108 INTRODUCTION. 



dyspnea or suffocation, it is very considerable, and in this case, 

 there are sometimes congestions, turgenscenscies, erections, 

 and even sanguineous transudations. The blood, obeying its 

 gravity and the action of the arteries, accumulates and forms 

 livid spots in those parts that are dependent at the moment of 

 death, and while the body is yet warm, the rest of it remain- 

 ing pale and yellowish. During all this period of cooling, 

 the body is in general soft and flexible, the eyes half open, the 

 lower lip and jaw pendent, the pupil dilated: congestions that 

 have existed during life, sometimes disappear; the sphincters 

 are relaxed, and sometimes, through a remaining vestige of 

 contractibility, an expulsion of the faeces takes place, and 

 even parturition. The muscles may yet be irritated by vari- 

 ous stimuli, by galvanism particularly. 



125. The soft parts remain flexible and the blood fluid, as 

 long as the body preserves its warmth; no sooner has that 

 abandoned it, than the blood coagulates, and the soft parts 

 become stiffened in a greater or less degree. The coagulation 

 of the blood varies greatly; generally it is either white or le- 

 mon coloured concretions, which are moulded in the vessels; 

 sometimes the blood assumes the consistence of jelly, or even 

 remains completely fluid. The cadaverous stiffness is a con- 

 stant phenomenon, and is characterized by the firmness of the 

 soft parts and the resistence and immobility of the articula- 

 tions. It begins in the trunk and extends first to the superior, 

 and then to the inferior extremities. This phenomenon which 

 appears to depend, essentially, on the last contraction of the 

 muscles, and also on the general cooling and coagulation of 

 the fluids, presents a great difference as regards the moment 

 of its manifestation, its intensity and its duration. Thus in 

 death from old age, in that induced by a slow exhaustion or 

 by excessive fatigue, from gangrenous, putrid, or scorbutic 

 diseases, &c. , the stiffness ensues very promptly, is not very 

 intense, and scarcely lasts for one or two hours. On the con- 

 trary in strong, muscular subjects, who expire suddenly by 

 violence; after most asphyxies and acute diseases, the stiffness 

 does not come on for twenty or thirty hours, becomes very 

 considerable and remains for three or four days. The rigidity 



