Scientific research has defined and established those fixed laws of nature with that precision whereby organic matters may be traced to their simple elements. We will herein endeavor to very briefly trace, as far as possible, the chemical changes that are observed in dead animal matter. We assert that in the majority of cases (with a given temperature maintained), the first described subject will be the first to become an uncontrollable mass from the agents of putrefaction; first, simply by the abundance of those fluids contained in subjects that immediately become active agents of dissolution, while such agents have been completely exhausted by the disease of the second.
The apparent healthy condition of the flesh after death is produced by the favorable temperature that is maintained, dryness of the atmosphere, etc., together with the general favorable conditions of the subject, which will render the preservation of such remains quite perfect, in some instances for a surprisingly long time. It is shown that disease of long standing completely exhausts the vital fluids before death, especially when the functions of the body have failed to produce the necessary nutrition. Thus it will be observed that the process of decomposition is very different than when the system is full of albumenoids and watery fluids, notwithstanding the tissues may have been seized upon by putridity before death. With consumptives, the disease reduces the flesh to dry parchment, or nearly so, leaving but a very small portion of water in the system. Hence, as putrefaction is impossible in the absence of moisture, and the active agent, albumen, equally reduced, decomposition of such substances that remain ensues only by a process of decay, slow combustion or oxidation, the slowly uniting of oxygen with the substance. In this the constituent parts of the animal tissues break up into simpler compounds by the chemical changes that nature produces, and differs from other forms of putrefaction only by the length of time employed. In cases like typhoid fever, the flesh, after death, assumes more of a putrid and sloughing condition, as the fluids are not so completely exhausted as in the former disease, thus leaving more of the active agents in the body for its immediate destruction.
When death is the result of a putrid malady, putrefaction begins almost immediately when the body grows cold; its effects are noticeable much sooner when the atmosphere is warm. In general, in our climate, the work of decomposition becomes evident after from thirty-five to forty hours. Its first effects are noticeable on the skin of the stomach; this takes on a greenish discoloration, which soon spreads and covers the whole surface of the body; at the same time everything is seized upon by what is termed putridity; the moist parts soften and decay; little by little the flesh sinks and grows watery, and is thus carried away or burned up by the air’s oxygen.
And now, dear reader, we would impress your mind with the fact that the moment of the appearance of putrefaction absolutely varies with the degree of outward temperature, the causes of death, and the general condition of the remains, and just in accordance to the quantity of fluids remaining in the system. The degree of difficulty in retaining the life’s characteristics are encountered, first, because of the albumenoids, the active agents of putrefaction; second, the large per cent. of water they contain; hence we have the necessary mobility of putrefaction, and the very substances that are most prone to the active ferments, united with the agents of disorganization, vibrois and bacteria, or rather the germs of those thread-like corpuscles which penetrate the skin and wind their way through the ducts into the vessels of circulation, which seem to conduct the rabid element to every structure. The living germs that collect on the surface of the body and in the digestive canal, develope, multiply, pierce into all the points of the organism, and produce in it a complete separation of all the tissues and humors.
When persons have been killed suddenly, there being no disease to tamper with the functions of the body, the process of nutrition would be complete until the very moment the vitality is removed; hence the supply of fuel for this fire of dissolution. The corruption of these animal matters is not more possible than the fermentive action of gluten in grape juice, and precisely the same. When these animal matters maintain a high temperature, the products formed are said to be destructive distillation.
Many cases are recorded of similar stages of decomposition, which is an apparent spontaneous combustion, renewing the normal temperature of life, many times giving flushness to the cheeks, and thus appearing to have life renewed, notwithstanding the body had been cold for many hours previous to this phenomenon taking place, the result of a peculiar chemical action. But these instances seldom or never occur, while the difficulty encountered is in completely reducing the heat from the bodies of those persons killed by accident, which fact renders the successful preservation of such remains for any length of time utterly impossible, as the fetid gases are evolved in such great abundance as to literally cook the flesh and escape into the air. Developed in the cadaverous odor, a pungent and ammoniacal stench, except there be prompt application of some powerful chemical reagent, with which the organized material may enter into combination and thus overcome the delivellant tendencies of the affinities of its elements. If ice is used and the temperature of the body reduced below 32°, the water in the system is frozen, which acts as if the tissues had been dried, and putrefaction is thus arrested for such time as the proper temperature is maintained.
PRACTICES WHICH MUST BE ABOLISHED.
Some usages which seem to be sanctioned by long practice, but not by any remarkable amount of good judgment, ought to be discountenanced and done away with, simply upon the ground that these acts conflict directly with all sanitary laws, and to a great extent endanger the lives of the persons who may be present. Still, these repeated transgressions upon the common precautionary measures against contagion are not the result of a desire to do wrong, neither do they always arise from sheer ignorance, but they are almost always caused by an utter disregard of even the simplest prudence.
For instance, how often, where a child has succumbed to the attack of some infectious disease, like scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc., how often will parents, regardless of the contagious character of the disease, insist upon kissing the pallid lips of the corpse, and, moreover, invite other children to follow the same dangerous practice.