Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-12-22
REMEMBER
- FRECH JEWELER, FAMOUS BUILDING.
The SIGNS OF DEATH.
An Instructive Article On a Sub
ject Of Perpetual Interest.
Some UnmsstaisEb,le Evidences which Leave
No Doubt as co Actual Dcmise-Mis-
leading Theories Exposed-Strange
Results of Rigor MortIs.
Pittsburgh Dispatch.1

pittsburgh Dispatch.1
It is considered a fine pleasantly by
some people to say. when asked what So .
and so died of, "He died for want of
breath" They consider themselves safe
in making this statement, but IN
reality this statement may be entirely
wrong. Death does not always occur from
failure of respiration, although of course
that follows as sequence. A man may
die from failure of his heart 1t often
ceases to beat, the circulation ceases, and
the man dies. He does not die for want
Of breath, but ceases to breathe because
he is dead. 1t is quite possible for per-
son to breathe for a little while after the
heart stops, and it very often happens
that the heart continues to beat for con-
siderable time after respiration is extinct
Experiments have been tried with the
lower animals, especially frogs, which
prove this. The heart of frog or turtle,
if removed while the animal is living,
hung up by string and kept moist, will
pulsate for more than an hour, and even
if allowed to dry will keep ON beating un-
til the dry sides can actually be heard to
rustic Some French surgeons recently
removed the heart of a man in a few mo-
memcnts after he had been executed. 1t
was laid upon piece of board, and beat
there for several moments.
By many the determination of death is
thought to be an easy matter. Notso. tits
often difficult to say whether or not death
has taken place without most careful ex-
animation. Some of the fakirs of India, by
holding their breath, are enabled to pass
into trance so profound that neither heart
beat nor respiration is perceptible, and
there are numerous instances of so-called
suspended animation in which the same
difficulty is experienced. Instances are by
no means uncommon where such frances
have been mistaken for death and the un-
happy person buried.
There arc unmistakable signs of death
which, if present, leave no doubt as to
actual demise. These have been carefully
studied. because of the horror of being
buried alive, and on account of men provid-
ing by will that an examination of their
bodies be made at death to determine their
actual condition. 1t is not enough to de-
termine that the heart has ceased beating,
or that respiration has stopped, as there
are well-known cases in which both of
these phenomena have occurred, lasting
for quarter of an hour, and recovery
taken place subsequently. 1t often hap
pens in newly-born children. To be evi-
dence of death the cessation must be con-
tiDuous. The most common experiment in
suspected cases is the holding of a mirror
or feather in front of the mouth and nos
trils; but to be certain this should be done
at intervals of fifteen minutes for two or
three hours.
Another test is to apply fame to some
part of the body. If the blister which rises
contains air, the person is very probably
dead: II water, he is not. 1t is also said
that If needle be thrust into the flesh and
withdrawn hole will be left in the skin
of corpse, but not in a living person.
The temperature of tho bodies ard rigid
ity of the muscles are not q sure sign
Cases are on record where, instead of
being cold, the body had a temperature
actually exceeding life, sometimes rising
TO one hundred and sixty mine degrees. and
in the matter of stiffness (or rigor mortis,
as it is called) is subject TO much vara
ton, sometimes coming on Immediately
after death. and sometimes long after As
a general thing, directly after death the
body is limp. the jaw drops, and the limbs
are timber. Stiffness soon follows, when
the corpse may be raised up. k
This rigor sometimes comes very sud
denly after death. There is one case on
record where scme soldiers were sitting
in group. One was laughing at a sally
of his companion, when a shell carried
away his head. An examination of the
Lead showed the features so suddenly
stiffered that the expression of mirth and
laughter remained there in perfect out.
line. A soldier told the writer that he saw
a companion killed while in the act of climb
ing fence during the battle of Perryville.
and he stiffcned so quickly that his dead
hands grasped the rails and one leg re-
mained raised just as he had been about to
throw it over the top rail. Passcrs-by sec
ing him, thought he was living, and paid
no further attention to him. He stuck
there in that position for moro than two
days.
One Of the effects of rigor mortis and
the relaxation following is seen in cases
where the body has been found to have
apparently turned or moved in the CONN.
When such movements are seen the friends
are narrowed by the thought that perhaps
the subject had been buried alive; but of
these cases ninety nine in one hundred
have been moved on account of natural
causes.
Besides the ordinary signs OF death there
are few which make I,c fact positive.
Very soon after death the fluid of. the
blood leaves the blood vessels and sub
sides to the most dependent parts, so that
the back, or whatever part the dead per-
son lies upon. will be found to be mottled
red and white and have dropsical ap-
pearancc. These parts will also take the
shape OF the object under them-of the
bed, table, ground or chair The BODY
win, il may be said, fit itself to any in
equalities upon which it lies. Finally, IL
there appears a blueness over the abdo-
men, it may be safely said that decomposi-
tion is beginning. which ought to settle all
doubts, even though the dead should in
after years be found to have turned over
and over in its shroud.
The fact that the first stage Of death is
one Of relaxation. followed by subsequent
stiffening, accounts for the marks and in
dentations found upon people who have
lain dead upon the ground and fitted
themselves to the inequalities This often
bears upon legal questicBs Aman may be
murdered and aftcrward carried some
whcre.and put into such. a position that
casuat observer would srspect another
psuse for his death: but II. lis body does
DOT fit the place where it lies. il NAV be