The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-08-22
The Phenomena Of Death.

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Death seems to be absolute from the
instant that the pulsations of the heart
are stopped without renewal, because,
the circulation of blood no longer pro-
ceeding, the nutrition of the organs be-
comes impossible, and nutrition is de-
manded for the maintenance of physio-
logical harmony but, as We have said
above, there are thousand little springs
in the organism which keep up a certain
degree of activity after the great main
spring has ceased to act. There is an
Infinite number of partial energies that
outlive the destruction of the principal
energy, and withdraw only by slow de-
grees. In cases of sudden death espe-
cially the tissues keep their peculiar Vi
tally a very long time. In the first
place, the heat declines only quite slow
ly, and the more so in proportion as
death has been quick. For several
hours after death the hair OF the head
and body, and the nails continue to
grow, nor does absorption either stop
at once. Even digestion, too, keeps on.
The experiment performed by Spallan-
zani to test this is very curious. He
conceived the idea of making crow eat
a certain quantity of food, and killing
it Immediately after the meal. Then
he put it in place kept at the same
temperature as that of live bird, and
opened it six hours later. The food
was thoroughly digested.
Besides these general manifestations,
the dead body is capable, during some
continued time, of different kinds of ac-
tivity. 1t is not easy to study these on
the bodies of persons dying of sickness,
because they are not permitted to be
made the subject of anatomical examina-
tons until twenty-four hours after
death but the bodies of beheaded
criminals, which are given up to savants
few moments after their execution,
can be of use in the investigation of
what takes place Immediately after the
stopping of the living machine If the
heart is uncovered a few minutes after
execution, pulsations are remarked
which continue during an hour or long
er, at the rate of forty to forty-ive a
minute, even after the removal of the
liver, the stomach, and the intestines.
For several hours the muscles retain
their excitability, and undergo reflex
contractions from the effect of pinching.
nj. Robin noted the following phenome-
non in the case of criminal an hour
after his execution "The right arm, +"
to quote his description, "being placed
obhquely extended at the side of the
trunk, with the hand about ten inches
away from the hip, 1 scratched the skin
OF the chest, at about the height of the
nipple, with the point of scalpel, over
a space of nearly four inches, without
making any pressure on the muscles ly-
ing beneath. We Immediately saw the
great pectoral muscle, then the biceps,
then the anterior brachial, successfully
and quickly contract. The result was q
movement of approach of the whole arm
toward the trunk, with rotation inward
of the limb, and half fexion of the fore
arm upon the arm, a true defensive
movement, which threw the hand for
ward toward the chest as far as the pit
of the stomach.
These spontaneous exhibitions of life
in a corpse are trifes compared with
those excited by means of certain stimu-
lants, particularly of electricity.
Aldini, in 1902, subjected two criminals,
beheaded at Bologna, to the action of a
powerful battery. Influenced by the
current, the facial muscles contracted
producing the effect of horrid grimaces.
All the limbs were seized with convul-
sive movements the bodies seemed to
feel the stir of resurrection, and to make
efforts to rise. The springs of the sys-
TEN retained the power of answering the
electus stimulus for several hours after
beheading. A few years later, at Glas-
gov, IRE made some equally noted ex-
periments on the body of a criminal that
had remained more than an hour hang
ing on the gallows. One of the poles of
battery of 700 pairs having been con-
nected with the spinal marrow below the
nape of the neck, and the other brought
in contact with the heel, the leg, before
bent back on itself, was thus thrust vio-
lently forward, almost throwing down
one of the assistants, who had hard
work to keep it in place. When one of
the poles was placed on the seventh
rib, and the other on one of the nerves
of the neck. the chest rose and fell, and
the abdomen repeated the like move
ment, as takes place in respiration. On
touching nerve of the eyebrow at the
same time with the head, the facial
muscles contracted. Wrath, terror,
despair, anguish and frightful grins,
blended i'll horrible expression on the as
sassin's countenance.
The most remarkable instance of q
momentary temperance of vital prop
critics, not in the whole organism, but
in the head alone, is the famous expert
ment suggested by Leaallois, and car
ried out for the first time in 1858 by M.
Brown-Sequard. This skillful physi-
ologist beheads a dog, taking pains to
make the section below the point at
which the vertebral arteries enter their
bony sheath. Ten minutes afterward
he sends the galvanic current into the
different parts of the head thus severed
from its body, without producing any
result of movement. He then fits to
: the four arteries, the extremities of
which appear in the cutting of the neck,
little pipes connected by tubes with a
reservoir full of fresh oxygenated blood,
: and guides the injection of this blood
into the vessels of the brain. Imme-
diately irregular motions of the eyes
. and the facial muscles occur, succeeded
by the appearance of regular harmonious
j contractions, seeming to be prompted