Putrefaction Positive Sign of Death
The only reliable sign is the appearance of putrefaction. Even here, spots sometimes appear discoloring the skin in places and resembling decomposition. But, on the whole, the test may be regarded as certain—the only certain test.
Dr. B. TV. Richardson sums up the matter thus: “If all these signs point to death . . . the evidence may be considered conclusive that death is absolute. If these leave any sign for doubt, or even if they leave no doubt, one further point of practice should be carried out. The body should be kept in a room, the temperature of which has been raised to a heat of 84° F., with moisture diffused through the air. In this warm and moist atmosphere it should remain until dis¬tinct indications of putrefactive decomposition have set in.”It is hardly necessary to say that cremation is by far the most sanitary way of disposing of dead bodies.