210 



is similar to that of galvanism, and consists in a sudden and com- 

 plete exhaustion of the nervous and muscular tissues by over-action. 



I have ascertained that a galvanic current passing through a rigid 

 muscle produces no change in the duration of cadaveric rigidity, and 

 does not in any way hasten putrefaction. It seems very probable 

 from this negative fact that the influence of galvanism on still irri- 

 table muscles is due to the contractions then produced, and not to 

 some direct chemical action on the muscular tissue and on the fluids 

 which surround the muscular fibres. This probability becomes almost 

 a certainty when we know that any cause which produces muscular 

 contraction acts in the same way as galvanism, as we have already 

 seen, and as will be further shown in the course of this lecture. 



4th. Influence of prolonged muscular exercise on cadaveric ri- 

 gidity and putrefaction, It is well known that putrefaction appears 

 very quickly in over-driven cattle and in animals hunted to death. 

 I had the opportunity once, in September 1851, near Dinan, in 

 France, of observing the period of setting in of cadaveric rigidity in 

 two sheep that had been over-driven to reach a fair. They were killed 

 by the section of the carotid arteries. In less than five minutes after 

 death rigidity was evident in both of them, and putrefaction was 

 manifest before the end of the day (in less than eight hours after 

 death). 



As cadaveric rigidity lasts only a short time in cocks killed during 

 or shortly after a fight, "and also in animals hunted to death, J. Hun- 

 ter was led to think that it does not come on after death in such cir- 

 cumstances. Mr. Gulliver has shown this opinion to be erroneous. 

 He states that fighting-cocks, as well as hares, stags, and other animals 

 of the chase, become rigid at once after death in the circumstances 

 referred to. It is well known that putrefaction occurs very quickly in 

 animals hunted to death, so that every thing we know concerning 

 over-driven cattle, cocks after a fight, or animals hunted to death, is 

 in perfect harmony with the law that the exercise of muscular contrac- 

 tion diminishes muscular irritability, and that diminished irritability 

 is followed by early cadaveric rigidity, which, in its turn, promptly 

 gives way to a putrefaction which progresses rapidly. 



A great many facts seem to show that over-exertion acts in the 

 same way in man as in the lower animals. The accounts given of 

 soldiers slain on the battle-field, whose body and limbs retained the 



