MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. WHARTON AND STILLE’S 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
THIRD EDITION. 
YOL. II. 
PART SECOND. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
KAY & BROTHER, 17 AND 19 SOUTH SIXTH STREET. 
1873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 
KAY & BROTHER, 
in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 
. KAY & BROTHER, 
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 
KAY & BROTHER, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
PHILADELPHIA ! 
COLLINS, PRINTER, 7O5 JAYNE STREET. PART II. 
OTHER FORMS OF VIOLENT DEATH. 
CHAPTER I. 
WOUNDS. 
I. Genebal considebations, § 685. 
1st. What a -wound is, § 685. 
2d._ General definitions, § 686. 
3d. How far dangerous, § 687. 
4tli. Examination of the body, § 689. 
5th. External phenomena, § 690. 
6tli. Internal phenomena, § 690. 
7th. Wounds made before or after death, § 691. 
8th. Ecchymoses from natural causes, § 700. 
II. Classification of wounds, § 702. 
1st. Incised and punctured wTounds, § 703. 
2d. Lacerated and contused wounds, § 704. 
3d. Gunshot wounds, § 707. 
4th. Wounds from wadding and gunpowder, § 714. 
III. Homicidal, suicidal, and accidental wounds, § 717. 
1st. Situation of wounds, § 717. 
2d. Direction, § 719. 
3d. Position of body and of weapon, § 722. 
IY. Blood stains. 
1st. General appearance, § 724. 
2d. Chemical examination, § 726. 
3d. Microscopical evidence, § 753. 
Y. Cause of death in wounds, § 769. 
1st. Hemorrhage, § 770. 
2d. Shock, § 774. 
3d. Mechanical injury, § 775. 
4th. Diseased condition of body, § 777. 
(1) Wounds inflicted on pregnant women, § 779. 
(2) Indirect complications, § 780. 
(3) Tetanus, § 782. 
(4) Erysipelas, § 783. 
(5) Hospital gangrene, § 784. 
(6) Nervous delirium, § 785. 
5th. Surgical operations, § 786. 
639 ANALYTICAL TABLE. 
[book V. 
YI. Wounds of various parts of the body. 
1st. Injuries of the head, § 790. 
(1) Concussion of the brain, § 791. 
(2) Fractures of the skull, § 793. 
(3) Wounds of the substance of the brain, § 795 
(4) Wounds of the face, § 800. 
2d. Wounds of the neck, § 801. 
3d. Wounds and injuries of the spine, § 808. 
4th. Wounds of the chest, § 815. 
5th. Wounds of the lungs, § 816. 
6th. Wounds of the heart, § 820. 
7th. Wounds of the abdomen, § 827. 
(1) Superficial wounds, § 827. 
(2) Penetrating wounds, § 828. 
8tli. Wounds of the liver, § 829. 
9th. Wounds of the diaphragm, § 830. 
10th. Wounds and rupture of the bladder, § 831. 
11th. Wounds of the genitals, § 835. 
CHAPTER II. 
BURNS AND SCALDS, § 839. 
CHAPTER III. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION, § 849. 
CHAPTER IY. 
HEAT AND SUNSTROKE, § 869. 
CHAPTER V. 
LIGHTNING, § 878. 
CHAPTER YI. 
COLD, § 880. 
CHAPTER VII. 
STARVATION, § 884. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
SUFFOCATION, §895. 
CHAPTER IX. 
STRANGULATION, § 907. 
CHAPTER X. 
HANGING, § 919. 
640 BOOK V.] 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
641 
CHAPTER XI. 
DROWNING, § 943. 
CHAPTER XII. 
SIGNS OF DEATH, § 960. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS, § 1006. 
CHAPTER I. 
WOUNDS. 
I. General Considerations. 
§ 685. 1st. What a wound is.—The term “ wound,” in pop- 
ular language, can hardly be misunderstood. It is a form of 
bodily injury caused by external violence, and involving a 
breach of continuity in the soft parts. It may be questioned 
whether burns and scalds can properly be ranked as “ wounds.” 
The immediate effect of the application of a burning or heated 
body to the skin may not be such as to cause more than a red- 
ness of the surface, or an elevation of the cuticle into a blister; 
but the surface of the skin may afterwards, by the giving way 
of the cuticle, be exposed. Hence the reader will perceive 
that any legal limitations of the meaning of the word, whether 
based upon popular or professional definitions, are liable to be 
erroneous, if the intention be really to designate the results of 
external violence by a name which shall comprise them all. 
In treating of this subject in its medical aspect alone, we shall 
make use of the word wound as expressive of any form of 
bodily injury caused by external violence, since it is only by 
such a course that the medico-legal bearings of the subject 
can be properly considered. Hence we have used the term 
wounds as a convenient designation for this chapter, entirely 
irrespective of the possible surgical or legal limitations of the 
word, (a) 
(a) The legal meaning of the term “wounds” is considered in another 
treatise, Wh. Cr. Law (5th ed.), § 832. 
yol. ii.—41 
641 642 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
§686. 2d. General definitions.—Wounds are usually classified, 
in reference to their visible marks upon the skin, into incised, 
punctured, lacerated, contused, and gunshot wounds. Although 
a division into mortal and non-mortal would appear to have 
a more direct and useful bearing upon legal medicine, yet the 
unexpected complications, and the various extraneous causes 
which give gravity to the simplest cases, and, on the other 
hand, the favorable termination of some injuries of appa- 
rently the most dangerous nature, render any such classifica- 
tion impracticable. These facts will become apparent in the 
course of this chapter, and the reader will not fail to perceive 
that in medico-legal practice, every wound must be judged by 
itself; the general principles and rules of surgery being sub- 
ject to constant modifications from individual peculiarities. 
§ 687. 3d. How far dangerous.—The varieties and the de- 
gree of danger attending wounds in general, depend very much 
upon some of the following circumstances: “the extent of the 
injury; the kind of instrument with which it has been in- 
flicted ; the violence which the fibres of the part have suffered 
in addition to their division; the size and importance of the 
bloodvessels and nerves which happen to be injured ; the nature 
of the'wounded part, in respect to its general power of heal- 
ing favorably or not; whether the operations of the system at 
large and life itself can be well supported or not, while the 
functions of the wounded part are disturbed, interrupted, or 
suspended by the accident; the youth or old age of the patient; 
the goodness or badness of his constitution; and the oppor- 
tunities which there may be of administering proper surgical 
aid and assistance of every kind.”(6) 
§ 688. But in this country the physician is seldom called 
upon by a legal tribunal to offer an unconditional opinion 
upon the probable danger of a wound, his assistance is more 
frequently invoked for the purpose of deciding how far a 
given wound was the cause of death, and hence his testimony 
is required before the coroner upon the post-mortem exami- 
nation. No one should be willing, upon theoretical grounds 
alone, to give an opinion as to the agency of the wound in 
(5) Cooper’s Diet, of Pract. Surgery. 
642 BOOK V.] 
HOW FAR DANGEROUS. 
643 
producing death. A careful post-mortem inspection will either 
reveal the violent cause of death, or demonstrate that it was 
not due to external violence; it is the duty of the physician 
whose opinion is desired, to make the examination most care- 
fully himself, and to base his opinion entirely upon this, and 
not upon previous notions of the probable nature and effect of 
the wound. 
Whatever parts of this examination call for the application 
of knowledge of which he may not be possessed, as the use of 
the microscope, or chemical analysis, should be committed to 
one who is really an “ expert” in these branches. The idea is 
much too prevalent, and should be corrected, that the prac- 
titioner of medicine must necessarily be acquainted with all 
the appliances and new modes of investigation which modern 
science has produced ; in other words, that every physician is 
equally competent to undertake the examination of a case in- 
volving the question of homicide. It is to this cause chiefly, 
viz., the disparity in the attainments of one physician as com- 
pared with another, and also to the natural division of med- 
ical science and practice into numerous departments, some of 
which may be cultivated to the exclusion of others—that the 
“ disagreement of doctors” is really due. Men of equal med- 
ical attainments will rarely differ upon an essential point of 
pathology or practice, but ignorance, or defective knowledge 
in medicine, does not differ from that in any other branch of 
science, in being usually associated with presumption and 
obstinacy. Still, there are few practitioners of medicine who 
are thoroughly prepared to enter upon an examination of all 
the medical aspects of a case of violent death; familiarity 
with the means required to carry through such an investiga- 
tion can be gained only by special study, for which, to the 
majority, time is wanting. 
Circumstances may, however, impose upon the physician 
the duty of making an examination for which he does not 
feel himself fully competent. In remote or interior parts of 
the country the means for the successful prosecution of a 
medico-legal inquiry are usually not at hand; whoever may 
be obliged to undertake an examination under such circum- 
stances should endeavor to obtain the assistance of a colleague, 
643 644 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
and should candidly represent to the authorities the necessary 
imperfection of the examination, and what influence this may 
have upon the objects of the inquiry. 
§ 689. 4th. Examination of the body.(c)—The following points 
must be carefully noted; the locality, the direction, and the 
dimensions of the wound; whether there is a loss of sub- 
stance or not; and whether the wound was inflicted before or 
after death, with the grounds of the opinion; the probable 
cause of the wound, and position of the body at the time; 
the results of the injury (ecchymosis, swelling, hernia of in- 
ternal organs, concussion, inflammation, suppuration, ulcera- 
tion, gangrene); notice of the clothes of the deceased, espe- 
cially the portion (if any) corresponding to the place of injury; 
comparison of the weapon with the wound; medical assistance, 
and by whom rendered. Besides these general points which 
claim attention, a very carefully detailed account of the 
wound itself is required, not only to ascertain the nature of 
the weapon with which it was given, but also to learn how 
far it has penetrated the body, and what organs have been 
wounded. And, moreover, the importance of a general and 
careful examination of all the organs of the body should not 
be forgotten, for notwithstanding the immediate cause of death 
may be evident, it is still advisable to be sure that there was 
no cause of death in any other part. Although there may be 
no suspicion of poisoning, the stomach should be opened. In 
a case often referred to, a girl died while her father was chasti- 
sing her for stealing, and on account of the marks of violent 
treatment upon her body, it was supposed that this had caused 
her death. On opening the stomach, however, it was found to 
be inflamed, and contained a white powder, which was proved 
to be arsenic. The girl had taken the arsenic in dread of her 
father’s anger, upon the detection of the theft; she vomited 
during the flogging, and died in slight convulsions. 
It may even happen that although no marks of violence can 
be found externally, or at least none which will explain the 
(c) A more detailed account of the changes after death will be found in 
Chap. XII. 
644 BOOK V.] 
EXAMINATION OF THE BODY. 
[§ 689 
person’s death, internal injuries may be discovered upon dis- 
section, which will render it certain that the death was vio- 
lent. Indeed, Casper goes so far as to declare that as a general 
rule when death follows an injury, suddenly or speedily, in 
consequence of internal hemorrhage or other effect of lacera- 
tion of an internal organ, the signs of external injury are 
either slight or are entirely wanting. Among numerous in- 
stances of this description, furnished by Casper’s experience, 
the following is one of the most striking. On a cold winter’s 
night a wagoner was descending the hill from Spandau with 
a heavily loaded wagon, and dismounted, in order the more 
easily to guide his team. In doing so, he was thrown violent- 
ly against one of the poplar trees which line the road, and 
where, in the course of the night, he was found dead. The 
only external injuries consisted of a slight abrasion upon the 
left arm, and a similar one upon the right temple. In the 
head there was nothing worthy of note, except that the trans- 
verse sinus was unusually distended with blood. On opening 
the spinal canal, about a quart of dark fluid blood escaped. 
