CADAVERIC EIGIDITY. 463 



stances, whether the rigidity does not begin very soon after 

 death and continue for a brief period, so that it may escape 

 observation. This is the view entertained by Brown-Sequard, 

 who has made numerous experiments on this point. 1 As a 

 rale, rigidity is less marked in very old and in very young 

 persons than in the adult. It occurs in paralyzed muscles, 

 provided they have not undergone extensive fatty degenera- 

 tion. 



Under ordinary conditions of heat and moisture, as the 

 rigidity of the muscular system disappears, the processes of 

 putrefaction commence. The various tissues, with the ex- 

 ception of certain parts, such as the bones and teeth, which 

 contain a large proportion of inorganic matter, gradually de- 

 compose, forming water, carbonic acid, ammonia, etc., which 

 pass into the earth and the atmosphere. The products of de- 

 composition of the organism are then in a condition in which 

 they may be appropriated by the vegetable kingdom. 



1 BROWN-SEQUARD, Relations entre Virritabilite musculaire, la rigidite cadave- 

 rique et la putrefaction, Journal de la physiologic, Paris, 1861, tome iv., p. 271, 

 et seq. 



160 



