This return of color to the cheeks has been frequently observed in the bodies of those who, for the purpose of preservation, have been frozen by the undertaker and on the day of sepulture removed from the freezing mixture a few hours before the funeral rites. The return of a flush of color closely resembling the natural hue of life ensues and endures for a few hours, when it passes with great rapidity into the dusky hue of decomposition. That there should be a rise of temperature to something like that of the surrounding atmosphere is of course natural, but it is claimed that it may rise, in consequence of this putrefactive change, even higher than that. From the facts stated above it will be seen that the caution to be observed by the medical expert in giving an opinion as to the time which has elapsed since death occurred should be, as before stated, very considerable.

Changes in the Eye.-Immediately after death the eye loses its luster in the great majority of cases, and, in addition to this loss of luster, the cornea becomes opaque, milky, and sensibly flattened, the globe having lost its normal tension, and, of course, there is no response to light by the pupil. I have said that this condition of the eye obtains in the majority of cases, but in cases of death by carbonic acid and carbonic oxide, cyanide of potash and hydrocyanic acid, I have seen this change in the eyeball wholly wanting, or very long delayed.

At this very writing I was called to view the body of a man who had in a fit of melancholia taken an indefinite quantity of cyanide of potash in a public square and died within twenty minutes. Directly after death, and again two hours later, the eyeballs were prominent, staring, glistening, with the pupils widely dilated, and eighteen hours after death the same condition was present.

There is also at the time of death a change in the color of the body, which, with very few exceptions, such as in the cases of people with very florid complexions, becomes an ashy white. The exceptions above mentioned rest on the statement of Casper. I have never seen exceptions to the rapid pallor in cases of death, except in cases of death from burning and some cases of suffocation. But while certain colors will disappear, such as the redness of scarlet fever, on the other hand the yellow of jaundice, the purple of ecchymosis, and the varied colors of tattooing remain.

There is also at the time of death, or immediately thereafter, a general relaxation of the muscular system-the lower jaw drops, the joints are flexible, and the eyelids lose their tension; but although the tonicity of the muscles is lost, it is not the case with their contractility, inasmuch as they will respond for a certain time to electrical and other stimuli, and moreover muscles that are contracted by living force at the time of death, as in the case of poisoning by strychnine, do not necessarily become relaxed in death.

According to Ogston, the persistence after death of the muscular contractibility in different parts of the body and its disappearance follows a fixed order, the first parts to present this change being the neck and trunk, next the lower extremities, and lastly the upper, while its departure follows the same order.

The duration of this phenomenon is shortened by its exposure to warmth and moisture, and to ammoniacal, carbonic, and sulphureted hydrogen gases; it is unaffected by carbureted hydrogen, hydrogen, and

sulphurous acid gases, nor is it diminished in cases of asphyxia. It has been found, however, that the continuance of this property of muscular fiber is considerably modified by the nature of the disease of which the person died. Experiments show that it disappeared from the muscles in cases of peritonitis in three hours; in phthisis, schirrus, and cancer, in three to six hours; in death from mortal lesions of the heart or profuse hemorrhage, in about nine hours; in apoplexy with paralysis, in about twelve hours; and in adynamic fevers and pneumonia, in from ten to fifteen hours. (Ogston, Lecture XXV.)

So far as the signs of death which have thus far been mentioned (namely, the cessation of respiration and circulation, the loss of the luster of the eye, the pallor of the surface, the relaxation of the muscles, the loss of animal heat, and the loss of muscular contractility) indicate the period of death, it is practically agreed by all writers on this subject that a body in which all these phenomena have occurred has been dead for a period of from ten to twelve hours at the longest, provided there are no other changes to be noticed.

Succeeding the changes just mentioned, and preceding the commencement of decomposition, are certain other changes originating in the physical alteration in the soft solids.

Softening or want of elasticity of the tissues of the body, which comes in evidence soon after death, is the first of the changes resulting from the destruction of their physical properties. The parts of the body on which it rests will be flattened, and the skin will present the marks of any peculiar figure upon which it has been lying, as for instance the grating of a dissecting-table, and the skin and muscles do not resume their original condition upon the removal of the pressure which, either by the weight of the body itself or from external sources, has been applied to the parts which show this loss of elasticity. This flattening of the dependent parts has been considered a valuable indication of the reality , of death.