The spinous process of the first thoracic vertebra was broken 
off. The deeper spinal muscles were eechymosed, but the 
spinal marrow was uninjured. The left pleural cavity con- 
tained about thirty ounces of liquid blood. The pericardium 
was torn completely across, and the heart, severed from its 
large vessels, lay almost entirely loose in the cavity of the 
thorax. The open ends of the aorta and pulmonary artery 
were distinctly visible. The heart itself was sound and firm, 
and on both sides, but in the ventricles especially, contained 
much dark coagulated blood. The left lung was entirely torn 
through its middle portion, and in the right lobe of the liver 
was a laceration two inches long, by half an inch deep. And 
yet the exterior of the body presented nothing remarkable.(d) 
A case is reported by Dr. Ellis, of Boston, of a woman who 
was knocked down and run over by a sleigh. She lived for 
ten days after the accident, and there was no mark of external 
injury. On examination after death, the liver was found to 
(d) Gericlit. Med., i. 122. 
645 § 690] 
wounds. ■ 
[book v. 
be lacerated, the common bile-duct was torn across, and several 
fractures appeared in the right kidney.(e) 
§ 690. The phenomena which intervene between death and 
putrefaction are often of assistance in throwing light upon the 
mode and period of death. The changes which take place in 
the body after death are due to physical and chemical laws. 
5th. External phenomena.—Soon after death, while the body 
is still warm, the peculiar cadaveric smell (not putrefactive) is 
perceived at the same time that the surface becomes pale. The 
blood sinks gradually to the more dependent parts, occasion- 
ing a discoloration of the skin resembling in some respects a 
contusion produced during life. 
The complete cooling of the body (with the disappearance 
of the peculiar smell just referred to) is accomplished much 
more slowly than is usually supposed. According to Bock,(/) 
it does not take place in less than from fifteen to twenty hours. 
Externally, the reduction of temperature occurs more rapidly 
than in the interior of the body, but in both cases it is depend- 
ent upon the temperature of the surrounding air. The bodies 
of old people and children, of the thin, anaemic, and wasted, 
grow cold at quite an early period after death. But in those 
who die suddenly, in the fat and robust, the animal heat is 
more slowly parted with. Rigidity, or rigor mortis, occurs 
generally within twelve hours after death, and lasts from 
thirty-six to forty-eight hours. It is more complete and last- 
ing in those who have died suddenly, or in the course of acute 
inflammatory diseases, while in the weak and those exhausted 
by long illness it is feeble and transient. It may be distin- 
guished from the rigidity occurring in cases of apparent death 
(syncope) by the fact that in the latter case the rigidity is 
spasmodic and partial, arises and disappears suddenly without 
any regularity, and returns after the contracted limb has been 
extended, which is not the case to the same extent in true 
post-mortem rigidity. 
6tli. Internal phenomena.—The blood usually remains fluid 
for two or three hours after death. It accumulates in the 
(e) Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., April, 1860, p. 222. 
(/) Gericlitliclie Sectionen des Menschliclien Korpers. 
646 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH. 
[§ 691 
veins, owing to the last contraction of the heart and arteries 
having more or less completely emptied the arterial system. 
The amount of blood found in the cavities of the heart, and 
the existence of coagula, depend upon the nature of the blood 
itself, and the mode of death, whether rapid or protracted. 
§ 691. 7th. Wounds made before or after death.—The distinc- 
tion between wounds made before and those made after death 
depends upon the signs of vital reaction in the wound and its 
vicinity. If the signs of inflammation, or its products, are 
found; if the wound be swollen and discolored; if plastic 
lymph have been thrown out between its edges; if suppura- 
tion, or gangrene, or cicatrization have taken place ; we have 
not only certain proof that the wound was inflicted during 
life, but also that death could not have been immediate. The 
question, therefore, as to post- or ante-mortem infliction of the 
wound, cannot arise when any of the processes referred to 
have taken place. But, when none of these signs are recog- 
nized, there may be room for doubt as to the period of its 
infliction. Many cases occur in which no traces of suggilla- 
tion or inflammation can be detected, although an injury was 
received during life. This is especially the case when death 
results rapidly from hemorrhage from a large artery or vein, 
so that if a wound is made upon the dead body near to that 
which occasioned death, it will be impossible to distinguish 
the one from the other by any characteristic sign. 
If death have resulted from a wound, not immediately, but 
still before the effusion of plastic lymph, its edges will be 
found swollen and everted, and coagulated blood effused in 
the track of the wound and in the adjoining cellular tissue. 
When, however, it has proved immediately fatal, as in some 
penetrating wounds of the heart,.aorta, and spine, the above 
mentioned characters will not be found. This fact is most 
probably due to the rapid drain from the capillaries, in conse- 
quence of internal hemorrhage, or to the sudden cessation oi 
the action of the heart. Thus, in a case related by Casper, in 
which a woman was instantly killed by a table-knife which 
was thrust through the arch of the aorta, entering the chest 
between the first and second ribs, the wound presented sharp 
and smooth edges, without a trace of either fluid or dried 
647 § 692] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
blood; in fact, it was exactly like a wound made upon the 
dead body.(y) It is therefore of importance to remember, that 
in wounds which prove immediately fatal, there may be no 
signs of vital reaction, and no outward effusion of blood. A 
case is very easily supposable, in which a wound in the region 
of the heart might be designedly inflicted after death ; as, for 
instance, to divert attention from the real cause of death, 
which may have been due to poisoning. Although no dis- 
tinction should be possible, from an inspection of the external 
wound, the absence of internal hemorrhage would, in such a 
case, betray the period at which the wound was made. 
§ 692. Dr. Taylor endeavored to solve the question of the 
differences between wounds inflicted before and after death, in 
an experimental way. In one experiment, an incised wound, 
about three inches long, was made in the calf of the leg, two 
minutes after its amputation. The skin retracted considerably, 
the adipose tissue underneath protruded between its edges, 
but the quantity of blood which escaped was small. Ex- 
amined after the lapse of twenty-four hours, the edges of the 
wound were found red, bloody, and everted; the skin not in 
the least tumefied, but merely flaccid. A small quantity of 
loosely coagulated blood was found at the bottom of the 
wound, but no clots were found adherent to the muscles. In 
the second experiment, which was made ten minutes after the 
limb was amputated, the skin appeared to have already lost 
its elasticity, the edges of the wound became very slightly 
everted, and scarcely any blood escaped from it. On exami- 
nation, twenty-four hours afterwards, the wound presented none 
of the characters of a wound inflicted during life, except that, 
at the bottom of the wound, a few coagula were found. Other 
experiments were made at a still later period after the removal 
of the limbs, but it was found that the wounds then made 
possessed still fewer points of similarity with wounds inflicted 
during life. From these experiments, one fact, at least, may 
be fairly inferred—that the coagulation of the blood is not a 
safe criterion of the time at which the wound was made, but 
that, as long as the body retains its warmth after death, this 
(g) Gericht., Leichen-offnungen, Is. Hundert., Fall. 9, 1853. 
648 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH. 
[§ 693 
apparently vital process may still take place. If, therefore, a 
wound be made upon a person just dead, it is not impossible 
that the blood will coagulate in the wound. Facts, more per- 
tinent than the above experiments, are, however, required to 
establish the fact beyond a doubt, as the accidental determina- 
tion of the question upon the entire body would be naturally 
more conclusive than experiments upon separate limbs. On 
dissecting the body of a person who died of the low typhus 
fever which prevailed during the autumn of 1847, in a district 
inhabited by the lowest class of negroes, the blood was quite 
fluid, although death had taken place but six or eight hours 
before; but when allowed to stand in a cup, or in the chest 
whence the lungs had been removed, it speedily formed a dark 
and moderately firm Several cases in which the 
blood retained its coagulability after death, are reported by 
Casper. In one of these, relative to a man who was suffocated 
by coal gas, it is stated that four days after death, and during 
very cold weather in January, the blood flowed freely when 
the body was opened, but coagulated quite rapidly, and so 
firmly that the clots could be raised quite easily with the 
handle of a scalpel.(z) Although the swollen and everted 
condition of the lips of the wound is a good indication of its 
having been inflicted upon the living person, this appearance 
may be removed by causes acting after death. Thus, if the 
body have lain in the water, this, together with the blood 
effused in the wound, may have disappeared before the inspec- 
tion is made, by the maceration to which the body has been 
thus subjected, and it is also often materially changed by the 
advance of putrefaction, since, by this process, the skin very 
soon becomes puffy, and many of the relations of the wound 
are changed. This is strikingly true of fat bodies, in which 
wounds, and especially incised ones, often assume, when the 
body begins to swell, an appearance which it is very difficult 
to distinguish from the effects of the inflammatory process. 
§ 693. The amount of hemorrhage is generally a reliable test 
of the period at which the person was wounded, but is, of 
(A) A. Stille, Gen. Pathology, p. 426. 
(») Gericlit., Med. i. 29. 
649 § 694] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
course, only applicable in wounds involving a solution of con- 
tinuity. In those made after death, even while the body is 
yet warm, the amount of blood poured out will, of necessity, 
be far less than while the active circulation of the blood is 
going on. This is especially true of wounds of certain parts 
which prove unavoidably fatal by copious and sudden hemor- 
rhages, such as those of the heart, aorta, or any of the great 
bloodvessels. In fact, wounds involving the left side of the 
heart, or the arteries, would probably, if made after death, be 
attended with no hemorrhage whatever; whereas, in the 
division of any of the venous trunks, soon after death, the 
amount of blood lost would be far smaller than would have 
been poured out during life, and would depend, in a great 
measure, upon the position of the part injured. In a celebrated 
case of assassination, tried in Berlin, the head of the murdered 
person had been severed from the body, but, at the same time, 
other injuries of a fatal nature had been inflicted. Dr. Casper 
gave his opinion that the neck had been severed before life was 
extinct, for the reason, that a very large amount of blood was 
found to have been effused from the cervical vessels. The chief 
distinction, therefore, between hemorrhage before and after 
death, is, that in the latter case the amount lost is compara- 
tively trifling and exclusively of a venous character. 
§ 694. While the signs we have referred to are the principal 
means of discrimination in wounds involving a loss of blood, 
there is another large class of wounds to which they do not 
have so extensive an application. Thus, although in contused 
wounds the coagulation of the blood under the surface in- 
jured sometimes affords, especially in injuries of the head, an 
indication of the blow having been given during life, yet, on 
the other hand, the want of coagulation is no proof that it 
was not inflicted till after death. The blood may, from various 
causes, remain fluid after death. Its coagulability may be 
impaired by disease, or by the mode of death. If, for in- 
stance, the person murdered has been affected with scurvy, or 
his death caused partly by any mode of asphyxia, the fluidity 
of the blood under contused wounds, or indeed in any kind of 
wound, in such an individual, would not be inconsistent with the 
opinion that the wound was given while the person was alive. 
650 BOOK V.j 
ECCHYMOSIS. 
[§ 695 
§ 695. Ecchymosis, or suggillation.—The meaning of this 
term is an effusion of blood under the skin, but in general 
medical parlance the name is applied to the discoloration of 
the skin produced by this extra vasated blood. In cases where 
it is necessary to discover whether the person was living at 
the time his injuries were received, it is customary to rely 
upon the presumptions afforded by the appearance of the 
ecchymoses. Their color varies according to the time elapsed 
since they were produced; at first they are purple, and pass 
through various shades to black, then through violet, green, 
and yellow, until their disappearance. In general, the dis- 
coloration appears within twelve hours after the injury, and 
sometimes, immediately after it, the violet color is seen on the 
third day, the green from the fifth to the sixth day, and the 
complete disappearance of the spot is, in healthy persons, from 
the tenth to the twelfth day. The changes are more rapid in 
the young than in the old, and depend also upon the force and 
extent of the blow. 
