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Review [published September 2000]
Cedric Mims: When We Die
Robin Askew
The first thing to happen is regurgitation of the stomach
contents into the mouth or air passages. At the same
time, urine is passed and semen emitted. The skin gets
purple on the underside of the body where the blood
accumulates, rigor mortis sets in, and the intestinal
microbes gobble up the gut and take the opportunity to
have a romp around those previously forbidden parts of
the body. The pancreas digests itself. Green substances
and gas are produced in the tissues, causing the skin
to take on a bluish tinge and develop blisters, many
of which expand into large sacs of fluid. After four to
six days, the body starts to become really unpleasant.
The tongue protrudes from between the teeth, the chest
swells up, fluid from the lung trickles out of the mouth
or nostrils and a ‘disagreeable odour’ develops.
Cedric Mims, former Professor of Microbiology at
Guy’s Hospital, spares no grisly detail in his self-styled
“light-hearted but wide-ranging survey of death, the
causes of death, and the disposal of corpses”. If it’s the
Afterlife you want, he’s not much use. There’s a perfunctory
trot through the beliefs that sustain the world’s major
religions, but Mims’ heart isn’t really in it. When We Die
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is shot through with genial atheism, religion impinging
only when it has shaped some of the more peculiar things
human societies have done with bits and pieces of the
deceased. But don’t mistake this for a lack of humility.
In his introduction, Mims offers this fascinating statistic.
Since the emergence of our species, 130,000 million humans
have lived and died. You could comfortably pack
every last one of us into a mass cubic coffin measuring
three miles long on each side and dump it underground
without making the slightest impact on the landscape.
Mims contends that we have undergone a reversal
in social attitudes since Victorian times. Then, death
was a national obsession while sex remained taboo.
These days, virtually anything goes on the sexual front
but few of us ever see a corpse, since most people die
in hospitals or institutions. Anyone who expresses an
interest in the subject is routinely accused of “morbid
curiosity”. While it’s difficult to sustain the claim
that death is the last taboo, When We Die offers what
might be described as a handy palliative. The anecdotal
approach makes it ideal for dipping into, serving up
themed funereal fun in bite-sized chunks of historical,
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