3. The stiffness which occurs in certain forms of _Syncope_, can never be confounded with _cadaverous_ stiffness; for, in the former case, the stiffness takes place immediately after the commencement of the disease, and the trunk preserves a degree of warmth; whereas the _cadaverous_ stiffness is not observed until some time after death, and when the heat of the body is no longer evident to the senses. If, from a cause which it is not always possible to foresee, the individual who has been thought dead for a long time be cold and _flexible_, instead of offering a certain degree of stiffness, and at the same time if no evidence of putrefaction has as yet displayed itself, the body ought not to be buried hastily—“_Satius est adhiberi millies nimiam diligentiam, quam semel omitti necessariam._” The cadaverous state of the face, of which _Hippocrates_ has given the following description, has been regarded as a sign of real death; the forehead wrinkled and dry, the eye sunken, the nose pointed, and bordered with a violet or black circle, the temples sunken, hollow, and retired, the ears sticking up, the lips hanging down, the cheeks sunken, the chin wrinkled and hard, the colour of the skin leaden or violet, the hairs of the nose and eye-lashes sprinkled with a kind of yellowish white dust. It must be admitted that such signs, if taken separately, are of no value, since they are sometimes observed in patients twenty-four or forty-eight hours before death; while, on the other hand, they are often absent in cases of sudden dissolution. The softness, dimness, and above all, the flaccidity of the globe of the eye have been considered as very unequivocal in their indication. _Professor Louis_[10] has offered some remarks upon this subject worthy our notice; he says that, in the dead, the transparent cornea is commonly covered with a thin slimy membrane, which breaks in pieces when touched, and is easily removed by wiping the cornea; but he remarks that some appearance of it takes place in the eyes of the dying, and also allows that it may be the result of disease; so much for the value of this sign: the one which follows appears to us less exceptionable; in a few hours after death, adds this author, the eyes become soft and flabby, an effect not to be produced under any circumstances in the living body; we join in this opinion; but how often does it happen that the globe of the eye undergoes no alteration in form, until the putrefactive process has been fully established? OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL CAUSES, AND PHŒNOMENA OF SUDDEN DEATH.