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excited at intervals for twenty-four hours, 

 though with a gradual diminution in 

 their power, after which, in general, they 

 can be no longer excited, and then the 

 muscles become permanently and rigidly 

 contracted. The foregoing facts appear 

 to me to shew the impropriety of the 

 phrase, exhausted irritability, which is in 

 common use to express our inability by 

 the effort of our will to continue the 

 actions of our voluntary muscles : it seems 

 manifest that the irritability is not ex- 

 hausted but fatigued. 



The rigid contraction of the muscles 

 after death, is the effect of irritability: 

 it is its last act. A considerable force is 

 required to overcome this contraction, or 

 to bend the rigid limbs of the dead body, 

 when it has recently taken place. The 

 force required to effect this, gradually 



