Bartholinus
describes motion in a cadaver. Barlow says that movements were
noticed after death in the victims of Asiatic cholera. The bodies
were cold and expressions were death-like, but there were
movements simulating natural life. The most common was flexion of
the right leg, which would also be drawn up toward the body and
resting on the left leg. In some cases the hand was moved, and in
one or two instances a substance was grasped as if by reflex
action. Some observers have stated that reflex movements of the
face were quite noticeable. These movements continued sometimes
for upward of an hour, occurring mostly in muscular subjects who
died very suddenly, and in whom the muscular irritability or
nervous stimulus or both had not become exhausted at the moment
of dissolution. Richardson doubts the existence of postmortem
movements of respiration.
Snow is accredited with having seen a girl in Soho who, dying of
scarlet fever, turned dark at the moment of death, but in a few
hours presented such a life-line appearance and color as to
almost denote the return of life. The center of the cheeks became
colored in a natural fashion, and the rest of the body resumed
the natural flesh color.
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