Body snatching

“ One foot is drawn back behind the other, so that the body seems shrinking from the danger, and putting itself in a posture for flight. The heart beats violently; the breath is fetched quick and short; the whole body is thrown into a general tremor. The voice is weak and trembling; the sentences are short, and the meaning confused and incoherent. Imminent danger, real or fancied, produces in timorous persons, as women and children, violent shrieks, without any articulate sound of words; and sometimes irrecoverably confounds the understanding ”

“ It would be hard to imagine a more terrible spectacle than that of one of these demoniac fits. The body pulsates with tremors and violent shocks. The muscles are contracted, so tense that we might believe them to be on the point of bursting. Great bounds, frightful cries and howlings, confused vociferations, indescribable contortions which we would not have supposed a human creature capable of making—such is the hideous picture which the hysterical patient presents when she is seized with an attack. ”

“ With Europeans the fists are generally clenched." "Under rage the action of the heart is much accelerated, or, it may be, much disturbed. The face reddens, or it becomes purple from the impeded return of the blood, or may turn deadly pale. The respiration is laboured, the chest heaves, and the dilated nostrils quiver. The whole body often trembles. ”

“ Drawing and stinging between the shoulders with oppression of breath.
Drawing pains between the shoulders, extending downward along the spine, toward the liver and upward into the chest; then the respiration becomes oppressed and frequent shooting pains traverse the entire body.
In the left axilla, an electric shock which shakes the whole body, and in all the joints there occurs a trembling, such as might be produced by an electric machine, and which causes each time a sensation of fear. ”

“ Strangulation or smothering, or throttling, is consistent with what has been described, but particularly throttling or applying the hand under the throat, and throwing the head backward, would prevent the access of air. I found unequivocal proof of violence, in the contusions dispersed throughout the body, and in no signs of disease being visible. I beg to add, from the woman being seen so recently alive and well, from the blood under the bed, as well as the appearances already mentioned, death by violence is extremely probable. ”

“ These tremors only exist when the affected muscles are excited into action, as in lifting a glass to the mouth, or in writing, or in keeping the body upright; and cease again, when no voluntary exertion is attempted, as in lying down. Hence these tremors evidently originate from the too quick exhaustion of the lessened quantity of the spirit of animation. So many people tremble from fear or anger, when too great a part of the sensorial power is exerted on the organs of sense, so as to deprive the muscles, which support the body erect, of their due quantity. ”

“ The pathological effects of hanging are partly those of strangulation, to which must be added the effects of the weight or fall of the body, sustained as it is only by some form of ligature around the neck. ”

“ Not only the muscles immediately in contact with the conductor, but nearly all the voluntary muscles of the body may be thus affected by a powerful current. Another effect of this involuntary muscular contraction is the forcible muscular movements produced by the shock. As previously stated, when a sufficiently strong shock occurs, the voluntary muscles of the trunk and limbs may be thrown into sudden contraction in such a manner as to throw the person violently and forcibly on to the ground, or against some object or objects in the neighborhood. ”

“ We are forced, then, to conclude that here, at any rate, death-feigning is a purely reflex phenomenon, and that the sensory stimulus received by the surface of the body caused inhibitory impulses to arise reflexly from the ganglia of the central nerve chain, and prevented all movement of the locomotor muscles. ”

“ While we are awake, lie on our Backs, and feel any uneasiness in that position, we immediately alter it: but, in sleep, we are not so soon conscious of the Blood’s stoppage in the Lungs, nor have we the means of removing that dangerous obstruction so much in our power, because the voluntary motions are then suspended, without which, the position of the Body cannot be changed, nor the cause of the obstruction remov’d. ”

“ A lesser degree, amounting only to frightful dreams, is almost a constant concomitant of overloaded stomach in some habits.
In fact, if the nightmare were owing to a stagnation of the blood in the lungs from the weight of the heart, or in the sinuses and other vessels of the brain, from the horizontal posture of the body, it would become greater the longer it continued, and would scarcely ever go off spontaneously. ”

“ If the muscles, nerves or tendons are rubbed or pressed, paralysis may be produced, which, however, is quickly removed by the use of electricity, when the patient awakes. By manipulating the muscles the most rigid contraction may be produced, until the entire body is in such a state of corpse-like rigidity that a most startling experiment is possible. The subject may be placed with his head upon the back of one chair and his heels on the back of another, and a heavy man may sit upon him without seemingly producing any effect, or even heavy rock may be broken on the subject’s body. ”

“ Violent passions or agitations of the mind will likewise have this effect. These often cause bleeding at the nose, and I have known them sometimes occasion an hæmorrhage in the brain. Violent efforts of the body, by overstraining or hurting the vessels, may have the same effect, especially when the body is long kept in an unnatural posture, as hanging the head very low, &c. ”

“ Now, the way in which strychnine acting upon the voluntary muscles is fatal to life is, that it produces the most intense excitement of all those muscles, violent convulsions take place—spasms which affect the whole body and which end in rigidity—all the muscles become fixed, and the respiratory muscles in which the lungs have play are fixed with an immovable rigidity, respiration consequently is suspended, and death ensues. These symptoms are known to medical men under the term of tetanus. ”

“ This condition, combined with unconsciousness and paralysis of all the voluntary muscles, may very closely simulate death. The only absolute evidence of death is given by such changes as loss of body heat, rigor mortis or stiffening of the muscles, coagulation of the blood and decomposition. ”

“ In some instances the destruction is frightful, the heart is torn apart and the bones crushed; in others the organs are observed entirely uninjured. In certain cases flaccidity of the limbs occurs, softening of the bones, collapse of the lungs; in others, contractions and rigidity are remarked. Sometimes the body of the person struck decomposes rapidly, but at times it resists decay. ”

