On the cooling of the human body after death : inferences respecting the time of death, observations of temperature made in 100 cases / by Alfred S. Taylor and Dr. Wilks.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
[1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the cooling of the human body after death : inferences respecting the time of death, observations of temperature made in 100 cases / by Alfred S. Taylor and Dr. Wilks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    On the Cooling of the Human Body after Death. of post-mortem rigidity and degree of decomposition, except the body has presented anything remarkable in these respects. Most cases are inspected within twenty-four hours after death, when, as a rule, the body is rigid, and no decomposition has taken place. If after two or three days much change should be present, it is generally to be attributed to some peculiarity in the cause of death. The decomposition is not shown, as at a still later period, by a mere change of colour, as a greenish hue on the abdomen, but by a redness of the whole body, and by dark lines of staining in the course of the superficial veins. Even when these changes are scarcely observable, there may be found considerable alterations within the body, shown more especially by discoloration of the heart and arteries from the hsematine of the blood. These changes are connected with a diseased state of the blood, and are met with in those who have died of fever, pyj3emia, and similar maladies. As a rule, the bodies of those who have been long ill and are emaciated, remain unchanged for a longer time than those who have died from acute disease. It is observed, that the bodies of persons who have been killed whilst in good health, often undergo rapid decomposition. Of this class of cases also are those of strangulated hernia, where death speedily follows an operation : here the post-mortem changes are sometimes observed to be very rapid. It is a fact of common observation^ that the temperature of fat bodies is retained for a lunger time than in those which are thin or emaciated. It is also a common observation, that moisture in the atmosphere appears to favour decomposition much more than heat; thus putridity is much more rapid on a moist wiuter^s day than on a hot dry day in summer. These facts might be illustrated by cases from the records, when a casual inspection affords examples of this kind. September 30th.—The body of a man who had been killed was examined thirty-eight hours after death ; it had begun to undergo decomposition in the ordinary manner. The body of another man, who had died of phthisis, was examined forty- four hours after death, and in this, there was no trace of decomposition. On the following day an inspection was made of the body