“Article 5.—No interment can take place except after the decease has been verified by the doctors of the Civil Government by means of a careful and complete examination of the corpse.”
This verification, as well as the identity of the person deceased, shall be certified by a procès-verbal [statement, or description, for which a blank is furnished “A”], which they shall leave at the house of the deceased.
“Article 8.—They shall notify the officers of the Civil Government, and their superintendents of police, of any infractions of the regulation provisions which forbid proceeding with autopsy, moulding [making a cast?], embalmment, or putting in a coffin the corpse, before the death has been duly ascertained.”
“Article 9.—The verification of the decease of still-born or of newly-born infants shall exact a most attentive examination on the part of the examining doctors. They shall indicate in their report if the infant has died before, during, or after birth; and, in the last case, how long it lived after birth.”
“Article 10.—If they doubt the reality of the death, they shall employ, without delay, every means of recovery that science suggests under the circumstances. They shall immediately notify the visiting doctor, and, in every case, shall prepare the procès-verbal of the verification of death only after certainty has been established, and, if need be, by repeated visits.”
“Article 11.—When a woman has died in a state of advanced pregnancy, they shall direct the artificial extraction of the infant, supposed to be yet living; and, in the lack of an attending doctor, shall perform it themselves when necessary.”
EXAMINATION AND CERTIFICATION OF THE DEAD IN WÜRTEMBURG.
A Royal Decree, entitled “Dienst-Vorschriften für Leichenhaüser,” for the inspection and burial of the dead, promulgated by the King of Würtemburg, January 24, 1884, provides for the appointment of medical inspectors of the highest integrity and qualifications in every commune, the position being justly regarded as one of great responsibility.
Immediately after a death, the body must under no circumstances be interfered with, and must not be removed from the death-bed until after the authorised inspection. Post-mortems can be made only if the fact of death has been previously clearly established. Precise instructions are laid down, so that the inspector, who is to examine the entire body, may see that the various forms of suspended animation are not certified as actual death. Amongst these are the following:—
“Section ii.—To see that sensibility, pulsation of the heart, neck, temples, and forearm, and the breath, have ceased. That the muscles of the body have lost their elasticity; therefore the limbs are limp, the face sunken, the nose pinched, the eyes sunken, and, when the eyelids are forcibly opened, they remain so, the lower jaw drops more or less, and drops again when pressed upwards.