“ There is excessive faintness, palpitation of the heart, nausea, pallor, and beads of perspiration break out over the body, and death ensues. One man died within one minute from a mere pin-hole, which pierced the right arm and right breast. ”

“ This begins in the muscles of the head, extends to the extremities, and usually disappears in twenty-four hours. It is always most intense and most rapid in its onset when death is preceded by active muscular exertion. There have been cases of instantaneous death in battle where the body has remained in the position it held at the moment of death, this being due to the instantaneous onset of muscular rigidity. ”

“ A sudden twinge produces a convulsive start of the whole body. A pain less violent, but continuous, is accompanied by a knitting of the brows, a setting of the teeth or biting of the lip, and a contraction of the features generally. Under a persistent pain of a severer kind, other muscular actions are added: the body is swayed to and fro; the hands clench anything they can lay hold of; and should the agony rise still higher, the sufferer rolls about on the floor almost convulsed.
Though more varied, the natural language of the pleasurable emotions comes within the same generalization. ”

“ If this abstinence is continued for some time, the diminution becomes apparent to the eye; all the fat of the body disappears, the muscles decrease in firmness and bulk, and, if the animal is allowed to die starved, scarcely anything but skin, tendon, and bones, remain. ”

“ The heart and pulses also gradually lost power, and latterly the lower portion of the body was almost paralysed, the limbs being stiff, and the whole frame, from the waist downward, very heavy and cold. ”

“ The legitimate consequences of continual bathing, and packings in wet envelopes, are exhaustion, debility, and early decay. Every such process, continued for any considerable length of time, is a direct tax upon the vital powers. The atoms which compose the substance of the body are prematurely hurried off—the structure is worn away by constant irrigation—the skin becomes shrivelled and looks old—the muscles become flaccid, and all the bodily organs become more or less attenuated and atrophied. ”

“ That a convulsive contraction should take place in those particular muscles need not appear strange to those who know how irregular and uncertain is the whole train of nervous action, especially under the operation of some disorders of the body ”

“ Stammerers make the attempt to speak, and the lips or tongue or jaw become immovable, or the words stick in their throat; and, because this takes place, they make great effort to overcome it. The more effort they make, the harder it is for them; and sometimes this leads to contortions and jerkings of body and limbs that are painful. To cure this takes a longer or shorter time, depending on the state of health, the length of time the habit has been in forming, the amount of jerking of limbs to which the stammerer is subject, and the care taken by the stammerer to practise much. ”

“ The difficulty of breathing, with which, very fat people are immediately affected on exercise, is owing to the pressure of the accumulated fat on the veins, arteries, and lymphatics; and which, by distending the skin, occasions it to act as a tight bandage on the whole surface of the body. Hence when the muscles are excited into quicker action, the progress of the blood in the veins, and of the lymph and chyle in the absorbent system, is urged on with much greater force, as under an artificial bandage on a limb, explained in Art. ”

“ AND after this I saw, beholding, the body plenteously bleeding in seeming of [1] the Scourging, as thus:—The fair skin was broken full deep into the tender flesh with sharp smiting all about the sweet body. So plenteously the hot blood ran out that there was neither seen skin nor wound, but as it were all blood. And when it came where it should have fallen down, then it vanished. Notwithstanding, the bleeding continued awhile: till it might be seen and considered. ”

“ If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs. ”

“ Scientifically speaking, the flesh was melted off the world. His body was macerated until only the nerve fibres were left. It was spread like a veil upon a rock. ”

“ Lo! tortures on thy body are set like gems of beryl,
And the sword on thy neck like a chain of choice gold.
Thy blood upon thy form is a robe of glory full of beauty,
And the scourging of thy back a vesture with which the sun may not compare.
Radiant thou art and comely by virtue of these thy sufferings, so abounding;
And resplendent are thy beauties, because of the pains which are so severe upon thee.
Shamuna, our riches, richer art thou than the rich:
For lo! the rich stand at thy door, that thou mayest relieve them. ”

“ But here I should imagine the most terrible part of the whole punishment is, not the bodily pain at all—but the certain knowledge that in an hour,—then in ten minutes, then in half a minute, then now—this very instant—your soul must quit your body and that you will no longer be a man—and that this is certain, certain! That’s the point—the certainty of it. Just that instant when you place your head on the block and hear the iron grate over your head—then—that quarter of a second is the most awful of all. ”

“ Imagine that a sparrow-hawk had seized a trembling pigeon, and that a royal falcon swooped, and with one lightning-like stroke of body and wing buffeted him away, and there he was on his back, gaping and glaring and grasping at nothing with his claws. ”

“ Who cares what comes to the body or to anything else! Through the terrors of evil, say — my God, my love! Through the pangs of death, say — my God, my love! Through all the evils under the sun, say — my God, my love! ”

“ Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I had thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self. ”

“ He felt strangely numb. As though from a great distance, he was aware that he was being beaten. The last sensations of pain left him. He no longer felt anything, though very faintly he could hear the impact of the club upon his body. But it was no longer his body, it seemed so far away. ”

“ And dimly she realised one of the great laws of the human soul: that when the emotional soul receives a wounding shock, which does not kill the body, the soul seems to recover as the body recovers. But this is only appearance. It is really only the mechanism of the re-assumed habit. Slowly, slowly the wound to the soul begins to make itself felt, like a bruise, which only slowly deepens its terrible ache, till it fills all the psyche. And when we think we have recovered and forgotten, it is then that the terrible after-effects have to be encountered at their worst. ”