VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
119 
We can scarcely pass over the signs of death and their train 
of important circumstances; so I will briefly review a few of the 
signs and conditions of most interest to the veterinary medical 
jurist. The signs are divided into two classes, positive and 
minor; the positive signs are, first, the entire aud continuous ces¬ 
sation of the heart’s action ; second, the entire and continuous 
cessation of respiration ; third, insensibility and inability to move. 
The minor signs are included in the effects of heat or a flame to 
the skin; action of caustic; odor of death ; changes in and about 
the eye; change in temperature ; muscular flaccidity and contrac¬ 
tility ; commencement of putrefaction ; the formation of adipo- 
cere. Any one of these signs require close attention, as they are 
greatly intensified or retarded by circumstances and conditions, 
such as exposure to air, age of the animal, effects of gases, moist¬ 
ure, chemicals, mode of death, etc. The position of a dead ani¬ 
mal may be of importance in determining the cause of or man¬ 
ner by which the animal died. 
The question might arise whether the body had been dis¬ 
turbed or tampered with since death. In deciding these ques¬ 
tions w*e must bear in mind (admitting that in rigor mortis the 
flexor muscles are always a little more contracted than the ex¬ 
tensors) that the position of the muscles at death, unless disturbed 
during the period of flaccidity (in other words, the position when 
rigor mortis supervenes), is the position during rigor mortis. 
Without discussing numerous matters in detail, the following 
propositions are, I believe, scarcely open to question : If a dead 
and rigid body, with open eyes and dropped jaw, be discovered, 
fitting itself to the surface on which it rests, the muscles of the 
buttocks or other parts being flattened at the points of contact or 
pressure, the probability is that death occurred at the precise spot 
where the body is found. If there had been any interference 
with it, it must have occurred before rigor mortis set in. If a 
dead and rigid body be discovered, not fitting itself to the sur¬ 
face on which it is found or rests; that is, if the limbs be twisted 
and contorted while the surface is even, or conversely, if the body 
be straight and the surface uneven, the probability is that the 
place where the body is .discovered is not the place where it died; 