If the extravasation be deeply seated, the external discolora- 
tion will not immediately occur, but may be delayed even for 
several days, and, in parts where the cellular tissue is abundant, 
will not always correspond to the spot on which the injury 
was received, but will be found over that to which the blood 
has gravitated. Indeed, the cutaneous discoloration may not 
appear until after death. Thus, in a person who died in thirty- 
five hours after having received a violent kick from a horse, 
rupturing the bladder, there was no ecchymosis in the seat of 
the blow until after death.^'1) The amount of blood extrava- 
sated, except it lie immediately under the skin, cannot be de- 
termined by the degree of the external bruise, since, in many 
of those cases of violent death, in which a heavily loaded 
vehicle has passed over the body, or a great weight has fallen 
upon it, there has been, externally, no discoloration whatever, 
or in such a slight degree, that the vast amount of internal 
disorganization and hemorrhage could hardly be suspected. 
In the case already quoted from Casper, in which a wagoner 
was crushed to death, and upon opening the body the lungs 
(£‘) Taylor, Med. Jur., p. 177. 
651 § 697] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
and liver were found to be ruptured, and tlie heart completely 
torn from its attachments, the only external injuries discover- 
able were two trifling abrasions of the skin upon the temple 
and the arm. 
§ 696. The marks observed in those cases where contusions 
have been purposely made upon the dead body, resemble, in 
some cases, those which are made during life. From experi- 
ments made by Dr. Christison, it appears that blows inflicted 
two hours after death will produce a discoloration of the skin, 
similar to what might be expected during life, except in regard 
to extent, which does not correspond with the severity of the 
blow. The experiments of Dr. Christison establish a strong 
presumption, that, when contused wounds have been inflicted 
immediately after death, the external similarity will be still 
greater, and the correspondence between the amount of violence 
and the discoloration more exact. While this author was per- 
forming his experiments to ascertain whether blows given 
after death would produce similar appearances to those in- 
flicted during life, he selected, as a subject for a series of these 
experiments, the body of a female who had died in the in- 
firmary. The body, being afterwards carried to the dead 
house, and there seen by some persons who were not aware of 
the experiments having been performed, was not allowed to be 
buried until an inquiry had been made into the circumstances, 
so persuaded were these persons that the woman must have 
died in consequence of barbarous treatment received during 
life. 
§ 697. In this connection, the following remarks of Casper 
are not without “Where death has been caused 
by violence, it is extremely common, especially where the bones 
lie immediately under the skin, to find suspicious spots upon 
the body. They are from one to three-quarters of an inch in 
diameter, usually rounded, red or reddish-brown, or dirty yel- 
lowish-brown, more or less hard to the touch, and tough under 
the knife, but exhibiting no real suggillation. These spots 
may perplex the examining physician, and, indeed, when the 
mode of death is unknown or attended with suspicious circum- 
(j) Op. cit., i. 127. 
652 BOOK V.] 
ECCHYMOSIS. 
653 
stances, demand the closest examination and description, 
because they may possibly indicate and throw light upon a 
struggle in which life was lost. In the majority of cases, 
however, these pseudo-suggillations are produced at the 
moment of death by the body grazing or falling against some 
hard substance, and consequently have no relation to the cause 
of death. They may even be produced after death by the 
rough handling or carrying of the body, and may be imitated, 
after the lapse even of several days, by friction with a coarse 
brush or cloth, and so as not to be distinguishable from similar 
injuries produced during life.” “ When,” says Engel, “these 
excoriations are found upon parts of the body in which the 
blood cannot settle after death, the portion of dried integu- 
ment acquires a yellowish-brown color, and is translucent at 
the edges; on the other hand, if they form in situations where 
the blood tends to accumulate, their color is a very dark 
brown, and they cannot be distinguished from excoriations 
produced during life.” Casper insists upon the practical im- 
portance of these distinctions, declaring that the cases are 
numberless in which ignorance of them or inattention to them 
has led to the most erroneous conclusions and mischievous 
consequences. 
§ 698. The inference from the considerations here presented, 
is not that there is no distinction possible between ecchy- 
mosis produced before and after death, but that great caution 
is necessary in giving an opinion upon this point. The ex- 
ternal bruise must be carefully compared with the effusion 
into and under the skin and adjacent tissues. If the latter be 
at all extensive, and especially if the blood be coagulated, we 
think there need be little hesitation in declaring that the 
injury must have been inflicted during life. Moreover, there 
are few cases of vital ecchymosis, without attendant swelling of 
the skin and other signs of vital reaction. If, while the body is 
fresh, the ecchymosed spot be found at all swelled, there can be 
no suspicion of post-mortem violence. Also, if the ecchymosis, 
though trifling in extent, be accompanied with excoriations 
or abrasions of the skin, as is often found in cases of strangu- 
lation with the hand, the fact of the violence having been 
done upon a living person will be manifest. The difficulty of 
653 § 700] 
WOUNDS. 
[book V. 
discriminating between contusions made before and after death 
will be much enhanced by the putrefactive process, the effect 
of which is to so alter the consistence and color of the skin 
and subjacent parts as to destroy all characteristic signs. 
§ 699. Devergie(A') has remarked that ecchymoses are often 
concealed on the bodies of the drowned, when first they are 
removed from water, owing to the sodden state of the skin ; 
they may become apparent only after the body has been ex- 
posed for some days, and the water has evaporated. 
§ 700. 8th. Ecchymoses from natural causes.—It can hardly 
be necessary to caution the physician against the possibility of 
mistaking the ecchymoses observed in certain diseases for the 
effects of violence. The morbid states of the system in which 
they are seen have so many other striking peculiarities during 
life and after death, that it would hardly be pardonable for a 
professional inquirer to overlook or misinterpret them. Thus 
in scurvy, purpura hemorrhagica, and petechial typhus, the 
shape, size, and diffusion of the spots, in various parts of the 
body, the absence of swelling or other indications of violence, 
and the pathological changes in the mucous membrane of the 
mouth and the intestines, together with the fluidity of the 
blood, will afford more than sufficient reasons for rejecting all 
suspicion of violence. 
The spots and blotches (suggillations) produced by cadaveric 
changes are more likely to give rise to mistakes. In persons 
unaccustomed to inspect the bodies of the dead, the stasis or 
congestion of the blood in the capillary vessels of the skin, 
which sooner or later invariably occurs, may lead to the sus- 
picion of violence having been inflicted before death. This 
lividity is most apparent and extensive in those who have died 
suddenly in full health, by some asphyxiating cause. It occurs 
in almost any part of the body, but is usually deeper and more 
distinct in those which are the most dependent. The time at 
which it is developed varies from the moment of dissolution 
up to the occurrence of rigidity, and is, of course, hastened or 
retarded by various causes, such as the mode of death, the 
season of the year, and the age of the subject. The blood is 
(&) Taylor’s Medical Jurisprudence, sixth American edition. 
654 BOOK V.] 
ECCIIYMOSIS FROM NATURAL CAUSES. 
[§ 701 
merely superficially diffused in the outer surface of the skin, 
and this mark alone ought to suffice to distinguish these dis- 
colorations from those produced by violence, since in the latter 
the blood is effused in the whole substance of the cutis and 
generally also in the subcutaneous cellular tissue, muscles, etc. 
§ 701. The fonns assumed by the marks of cadaveric livid- 
ity are various: sometimes the skin is mottled, at others 
large blotches spread over the surface, and at others again the 
lividity is more uniformly diffused, without necessarily ap- 
pearing on a dependent part. The marks of the clothing 
which the deceased wore, if they have remained upon him 
until rigidity has taken place, give a very singular appearance 
to the skin. Those portions which have compressed the body 
tightly will be recognized by the paleness of the surface, while 
the intervening spaces may be deeply tinged. The folds of a 
sheet often thus communicate to the body an appearance of 
flagellation, the back being covered with stripes. These are 
called vibices, and are familiar to every one accustomed to the 
inspection of persons recently dead. This stage of cadaveric 
lividity, which is due to the congestion of the capillary vessels, 
runs gradually into another at the approach of putrefaction. 
This stage is characterized by the uniform purple or dark red 
discoloration of all the depending portions of the body, and 
arises from a transudation of the serum and coloring matter 
of the decomposed blood. Hence, when an incision is made 
into parts thus affected, as, for instance, over the occiput, the 
skill and subjacent tissues will be found thickened and infil- 
trated with bloody serum. But neither of these stages of 
cadaveric lividity ought to mislead the physician; the diffu- 
sion, the superficial character of the infiltration, or, as in the 
latter case, the peculiar kind of effusion, the want of any ex- 
ternal injury to correspond with the internal marks of appa- 
rently great violence, and many other considerations, which it 
is hardly necessary to specify, ought to render the distinction 
an easy one. We are disposed to think that the possibility of 
serious error arising from the distant resemblance between 
cadaveric lividity or the discoloration of the skin caused by 
certain diseases of the blood, has been in general over-estimated, 
by writers upon legal medicine. 
655 § 702] 
wounds. 
[book v. 
Blisters produced by heat, says Bdcker, although when laid 
open they may disclose a red skin, do not present characters 
which enable us to determine whether they were raised before 
or after death. For intense heat produces the same immediate 
effects in either. Scalding liquids, however, do not blister the 
dead body, they only cause the epidermis to peel off in shreds. 
The skull, when subjected to the action of flame, cracks and 
exfoliates. 
II. Classification ofi Wounds. 
§ 702. Wounds are classified according to tlie nature of the 
means by which they were produced, as, for example, “ an in- 
cised wound,” “ a lacerated wound.” It will at once he seen 
that, in legal medicine, the name by which the injury is 
designated, thus indicating the means by which it was in- 
flicted, may, unless much discrimination be used by the phy- 
sician, lead to incorrect inferences. It becomes important, 
therefore, to establish the relation between the injury and its 
supposed cause. In other words, it being recognized that the 
wound was produced on a living person by mechanical violence, 
by what instrumentality was it effected ? This is not always 
evident upon a first inspection. In order that a correct judg- 
ment may be had, the earlier the post-mortem examination 
is made the more likely will it be to yield useful and positive 
results, for the occurrence of putrefaction, maceration in water, 
and various disturbing causes may materially alter the aspect 
of wounds. 
In some kinds of wounds the nature of the cause is far more 
apparent than in others; thus incised and punctured wounds 
convey the idea of the employment of cutting or pointed 
weapons, whereas the cause of a contused or lacerated wound 
is much less easily discovered. Hence the caution is necessary 
that the means by which the injury was inflicted should be 
described in general terms only, and especially should the 
physician avoid giving too positive an opinion as to the par- 
ticular weapon or other means by which it was produced, 
since he will often find himself deceived in his opinion. By 
indicating upon insufficient grounds any particular weapon 
as the one by which the homicide was effected, the ends of 
656 BOOK V.] 
CLASSIFICATION OF WOUNDS. 
[§ 703 
justice may possibly be defeated, or an innocent person wrong- 
fully suspected or accused. 
