The day after death, or, Our future life, according to science / translated from the French of Louis Figuier.

  • Louis Figuier
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The day after death, or, Our future life, according to science / translated from the French of Louis Figuier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/328 (page 9)
    CHAPTER THE SECOJsD. WHAT BECOMES OF THE BODY, THE SOUL, ANO THE LIFE, AFTER DEATH. FTER death, the body, whether of a man, or of an animal, being no longer preserved from destruc- tion by vital force, falls under the dominion of chemical forces. If the body of a dead animal, or a human corpse be kept in a place where the temperature is below 0°, or if it be shut up in a space entirely air-tight, or if it be impregnated with antiseptic substances, it will remain intact, as at the moment at which life has abandoned it. I Such is the process of embalming. The effect of the various chemical substances with which a corpse is impregnated, is to coagulate the albumen of the tissues, and thus to preserve the I animal substance from putrefaction. A similar result will bo obtained if the corpse bo placed between two layers of ice, or in a coffin entirely surrounded with ice constantly renewed. If kept at a temperature of 0°, the body will not be subject to decomposition, because putrid fermentation can- not take place at so low a temperature. This was the process by which the entire carcasses of the mimmoths, or extinct elephants, which belonged to the qua-