TEMPERATURE OF THE BOD Y AFTER DEATH. 867 
Temperature 
Temperature after 
L)is£iisG. 
Place of 
Observer. 
before Death. 
Death. 
Observation. 
45 
Pyremia 
Left ventricle. 
Davy. 1 
(3h hrs. post-mortem) 
42 -2 
Sudden death, cause 
,, 
>i 
(5A hrs. post-mortem 
undetermined. 
43°75 
Small-pox. 
Axilla. 
Simon. 2 
(1 hour post-mortem) 
44 •:. 
44-5 
41 ; -1 
* 
Sunstroke. 
j 1 
Levick. 3 
44 3 -75 
45°-4 
(57 min. post-mortem) 
Tetanus. 
> » 
"Wunderlich. 4 
41-2 
Cholera. 
Rectum. 
Mackenzie. 5 
42°-3 
43 -1 
(15 min. post-mortem) 
Erysipelas. 
Axilla. 
Euleuburg. 6 
40-4 
42= -3 
'20 min. post-mortem) 
" 
j j 
>: 
4r-s 
Sunstroke. 
Thompson. 7 
36-1 
33-3 
(7imiu. po<t-mortem, 
Apoplexy. 
j ) 
De Haen. 8 
41°-6 
4o 
(30 min. post-mortem) 
Tetanus. 
)> 
Lehmann. 9 
43°-01 
44°-03 
(1 hour post-mortem) 
Pyreruia. 
Rectum. 
Quincke and 
Brieger. 10 
42-1 
43° -4 
(1 hour post-mortem) 
Pneumonia 
delirium tremens. 
> j 
j) 
41" -1 
43°-3 
(15 min. post-mortem) 
Crush of 
spinal cord. 
Axilla. 
Churchill. 11 
The causes of this post-mortem rise in temperature have heen investigated 
by various observers. 1 - The most important factors are these. When the 
circulation and respiration cease at death, the normal loss of heat from these 
causes and from sweating also comes to an end, but the tissues live for a short 
time and produce heat even after the death of the organism as a whole. If 
this production of heat is greater than the loss of heat from the corpse, the 
temperature rises ; if, on the other hand, it is less, then the effect is only to 
delay the fall of temperature. The next source of heat is in the muscles on 
the onset of rigidity ; and, finally, when decomposition sets in, and this may 
after some diseases occur exceedingly rapidly, there is a further production of 
heat due to putrefaction. In some cases the temperature of a corpse does not 
fall to that of the atmosphere even in four or five days. 13 
1 ''Researches," London, 1839, vol. i. p. 228. 
-Ann. d. Char.-Krankenh. . . . :u Berlin, 1865, Bd. xiii. Heft 2, S. 1. 
3 Penn. Hosp. Rep., Philadelphia. 1868, vol. i. p. 369. 
4 Arch. d. Hcilk., Leipzig, 1861, Bd. ii. S. 547. 
London Hosp. Rep., vol. iii. p. 454. 
6 CentraJbl. f. d. med. JVisscnsch., Berlin, 1866, No. 5. 
7 Brit. Med. Journ., London, 9th July Li70. 
8 Quoted from Valentin, Deutsches Arch. J. /Jin. Med., Leipzig, 1869, S. 201. 
: ' Schmidt's Jahrb., Leipzig, 1868, Bd. exxxix. S. 241. 
10 Deutsches Arch./, klin. Med., Leipzig, 1879, Bd. xxiv. S. 284. 
11 Churchill, quoted from Hutchinson, Lancet, London, 1875, vol. i. p. 713. 
12 Besides those above enumerated, the following may he mentioned : — Seume, Thtsis, 
Leipzig, 1856 : Erb, Deutsches Arch. f. klin. Med., Leipzig, 1865 ; Thomas, Arch. d. HeilL, 
Leipzig, 1868, Bd. ix. S. 17, 31 : Goodhart, Brit. Med. Journ., London, 1874, vol. i. 
p. 303 ; Huppert, Arch. d. Hcilk., Leipzig, 1867, Bd. viii. S. 321 : Fick and Dybkowsky 
Vrtljschr. d. naturf. Gescllsch. in Zurich, 1867 ; Schiffer, Centralbl. f. d. med. Wissensch. 
Berlin, 1867. S. 849: Arch./. Anat., Physiol . n. wissensch. Med., 1868, S. 442. 
13 The author is indebted to Drs. Haldane, Hale, White, and Waller for valuable 
suggestions on various points, dealt with both in this and in the preceding article. 
