14. Sticking a Thermometer In a Corpse’s Stomach
One of the more ingenious methods of determining death in the 18th century was the use of a thanatometer, literally meaning death measurerer. Christian Friedrich Nasse designed this long thermometer in 1841 as a tool to more accurately gauge if an unconscious person was indeed dead. Aside from the obvious reaction that could be obtained by inserting a massive thermometer into someone’s stomach, the device also cleverly checked to ensure that the core body temperature was consistent with being dead, not just externally measurable temperatures. This method was likely beneficial for cases in which the limbs had gone cold, but the vital organs remained working and generating body temperature.
While normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, a dead body will steadily lose heat until it reaches equilibrium with the ambient temperature of its surroundings. In modern forensic science, complicated formulas that take age, weight and other factors into account are used to help calculate the time of death based on a body’s temperature at the time it is found. While we no longer need to take a stomach’s temperature to determine death, Nasse was clearly onto something since a corpse’s temperature is still useful today.