202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Instantaneous rigor following violent death has been assumed 

 to be ordinary rigor mortis, hastened in development by circum- 

 stances, or a rigidity of tetanic character. Dr. Carpenter, the 

 English physician, held to the latter theory, and believed that the 

 rigidity ceased after a few hours, to be succeeded by relaxation 

 and ordinary rigor mortis in turn. Dr. Brinton, reviewing all 

 other theories, claimed that the phenomena on the battlefield are 

 unique. " Ordinary rigor mortis" he wrote, " is developed after 

 muscular irritability has ceased, but before putrefaction sets in. 

 The appearance of battlefield rigor is probably synchronous with 

 violent death. 



" In ordinary rigor mortis the march is downward ; the parts 

 first affected are the neck and jaw ; the lower jaw, if previously 

 relaxed, is drawn up ; flexor muscles are supposed to be affected 

 in a greater degree. Battlefield rigor affects probably all regions 

 alike at once. 



" Ordinary rigor mortis is usually of twenty-four to thirty-six 

 hours' duration ; battlefield rigor remains longer than is supposed. 

 . . . The prolonged continuance shows that it is not tetanic nor 

 followed by rigor mortis proper." The doctor saw cases of it 

 twenty-four to forty-eight hours and once sixty hours after 

 death. Armand saw it at Magenta twenty-four hours old and 

 Perir at Alma forty-eight hours after death. Dr. Brinton's paper 

 closes with this brief summary of the distinctive features of bat- 

 tlefield rigor : 



" The rigor is developed at the instant of death. 



" The cadaveric attitudes are those of the last moment of life. 



" The death most probably is instantaneous and unaccompanied 

 by convulsions or agony. 



" The rigor is probably more lasting than is usually supposed. 



" It is extremely doubtful whether this instantaneous rigor of 

 sudden death or rigor of the battlefield is succeeded by flexibility, 

 in its turn to be followed by ordinary rigor mortis." 



This subject lies, of course, beyond the realm of experiment. 

 If rigor mortis is due, as is believed, to solidification of the juices 

 of the muscles by the acid conditions developed therein, marked 

 chemical changes, either rapid or prolonged, follow death under 

 ordinary circumstances. In what degree may the solidification be 

 hastened by extraordinary violence in death ? We learn that pro- 

 toplasm is subject to peculiar changes under peculiar conditions ; 

 that it contracts under electric shocks, and that certain forms of 

 it coagulate under temperatures varying from 100 to 122 Fahr., 

 a species of "heat-stiffening" illustrated by the coagulation of 

 the white of an egg. The presence of certain salts will cause 

 muscle juice (myosin) to coagulate at a temperature possible to 

 be attained in the system of a hard-working man on a hot day, 



