LIFELIKE IN DEATH.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 678, 30 June 1870, Page 3

LIFELIKE IN DEATH.

(From the Lancet.") The description given of the different appearances presented by the dead after the battles of Alma and Inkerman will be in the memory of many. The retention in death of the last attitude in life; the varied expressions stamped on the features indicative of the last emotions—whether of enthusiam, menace, hope, or resignation—were variously described. As if the last thoughts were prayerful, or connected with the homes and faces which the poor fellows were never to Bee again, the features generally bore the expression of a smile, or one of piety and calmness, rarely one of a vindictive or painful character. We have recently met with an interesting and suggestive paper by Dr Brinton, one of the military surgeons in the late American war, " On Instantaneous •Rigor, as the occasional accompaniment of Sudden and Violent Death." Dr Brinton states that frequently, in passing over a field of battle shortly after the close of action, he has been struck with the extraordinary attitudes | presented by the bodies of those who had fallen with wounds apparently instantaneously fatal, as of the head or heart. In many of these the body was n gid throughout, and the position was unquestionably that of the last moment of life. The muscles, he Bays, as it were, being surprised by death, and the limbs remained set and fixed in the position held at the mo-

ment of the reception of the fatal wound. He relates several instances that came within his own observation ' as well as others gathered from the accounts of eye-witnesses. A U.S. soldier, apparently about seventeen or eighteen years of age, had been shot through the heart. The right arm was raised above the head, and rigidly fixed. The hand still held the cap with which he had been cheering on his comrades at the last moment of life. A peaceful smile was on his face. Another soldier was found, after the battle of Williamsburg, shot through the forehead as he was climbing over a low fence. One hand partially clenched, and raised to the level of the forehead, presented the palm forward, as if to ward off an approaching evil. But perhaps the most remarkable are the following: Dr Stille, whilst seated on the top of a freight car, on the Nashville and Chattanooga railway, saw a breaksman instantaneously killed by a shot between the eyes. The murdered man was screwing down the breaks at the moment of the shot. After death the body was fixed, the arms rigidly extended on the wheel of the break, and the pipe which he had been smoking, remained still clasped between his teeth. This, and the next case prove the possibility of instantaneous rigor following gunshot injuries of the head. While a detail of United States soldiers were foraging, they suddenly came upon a party of Southern cavalry dismounted. The latter immediately sprang to their saddles; a volley, at about 200 yards' range, was fired at them, apparently without effect, as they all rode away with the exception of one trooper. He was left standing with one foot in the stirrup, one hand, the left, grasping the bridle rein and mane of his horse ; the right hand clenching the barrel of his carbine near the muzzle, the butt of the carbine resting on the ground. The man's head was turned over the right shoulder apparently watching the approachoftheattackingparty.Someofthe latter were about to fire a second time but were restrained by the officer in charge, who directed them to advance and take the Southern soldier alive ; and he was called upon to surrender, without response. Upon a near approach and examination he was found to be rigid in death, in the singular attitude above described. Great difficulty was experienced in forcing the mane of the horse from his. left hand, and the carbine from his right. When the body was laid upon the ground, the limbs still retained the same position and the same inflexibility. The horse had remained quiet, being fastened by a halter.

In a report by M. Chenu, a description is given of the attitudes of the dead in battle during the Crimean and Italian campaigns. Many retained the attitude in which they were struck and appeared to have passed instantly from life to death, without agony and without convulsions. The rigidity above alluded to is, we believe, well known to army surgeons; but the phenomena connected with it still need to be investigated. Dr Carpenter's explanation is probably the correct one—namely, that the contraction is one of a tetanic character, which ceases after a few hours, to be succeeded by the ordinary post mortem rigidity. The last point requires, however, to be determined.