Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-05-02
ATTITUDES AFTER DEATH.

Among the phenomena sometimes no.
ticed at the time of death there is one
particularly interesting, which, till re-
Gently, has remained a mystery. 1t ap-
pears especially, but not exclusively,
after sudden death, either from wounds
on the battlefield or elsewhere. or from
other causes, but almost always when
an intense emotional state, and often
also a great bodily fatigue, have pre-
coded the last moment of life. The
principal feature of this curious fact is
the persistence of the facial expression.
or of certain attitudes of the limbs or of
the body, OF both, which existed at the
time of death. That persistence is well
shown in cases, for instance, when, not
withstanding a sudden cessation of life,
a lifted limb does not drop, or the body
.of a man standing up or sitting on a
horse does not fall. To understand
fully the terms of the problem to be
solved about this phenomenon, it is
essential to know: First, That our atti-
tudes and our facial expression are. kept
up by a contraction of our muscles, due
Ito an influence of the nervous centers:
second, that this influence necessarily
ceasing at the time of death, relaxation
would surely take place in all the
muscles that were contracted if another
cause did not replace at once that which
ceases, maintaining in these organs the
same physical state which existed in
them.
. The question is, therefore: What is
Uhee;ause which, as soon as the will
power vanishes, takes its place, or at
any RATE produces in muscles an organic
condition %pneventing any relaxation?
= The object Of this article is to answer
this question, and to show that the
cause to be detected is not a sudden
appearance of the state of muscular
stiffness, known by the name of rigor
anortis, or cadavafic rigidity, but is the
effect of a peculisr action of the nervous
centers occurring just before or at the
very instant of death.
One of the most striking instances of
the strange fact l have to study was
observed by DR.. Rossbach, of Wurburg,
ION the battlefield of Beaumont, near
Sedan, in 1870. He found the dead
body of a soldier half-sitting, half-lying
Ion the ground, d~eicately holding a tin
goblet between his thumb and fore
finger, and directing it towards an
absent mouth. While in that position
she poor man had been killed by a
cannon ball, which had carried away
the whole of his head and face except
the lower jaw. The body and arms
had been suddenly seized at the time OF
death by a stiffness which produced the
persistence of the state in which they
were when the head was cut off.
Twenty-four hours had elapsed after
the battle when DR.. Rossbach found
this corpse in that condition.
In the first paper of some importance
0 this subject, DR.. Chenu states that a
French military surgeon, DR.. Perrier,
was greatly surprised, while walking
over the battlefield of the Alma the
day after that great struggle, to see
that a good many corpses of Russian
soldiers had attitudes and an expression
.of face similar to those of life. Some
,of those bodies had the facial character
tistics of the anguish of pain and de-
epair; others had, on the contrary, the
appearance of the greatest calm and
resignation. One particularly attracted
the Doctors attention; he was lying
down, the knees bent, the hands lifted
and clasped, the head thrown back.
wards, as if death had seized him while
.nttering a prayer.
Besides similar facts, most persons
.who have seen battle-tields, soon after
the end OF the fighting, have also noticed
that a number Of the dead bodies still
hold their guns or their swords, tina,
some seem to be still biting their cart
ridges. while others remain on horse
back in the attitude they had at The
/. time of death.
Such phenomena have been particu
: larly well studied by Dr.. Armand a
Magenta, by Baron II. Larrey a
Solferino, and by DR.. Baudin at mixer
. man.
I owe to the kindness of DR.. S. Wei
Mitchell the knowledge of q valuable
paper Of DIR. John Brinton, of Philadel
phia, on ''Rigor Accompanying sudde1
, or Violent DEATH" in which the CUES