Rigor Mortis.-At the disappearance, or often a little before the disappearance, of the softening just described, comes another sign, that is, the appearance of an opposite state of the limbs and joints, which is known as cadaveric rigidity, or rigor mortis. The body becomes rigid, and is incapable of contraction. The muscles acquire a brawny firmness, and it requires considerable force to move the joints from the position which they have assumed. This phenomenon is not an active process, but the limbs become, as it were, fixed in the position which they had when this change occurred. This cadaveric rigidity affects not alone the external muscles, such as those of the jaw and limbs, but also is to be demonstrated in the internal organs, especially in the left ventricle of the heart. The duration of this state is variable. It usually disappears with the approach of putrefaction, but I have seen it present after the abdomen has assumed the greenish color characteristic of that condition. The portions of the body to be consecutively affected by this change follow practically the same order as that mentioned in regard to muscular contractibility. It is first noticed in the lower jaw, where it is always most pronounced, and where the greatest force is required to overcome its effects, and where it persists the longest, according to my own experience, though I am aware that this observation does not coincide with the observations of some other writers. It next appears in the neck and

trunk, then in the lower extremities, and lastly in the upper extremities. When it is once gone it does not return, but gives place to a softening of a kind different from that previously mentioned, which is not only more marked, but proceeds to complete putrescence.

The early appearance of cadaveric rigidity is modified to a certain degree by the causes operating immediately before death. Under the action of strychnine and those alkaloids which cause death by convul sions, the more violent and frequent the convulsions the sooner the rigidity sets in. It seems to be accelerated by whatever exhausts the muscular irritability before death. In cases of death from exhaustion or from septicæmia it has been observed that rigidity sets in early and passes away quickly, and is very speedily followed by putrefaction.

While the time of its appearance varies considerably in different cases, in some being noticed as early as eight to ten hours after death, and in others being delayed for more than thirty hours, and while in some cases its coming and going is so speedy as to leave a doubt whether it occurred at all, as in death from lightning, it is fair to state that the mean time of its occurrence is from ten to twelve hours.

Two cases illustrative of this long duration of post-mortem rigidity are these. A man died suddenly of organic disease of the heart in late September. On the exhumation of the body eight weeks later there was marked rigidity of the lower extremities-so marked that the body could be carried from one room to another by power applied to shoulders and feet only. The rigidity had, however, wholly disappeared from the arms, but was present in the lower jaw.

The arm of a mutilated body was recovered from a river in which the arm had lain long enough to have the skin of the hand quite macerated, and after its removal was kept without preservatives for a period of at least two days before being examined by the deputy-coroner of the district. At time of examination the death rigidity was very pronounced in the elbow-joint. A case like this must be considered as quite exceptional. It is also to be borne in mind, in regard to the former case, that the loss of rigidity noticed in the arms while it was present elsewhere may have been due to the forcible flexing of the joints in dressing the corpse shortly before burial.

The duration of the rigidity is also subject to considerable variation. Generally it lasts from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, while it has been known to last for several days. Cold favors the continuance of this condition, as does also previous vigorous constitution, and in cases of death from accident or violence its duration is prolonged. Its duration is less. in the young and those in advanced life. It is said, as before mentioned, that in cases of death from lightning the rigidity is but little marked. I have seen but one case of death from lightning, and though the deceased was a child of but five years, the rigidity, though not strongly marked, was still undoubted.

Various explanations of this condition of rigidity have been offered by physiologists and writers on legal medicine-such, for instance, as the coagulation of a proteid in the muscle-plasma giving rise to the so-called myosine-but though its seat is undoubtedly the muscular system, it cannot be said that any of the theories advanced are wholly satisfactory. The importance of bearing in mind the fact that this condition affects internal organs is demonstrated by the mistakes not infrequently made

of attributing certain appearances, such as a seeming thickening of the left ventricle, to pathological change during life, when the appearance was wholly due to the presence of post-mortem rigidity.

Casper states that after death from narcotic poisoning this rigidity either does not occur, or is of so short duration that at the usual time when such bodies are received by the medical jurist for observation no trace of it is found. This does not correspond with my observation. Indeed, within the last sixty days I have had opportunity to examine the bodies of two persons, both cases of suicide by laudanum, where the rigor mortis was quite pronounced at the time of autopsy, more than twenty-four hours after death. I find that my observations in this respect are in accord with those of Tidy.

When a joint stiff from rigor mortis is forcibly bent, the stiffness does not return, and this may distinguish real death from certain cases of supposed trance, from cases of catalepsy, and from the rigidity of tetanus or poisoning by strychnine, and some other poisons.

