271 



sometimes beat for seveml hours at a stretch; certain parts of tlie 

 heart are even said to beat on the 3"', the 5^'^ , and the 7''' day 

 after death. It is a well-known fact that, when at tiie obdnction 

 air can penetrate into the cavity of the chest, this may give rise to 

 spontaneous contractions of the riglit atrium — {\\q ultbnum inor'uiis 

 Halleri or rather Galeni. Vulpiax states tliat he has observed these 

 contractions in the do<>,- for 93^2 liours after deatli. Rousseau main- 

 tains that he has seen these movements in an executed woman. 

 29 hours after death. 



The human heart lias also been made to contract independently 

 after death. These attempts have never succeeded with adults when 

 the individuals had been dead for more than 11 hours. (H. E. Heiung). 



This could be done with the heart of a child 20 hours after death 

 and in the case of a monkey as many as 53 hours after death. 



(KULIABKO, HeRING). ^) 



Recently Carrel and Ingebrigtsen have stated that some tissues 

 can be kept alive for a long time after the death of the individual ; 

 the tissues could even become differentiated under these circumstances. 

 These experiments, however, have been taken partly with very 

 small pieces of hardly differentiated tissues : this applies for instance 

 to the muscle-cells of the embryonic chicken heart, contracting J04 

 days after the death of the animal. (Carrel). And partly they relate 

 to parts of organs (bone and skin) where it is not so easy to 

 determine whether the cells are living still. To ascertain this the 

 "surviving" tissues must be transplanted on another animal. It must 

 be taken into account, however, that these tissues may have 

 permanently lost their independence. Only with the assistance of the 

 normal tissues of the animal on which they were transplanted, they 

 had regained life. 



With regard to the following experiments on the movements of 

 isolated intestines, the investigations of Magnus have shown that 

 automatic movements are only met with, when besides the muscle- 

 cell the nervous system of Anei'baclts plexus has retained its activity. 

 The phenomenon is, therefore, of a complex nature. 



Intestines can be kept alive longer than usual (+ 12 hours) only 

 when the periods of activity are alternated with long periods of rest. 

 This can easily l)e done, as we know, by lowering the temperature. 

 At body-temperature the isolated gut works itself, sit venia vej'bo, 

 to death, within from iO to 14 hours. 



1) See the Summaiies by 0. Langendorf in Ergebnisse der Physiologie 1903 

 and 1905. 



