(1) _Stiffening by Catalepsy._--In this condition the temperature of the body will remain at a degree compatible with life over a period incompatible with real death. If a limb be extended and rigid in catalepsy, after passive flexion of it, it will return to its former state. (2) _Rigidity from the Body being Frozen._--In this condition passive movement of the joints is accompanied by crackling due to fracture of their frozen contents. (3) _Heat Stiffening._--Is seen in the bodies of persons who have been suddenly immersed in boiling fluids; also to a certain degree in bodies of persons who have met their death by burning from paraffin lamp accidents. _Cadaveric Spasm or Instantaneous Rigor._--“When this phenomenon occurs the last act of life is crystallised in death.” It is a prolongation of the last vital contraction of the muscles into the rigidity of death. Cadaveric rigidity of the muscles must be distinguished from _muscular spasm_ occurring at the moment of death. They may thus he distinguished: In cadaveric rigidity any object placed in the hand prior to the onset of _rigor mortis_ can be readily removed, even if the precaution be taken of binding it in the hand prior to the accession of _rigor mortis_. In the case of _muscular spasm_ the object is found grasped in the hand, and can only be with difficulty removed. The difficulty experienced in removing a pistol or other weapon from the hand may point to suicide; its easy removal to homicide, the weapon having been placed there after death. No adequate explanation of this phenomenon has yet been made. It is not an unusually early onset of _rigor mortis_ in the muscles affected, because they do not share in the initial relaxation that precedes it, or the weapon would fall from the hand, and the bodies would not retain the peculiar attitudes which have been described in different instances. Nothing can simulate cadaveric spasm and it cannot be produced in any way after death. Instantaneous rigor only occurs in cases in which there has been great mental tension and nerve excitation before death. It is a continuation of probably the very last voluntary act of life. _A body showing the signs of death before mentioned_ (Nos. 1 to 10) _may be held to be that of a person who has been dead from two to three days at the longest_ (Casper). Muscular states of the body between the period of somatic and molecular death:-- (1) _Primary Flaccidity._--The muscles respond to electrical stimuli; the chemical reaction of the muscles is either neutral or faintly alkaline.