§ 703. 1st. Incised and 'punctured wounds.—Such is the name 
given to wounds made by weapons with a sharp cutting edge 
or point. In the former the superficial extent of the wound 
is usually greater than its depth; in the latter, the reverse is 
the case. In both these kinds of wounds the edges are cleanly 
cut, the edges separated and not contused unless the cutting 
portion of the weapon have been dull or possessed considerable 
convexity. The regularity and evenness of the incision is, 
therefore, a mode of distinction between wounds inflicted with 
weapons, properly so called, and those made by glass, crockery, 
nails, etc. The shape of the wound differs somewhat accord- 
ing to the region of the body and the tissues divided, as well 
as the state of tension or relaxation of the skin, and the di- 
rection in which the blow is given. Thus, when the weapon 
has penetrated in an oblique direction through the tissues, or 
when the latter are irregularly stretched, the shape of the 
wound will not correspond to that of the weapon; in such 
cases an incision is apt to assume a crescentic form, and if 
inflicted on a limb in a state of tension, its edges will be 
widely apart, and in the skin more so than in the subjacent 
parts. If a punctured wound have been made obliquely 
through the skin, it will present an oval or elliptical shape, 
and the orifice will usually be smaller than the diameter of 
the weapon producing it. A wound made in parts where the 
skin is thrown into wrinkles may present the appearance ot 
several distinct wounds, as in the neck. From the experi- 
ments of M. Filhos, in 1833, it appears that a conical and 
rounded weapon produces small elongated wounds, with two 
acute angles; but these trials having been made upon the 
dead subject, the results are not fairly applicable to wounds 
on the living, because the vital contractility of the skin will 
necessarily greatly modify the shape of the wound, never- 
theless, several punctured wounds, made by the same weapon, 
may differ in shape, and be either triangular or oval, accord- 
ing to the circumstances already indicated as influencing the 
shape of the wound. Superficial wounds, and especially in- 
cised wounds, may, it is well known, give rise to fatal hemor- 
vol. ii.—42 
657 658 
WOUNDS. 
[book V. 
rhage, if they happen to reach a large superficial bloodvessel. 
In such cases, as Casper has remarked, it is extremely difficult, 
if not impossible, to determine where was the commencement 
and where the end of the incision, whether, e. g., it was made 
from left to right or in the opposite direction. And such 
points become of the greatest importance when we are called 
upon to determine whether a homicide or a suicide has been 
committed. Attendant circumstances, as whether blood is 
found upon the right or the left hand, or on which portion of 
the clothing a cut exists, will help to remove doubt. 
It is often also very difficult, or quite impossible, to deter- 
mine the precise vessel from which the fatal hemorrhage took 
place. Nor is it often necessary; for the existence of the 
wound on the one hand and of the hemorrhage on the other 
suffices to explain the result. 
A punctured or penetrating wound may be single upon the 
skin, and yet two or more internal wounds have been made by 
the same weapon. This is effected by the weapon having 
been only partly withdrawn after the outer wound was given, 
and then plunged into the body in another direction, as is 
often the case in a close struggle. Thus, in a case related by 
M. Bayard, the deceased presented a single gaping wound in 
the breast, out of proportion to the weapon found at the spot 
where the murder was committed, but the left ventricle of the 
heart was perforated entirely through, and its walls were 
wounded in another part also (l) 
§ 704. 2d. Lacerated and contused wounds.—These being fre- 
quently due to accident, and seldom presenting any peculi- 
arity by which the use of a weapon can be positively inferred, 
an opinion can rarely be given, merely from an inspection of 
the wound, of the cause by which the injury was produced. 
A medical witness may indeed be enabled to state the possi- 
bility of the wound having been made with a blunt instru- 
ment, similar to that which is perhaps shown at the inquest 
or trial, or found near the deceased, but can seldom, on the 
other hand., deny that it may have been of accidental origin, 
or paused by .a fall. Blunt instruments produce their effects 
(Z) Briand, Med. Leg., p. 317. 
658 BOOK V.] 
CLASSIFICATION OF WOUNDS. 
[§ 704 
partly by pressure, and crush, tear, or only bruise the part 
struck, according to the force of the blow and the resistance 
which it meets. A smooth blunt weapon produces ecchymosis 
and swelling; angular instruments, in addition, give rise to 
punctures, fissures, and laceration. When an instrument is at 
once smooth, blunt, and heavy, it may cause internal injuries 
of which little or no trace is visible upon the surface. In 
general, all such wounds bleed but little, and tend to heal by 
suppuration.(m) "When, however, they are situated upon the 
skull, they often bear the aspect of incised wounds, the edges 
being apparently cleanly cut, and capable of being adjusted 
together. The division of the integuments is not, however, 
straight and regular as in an incised wound, and the angles of 
the wound are generally less acute. The contusion of the 
neighboring integuments, the extravasation of blood under 
portions of the skin, not embraced in the apparent incision, 
and often the existence of an irregular fracture of the bone, 
with internal extravasation, will not permit of more than a 
momentary mistake. But, practically, the chief difficulty in 
judging of the origin of lacerated and contused wounds is, 
that injuries of this kind may be received by a fall in a quar- 
rel, or in the retreat of one of the parties, and similar in ap- 
pearance to those which might have been produced by a direct 
blow. In such cases, the position of the wound compared 
with the known relative position of the parties at the time of 
the receipt of the injury, will be the chief source from which 
information will be derived. 
An effect, and by no means an unusual one, of blows in- 
flicted with blunt weapons, is the rupture of internal organs. 
Sound organs, says Casper, never rupture spontaneously, and 
only when subjected to extreme violence. Fissures of the 
base of the skull, rupture of the liver, lungs, kidneys, etc., 
are sure evidence of such an agency. The first of these 
always occur transversely, never longitudinally, and generally 
are within the anterior third of the skull. Rupture of the 
brain is extremely rare, and so is that of the trachea and oeso- 
phagus, that of the lungs is not common, and laceration of the 
(to) Bocker. 
659 § 705] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
pericardium or heart is even less so. Rupture of the liver, on 
the other hand, is both positively and relatively frequent. The 
direction of the fissures is usually transverse. A case is men- 
tioned by Casper in which the anterior edge was entirely 
separated from the body of the organ. Rupture of the spleen, 
and of the gravid uterus also, takes place transversely ; this 
injury of the remaining abdominal organs is extremely rare. 
Casper appears to question the occurrence of rupture of the 
bladder, and states that he never met with an instance of this 
injury. It is not, however, extremely rare.(n) 
§ 705. In some cases it may not be unimportant to consider 
whether the wound may not have had a spontaneous or acci- 
dental orign. A number of criminal trials have taken place 
in Scotland in consequence of women, for the most part preg- 
nant, having died of hemorrhage from the pudendum. In 
most or all of these cases, it has been averred that the wound 
was inflicted with criminal intent by the husband or others. 
A case occurred at Dundee, in which there were no grounds 
for suspicion that the woman had received a wound. She 
lived on good terms with her husband and neighbors. She 
had been straining at the night-stool when the hemorrhage 
came on. A large quantity of blood was found about her 
person; it had flowed from the genital organs, but not from 
the uterus, which was fully expanded in pregnancy. On ex- 
amining the vagina, Dr. Kyle found a recent aperture in one 
labium, which he traced into a large vein; one of a plexus 
which extends some distance into the vagina. A case is re- 
lated by Dr. Thomson, in which the woman, however, reco- 
vered after losing a large quantity of blood. In this instance, 
the woman’s husband, a cattle drover, had been long absent 
from home, and on his return, remained alone with his wife 
about half an hour. The bleeding commenced immediately 
after this visit. A wound was discovered large enough to 
admit the finger to the depth of about half an inch, in the 
anterior wall of the vagina, at the union of its upper with its 
middle third. It was probably an accidental laceration, but 
if death had actually resulted, the existence of the wound 
(») Vide § 863. 
660 BOOK V.] 
CLASSIFICATION OF WOUNDS. 
[§ 706 
might have given rise to suspicions of criminal violence.(o) 
Dr. Menzies relates that a woman three weeks after delivery, 
on rising from bed, accidentally fell on the top rail of a common 
stutf-bottomed chair. Profuse hemorrhage ensued, which, on 
exmination, was found to proceed from a wound in the vagina 
nearly half an inch in length, and which looked exactly as if 
it had been inflicted with a sharp instrument.(p) In another 
case reported by Dr. Ellis, and also of a pregnant woman, 
death by hemorrhage resulted from a lacerated wound of the 
vagina supposed to have been inflicted by her falling on the 
post of a crib.(<7) In a third case, related by Dr. Morland, a 
woman five months advanced in pregnancy fell upon the roof 
of a wood-shed, by slipping upon one of the steps by which 
the roof was ascended. The hemorrhage was very profuse, 
and but for timely assistance, would probably have been fatal. 
The wound was an inch and a half long, by half an inch deep, 
upon the internal surface of the left nympha.(r) In these cases 
there was nothing in the character of the wound to distin- 
guish it from those in which the absence of contusion has been 
supposed to indicate a homicidal origin. They also appear to 
show the peculiar danger from hemorrhage to which wounds 
of the genitals expose pregnant women. Dangerous hemor- 
rhage may also occur from varicose veins in the leg. The 
orifice from which the blood escapes being very small, and 
situated immediately over the enlarged vein, can hardly be 
mistaken for an intentional wound. Casper relates a case in 
which a woman, raising a broken chamber vessel under her 
clothes, for the purpose of urinating, wounded herself there- 
with in the vena saphena. The wound was one inch and 
three-quarters long, and three-quarters of an inch wide, and 
the vein was opened to the size of a pea.(s) 
§ 706. That a serious injury may be produced by an appa- 
rently trifling cause, operating within a person, is shown by 
(o) Am. Journ. Med. Sci., April, 1850, p. 535, from Edinburgh Monthly 
Journ., Feb. 
(p) Edinb. Med. Journ., iv. 624. 
-Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., Sept. 1857, p. 158. 
(r) Ibid., Jan. 1859, p. 520. 
(«) Ger. Leichenoff, 2 Hundert. Fall., 43. 
661 § 707] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
the following case which is related by Dr. D. F. Castella, of 
Fribourg.(7) 
“A keeper of a public house, thirty-nine years of age, has 
a robust constitution, although he has suffered during his life 
from various maladies, apparently of a strumous nature. On 
the sixth of November, 1861, he was seated in his bar with 
several customers, one of whom offered him a pinch of snuff, 
which he accepted. Not being in the habit of snuffing, he 
was at once seized with a fit of sneezing, which he attempted 
to restrain by shutting the mouth and forcibly dilating the 
chest. In this, however, he failed, and a violent expiration 
having succeeded to the excessive and prolonged dilatation of 
the thorax, he felt at the same moment in the left hypochon- 
driac region a sudden sharp pain, accompanied by a very 
distinct crack, difficulty of respiration, and a very painful 
cough. I was at once summoned. 
“ I discovered in the middle of the body of the ninth rib on 
the left side a very evident crepitation, and an oblique solution 
of continuity. It was then a fracture of the second false rib 
on the left side. I was able to confirm this diagnosis, as the 
same symptom persisted during four or five days, with slight 
tumefaction of the surrounding soft parts. No complication 
in the part of the pleura or lungs supervened.” 
§ 707. 3d. Gunshot wounds.—Gunshot wounds present strik- 
ing differences in their appearance, according to the distance 
at which the piece was fired, and the number and character of 
the projectiles. If exploded in immediate contact with the 
body, the wound is large and circular, the skin denuded, 
blackened, and burned, and the point at which the ball entered 
is livid and depressed. The blackened and burned appearance 
of the skin is due to the imperfect combustion of the grains 
of powder, and the point of entrance of the ball is larger than 
that of its exit. The hair, clothes, or other organic substance 
in the line of the shot, exhibit traces of burning. When, 
however, the weapon is fired at a greater distance, the appear- 
ance due to the imperfectly burned powder and the flame are 
(<) Am. Journ. Med. Sci., vol. 44, p. 249, from Glasgow Med. Journ., 
April, 1862, and Gazette des Hopitaux. 
662 BOOK V.] 
GUNSHOT W OUNDS. 
663 
no longer seen, the ball itself being then the only cause of the 
wound. In the celebrated case of Peytel, tried in 1839, for 
the murder of bis wife, it was found that she bad been killed 
by two balls which entered near the nose. The eyebrows, 
lashes, and lids were completely burned, and a large number 
of grains of powder had imbedded themselves in the cheek. 
Experiments being made in order to determine the distance 
required to produce these effects, it was found that the weapon 
must have been held within a foot’s distance. As already 
stated, the point of entrance is here smaller than that of exit. 
