660 RIGIDITY AFTER DEATH. 



activity of the circulation, are greatly diminished 

 by loss of blood. Secondly, it is well known to 

 butchers, that in animals exhausted by over exer- 

 tion, rigidity of the muscles comes on much sooner 

 after death, and their blood coagulates much more 

 rapidly, than if slaughtered in vigorous health. 

 I have also observed that in a sheep which had 

 been exhausted by travelling to market, the ex- 

 tremities were cold, the circulation exceedingly 

 languid, and the muscles stiff, even before death. 

 In accordance with this fact, I found that when 

 an ounce of its blood was received from the di- 

 vided vessels of the neck, it became solid in half 

 a minute. It is therefore probable, that when the 

 motion and vitality of the blood are thus dimin- 

 ished, the process of coagulation may actually com- 

 mence, though imperceptibly, before it leaves the 

 vessels; (just as water begins to congeal insen- 

 sibly at 39, but does not become solid till reduced 

 to 32 \) and for the same reason that the muscles 

 become stiff before death. 



It is stated by Richerand and Orfila, that in 

 cases of sudden death while in the full vigour of 

 health, caused by suffocation in the mephitic 

 gases, the temperature and flexibility of the mus- 

 cles remain for several hours after death. And it 

 is certain, that whatever maybe the cause of the 

 roideur cadaverique, whether mechanical, che- 

 mical, or vital and whether it be owing to co- 

 agulation of the blood, as supposed by Orfila, 



