The Signs and Causes of Death

Abstract

When the disease is fatal, the eyes are sunken, the ears cold and their tips turned over, the nose is sharp, each temple flattened and the skin of the forehead hard and dry and taut. The complexion, whether once pale or ruddy, turns blackish: the eye shuns light, tears unintended flow, its blood-vessels are livid black and swollen, its angles gummy, and poor closure of the lids reveals the white of the eye in sleep. The lips hang free, are stiff and cold, the mouth is always open during sleep and he sees nothing with the eye, hears not with the ear, and exudes a cold and stinking lethal sweat. The cold feet dangle, the neck is stiff when the fever is grave, nor will it bend: breathlessness oppresses, it is hard to swallow, he can not devour his food. His words are frantic and he has rigor: nor is it any less horrible that the hands and feet are cold and bare, the ulcer dry and livid, and that the last expiring breath stirs the dry bedstraw, while pain travels from the hips to the internal organs.