Aug. 8, 1884.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



117 



times elsewhere, immediately after death, merely a cadaveric 

 rigidity that bus come on suddenly ] Those who know the 

 law that I have established concerning the rapidity or 

 retardation of cadaveric rigidity after death (see my Croonian 

 Lecture before the Royal Society of London, 18(11) will find 

 it evident that in the majority of the cases of preservation 

 of attitude after death that I have just mentioned, the 

 circumstances were very favourable for the prompt appear- 

 ance of post mortem rigidity. Yet, even the cases placed 

 under the most favourable circumstances, death could not 

 have come on quickly enough to permit of the preservation 

 of an ante mortem attitude. This is a'suthcient reason to 

 assure us that the fact that we have to explain is not due 

 to the sudden intervention of cadaveric rigidity. But how, 

 then, shall we explain this fact 1 



Some experiments that I cannot here give the detaOs of 

 have shown me that it is a fixed contraction — a tonic, per- 

 sistent, muscular action which then occurs, similar to that 

 which it replaces, and which existed during life. At the 

 very moment that death comes on, this fixed or tonic con- 

 traction occurs. It is an act of life, but the last one. I 

 have sometimes seen this contraction exhibit itself and then 

 disappear, and it was not till later that the true cadaveric 

 rigidity supervened. 



Death, in man as in animals, takes place in two ways that 

 difl'er radically from each other. On the one hand, it may 

 supervene suddenly, either through the influence of excite- 

 ment or that of a wound or blow, or, again, through the 

 following causes : — The impression produced by submersion 

 in cold water, or in almost icy water, and the impression 

 produced sometimes, in persons who are eminently nervous, 

 by the least lesion affecting certain parts of the body. In 

 this kind of death there may not be even the least vital 

 manifestation after the last sigh, except a feeble action of 

 the heart that soon disappears. All the cerebral faculties 

 give way suddenly — consoiousnes.'!, intelligence, the will, 

 the perceptive faculties, sensorial and sensitive impres- 

 sions, and respiratory motions all disappear at once. 

 There is no aijony, and none of that struggle that usually 

 precedes death. The body suddenly loses its tempera- 

 ture, and cadaveric rigidity comes late, and lasts 

 considerably. 



In the other kind of death, which is the one that we 

 usually observe, there is, on the contrary, a genuine struggle 

 in the still living organism, especially when life is ending 

 through the etfect of certain wounds or of a great hemor- 

 rhage, or as a consequence of a complete and sudden 

 deprivation of respiration. The heart in such a case beats 

 violently, the efforts made to breathe are extremely ener- 

 getic, consciousness and the cerebral faculties may keep up 

 for a short space of time, and after this great agitation or 

 general convulsions occur. The temperature of the body 

 rises, and this increase may still continue for some little 

 time after the last eflfort made to breathe. Cadaveric 

 rigidity appears early, but never immediately. 



My experiments and the details of the cases that I have 

 related show that the persistence of the last attitude does 

 not occur in all cases of death belonging to the first of the 

 two types just described ; but facts indicate that this sin- 

 gular phenomenon occurs only in cases of death that belong 

 to this type. 



In one of the conclusions of Dr. Brinton's excellent 

 memoir, he says that in the cases of persistence of attitude 

 that have been observed upon the battle-field, and that he 

 describes, death had probably been instantaneous, without 

 being accompanied with convulsions or agony. 



It results from the facts that I have studied in this 

 paper, and from the e.vperiments that I have done nothiug 

 more than allude to : (1) that the preservation after death 



of the attitudes of life, and of the facial expression, does 

 not depend upon the sudden appearance of what is called 

 cadaveric or post mortem rigidity, but upon the production 

 of a vital act of rigidity or tonic contraction, like the fixed 

 spasm that we often see in hysterical or paralytic persons ; 

 and (2) that a number of causes of death, acting without 

 the ordinary agony, may produce that strange phenomenon 

 which is characterised by a persistence after death of the 

 attitude and facial expression that existed at the moment 

 of the last sigh. 



OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS. 



A WEEK'S CONVEKSATIOX OX THE PLURALITY OP 

 WORLDS. 



By MoNS. DE FoJiTESELLE. 



WITH NOTES BY RICHABD A. PROCTOB. 



{Continued from p. 88.) 



" T7AIR and softly," says the Marchioness, "I fancy you 



X^ yourself are seized with the noble fury of astro- 

 nomy; a little less rapture, and I shall understand you 

 the better. The sun, you say, is in the center of the Uni- 

 verse, and is immovable. What follows next 1 " 



" It is Mercury," said I ; "he turns round the sun, so 

 that the sun is the center of the circle wherein Mercury 

 moves. Above Mercury is Yenus, who turns also round 

 the sun : after comes the earth, which, being placed higher 

 than Mercury and Yenus, makes a greater circle round the 

 sun than either of them. At last come ilars, Jupiter, and 

 Saturn, in the same older I name 'em, so that Saturn has 

 the greatest circle round the sun, which is the reason he is 

 longer in making his revolution than any of the other 

 planets." 



" You have forgot the moon," said the Marchioness. 



" We shall quickly find her again," said I ; " the moon 

 turns round the earth, and does not leave her, but as the 

 earth advances in the circle which she describes about the 

 sun, and if the moon turns round the sun, it is because she 

 will not quit the earth." 



" I understand you," said she, "and I love the moon for 

 staying with us when all the other planets abandon us ; 

 nay, I fear your German would have willingly taken her 

 away too if he could, for in all his proceedings I find he had 

 a great spite to the earth." 



" 'Twas well done of him," said I, " to abate the vanity 

 of mankind, who had taken up the best place in the uni- 

 verse, and it pleases me to see the earth in the crouds of 

 the planets." 



" Sure," said she, " you do not think their vanity ex- 

 tends itself so far as astronomy ! Do you believe you have 

 humbled me, in telling me the earth goes round the sun ? 

 For my part, I do not think myself at all the worse 

 for it." 



" I confess," said I, " Madam, 1 believe a fair lady 

 would be much more concerned for her place at a ball, 

 than for her rank in the Universe : and the precedence 

 of two planets will not make half such a noise in the world 

 as that of two ambassadors. However, the same inclina- 

 tion which reigns at a ceremony governs in a system ; 

 and if you love the uppermost place in the one, the philo- 

 sopher desires the center in the other ; he flatters himself 

 that all things were made for him, and insensibly believes 

 a matter of pure speculation to be a point of interest." 



"This is a calumny," said she, "you have invented 

 against mankind ; why did they receive this system if it 

 was so erroneous 1 " 



