Physiological Researches on Life and Death

by Xavier Bichat

2dly, The corpus cavernosum is always gorged with this sort of fluid, whether flaccid or in a state of erection. For I have seen it in the latter state in two subjects brought to my amphitheatre. One of these men had hanged himself, the other had died of concussion of the brain.

3dly, The blood which is found in the spleen is never red; but sometimes on the exterior, and sometimes on the concave surface of this organ, I have observed spots of a scarlet colour, for which I cannot account.

4thly, After death, the mucous membranes lose the red colour by which they are characterized during life. They assume a black and livid hue.

5thly, Blood extravasated in the brain of persons in a state of apoplexy, is almost always found to be black.

6thly, Sometimes, instead of accumulating inwardly the blood injects the surface of the body. In such case the face, the neck, and shoulders swell, and are infiltrated with blood. I have frequently remarked this sort of phenomenon in the subject, but have never found it coincide with any internal extravasion.—The colour of the skin is then of a purple or deep brown, an evident sign of the sort of blood with which it is injected, and is evidently produced by the stagnation of the black blood in the external capillary system, not by the reflux of the blood from the veins.

I shall not dwell any longer upon the numerous consequences of the above established principle. I shall only observe, that when death commences by the circulatory system, the preceding phenomena are not to be remarked, or at least very little perceptible.

Let us now pass on to the influence of the black blood upon the organs of which it penetrates the tissue.

III. The black blood which penetrates the organs, as soon as the chemical functions of the lungs have ceased, will not maintain them in a state of life and activity.

To determine what the influence of the black blood is upon the organs, I shall first remark, that the property of the red blood is to stimulate them, and keep up their vital actions. This will be proved by the following observations:

1st, Compare phlegmon, erysipelas, and inflammatory tumours (to the formation of which the red blood is essentially requisite) with scorbutic spots, and petechiæ, produced by the black blood. The first will be found connected with the exaltation of the vital powers, the second with their depression.