_Eight to Ten Days._--The patches of green colour have now coalesced, so that the whole body is discoloured. On some parts of the body the colour is of a reddish-green, due to the presence of decomposed blood in the cellular tissue. The abdomen is now distended with gases, the products of decomposition. In India this distension has been known to occur in less than six hours, the average period being a little over eighteen hours. Much depends upon the season of the year. The colour of the eyes has not disappeared, but the cornea have fallen in. Relaxation of the sphincter ani takes place, and the superficial veins appear like reddish-brown cords. The nails still remain firm. _Fourteen to Twenty Days._--The colour of the surface is now bright green, with here and there patches of a blood and brown colour. The epidermal layer of the skin is raised in bullæ of varying size, in some places the skin being more or less stripped off. The nails are detached, and can be easily removed. The hair can be pulled from the scalp with ease. The body is now greatly distended with gases, and the features cannot be recognised, owing to the swollen condition of the face. The body is generally covered with vermin. In determining the time at which death occurred, it will be necessary to take into consideration the season of the year, as it is found that an advanced stage of decomposition may be present in from eight to ten days, with the thermometer ranging between 68° and 77° F., which in winter, with a temperature of from 32° to 50° F., would require twenty to thirty days. “_Bodies green from putridity, blown up and excoriated, at the expiry of one month, or from three to five months after death (cæt. par.), cannot with any certainty be distinguished from one another_” (Casper). _Three to Six Months._--During the above period the stage of colliquative putrefaction has set in. The thoracic and abdominal cavities, due to the increased formation of gas, have burst. The bones of the cranium have more or less separated, allowing the brain to escape. The soft parts are more or less absorbed, and no recognition of the features is possible. The sex can only be positively made out by the presence of a uterus, or by the peculiar growth of hair on the pubes, which in woman only covers the pubes, but in man extends upwards to the navel.