452 RIGOR MORTIS. 



quences of the preceding views. They are not to be regarded as pure or 

 uncomplicated manifestations of the qualities of muscular fibre itself, but 

 as the consequences of the impression that has been made upon it by the 

 treatment through which it has passed. The preparation of a fasciculus 

 can not be made without cutting or rending the parts, mutilating the 

 nerves of supply, and totally destroying the functions of the arteries and 

 veins. In the act of exsecting such a fasciculus, the disturbance im- 

 pressed upon it, however great it may be, is never fully answered to by 

 the due amount of contraction ; for with the destruction of the vascular 

 mechanism there are no means of removing the products of waste, and con- 

 traction can not go on to its full completion, but in this condition the 

 fasciculus, placed in water, gradually gives up here and there the prod- 

 ucts of waste, and with their removal the opportunity arises for the re- 

 maining muscular elements to approach one another, and, finally, com- 

 plete contraction ensues ; a contraction not due to the immediate action 

 of the water, but to the change impressed upon the fasciculus by the op- 

 eration for its exsection. 



So as regards disturbance by the touch of foreign bodies, we might 

 Contraction recall those numerous instances known in chemistry, in which 

 by touch, decompositions or other mechanical results are brought about 

 in a similar way. The different compounds which undergo explosive de- 

 composition by the lightest friction might furnish us with illustrations ; 

 but, in this instance, the effect is more purely mechanical, and arises from 

 the forced equilibrium into which the fasciculus has fallen by the act of 

 exsecting it being more or less perfectly overcome. The elements of a 

 part of a fasciculus are brought by that touch within a nearer range of 

 one another, the products of waste which had failed to escape because of 

 the destruction of the absorbent function of the veins are pressed aside, 

 one motion gives rise to another, a worm-like action spreads here and 

 there irregularly through the length, and ends in a final contraction.* 



Connected with the phenomena described in the preceding paragraph 

 is that general rigidity of the muscles which occurs a certain 



Rigor mortis. . -, , , 



time after death, and hence known as rigor mortis. This 

 usually commences in the lower jaw and neck, invading next the upper 

 extremities, and reaching eventually the lower ones. After continuing 

 for a period longer in proportion to the lateness of its beginning, relaxa- 

 tion ensues, the parts being affected in the same order as they were made 

 rigid. The rigor mortis sometimes begins as soon as ten minutes after 

 death, sometimes it is postponed as long as seven hours. In those who 

 have died of chronic diseases it occurs and ceases very quickly. Both 

 classes of muscles, striped and unstriped, are affected by it, and when it 

 is over they present an unresisting and lax condition, and putrefactive 

 change presently sets in. Even after cadaveric rigidity has been as- 



