An address to the public [on premature death and interment] / [William Hawes].

  • William Hawes
Date:
[1778?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the public [on premature death and interment] / [William Hawes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    arifes ; but unlefs the mafs of putrefying matter be very confiderable, as has fometimes been tfie cafe after battles, &c. when the Bain have been left unburied, that vapour is in a very fhort time combined with the air, and entirely difarmedof its danger.* If this were not the cafe, the air of London, from the quantity of animal and vegetable matter continually putre¬ fying in the Jfreets, &c. would very foors become intolerably ofFenfive, and altogether unfit for the purposes of refpiraiion. , But iC the figns of external putrefaction, you fay, may not happen till feveral days after the internalcorruption of the vifcera.” Be it fo. Sir, it furnifhes no objection to the rule I have recom¬ mended; for if the abdominal vifcera corrupt, and no putrid vapour efcapes, the air cannot be “ impregnated with contaminating effluvia.” If putrid vapour fhould efcape in any confiderable quantity, it is a Jign that putrefaction has taken, place, and that,the body may fafely be interred. Jn general, however, a putrid difcolouration of fomc parts of the body, particularly of the abdo¬ men, precedes the exhalation of any noxious va¬ pour, as is well known to thofe who are conver¬ sant in dbTeClions. But the time which may elapfe before this difcoloration appears, is very uncer¬ tain, as it depends on the nature of the difeafe which terminated life, the heat of the weather, and various other caufes. To conclude, I wilh it were deeply impreffed upon the mind of every individual, that the only unequivocal figns of death, are the marks of pu- * For the law which obtains in the chemical combination of air and variolous vapour, and which is the fame, I pre- fume, as that which obtains in the combination of air and putrid vapour, fee Dr Watkinfon’s (i Examination of a Charge brought ag-ainft Xnoculation’&c. trefa&ion
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