Death is that state of a being, animal or vegetable, but more particularly of an animal, in which there is a total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions, when the organs have not only ceased to act, but have lost the susceptibility of renewed action. Death takes place either from the natural decay of the organism, as in old age, or from derangements or lesions of the vital organs caused by disease or injury. The signs of actual death in a human being are the cessation of breathing and the beating of the heart; insensibility of the eye to light, pallor of the body, complete muscular relaxation, succeeded by a statue-like stiffness or rigidity which lasts from one to nine days; and decomposition, which begins to take place after the rigidity has yielded, beginning first in the lower portion of the body and gradually extending to the chest and face. What becomes of the mind or thinking principle, in man or animal, after death, is a matter of philosophical conjecture or religious faith. Research Death
Abbreviations
General Information
Research Death