THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. 3^5 



it a degree of very dim and uncertain sensibility. This is easi- 

 ly explained. In life, the slightest perturbation in the cere- 

 bral circulation is enough to prevent thought and sensation 

 utterly. Now, if a few drops of blood too much or too little 

 in the brain of an animal in full health suffice to alter the 

 regularity of its psychical manifestations, much more cer- 

 tainly will the completeness of the brain's action be de- 

 ranged if it is awakened by an injection of foreign blood, a 

 forcible ingress too, which, of necessity, cannot cause the 

 blood to circulate with suitable pressure and equipoise. 



Corpse-like rigidity is one of the most characteristic 

 phenomena of death. This is a general hardening of the 

 muscles, so great that they lose the property of extension 

 till even the joints cannot be bent ; this phenomenon begins 

 some hours after death. The muscles of the lower jaw are 

 the first to stiffen ; then rigidity invades in succession the 

 abdominal muscles, those of the neck, and at last the tho- 

 racic ones. This hardening takes place through the coagu- 

 lation of the half-fluid albuminoid matter which composes 

 the muscular fibres, as the solidification of the blood results 

 from coagulation of its fibrine. After a few' hours the 

 coagulated musculine grows fluid again, rigidity passes 

 away, and the muscles relax. Something not dissimilar 

 takes place also in the blood. The globules change, lose 

 shape, and suffer the beginning of dissociation. The agents 

 of putrefaction, vibrios and bacteria, thus enter upon their 

 great work by insidiously breaking up the least seen 

 parts. 



At last, when partial revivals are no longer possible, 

 when the last flicker of life has gone out and corpse-like 

 rigidity has ceased, a new work begins. The living germs 

 that had collected on the surface of the body and in the 

 digestive canal develop, multiply, piece into all the points 

 of the organism, and produce in it a complete separation 

 of the tissues and humors ; this is putrefaction. The mo- 



