453 



knowledge thus acquired will prove eminently useful in medico- 

 legal inquiries, and will give a precision and accuracy to in- 

 vestigations of this nature which they are noAv incapable of. 

 In pathological research, likewise, it will be highly useful. To 

 study the morphic changes of putrefaction, under what may be 

 termed its normal phases, it will be necessary to have the sub- 

 jects of our intended examinations submitted to conditions of 

 an equable mean temperature, with access of air and moisture. 

 If none of these be in excess, the process is a sufficiently slow 

 one; excess of any of them, if slight, will be found to rather 

 hasten the putrefactive changes, while, if considerable, a con- 

 dition may be produced in which the tissue will remain for a 

 long time without farther change. 



Extremes of heat, as is well known, will produce almost 

 immediate dissolution, while, at a freezing temperature, struc- 

 tures will remain unaltered for almost an indefinite period. I 

 now proceed to detail some of the observations which I have 

 already made ; they relate to cutaneous structures and fat, 

 some varieties of human and animal blood, and muscular fibre. 

 I omit for the present any notice of the general physical or 

 chemical characters, though both are extremely important. 



1. Integument. — This specimen had undergone change for 

 four months. The epithelium of the cuticle was entirely de- 

 stroyed, its place being supplied by a soft, pulpy mass, which 

 presented an amorpho- granular mass under the microscope. 



2. Subcutaneous Structures after 6^ Months. — They had the 

 appearances of what is known as cadaveric fat ; under the mi- 

 croscope, D. 900, there was seen an abundance of minute but 

 well-defined granules, with fine, dark, well-marked border, and 

 clear, transparent centre ; they were arranged in masses, isolated,* 

 and in groups ; small granular corpuscles of different sizes, and 

 a few oil-globules ; very large oval, pale, semi-opaque cells or 

 vesicles ; they had no nuclei ; their borders were clear and well 

 defined, but the most of them presented fissures, some as many 

 as seven or eight, which extended inwards for about a sixth of 



