THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. 277 



into the cerebral arteries lasts. On stopping the injection, the motions 

 cease, and give place to the spasms of agony, and then to death. 



Physiologists asked whether such a momentary resurrection of the 

 functions of life might not he brought about in the human subject 

 that is, whether movement might not be excited and expression re- 

 animated by injecting fresh blood into a head just severed from a 

 man's body, as in M. Brown-Sequard's experiment. It was suggested 

 to try it on the heads of decapitated criminals, but anatomical obser- 

 vations, particularly those of M. Charles Robin, showed that the arte- 

 ries of the neck are cut by the guillotine in such a way that air pene- 

 trates and fills them. It follows that it is impracticable to inject them 

 with blood that can produce the effects noted by M. Brown-Sequard. 

 Indeed, we know that blood circulating in the vessels becomes frothy 

 on contact with air, and loses fitness for its functions. M. Robin sup- 

 poses that the experiment in question could be successful only if made 

 upon the head of a man killed by a ball that should strike below the 

 neck ; in that case it would be possible to effect such a section of the 

 arteries that no entrance of air would occur, and, if the head were 

 separated at the place pointed out by M. Brown-Sequard, those mani- 

 festations of function remarked in the dog's head would probably be 

 obtained by the injection of oxygenated blood. M. Brown-Sequard is 

 convinced that they might be obtained, if certain precautions were ob- 

 served, even with the head of a decapitated criminal ; and, so strong 

 is his conviction, that, when it was proposed to him to try the experi- 

 ment that is, to perform the injection of blood into the head of a 

 person executed he refused to do so, not choosing, as he said, to wit- 

 ness the tortures of this fragment of a being recalled for an instant to 

 sensibility and life. We understand M. Brown-Sequard's scruples, but 

 it is allowable to doubt whether he would have inflicted great suffering 

 on the head of the subject ; at most, he would only have aroused in it 

 a degree of very dim and uncertain sensibility. This is easily ex- 

 plained. In life, the slightest perturbation in the cerebral circulation 

 is enough to prevent thought and sensation utterly. Now, if a few 

 drops of blood too much or too little in the brain of an animal in full 

 health suffice to alter the regularity of its psychical manifestations, 

 much more certainly will the completeness of the brain's action be de- 

 ranged if it is awakened by an injection of foreign blood, a forcible 

 entry too, which, of necessity, cannot cause the blood to circulate with 

 suitable pressure and equipoise. 



Corpse-like rigidity is one of the most characteristic phenomena of 

 death. This is a general hardening of the muscles, so great that they 

 lose the property of extension till even the joints cannot be bent ; 

 this phenomenon begins some hours after death. The muscles of the 

 lower jaw are the first to stiffen ; then rigidity invades in succession 

 the abdominal muscles, those of the neck, and at last the thoracic ones. 

 This hardening takes place through the coagulation of the half-fluid 