There are several so-called tests of minor importance which should be mentioned here, although if the signs already mentioned are present there should be no doubt as to the reality of death, inasmuch as the tests themselves are rather tests of the cessation of the circulation than of anything more. The first of these tests is to note whether, after making an incision in the body, blood flows, especially if it flows in jets instead of a continuous dribbling. A dead body does not bleed in the ordinary sense of the word. It is said that bright steel needles inserted anywhere in the skin will be found free from rust even after some hours; but as this test depends on the condition of the body as to cooling and moisture, it is not trustworthy. Another test is the attempt to produce vesication by heat or blistering fluids, it being assumed that as the formation of a blister is a vital process, it could not occur after death; yet as a matter of fact it has been found possible to produce a certain kind of blister upon the skins of young persons shortly after death. Another test is the observation of the translucency of the fingers and hands. If the hand of a living person, especially if young and in good health, be held in front of a bright light with the fingers closely approximated, there will be observed a pinkish red, almost translucent appearance, while after death the hands. become opaque. Yet in demonstrating this test to a class of students, the subject being a girl in whom the unmistakable signs of death were present, I found that the hand was still translucent, and that the pinkish color at the edge of the approximated fingers was quite demonstrable. This case, however, is very exceptional. Another test is the production of local congestion by obstructing the flow of the current of blood, as, for instance, by tying a string around the finger. The usual phenomena of swelling and purple discoloration will not follow this constriction in the dead body.

Ogston calls attention to a form of cadaveric rigidity which I believe to occur, though I have never chanced to see an instance. It is what is called cadaveric spasm. It consists in a sort of spasmodic contraction which is assumed by the muscles at the instant of or immediately before death, and which is retained for some hours after death, then passing into true rigor mortis. It has usually been observed in forms of sudden or violent death, but it has also been known to occur after death by pneumonia and pulmonary apoplexy. Ogston, in addition to mentioning

eleven cases which came under his observation, cites a striking example of this kind of rigidity which occurred at the battle of Balaklava. Captain Nolan, while riding in the advance of the cavalry, had his chest torn open by a shell from the Russian battery. The arm which he was wav ing in the air at the time remained uplifted, and he retained his seat upon his horse, which wheeled round and retreated; the rider gave a death-shriek, and passed through the ranks in the same attitude before dropping from the saddle.

Inasmuch as the hand of a dead person cannot be made to grasp a weapon, it is of importance to bear the possibility of this kind of spasm in mind, as suicide would be indicated where the weapon was found grasped in the hands of a corpse. On the other hand, the finding of clothing, or fragments thereof, or hairs grasped in the hand after death. may form an important part of a trial for murder. It is to be noted in this connection that after death from strychnine, as mentioned before, the rigidity, if forcibly broken down, returns after a time, while in other forms of tetanic spasm it is believed to disappear shortly after death. I have observed this return of rigidity after forcible flexion in the case of a man who had partaken of some cheese which had been plentifully covered with strychnine for the purpose of poisoning rats, and who had died from asphyxia from the spasmodic fixing of the muscles concerned in respiration. But in the case of a middle-aged woman who had prepared a fatal dose for her husband and had by mistake taken it herself, and who died from exhaustion, this phenomenon was not to be produced. Indeed, the former case was the only one of many cases of strychnine poisoning in which I have noticed a return of rigidity when it was once broken down after death.

As an indication of the period at which death has occurred, the presence of rigor mortis, in addition to the signs previously mentioned, and without other signs to be mentioned hereafter, the presumption is, according to Casper, that the person has been dead within from two to three days at the longest.

Soon after death, sometimes within an hour, and generally within twelve hours, there are to be noticed upon the exterior of the body certain changes in color due to the gravitation of the blood in the capillaries. These lividities are usually found upon the under or dependent portions of the body. If the body has chanced to remain upon the face and abdomen, it is upon those surfaces that the color changes are found. The color varies from a light pinkish tinge to a deep purple, and not infre quently these purple discolorations are mistaken by the inexperienced, especially by friends and relatives of the deceased, for marks of violence inflicted during life. If the body has rested upon the back, the lividities will be found there, except at the points where the pressure caused by the weight of the body has been greatest. Here the skin will have its usual pallor.

There is an appearance similar to this which I have observed in the cases of the drowned which have been exposed to extreme cold immediately before and after death. I had occasion to examine the bodies of four sailors who were wrecked off a ledge at the entrance to Boston Harbor. The cold and the action of the waves dashing the bodies against the shore had so flattened them they bore a grotesque resemblance to the cakes in a pastry-cook's shop made and baked in the form