37 



[Houston. 



The Finance Committee offered the following resolution 

 which, was adopted : 



Resolved, That J. Sergeant Price, Treasurer, be and he is hereby author- 

 ized to sell and transfer three thousand dollars of the loans of the City of 

 Philadelphia now standing in the name of the Society. 



And the Society was adjourned by the presiding member. 



On Muscular Contractions Following Death by Electricity. 

 By Prof. Edwin J. Houston. 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, February 7, 1890.) 



Accurate data are wanting as to whether death resulting from accidental 

 contact with electric conductors conveying the powerful currents em- 

 ployed in systems of electric lighting or power distribution is, or is not, 

 practically instantaneous. Certain facts, however, are known which 

 show that when the nature of the contacts is such that the discharge 

 passes through the respiratory, the cardiac or the brain centres, that true 

 physiological death, as evidenced by the complete failure of these centres 

 to perform their normal functions, and their inability to afterwards per- 

 form these functions, is .practically instantaneous. 



In cases of death from a lightning bolt, for example, instances are on 

 record where death has been so nearly instantaneous that the bodies have 

 remained so nearly in the positions occupied during life that passers-by 

 have failed to recognize the presence of death. 



On the regaining of consciousness lost by a lightning discharge or a 

 contact with an electric conductor, the subject as a rule has no memory of 

 pain or suffering, and in many instances is even ignorant of the cause of 

 the accident. 



A fact, however, which appears to disprove that practically instanta- 

 neous physiological death follows a powerful electric discharge, should be 

 alluded to. In some instances, it has been observed that the body of the 

 person receiving the discharge showed prolonged convulsive muscular 

 contractions and contortions. The question thus arises, Do such muscular 

 movements necessarily prove actual suffering on the part of the subject? 

 Do they 3ven necessarily prove the existence of life while they are taking 

 place? While, of course, the answer to this question must necessarily be 

 to a certain extent uncertain, the following considerations are offered to 

 show that in all probability such muscular contractions follow physio- 

 logical death, and are, therefore, unattended by consciousness or suffering. 



Two general cases of contact resulting in death may occur, viz. : 



1. A momentary contact, where the discharge is only temporary, as 

 in the case of the lightning discharge, or the case of a person falling against 

 the wires and remaining in contact therewith but a few seconds or 

 fractions of a second. 



