The last sign to be spoken of is the altered colour of the surface, presenting lividities of various extent. They may occur in spots or in circumscribed patches, but more frequently they take the form of an irregular suffusion of a pale violet, or a dull reddish hue. They always occupy the depending parts, and are most intense where the skin hangs loose, as in the scrotum, the penis, and the labia. They have also a direct ratio with the suddenness' of the death, the quantity of blood in the system, and its tendency to continue fluid. Their presence indicates that gravitation has .either subdued the capillary forces, or has come into play after the cessation of the latter.. But they may occur during life. We have often noticed that the livor of the skin in bronchitic affections is more intense in the back and the sides, and is even confined to these parts. There can be no doubt that congestions in the parenchyma of the lungs are often dependent upon position. The questions that arise out of these appearances have more to do with the cause of death than with the reality of this occurrence. When circumscribed, they may be confounded with ecchymoses resulting from violence. To enter upon the discrimination of these conditions would engage us in a dis cussion far too lengthened for this article, which has already exceeded its limits; we must content ourselves with referring to me dico legal treatises and to an extremely valu able paper by Dr. Christison in the Edinburgh
Medical and Surgical Journal.
We shall conclude with a brief abstract of M. Devergie's observations -upon the know ledge which we may collect from the state of the body respecting the time which has elapsed since death.
We may suspect that the body has been dead frorn two to twenty hours if there be flexibility, elasticity, heat, and contractility ; from ten hours to three days, if there be rigi dity of the joints, pitting of the soft parts, the natural colour of the skin, loss of animal heat, and no contraction under electric stimu lus; from three to eight days, if' there be flexibility (after rigidity) and no contractility ; from five to twelve days, if the soft parts arc puffed, elastic, and shining. After the twelfth day there is usually a separation of the epi dermis, as well as a green tint of the ab dominal integuments.t But no certainty must be attached to these statements; they are merely approximative. The modifying in fluence of external media upon putrefaction is all but unbounded. In summer as much alteration may take place in five or six hours, as in eight or even fifteen days of winter.