M. Matthysens has shown this by experiments upon the dead 
body. A pistol fired at twelve paces distance, with a ball 
fifteen millimetres (u) in diameter, made a wound in the breast 
of 8.5 millimetres in diameter ; and at its point of exit on the 
back, one of ten millimetres. In two experiments, at the 
same distance, upon the forearm, the entrance wound was four 
millimetres less in diameter than that of exit; and when a 
larger ball, with a diameter of seventeen millimetres, was 
used, the same relations were preserved, both in the entrance 
wound being less in size than the ball with which it was made, 
and also three millimetres less in diameter than the wound of 
exit.(v) Dr. Taylor, speaking of the present class of cases, in 
which the weapon is fired from a certain distance, says that 
the orifice of exit is generally three or four times as large as 
the entrance aperture, which, it will be observed, is a much 
greater difference than is stated by M. Matthysens. But, 
strange as it may appear, in regard to a question apparently 
so simple, the very opposite statement is made by some writers. 
Of these may be mentioned Ollivier (d’Angers), cited by M. 
Malle,(w) who himself, after numerous experiments, concludes 
that in gunshot wounds the orifice of entrance, far from being 
constantly smaller than the orifice of exit, is, on the contrary, 
usually larger; and also Casper, who goes further, and declares 
that the former is always larger, adding that “all the more 
recent original observers very properly unite in this conclusion, 
(■w) A millimetre is equal to 0.03937 inch. 
(v) Quest, rued. leg. sur les plaies par les armes a feu, Gaz. des Hopi- 
taux, No. 145. 
(w) Ann. d’Hygiene, xxiii. 462. 
663 § 710] 
WOUNDS. 
[book V. 
which is the opposite of that which was formerly main- 
tained.”^) 
§ 708. According to M. N<flaton, when the wound is recent, 
the orifice which the ball has made on entering the body is 
depressed and contused, while that made by its exit is lace- 
rated and prominent. In the former there is an actual loss of 
substance; in the latter merely a solution of continuity, and 
its edges, if brought together, would almost completely close 
the wound. Still, the irregularity of its flaps render it the 
larger, notwithstanding the loss of substance in the entrance 
wound. After some days the case, however, is different. The 
contused margins of the wound of entrance slough away, while 
those of the other become partly united, and its size is thus 
diminished, while that of the former is enlarged.(y) 
§ 709. It is important, however, to observe that the relative 
size of the wounds depends not only upon the distance at which 
the weapon is held, but also upon other causes affecting the 
velocity of the ball. Thus the quality and amount of powder, 
the length and calibre of the weapon, the compression of the 
wadding, and the form of the projectile, all require attention. 
Hence, the relative size of the wounds of entrance and exit 
varies continually; and unless the velocity of the ball can be 
approximately ascertained, from a knowledge of the weapon 
used, and its proximity to the wounded person, it would be 
unsafe to draw a positive conclusion from this circumstance 
alone as to the position of the body and the direction of the 
line of shot, both of which are points occasionally of extreme 
importance. More reliance is to be placed upon the depressed 
and clean character of the entrance wound, and the bulging 
and lacerated aspect of that of exit. This fact has been sub- 
stantiated by the experiments of M. Devergie. When, how- 
ever, the ball enters a portion of the body well covered with 
fat, this often protrudes between the edges of the wound, and 
will entirely mask its character. 
§ 710. If the ball have traversed the clothing before attain- 
ing the body, it carries a portion of this with it; and should 
(*) Op. cit., i. 291. 
Cy) Observations on Gunshot Wounds, made in Paris during the Summer 
of 1848, by Edw. Waters, M. D., Month. Journ., Sept. 1848. 
664 BOOK V.] 
GUNSHOT WOUNDS. 
[§ 711 
it have lost much of its force before reaching the body, the 
clothing is merely pushed before it into the wound, and upon 
pulling this out, the ball will often come with it. The hole 
made by a bullet in the clothing is smaller that it is itself, 
owing to the elasticity of the material, and also is depressed 
like that in the skin. The wound is usually circular in shape, 
but is oval if the ball have entered the body obliquely. If 
caused by a rifle-ball, it is said that a large and ragged hole is 
made, which is attributed to the spiral groove of the barrel, 
and the tightness with which this kind of ball fits the bore of 
the weapon. The wound made by the Prussian needle-gun, 
which carries a conical ball, differs from that made by an ordi- 
nary bullet.(£) It is quite insignificant in appearance, scarcely 
marked by suggillations, presents a slight contusion of the 
surrounding soft parts, is not always circular, and not unfre- 
quently triangular, and in these slight marks gives but little 
indication of the complete disorganization which exists within. 
The orifice of exit is in all respects like that of entrance. In 
a case communicated by Mr. Tuffnel to the Surgical Society of 
Ireland (March 11th, 1854), it was shown that the form of the 
wound made by the conical bullet of the Minie rifle was “ a 
small semilunar split in the integument,” about a quarter of 
an inch in length. There was no contusion nor inversion of 
the edges of the wound. 
§ 711. Mr. A. Reill, Assistant-Surgeon 65th Regiment, in an 
article on gunshot wounds in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, 
1863, says: “ The characters of a gunshot wound are those of 
a contusion and laceration'of all the tissues. Sometimes they 
are so simple as to bear resemblance to a punctured wound, 
particularly if a rifle ball (conoidal), revolving on its long 
axis, has passed through the soft parts at a great speed ; but 
within a few hours it resembles a contusion. The wound of 
entrance, as it has been termed, bears no comparison in size 
or shape to that of exit when a rifle-ball has caused the injury. 
In the former you see the edges of the wound curving inwards, 
and the circumference small, with little or no hemorrhage. 
In the latter, the wound is large, with torn and irregular edges 
(2) Casper, Ger. Med., i. 293. 
665 §712] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
projecting outwards, and perhaps only slight oozing of blood. 
In a short time, averaging an hour, around the entrance wound 
slight redness begins, gradually extending to about two inches 
around its orifice. Again this color changes to a blue or 
greenish-black, and you see all the appearances of a severe 
bruise, with a small wound of the skin, its edges still curved 
inwards. In the exit wound the discoloration of the skin is 
not apparent.” 
§ 712. It is evident that one ball may produce several 
wounds upon the body ; either, for example, by traversing a 
limb, and then entering the trunk or head, or, as lias been wit- 
nessed in some instances, by the splitting of the bullet upon a 
projecting ridge of bone. At the same time, it should be 
remembered that the piece may have been charged with more 
than one bullet, and this circumstance may give rise to some 
perplexity, since, upon examination of the body, only one may 
be found, the other having passed out of the body, or been 
overlooked in the examination. Casper lays great stress upon 
the difficulty of finding balls in the body, even, when there 
appears to be a certainty that they could not have traversed 
it, no aperture of exit being found.(a) 
A ball, after entering the skin, is deflected from its straight 
course by very slight causes. Many examples of this fact are 
given by all authors on military surgery. The following is a 
singular illustration of it: In a duel with pistols between two 
students at Strasburg, one fell, apparently mortally wounded in 
the neck, but almost immediately got up, without feeling any 
inconvenience from his wound. It was found that the bullet 
had struck the larynx obliquely, and, glancing from the car- 
tilage, had gone completely around the neck, and stopped on 
the opposite side of the larynx from where it had entered. It 
was taken out by making simply an incision over it. Other 
examples might be cited in which balls have made a circuit 
around the cavities of the body without entering them. In a 
wound of the head, thorax, or abdomen, the ball may make 
a half circuit of the body, and lodge or emerge at a point 
opposite that at which it entered, thus leading one to suppose 
(a) Ger. Leickenoff., 2tes Hundert. 
666 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS FROM SMALL SHOT. 
[§ 713 
that it must have passed directly through. In the battle of 
Suddozam, a soldier was struck by a bullet just above the 
right haunch bone. The ball passed around the trunk, entered 
the abdominal parietes on the left side, then passed downward 
through the sciatic notch, and “at length contented itself 
with remaining in the left nates.”(6) 
§ 713. Wounds from small shot.—-These are too character- 
istic to be mistaken for any other injury. It is chiefly im- 
portant to understand the character of the wound as affected 
by the distance at which the piece was fired. When this has 
happened sufficiently near to the person for the charge to enter 
the body in one mass before separating, the wound is of con- 
siderable extent and gravity. Its edges are ragged, contused, 
and blackened ; and as the shot diverge after entering the 
body, great laceration and injury of the parts underneath take 
place. Dr. Lach&se, of Antwerp, found, upon experiment, that 
for the opening to be single, the distance should not exceed 
ten or twelve inches. At distances greater than this, the 
wound will no longer be perfectly regular, but more or less 
lacerated; and when the distance is so great that no central 
wound is made, each grain will make a distinct though trifling 
wound. Nevertheless, a single grain of shot may occasionally 
produce death. Thus, in a case related by Ollivier d’Angers, 
a thief, scaling a wall, received, at the distance of fifteen 
paces, a charge of shot from a fowling-piece. He fell dead 
immediately. The charge had struck him in the breast, scat- 
tering over an extent of three to four inches, but one grain had 
penetrated the aorta over the attachment of the sigmoid valves, 
and another had traversed the anterior wall of this vessel. 
The wounds had the form of linear incisions, two lines in ex- 
tent, and such as wmuld be made by a fine double-edged and 
pointed instrument. If the shot have had to penetrate the 
clothing, especially if this be loose and thick, before entering 
the body, the usual character of a near wound from this cause 
will be modified ; the shot is spread out of its course by this 
obstacle to a certain degree, and does not enter the skin in a 
mass, causing a round, tolerably regular opening, but being 
(6) Cole’s Military Surgery. 
667 § 715] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
somewhat scattered, will either produce a large, lacerated 
wound, or a number of small wounds, according to the position 
in which the weapon is held. 
§ 714. 4th. Wounds from wadding and gunpowder.—Accord- 
ing to some experiments made by Dr. Swift, it was found that 
a pistol loaded with powder and wadding alone, at twelve 
inches distance, tore the clothes and abraded the skin, without 
penetrating it; at half this distance, the wadding penetrated 
to the depth of half an inch; at two inches, a ragged and 
blackened wound was made, and the wadding was imbedded 
at the depth of two inches; at one inch and a half from the 
chest, the wadding passed between the ribs into the thorax, 
and in a second experiment, carried away a portion of the 
rib.(e) M. Lach&se found in his experiment that the distance 
at which the wadding of a gun would enter the body in one 
mass, did not exceed six inches from the muzzle, but that even 
at this distance it only occurred when a double charge of fine 
powder was used, and with an army Hence it 
is probable that an ordinary wadding, such as loosely wrapped 
paper, rag, or similar material, used in a fowling-piece, or in 
a musket by those not accustomed to the military use of the 
weapon, would not produce a rounded opening which would 
resemble that made by a bullet. Even if held at a less distance 
than six inches from the body, it is doubtful whether such a 
wound could be produced. Yet, although the opening may 
not be mistaken for that made by a bullet, it is certain that 
dangerous and fatal wounds are often made with wadding at 
short distances, by its penetrating the body and lacerating 
some important bloodvessel. 
§ 715. A curious and interesting case, which led to experi- 
ments confirmatory of the above, occurred in Paris, in 1858. 
In the circus a cannon was fired in the direction of the boxes, 
at a distance of about J50 feet. The cannon was about four 
feet long, four inches in calibre, and loaded -with three ounces 
of powder, retained by a wad made of old theatre bills torn 
from the street walls, loosely rolled together and rammed home 
(c) Phil. Med. Exam., March, 1846. 
(d) Orfila, Med. Leg., 4me edition, 2, p. 4G4. 
668 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL AND OTHER WOUNDS. 
