OP DEATH AND THE CADAVER. 107 



term is particularly applied to an animal, and chiefly to man, 

 who has ceased to live. The body, in which the vital action 

 is insensible, soon looses its heat and mobility. For a few 

 moments after, we may observe in it some particular pheno- 

 mena the last vestiges of that life which has just ended, and 

 which are called primitive cadaveric symptoms. But the ca- 

 daver has an ephemeral duration only. Putrefaction always 

 commences after a certain and generally, very short time, 

 unless under peculiar circumstances; its elements separate, 

 and the bones alone remain for a while, to be destroyed 

 in their turn. Although all dead bodies are disposed to 

 the changes of which we are speaking, all do not alter in 

 the same space of time, or in the same manner. The age and 

 constitution of the individual, the proportion of his humours, 

 the nature of his death, the circumstances which have pro- 

 ceeded it, the season, climate, state of the atmosphere, the 

 bodies which surround the corpse, &c., are all so many cir- 

 cumstances, each of which has an influence, sui generis, upon 

 the development of cadaverous phenomena; besides this, each 

 organ undergoes peculiar changes. The following are the most 

 general alterations that ensue: 



124. The warmth, as well as the other phenomena of nutri- 

 tion, sometimes diminishes immediately previous to death, 

 and ceases altogether shortly after. The cooling takes place 

 gradually and commences at the surfaces and extremities. It 

 proceeds so much the faster, as the subject is the more ex- 

 hausted by old age or disease, deprived of blood, lean, and the 

 atmosphere more cold; under these circumstances it may be 

 effected in two or three hours, whereas it generally requires 

 fifteen or twenty hours; it may even require several days. 

 The blood is blackish, and generally preserves its fluidity and 

 motion while the body is warm; the aorta and principal arte- 

 ries are emptied: it accumulates most commonly in the vena 

 cava, in the auricles of the heart, the vessels of the lungs and 

 even in the veins generally, a circumstance resulting from the 

 elasticity of the arteries and bronchia? and from the mechan- 

 ism of the chest. The accumulation of blood in the veins 

 varies according to the causes of death; where there has been 



