Death: Manner, Mechanism & Cause

Stiffening of the body is also known as 

• Decomposition
• Mummification
• Rigor mortis
• None of the above

 Rate of cooling helps in determining 

• Manner of death
• Time of death
• Place of death
• Cause of death

Experts cannot agree on a single definition for death.

• true
• false

There are three ways a person can die, referred to in official terms as the manner of death: natural death, accidental death, and homicidal death.

• true
• false

An elderly woman dies after being kept from receiving proper health care by her children.  The manner of her death would be:  

• accident.
• natural death.
• suicide.
• homicide.

The specific change in the body that brought about the cessation of life is called the: 

• manner of death.
• mechanism of death.
• cause of death.
• proximate cause of death.

Dual lividity could occur if the body was kept in one position: 

•  two hours after death, and then moved to a second position before the lividity became permanent.
• ten hours after death, and then moved to a second position before the lividity became permanent.
• nine hours after death, and then moved to a second position before the lividity became permanent.
• None of these choices.

Rigor mortis is: 

• permanent
• temporary
• one cause of death
• one matter of death

Factors affecting rigor include: 

• temperature
• body weight
• activity before death
• all of these choices

Algor mortis means roughly: 

• death heat and describes the temperature gain in a corpse.
• death heat and describes the temperature loss in a corpse.
• death chill and describes the temperature loss in a corpse.
• None of these choices.