Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    trated in certain of the experiments of Le Gallois, Marshall Hall, Fleurens, and others. Dr. Kellie says he has known the pupils of a recently dead body con- tract irregularly from the stimulus of light.* Dr. Macartney says that after the eye has been removed from its orbit, if light be suddenly admitted upon its sentient nerve, the iris contracts. Ingleby gives an instance of the uterus continuing its contractions and expelling the child after the death of the mother.*'' In the barbarities of earlier ages, many parallels to this case occurred at the stake. Dr. Bennett Dowler, in his Researches, mentions, amongst other cases, the following curious one of post-mortem contractility of muscles. A young man, twenty-five years of age, died; two hours after death, when the arm was extended to an angle of 45° from the trunk, and was struck with the hand, or still better, Avith the side of a hatchet, he carried his hand to his epigastrium, but when the arm was extended upon the floor, so as to form a right angle with the body, he slapped himself upon the mouth and nose. The contractility began to decline in the third hour; and by the fourth hour, all motions of the limbs ceased, though the pectoral muscles assumed the ridgy, or lumpy, form, when percussed. Five hours after death the contractility had ceased, and rigidity prevailed. It is remarkable, that in all the cases mentioned, the heat of the body remained at a very high standard for some time after death, and, in some instances, even rose after the cessation of respiration. In the case above, the heat was far above the usual standard of health for seven hours, only sinking in that time from 111° to 102°. (»' Dr. Ward records a curious instance of the face becoming more coloured, and a perspiration appearing upon the cheeks and forehead, two days after death.*) Professor Christison made a very interesting and instructive series of investi- instance of the uiiion of a finger which had been detached at the middle joint so as to hang by a bit of skin not thicker than a probe. Druitt mentions a more remarkable case. Part of the left forefinger, an inch and a half long, having been cut off for twenty minutes, was replaced, and perfectly united in four days. The case is related by Dr. Balfour, of Edinburgh, and is quoted in Sir Astley Cooper's lectxiies.—Surgeon's Fmle-Mccum, 4th edit., p. 112. (0 Med. and Phys. Jouni., vol. xiv, p. 268. (m) Facts avd Cases in Obstetric Medicine, p. 30. (n) Medical Tivm, Aug. 7, 1847, p. 476. See Dr. Davy's Physiological and AnMomical Ucsmrcltes, vol. i, i)p. 228, et seq.; and Medical Times, Sep. 15, 1849, p. 229. (0) London Jotimal of Medicine, October, 1840, ]>. 969. ]> 2
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