“The peculiar condition of the nervous system called catalepsy, and the state of trance, are likewise further examples of the so-called apparent deaths; but, on the occurrence of actual death, the irritability of the muscles by degrees disappears, electricity no longer excites their contraction, and then cadaverous rigidity sets in.... Some action will, in all probability, be urged upon the next Legislature or upon the Board of Health.”
[APPENDIX E.]
SUMMARY OF ORDINANCES, ETC., RELATING TO THE INSPECTION OF CORPSES AND OF INTERMENTS.
In the sixteenth Council of Milan, Saint Charles Borromeo prohibited burials before twelve hours after ordinary cases of death, and twenty-four hours after cases of sudden death. As early as the sixteenth century serious attention in the examination of the dead was made obligatory by the enactment of Article 149 of the Criminal Statutes of Charles the Fifth. This was the foundation of legal medicine in Germany. In France, a similar ordinance was first established in 1789.
NETHERLANDS.
Act of April 10th, 1869.
No burial is allowed without the written permission of the Civil Recorder, granted upon the production of a certificate of a qualified physician, and not until thirty-six hours have elapsed after death, nor later than the fifth day after death. But this regulation can be set aside, and a longer period allowed, by the Burgomaster, on the application of a doctor.
Dead-houses are in use for bodies dead of infectious diseases.
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN.
Death must first be established by a licensed physician, who carefully examines the body for that purpose, and, if satisfied, then issues a certificate which states the name, age, sex, place, and date, and immediate cause of death. The certificate is taken within twenty-four hours after the death to the Standesamt, where the death is recorded, and a certificate to that effect is given, and presented to the Cemetery Commission, which assigns the place of burial. The corpse is required to remain unburied three days, either at the place of death or at the mortuary, where it is under the observation of attendants; but there is no State-appointed inspector of the dead, nor electric bells or other means for announcing and recording any movements of the body. The system of inspection and certification by qualified physicians, with the delay of three days, and the favourable condition of the dead-houses, have been the means of preventing the living from being mistaken for the dead in a number of cases.