[§ 717 
with moderate force. On one occasion a man was seated in a 
box opposite the muzzle of the gun, and at the distance already 
mentioned; he was leaning forward, with his arms crossed upon 
the handle of his umbrella, and, as the explosion took place, 
he fell violently backward, and was afterwards found to have 
his arm broken above the elbow. Several portions of wadding 
were found upon the ground underneath the place where the 
man had sat; but no marks existed upon his clothing, and 
none upon the anterior part of the arm, which, indeed, must 
have been inaccessible to any projectile that did not first strike 
the forearm. It was concluded that the fracture had been 
caused by the sudden and violent starting of the man back- 
wards, which must have brought his arm against the hard 
edge of partition; and various experiments tried with the 
cannon proved that any wadding which could be made of 
paper was dispersed in pieces, or lost all power of mischief, at 
a much less distance than one hundred and twenty feet.(e) 
§ 716. Gunpowder alone is capable of producing wounds 
which may prove fatal. When a pistol or gun charged with 
gunpowder alone is fired at an uncovered portion of the body 
at a distance of a few inches, a blackened, burned, and slightly 
lacerated wound will be produced, or if the grains of powder 
be large, the skin may present the appearance of having been 
struck with small shot. The burnt appearance of the skin, 
the singeing of the hair in the neighborhood, or the burning 
of a portion of the clothing, will all indicate that the charge 
has been fired close to the body. 
III. Homicidal, Suicidal, and Accidental Wounds. 
§ 717. The mode of obtaining a satisfactory solution of the 
question, whether a wound found upon a dead body was of 
accidental, suicidal, or homicidal origin, is by an examination 
of the wound itself, and of the circumstances under which it 
was produced. Under the first head, the considerations are 
purely of a medical nature ; under the second they are so to 
a limited extent only, and will, therefore, be more appro- 
priately examined in connection with the legal remarks upon 
(e) Annales d’Hyg., Avril, 1859, p. 420. 
669 § 718] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
homicide. We shall allude to them, therefore, in this place 
only in a cursory manner. 
1st. Situation of the wound.—Suicidal wounds are inflicted 
upon those parts of the body most accessible to the hand, such 
as the head, neck and anterior part of the trunk. They are 
usually either made by fire-arms, or by cutting instruments. 
If by the former, the wound will most frequently be found in 
the head, or over the heart;(/) and if by the latter, the throat 
is usually selected. If, therefore, a wound is found in some 
part of the body which it was manifestly impossible for the 
suicide to reach, this circumstance, in connection with the 
direction of the wound, will make the intervention of another 
or the occurrence of accident evident. Yet, as, in the greater 
number of cases, wounds exist upon the front part of the 
body, or at least in such situations that they could have been 
self-inflicted, the locality of the wound alone affords merely a 
presumption at most of its mode of origin. Moreover, it 
must be remembered, that all suicidal wounds are not in- 
flicted always by means of the hand, but sometimes by vio- 
lently striking the body against some solid substance, by pre- 
cipitation from a height, and by various other means, especially 
in persons of deranged intellect, who not unfrequently con- 
trive to mortally wound themselves in such a manner as would 
hardly be thought of by another. 
Orfila relates a case, in which an insane person killed him- 
self with a pistol-shot, fired behind the right mastoid process; 
the ball was found in the cerebellum. 
§ 718. A woman in this city endeavored to destroy herself 
by placing her head upon a block and dealing upon the back 
part of it numerous severe blows with a hatchet. A similar 
instance is reported by Mr. Tarleton, in which an insane gen- 
tleman was found lying insensible in his kitchen with the 
cleaver by his side. Upwards of thirty wounds were found 
over the occipital bone; they were horizontal, many of them 
(/) M. Brierre de Boismont states that in 297 out of 368 cases of suicide 
by fire-arms, the head was the part injured, and that in 71 only were the 
chest or the abdomen attacked. In 234 of the first group of cases the weapon 
was fired into the mouth. Du Suicide, p. 531. 
670 BOOK V.] 
DIRECTION OF THE WOUND. 
[§ 720 
superficial, but one, however, had removed a portion of the 
skull from the middle of the lambdoidal suture, so that the 
brain had escaped. This person, who survived his injuries 
four days, admitted that he had inflicted them himself.(y) 
Suspicion of criminal violence would very naturally be enter- 
tained in such cases as these, provided the body was accident- 
ally discovered in a deserted place. 
§ 719. 2d. Direction.—The direction of the wound will more 
frequently serve to distinguish a homicidal from an accidental 
wound than from one which has been self-inflicted. Thus, on 
the trial of Mrs. Mackin, in Edinburgh, in 1823, for murder, 
it was stated in the evidence that the deceased died from a 
stab. The prisoner alleged in her defence that she merely held 
the knife in her hand sloping upwards, to deter the deceased 
from attacking her; but that he, being drunk, stumbled 
forwards upon it. This statement was disproved by the medi- 
cal testimony, which showed that the direction of the stab was 
backwards, and very much downwards in the lungs, having 
penetrated the chest over the cartilage of the second rib.(A) 
A similar instance is given by Elvert, in which the downward 
direction of the wound, and its having been made in the manner 
of the German butchers, viz., a second internal wound after a 
partial withdrawal of the instrument, not only disproved the 
accidental origin of the wound, but indicated also the occupa- 
tion of the murderer.(z) In England, a few years since, a 
murder was fixed upon a man, from the fact that the wound 
in the neck of the deceased had been evidently made by a 
knife cutting from within out wards, as is done in slaughtering 
sheep. 
§ 720. The direction of suicidal wounds is subject to too 
much variety to be relied upon as a criterion, for although in 
many cases we may obtain from it a presumption that the 
wound was voluntary, yet it is evident that a wound inflicted 
by a murderer may assume any direction which could possibly 
be given to a suicidal wound. Besides, the deceased may have 
(g) TayliSrpMed. Jur., p. 191. 
(A) Cliristison, Month. Journ., Nov. 1851, p. 401. 
(») Kopp’s Jalirb., i. p. 143. 
671 § 722] 
wounds. 
[book v. 
been left-handed, or ambidexter, a consideration of some im- 
portance in this relation. In short, but little information of 
value can be obtained from the direction of a wound, unless 
the circumstances under which it was received are known ; 
hence, its chief importance is in corroboration of other 
evidence. 
In any case in which a person is found lying dead or dying 
from wounds or other bodily injuries, an accurate inspection 
of the locality, and of the position of the body in respect of 
surrounding objects, is of the highest importance, and should 
be minutely noted before the body is removed. 
§ 721. That part of the circumstantial evidence which requires 
medical knowledge for its elucidation, is often most curious 
and important, and as it has to deal with conditions incessantly 
varying, and is founded upon no familiar principles, nor any 
positive scientific basis,but rather upon loose and badly observed 
facts, must partake of the same nature, and often appear dis- 
cordant and improbable. Each medical witness may put 
together in a different manner the materials with which he is 
required to reconstruct the scene immediately preceding death; 
and a successful result will most naturally reward him, who 
with the most acute perception unites the largest and most 
familiar acquaintance with similar facts. In estimating the 
probabilities in reference to the manner of death, the physician 
has need of all aid which a general observation of the 
workings of the human mind can afford him, his psychological 
knowledge and his medical experience must here go hand in 
hand, for it is his task and duty to offer an explanation of the 
mutual dependence of motives and results, and that, in the 
same disinterested and merely scientific manner, that would 
be required in the demonstration of any curious fact in 
physics. 
That portion of the indicatory evidence upon which medical 
testimony may possibly throw some light, we may now cursorily 
allude to. 
§ 722. 3d. Position of body and of weapon.—The position of 
the body and that of the weapon (if the latter be found) sometimes 
throw light upon the mode of death. 
These two circumstances serve also generally to explain each 
672 BOOK V.] 
POSITION OF THE BODY, ETC. 
[§ 722 
other; separately considered they are not of so much import- 
ance. In cases of suicide the weapon may be found grasped 
in the hand or not, according to the manner of death. Thus, 
if death ensue upon sudden and abundant hemorrhage, as in 
wounds of the throat, stabs in the heart or great vessels, the 
person dies by syncope, and hence, the hand being relaxed, the 
weapon falls from it. When, however, death is occasioned by 
a pistol-shot through the head, the weapon will, in most cases of 
suicide by this means, be found firmly grasped in the hand. 
In other cases where death has not been immediate, it is purely 
a matter of accident whether the weapon be still held by the 
deceased or not. In like manner, the position of the body 
will be affected by the suddenness and mode of death. Where 
death is sudden, the body will usually be found lying upon the 
back, but if it have not been immediate, the face and trunk 
will generally be turned to the ground. The position of the 
body alone cannot be considered as indicative of the voluntary, 
accidental, or homicidal character of the injury, but if it be 
found in a position indicating immediate death from hemor- 
rhage or from the instantaneous loss of muscular power, and 
the weapon be found at a distance from it, the act may be 
considered in all probability as homicidal. Where, on the 
contrary, it is found in this position and the weapon by which 
death apparently was caused lies close to the body, it is im- 
possible, of course, to determine whether it has been placed 
there by another after assassination or has fallen from the 
hands of the suicide. Should the weapon be found firmly 
grasped in the hand of the deceased, there can be little doubt 
that the act was suicidal. The only objection which can be 
made to the supposition is, that it might have been placed in 
the hands of the person before life was extinct, and instinc- 
tively grasped by him. Ho case, however, is yet reported 
which would show that this has been done. Where after death 
by assassination a weapon is placed in the hand of the victim, 
it cannot be forcibly grasped, but will lie there loosely. Some- 
times the fact of the razor being shut (when this has been the 
weapon used) has been considered as indicative of homicidal 
interference; but such an inference is not justifiable, unless it 
can be shown from the position of the body and the character 
vol. ii.—43 
673 § 723] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
of the wounds, that death must have been instantaneous, and 
even here the question might naturally arise whether the fall 
of the razor to the ground might not sufficiently account for 
its being closed. Thus, for example, in a case of suicide related 
by Dr. Casper, the man, after having first inflicted with a 
razor, some superficial wounds at the bend of both elbows, 
stood before a mirror and, drawing down his cravat, cut his 
throat in an oblique direction from left to right, dividing the 
larynx and both external jugular veins. The razor was found 
bloody and closed, two feet distant from the body.(/) The 
same author reports another case of suicide by a pistol-shot in 
the breast, traversing the diaphragm and spleen, and subse- 
quent drowning. In this case the pistol was found in the 
pocket of the deceased, and the fact of its having been fired 
against the naked chest was shown by the circumstance that 
his coat and shirt were not perforated, and the former was 
buttoned up to the chin. 
§ 723. The following case illustrates the nature of the diffi- 
culties which sometimes environ the questions treated of in 
this chapter. At Paris, in 1858, an auctioneer and appraiser, 
thirty-one years of age, arrived at the Lyons railroad station, 
about six o’clock in the morning, and having engaged a coupe 
and placed his luggage upon it, entered the vehicle, carrying 
a double-barrelled fowling-piece in his hand. At some previous 
period he had been twice convicted of official misconduct, and 
his present position was not a prosperous one. But there was 
nothing to indicate his being humiliated or desperate; on the 
contrary, his habitual behavior was gay and even frivolous. 
On the way to its destination an explosion was heard in the 
carriage; it was stopped, and the body of the occupant was 
found seated in the left-hand corner, the legs crossed, and in 
the posture of a person seeking repose. The greater portion 
of the left side of the skull from the centre of the forehead 
was carried away; the legs were crossed, and between them 
lay a cane and a double-barrelled gun, the left barrel of which 
was still loaded and cocked. The thumb and index finger of 
the left hand were bloody, and the fingers clenched. Within 
(j) Gericlit. Leiclienoff. 1 tes Ilund. p. 17. 
