Baxewei.—On Inflammatory Action in dead Animal Bodies. 118 
Art. XII.—On the Production of Inflammatory Action in detached Portions of 
dead Animal Bodies. By Roserr Hatt Baxewetr, M.D., Fellow of 
the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London; formerly 
President of the Medical Board of Trinidad, ete., ete. 
[Read before the Westland Institute, 1st November, 1881.] 
Tue question, “ What is death 9” is one not so easily answered as might be 
supposed. The popular idea that death in animals is a sudden and instan- 
taneous change, is of couurse not held by physiologists, who have long 
Tecognized the distinction between somatic death, or that of the animal body 
as a whole, and molecular death, or that of the elementary structures of 
Which it is built up. It is difficult to find a good and terse definition of 
death. In the following article, somatic death may be defined as the perma- 
nent arrest of all the functions and powers of the body. The only certain proof 
of death, as thus defined, is the commencement of chemical decomposition 
in the whole of the body. 
It will be at once apparent that this definition of death leaves a con- 
siderable interval between that cessation of respiration and circulation, 
accompanied by entire unconsciousness, which is the popular idea of death, 
and the commencement of chemical decomposition. During this interval 
the only vital actions* generally supposed to continue, are that peculiar 
state of muscular action called the rigor mortis, and the growth of the hair. 
Some writers consider even the latter as not a true growth, but only an 
appearance produced by the shrinking of the skin. 
It is the purpose of this paper to give a very brief epitome of a series of 
€xperiments which have been performed during the last ten years, showing 
that, in so far as inflammation may be considered as an evidence of life, 
molecular life exists with a vigour and for a length of time hitherto unsus- 
Pected, after somatic death has taken place. 
It may just be mentioned that, when in medical charge of a smallpox 
hospital some ten years ago, in the West Indies, I was engaged in micro- 
Scopical investigations into the growth and development of the variolous 
Vesicle, which were published at the time in the “ Medical Times and 
Gazette,” 187 1-2, in a series of papers on the Pathology and Treatment of 
Smallpox. I then observed that in my quarters, a small wooden building 
of inch planks, where the temperature in the middle of the day was often 
100° F., changes took place in the variolous matter, kept in the ordinary 
Capillary glass tubes. 1 was thus induced to try the cultivation of variolous 
OS Acid eee 
* I use this term for convenience’ sake. 
