Presumably, the digestive processes powered by bacteria continue for a time after death, producing gasses (methane, hydrogen sulfide, etc.). Would this cause audible flatulence, or would the absence of peristalsis prevent the passage of gas, resulting in bloating?
The question arose this evening after I ate a large bowl of lentil soup, and I pondered whether the seemingly endless after effects might persist well past my demise.
Is there anybody among the TM’s with first hand post-mortem experience that can speak to this burning question?
TT
“Believe those who seek the truth.
Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide
Well, on a similar note, I have heard of corpses “moaning”, or making similar noises while being cremated–this may be a source for some popular ghost legends, I don’t know. For all I know, this may not even be true, but it seems rational to me.
Anyway, the fire heats up the gas inside the body, causing it to escape, making the “moaning” noise on its way out.
I wouldn’t be surprised, then, if this happens to corpses “unaided” at times. Just my WAG.
As soon as you die, all your muscles relax, completely, more relaxed than they have ever been. Including your anal sphincter. It just opens, and all that is capable of being released from it, will be.
There is a weird phenomenon, or at least I’ve been told so but it may be a myth, where days after death a body can suddenly sit upright, due to some kind of pressure being exerted on some part of the internals which makes a muscle or diaphragm twang and the body bends at the waist.
Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think that’s right.
I would imagine that as the body rots and decays, it would bloat with the gaseous byproducts of decomposition. I suppose this gas would be discharged as the pressure got great enough.
I’ve also heard stories that when people suspected a person of being a vampire after they died, they would dig up the corpse and pound a stake through the chest, which would force the gasses through the vocal cords producing a nice spooky moan.
I saw a really creepy movie once (the main theme was necrophilia) that had a lot of mortuary scenes.
[/blushing]
Anyway, in preparing the body for burial they took steps to prevent any unwelcome “eruptions” at the funeral. They emptied the stomach and stuffed both ends of the GI tract with cotton. I don’t know how true-to-life it was but I’ve decided not to make a career of mortuary science.
“If ignorance were corn flakes, you’d be General Mills.”
Cecil Adams The Straight Dope
My mother used to “pack” the deceased so they wouldn’t do anything embarrassing. Didn’t seem to bother her, and she talks about it if I ask. Of course, as schoolkids, my sister and I weren’t allowed to talk about frog dissections at the table, which struck me as hypocritical.
Manhatten: Add a kazoo! Entertain your folks! Amuse & amaze millions!
Start now.
Save The Endangered Jackalope! Send Cash Now! If You Do This, I Will Use The Cash To Save Any Jackalope That I Happen To Find! Send Cash Now! Before It’s Too Late! My Bills, I Mean The Jackalope’s Bills Are Due The 15th Of The Month! This has been a message from the Illuminated Committee To Save The Jackalope. Fnord.
GuanoLad, I’ve heard that, too. The story got handed down to me as an FOAF story, but it seems reasonable enough that it could happen. Seems that someone was wheeling a corpse to the morgue, when it suddenly sat up and belched, frightening the poor guy out of his wits.
Manhattan- Please let me know when you intend to die, so I can make plans to attend your funeral. Maybe, you can somehow arrange for a perpetual candle to be strategically placed in the coffin, so that when the blessed event does occur, you can go out with a bang, and a whimper. Bonus points if it happens right when they get to “ashes to ashes…” Self-cremation. The wave of the future.
I agree that a person could fart after death, but I think it would fall along the lines of the SDB fart (silent but deadly), no pun intended. To make a fart audible, one has to basically force it out. I can’t see this happening with a corpse unless the person’s scents of humor lingers after death.
Ah… But what if you burp, fart and sneeze at the same time after you die?
You come back to life.
I’ve been a pick up guy for the mortuaries for five years and corpses do occasionally fart when they’re moved. I’ve also seen them exhale and moan. And discharge the contents of their stomach. Nothing on this earth smells worse than the stomach discharge, not even the farts.
As far as corpses sitting up, I’ve never seen this happen or heard a first hand account of it either. I’m pretty sure it’s a UL.
Harvey’s right. My mom tells the story of wheeling a recently deceased person to the morgue when she was in nursing school (Mother Cabrini - Chicago), whereupon, when she got down to the basement (alone!) with the body on a gurney and went over the gap in the elevator doors, the bumping caused the corpse to “sigh” loudly, and then fart. Mom just about peed her pants right there! She was so freaked out, she left the body in the hallway and went right back upstairs in the elevator.
A related prank she and her nursing-student buddies used to play on each other all the time was, after someone had died, they would prop the body back up in bed with pillows, put the call button in the corpse’s hand and ring the buzzer (then hide behind/underneath the bed). When the “mark” came in to check on the dead person, the hiding nurse would jiggle the bed real hard, often causing the corpse to emit nasty noises and odors (and at the very least, scare the unknowing nurse spitless!) Nursing students! Such scamps!
On “Discovery Magazine” last night, they had a show that asked, “When does death actually occur?” They called into question some of the classic criteria, such as the cessation of heartbeat, etc. (They showed a guy who had been under freezing water for 20 minutes and recovered normally.)
Anyway, one of the experts said that although the brain is highly susceptible to oxygen deprivation (except in rare cases such as the one I just noted), most of the other organs continue to operate blithely for a while. So it is possible that fermentation would continue after you’re dead. So maybe, if you had a fart that was just about to let go, a bit more “processing” could send it on its way.
I doubt, though, that it would be much of a fart. The releasing of the bowels would probably mask it in any case.
Now for the big decision: do I affix my standard signature to a post of this nature?
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Appropriate name for a zombie thread, After reading todays Cracked article; I have to ask, is the dead bodies moving or sitting up something that has actually been observed? Or is an Urban legend. On the internet lots of people state that they have witnessed it.
Moaning due to gas build uo, that I have heard off.
After a few days in warm conditions, the corpse appears bloated, with large belly and puffy face.
This is also the reason that they search for drowned people for three days.
Most people sink when drowned. The third day is when the body will be floating due to the gases…
Sure the gases may explode out in all the ways you can imagine, and more. Rigor mortis is reducing and gas pressure increasing…
