There are, of course, the phenomena of decomposition, which are difficult to dissociate from those belonging to the clinical picture of gan grene or putrid fever; on the other hand, there are phenomena of recession or effacement: the redness caused by irritations dis appears very quickly after the cessation of' the circulation; this interruption of natural movements (heartbeats, discharge of the lymph, breathing) itself causes effects whose beginning cannot be easily identified with that of the morbid elements: are the engorgement of the brain and the rapid softening that follows the effect of pathological congestion or of circulation interrupted by death?