674 BOOK V.] 
BLOOD-STAINS. 
[§ 724 
the skull were found numerous grains of shot. The deceased 
had, several months before, insured his life for about $30,000, 
which sum the insurance company refused to pay to his family, 
on the ground that his death was suicidal. Hence a lawsuit, 
in which the facts of the case were investigated. It was evident 
that at the moment of the explosion the forehead must have 
been upon or very near the muzzle of the gun, which was also 
grasped by the left hand. From these facts, M. Tardieu con- 
cludes that the’ death was suicidal,(k) and M. Brierre de Bois- 
mont draws the same inference, chiefly from the fact that there 
was no evidence of a previous inclination to this crime!(/) The 
court, however, condemned the insurance company to pay the 
amount of its policy. To us it seems perfectly natural that a 
sportsman, weary with a night’s ride in a railroad car, should, 
when seated in a hackney-coach, have leaned his head upon 
the muzzle of his gun, embracing but not covering the end of 
the barrel with his hand, and that a jolt of the vehicle should 
have caused the trigger to catch in his pantaloons and ex- 
plode the charge. Too many accidents of a similar nature 
have occurred, displaying an almost inconceivable negligence 
of the simplest precautions in handling firearms, for us not to 
adopt this conclusion in the present case as not only the most 
charitable, but also the most logical. 
The inference to be drawn relative to the suicidal or invol- 
untary cause of death, from the various other circumstances 
under which the body is found, do not belong to the 
and require in general no medical knowledge for their expla- 
nation. This portion of the indicatory evidence is treated of 
in the legal part of this subject. 
§ 724. 1st. General appearance.—Tlie color of stains of blood 
is dependent upon their age and the material upon which they 
are found. Those of a recent origin are of a deep red color, 
which ultimately becomes brown. The period required to 
effect this change is not determined; it occurs, however, most 
rapidly in warm weather. The recent stains of menstrual 
IV. Blood-stains. 
(&) Ann. d’Hyg., Avril, 1860, p. 443. (?) Ibid., Juilt. 1859, p. 188. 
675 I 726] 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
blood are also of a brown color. The depth of the color de- 
pends also upon the porosity of the substance. Thus marks 
of blood upon white stuffs and upon light wood are paler and 
duller than those on articles of greater density, as varnished 
wood, iron, and stone. "Where it has coagulated, this will 
usually be shown by one portion of the spot being thicker 
and darker than the other. 
§ 725. On colored stuffs, especially on those which are 
brown, blue, or black, the spot is more easily recognized by 
candle-light than by day. This important fact was discovered 
by Ollivier d’Angers. He had been directed to re-examine 
the room of a person accused of murder; having already 
visited it in the daytime, his second examination was con- 
ducted at night, and he now discovered by holding a lighted 
candle near to the paper hangings, which were of a pale-blue 
color, a number of drops of an obscure dirty-red, which by 
day had the aspect of small black specks, and were lost in the 
general pattern of the paper. On a further examination, 
other spots of the same kind were found on the furniture. 
On the chimney jamb, which was painted blue, there was a 
large stain of blood, which appeared red by the light of the 
candle. The next day by day-light Barruel and Lesueur could 
not find these spots, and were obliged to make use of artificial 
light to discover thera.(m) The same remarks will of course 
apply to spots of blood upon dark woollen cloth, in which they 
can also be detected by the stiffening of the material. If the 
stain be upon a weapon, such as the steel blade of a knife or 
poniard, the color will be of a pale-red where the layer is thin, 
and of a dark-brown color where it is of greater thickness. 
§ 726. 2d. Chemical examination of suspected stains.—If the 
stain be upon linen or other similar stuff, it should be cut out 
and suspended by a thread in a small test-tube containing an 
amount of distilled water sufficient fully to dissolve the stain; 
the coloring matter of the blood soon begins to detach itself 
and seek the bottom of the vessel, the supernatant liquid re- 
maining tolerably clear. The coloring matter will be dissolved 
in the course of a few hours ; the fibrin, if any were contained 
(?n) Briand, Med. Legale, p. 782. 
676 BOOK V.] 
BLOOD-STAINS. 
[§ 7-7 
in tlie spot, remaining attached to the stuff as a soft grayish 
or rosy-white substance. The colored liquid in the test-tube 
may now be subjected to various tests; but one or two very 
simple ones are all that is necessary to establish the certainty 
of the presence of blood. Supposing the liquid to hold in 
solution the coloring matter of the blood and albumen, the 
effect of heat carried gradually to the boiling point is to co- 
agulate it and destroy its color. According to the amount of 
albumen, will be the degree of coagulation, if the liquid con- 
tain merely a trace of it, boiling merely renders it opalescent. 
But the alteration of color is peculiar to blood. It changes 
from its more or less red color to a grayish-green without a 
trace of red, the upper portion of the liquid acquiring also an 
indistinct yellow tinge. The grayish coagulated portion may 
be redissolved with potassa, and acquires thereby a brownish- 
red color by refracted, and green by reflected light. Another 
important test for blood is the absence of any change of color 
by the addition of ammonia, except when very concentrated 
or added in large quantity.(w) 
§ 727. These tests will suffice to distinguish the colored 
serum of the blood from any stains resembling it. Thus the 
red soluble dyes or stains from the juices of fruits are not 
coagulated by heat, nor do they lose their color on exposure to 
it, but the red color is changed either to a crimson or to a 
green, sometimes passing through a violet shade by the ad- 
(n) Rose’s method is thus given by Casper (op. cit., i. 160) : The dried 
blood is thoroughly treated with cold distilled water, which is from time to 
time poured off from the undissolved fibrin until all the coloring matter is 
removed. The residual fibi’in can then be examined with the microscope. 
If the coloring matter in solution is now treated with chlorine water in 
excess, it becomes decolorized, and white flakes separate and float upon the 
liquid. Three parts of nitric acid to one part of the solution give a grayish- 
white precipitate, and four parts of tincture of galls to one of the solution 
give a pale violet precipitate. If a portion of the solution is boiled it is coagu- 
lated in a greater or less degree. The clot is of a dirty-red color, dissolves 
readily in a heated caustic solution of potassa, to which it gives a greenish 
tint by transmitted light, and, as before stated, appears brownish-red by re- 
fracted light. When a very small quantity, as a single spot of blood, is 
examined, all of these reactions cannot be observed. In this case it is ad- 
vised to boil the solution and treat it with caustic potassa, afterwards adding 
an excess of chlorine water or of nitric acid. 
677 § 728] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
(lition of ammonia. M. Raspail’s statement, that a stain 
possessing similar chemical characters with that of blood, 
could be formed by exposing to heat a mixture of madder and 
white of egg, has been corrected by Orfila,(o) who, in fact, 
denies its accuracy. He found that a solution of this artificial 
stain, although coagulated by heat, preserved its orange-red 
color, and the coagulum was of a pale red. In its further re- 
actions, also, it was quite dissimilar to blood. Hr. Taylor 
says: “Having for some years performed numerous experi- 
ments on this subject, by making artificial mixtures of human 
serum or animal albumen, with the red coloring matters of 
cochineal, lac, and madder, and neutralizing the effects of the 
alkali contained in the serum by the addition of a small quan- 
tity of acetic acid, I feel justified in stating that in no respect 
whatever, except in regard to color, can such mixtures be con- 
founded with blood. The objection is, therefore, more theo- 
retical than practical. These red liquids may easily deceive 
those who trust to a red color alone; and herein we see the 
necessity for placing the investigation of such subjects in the 
hands of professional persons only.” 
§ 728. The guaiacum process for the detection of blood.—The 
application of a solution of guaiacum for the detection of 
blood-stains is not a recent discovery. Van Heen, a Hutch 
chemist, first suggested it as a test for blood several years ago; 
but scarcely any attention was attracted to it until 1863, when 
Hr. Leman, of Berlin, made an investigation into the subject. 
The results he obtained, however, led him to give a rather un- 
favorable report of the process. 
Van Heen used an alcoholic solution of guaiacum and oil 
of turpentine, which contained what he supposed to be ozone. 
Hr. John Hay, of Geelong, Australia, experimented fully with 
tincture of guaiacum and ozonized ether with most satisfactory 
results, and in 1867 he forwarded to Hr. Taylor the report of 
a case in which he had used these substances for the detection 
of blood-stains. This induced the latter to repeat some ex- 
periments made by Van Been’s method, in 1864, and he fully 
confirms Hr. Hay’s results. Hr. Taylor states, in an elaborate 
(o) Med. Leg., ii. 618. 
678 BOOK V.] 
BLOOD-STAINS. 
679 
article on the subject,(p) that his experiments have satisfied 
him that oil of turpentine is not a favorable liquid for pro- 
ducing the results. Some of his formerly unsatisfactory re- 
sults he refers to an impure alcoholic solution of guaiacum, 
and to a non-ozonized or imperfectly ozonized oil of turpentine 
used in his experiments. According to this author, “The 
guaiacum process for the detection of the red coloring matter 
of the blood, depends on the use of two liquids: 1. A solu- 
tion of that portion of guaiacum resin which is dissolved by 
alcohol (.830); and 2. A liquid containing, not ozone, as Van 
Deen supposed, but antozone or peroxide of hydrogen, as de- 
monstrated by the experiments of Schonbein and Dr. Day. A 
saturated solution of guaiacum should be made, the inner 
portions of the resin which have not been changed in color by 
air or light being selected for this purpose. The solution 
should be preserved from light by being kept in a bottle 
covered with black paper or in a dark closet. When a few 
drops of this solution are added to water, there is a milky- 
white precipitate of the resinous principle in a fit state for 
oxidation. The precipitated resin exposed to air very slowly 
acquires a blue color, as a result of absorbing oxygen. Light 
alone appears to have no effect upon it. * * * When the 
precipitated resin is added to a jar of oxygen gas, and well 
shaken, it becomes more rapidly blued than in air, but the 
most remarkable change is produced by adding the precipi- 
tated resin to a jar containing ozone or an ozonized atmosphere. 
The resin acquires almost immediately an intensely blue color. 
These facts show that the bluing of the resin depends on a 
change of color produced by oxidation.” 
§ 729. This bluing may take place by the contact of many 
mineral and organic bodies with the precipitated resin; but a 
large number of substances are without any action on it. 
Starch, albumen, and fibrin do not change the color of the 
red to blue, and among animal liquids the red coloring matter 
of the blood does not in any way affect it. 
“ It is further remarkable that those mineral compounds 
which, according to Schonbein, contain oxygen in the from of 
(p) Guy’s Hospital Reports, vol. xiii. 1867, p. 131. 
679 § 732] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
antozone, as the peroxide of hydrogen, peroxide of barium, 
and the peroxides of the alkaline metals generally, exert no 
oxidizing action on guaiacum resin, and do not blue it. The 
guaiacum resin, therefore, as Schonbein pointed out some years 
since, is well adapted to distinguish an ozonide from an anto- 
zonide. Both oxidize the iodide of potassium and set free 
iodine, hut it is only the ozonide containing negative oxygen 
which renders the guaiacum blue. The antozonide containing 
positive oxygen has no such effect. 
§ 730. “ Peroxide of hydrogen added to the precipitated resin 
produces no change of color in it. Peroxide of barium (an 
antozonide) produces at first a yellowish color (owing to the 
presence of some baryta), but on adding a drop of acetic acid 
to correct this, the liquid is colorless and white. Liquids 
containing oxygen in the state of antozone, act in a similar 
manner. Thus the varieties of ether sold as ‘ozonized’ ether, 
whether a product of ethylic or methylic alcohol, ‘ ozonized’ 
essential oils, as turpentine or lavender, do not change the 
color of the resin, and it is, therefore, clear that they contain 
no ozone. Other facts show that they contain oxygen as 
antozone. The name given to these ethers is, therefore, based 
on a mistake.” 
