More remarkable is the case of a man struck by lightning, details of which Sir Benjamin received, in 1869, from Dr. Jackson, of Somerby, Leicestershire.
“The patient reached his home in a state of extreme prostration, in which he lay for a time, and then sank into such complete catalepsy that he was pronounced to be dead, and heard the sound of his own passing bell from the neighbouring church; by a desperate attempt at movement of his thumbs he attracted the attention of the women engaged about him, and, being treated as one still alive, recovered, and lived for several years afterwards, retaining in his memory the facts, and relating them with the most consistent accuracy.”
SIR B. W. RICHARDSON’S ENUMERATION.
Medical practitioners tell us that the signs of death are quite easy and impossible to mistake. Dr. Richardson, who has had the best of reasons, as already shown, for observation and investigation, holds a different opinion, and enumerates the signs of death as follows:—
(1) Respiratory failure, including absence of visible movements of the chest, absence of the respiratory murmur, absence of evidence of transpiration of water vapour from the lungs by the breath.
(2) Cardiac failure, including absence of arterial pulsation, of cardiac motion, and of cardiac sounds.
(3) Absence of turgescence or filling of the veins on making pressure between them and the heart.
(4) Reduction of the temperature of the body below the natural standard.
(5) Rigor mortis and muscular collapse.
(6) Coagulation of the blood.