CHAPTER XVI 



THE ELECTRICAL SPASM OF DEATH 



Different post-mortem symptoms Accurate methods for determination of death- 

 point Determination of death-point by abolition or reversal of normal elec- 

 trical response Determination of death-point by mechanical death-spasm 

 From thermo-mechanical inversion By observation of electrical spasm : (a) in 

 anisotropic organs : (b) in radial organs Simultaneous record of electrical 

 inversion and reversal of normal electrical response Remarkable consistency 

 of results obtained by different methods Tabulation of observations. 



IT will be seen from the last chapter that there is in the case 

 of every plant a certain high temperature which is critical, 

 since above it life passes into death. Much difficulty has 

 been experienced in the exact determination of this critical 

 point, because no sure criterion of death was hitherto avail- 

 able, such as would furnish an immediate and reliable indica- 

 tion of its occurrence. The various symptoms of death, such 

 as drooping, withering, discoloration and the escape of 

 coloured cell-sap, do not manifest themselves at the onset of 

 death, but at some time indeterminately later. Even when a 

 plant has been subjected to a temperature in excess of the 

 fatal degree, it continues to appear fresh and living ; and it is 

 not till after some longer or shorter interval that the death 

 symptoms are seen. 



To take, for example, the symptom of drooping, it is 

 clear that the loss of turgidity on which this depends cannot 

 at once make itself visible. In a thick tissue, again, death 

 may take place in the superficial layers of the plant, the 

 interior tissues, owing to feeble thermal conductivity, remain- 

 ing comparatively unharmed. Or, if we employ the test of 

 discoloration, which we shall find to occur some time after 

 the initiation of death we find that the exact moment at 



