excitability, and 

 undergo reflex contractions from the effect of pinching. M. Robin 

 noted the following phenomenon in the case of a criminal an hour after 

 his execution : " The right arm," to quote his description, " being 

 placed obliquely extended at the side of the trunk, with the hand about 

 ten inches away from the hip, I scratched the skin of the chest, at 