The condition in which the blood is makes no difference in 
its action on guaiacum resin. Blood dissolved in water or 
alcohol, whether recent or old, or whether from man, the lower 
animals, or fish, does not oxidize or render blue freshly-pre- 
cipitated resin of guaiacum. 
§ 731. This test for the coloring matter of blood depends 
on the fact that the coloring matter of red-blooded animals 
does not oxidize nor render blue the guaiacum resin ; but 
when associated with another body containing antozone, which 
itself has no oxidizing action on the resin, the guaiacum is 
oxidized by the blood, and a blue color, of greater or less in- 
tensity, according to the quantity of blood present, is de- 
veloped. 
§ 732. Dr. Taylor gives the following directions for the ex- 
amination of blood by this process: “ Precipitate the resin by 
adding a few drops of the tincture to four drachms of water. 
Divide this liquid into two portions. Add to one a small 
680 BOOK V.] 
BLOOD-STAINS. 
681 
quantity of an aqueous solution of the coloring matter of 
blood, enough to give the faintest red tint, and to the other 
add a few drops of a solution of peroxide of hydrogen. There 
will be no change of color in the resin in either glass, i. e., 
neither the blood nor the peroxide (antozone) will oxidize the 
guaiacum or turn it blue. If to the first glass containing 
blood and resin, a few drops of peroxide are added, a blue 
color begins to show itself in a minute or two, just as if a 
liquid containing ozone (a solution of permanganate of pot- 
ash) had been added to it. If the quantity of resin precipi- 
tated is larger compared with the quantity of red coloring 
matter of blood wrhich is present, the blue color may be so 
concealed as not to show itself distinctly until several minutes 
have elapsed. On the other hand, when the red coloring 
matter of blood is in excess, the color produced will be of a 
dingy indigo or dirty violet. In all these cases, however, 
there is an easy method of bringing out the color. The oxi- 
dized resin is soluble in alcohol, retaining its blue color. On 
adding sufficient alcohol to dissolve the precipitated resin, 
which renders the liquid turbid, it will become clear, and the 
alcoholic solution will acquire a deep sapphire-blue color. If 
there is much albumen associated with the red coloring matter, 
this will, of course, remain undissolved. If to the second 
glass, containing a mixture of resin and peroxide, a solution 
of blood is added, the same result takes place, and the inten- 
sity of the blue tint according to the quantity of blood added, 
may be accurately observed. It is of little importance, there- 
fore, so far as mere results are concerned, which of the two 
liquids is first addedbut as the guaiacum resin is liable to 
be colored from oxidation by the direct contact of many sub- 
stances in the absence of peroxide of hydrogen, it is always 
desirable, in order to avoid any fallacy, to add the suspected 
liquid to the resin before the peroxide. If a blue or greenish 
color is thereby produced, although blood may still be present, 
there is some oxidizing substance in addition to blood which 
may conceal its presence. If the aqueous solution of blood 
has been boiled so as to coagulate and entirely destroy the red 
coloring matter, this process will not detect it. The guaiacum 
681 682 
WOUNDS. 
[book V. 
resin and peroxide will undergo no change of color when 
placed in contact with it.” 
§ 733. Hremine crystals also acquire a blue color when 
treated with tincture of guaiacum and peroxide of hydrogen. 
This process does not enable us to discover to what class of 
animals the blood belongs, neither does it show the presence 
of the blood-corpuscles. It is only applicable to the coloring 
matter from the blood-cells. 
§ 734. The red coloring matter of other substances, such as 
red paint, cochineal, kino, or other red coloring principles, 
which might be mistaken for blood, give no trouble in this 
test. The guaiacum resin is merely reddened on the addition 
of these substances, and the addition of ozonized ether pro- 
duces no further change. 
§ 735. It is most desirable to obtain the coloring matter for 
examination in solution, and for this purpose the stains on 
cloth or weapons should be scraped off, if possible, or the 
article of clothing cut in pieces and macerated in water until 
the coloring matter is dissolved. Even a faint trace of color 
is sufficient for the test. “ The small quantity which may be 
detected by this process is beyond the ordinary chemical tests, 
namely, ammonia and the effects of heat. The microscope 
shows nothing, for all the capsules or cells have been destroyed 
by water, and the coloring matter simply is diffused through 
the stuff* in solution. There is only one other process which 
can compare with it for delicacy, and that is Mr. Sorby’s 
method of examining the liquid by the spectroscopic eye- 
piece attached to the microscope, and noting the two dark 
absorption bands in the green portion of the spectrum.” How- 
ever, some substances, such as cochineal or ammonia, might 
give absorption bands by the spectroscopic process resembling 
those of blood; but these are distinguished from blood by the 
guaiacum test, for they give no blue color. 
§ 736. Hr. Hay sent Hr. Taylor the following account of a 
case in which he had detected blood under unusual difficulties, 
together with some portions of the suspected clothing for ex- 
amination. “On the 19th October, 1866, a murder was com- 
mitted at a place named Scarsdale, and a Chinaman was taken 
up by the police on suspicion. The trousers he wore at the 
682 BOOK V.] 
BLOOD-STAINS. 
[§ 737 
time he was apprehended had recently been washed, but there 
were some slight stains on a part of them, and a small piece 
was cut out and sent to Mr. Johnson, the government ana- 
lytical chemist, for examination. In his evidence he stated 
he had failed by chemical tests to recognize blood on the cloth 
sent to him by the police, in consequence of the quantity 
being so minute, but that he had discovered a slight trace of 
blood by the aid of a microscope. At my request he very 
kindly sent me the identical piece of cloth on which to try 
my test. On the day I received the piece of cloth, the blood- 
stains, if from the murdered man, would have been thirty- 
eight days old. It was rather dirty, but there was no blood 
to be seen on it by the naked eye. I succeeded, however, in 
the course of a few minutes, in striking off sixty impressions 
from the cloth, each impression showing bright-blue spots 
wherever blood-globules were present; after the sixtieth im- 
pression, the blue spots were difficult to produce and almost 
invisible, and before I got to the seventieth impression, the 
blood-globules seemed to have been all destroyed and the re- 
action ceased. 
“The mode of using this blood-test must, of course, depend 
on the nature of the material on which blood-stains are sup- 
posed to be present. The plan I adopted in applying it to the 
case of the Chinaman’s trousers was as follows: I first poured 
a few drops of tincture of guaiacum over the cloth, and then 
a drop or two of ozonized ether. The blue color did not show 
on the cloth, but on putting a slip of white blotting-paper on 
it, and gently pressing it with an ivory paper knife, I got a 
perfect impression, and then another, and so on until all the 
blood-globules were destroyed. All that -was necessary was to 
add a little more ether, or perhaps a little more guaiacum. 
In testing for blood on white materials there is, of course, no 
necessity for striking off impressions on white paper.” 
§ 737. For the examination of blood-stains on clothing, Dr. 
Taylor considers the plan suggested by Dr. Day “ admirably 
adapted to detect blood. The spot is first wetted with a little 
water; a drop of tincture of guaiacum is then allowed to fall 
on it. It should now be pressed firmly on white blotting- 
paper, and if no blue stain is produced, there is nothing in 
683 §737] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
tlie dye or material or in the blotting-paper to affect the appli- 
cation of the test. Another drop of tincture of guaiacum is 
then added to the stain, and this is followed by two or three 
drops of a solution of peroxide of hydrogen. No change of 
color may be observed, but in a minute or two a blue impres- 
sion of the blood-stain may be procured by firmly pressing the 
wetted portion of the cloth on white blotting-paper. Blood 
may thus be readily detected on dark articles of clothing in 
which the color of the woollen renders it difficult to see any 
stain, and the shape and form of the spot are sometimes pretty 
clearly indicated by the form of the blue stain produced. 
This remark applies also to stains of blood on woollen which 
have been sponged or washed for the purpose of obliterating 
them. Unless all the red coloring matter has been removed, 
which is an extremely difficult process, blood may be detected 
by the direct application of guaiacum and peroxide of hydro- 
gen. If the woollen is gray or light-colored, the production 
of a blue color is at once seen on the stuff. If it is thick 
woollen, it is probable that the red coloring matter has been 
washed to the inside, and has spread by imbibition. It may 
be then detected, and the boundary of the washed portion 
determined by repeated applications of the guaiacum and 
peroxide at different parts. Before any conclusion is drawn, 
however, a portion of the clothing should be similarly treated 
on which there is no suspicion of blood having fallen, and 
which presents no appearance of staining. The result should, 
of course, be negative. As a rule, this experiment should be 
first performed, because it furnishes good negative evidence 
that the guaiacum process may be safely applied directly to 
the stained article of dress. It is not probable that all parts 
of a woollen garment should be stained with blood, hence this 
comparative experiment may be performed without difficulty. 
To articles of woollen, silk, cotton, or linen which are not 
colored, the guaiacum test admits of an easy application. In 
November, 1857, a towel was stained with a number of spots 
of blood, and in some parts with bloody water. In the pre- 
sent month, December, 1867, i. e., after the lapse of ten years, 
these stains were examined and tested. They had a dark red- 
brown color, no lustre and no distinct appearance of coagula 
684 BOOK V.] 
FRUIT-STAINS. 
[§ 738 
or dried elot to the naked eye. A small spot of undiluted 
blood was wetted with water and tincture of guaiacum then 
dropped on it. No change of color was observed; the peroxide 
of hydrogen was then added, and a deep-blue stain made its 
appearance in the situation of the stain. The intensity of 
the blue color was increased by the addition of a few drops of 
alcohol. A similar experiment was performed on a well- 
washed stain of blood in which the red coloring matter was 
so diluted as scarcely to tinge the towel. A light-blue color 
was produced by the test in one or two minutes, and this was 
intensified by the addition of alcohol. The tint under these 
circumstances varies from a deep indigo-blue, when the red 
coloring matter is abundant, to a pale azure-blue, when it is 
at a minimum and scarcely visible to the naked eye. The 
blue color thus produced, if moderately strong, will remain 
for weeks or months without material change. Neither light 
nor air appears to have any decomposing effect on it. A 
corner of the same towel was now selected as being quite free 
from any stains of blood or bloody water, and the stuff was 
then treated in the same manner as the stained portions. The 
guaiacum and peroxide became dry without producing any 
visible change of color. There was no blood on this part of 
the towel. The affirmative and negative results obtained in 
these experiments showed conclusively that dry blood in its 
ordinary state, and washed blood in a most diluted state, may 
be easily detected by this process after the lapse of ten years. 
The towel in this case had been lying loosely exposed in a 
drawer which was frequently open. 
§ 738. “Fruit-stains.—These create no difficulty. On color- 
less articles of clothing, they present, either to the naked eye 
or when seen through a lens, an equal and superficial staining, 
wholly unlike blood in color. There is no stiffening of the 
fibre, no appearance of a clot, and the addition of a weak 
solution of ammonia may impart to them either a greenish, an 
olive color, or a crimson tint. The coloring matter of a blood- 
stain undergoes no change by the addition of weak ammonia. 
The guaiacum and peroxide applied to fruit-stains produce no 
blue color ; hence, if no change of color took place, the infer- 
ence would be that the stain was not owing to blood. If, 
685 § 740] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
however, a blue color was produced, it should be noted 
whether this is caused by guaiacum only, and, further, whether 
an unstained portion of the colorless stuff does or does not 
produce a similar color with the test. 
§ 739. “Iron-stains ; Iron-moulds.—These, when old, have 
an ochrous or ruddy-brown color. On cotton and linen they 
are commonly observed to penetrate equally both sides of the 
stuff. When examined with the naked eye, and still better 
with a lens or a low power of the microscope, they are quite 
different from stains caused by blood either in a diluted or 
undiluted state. There is no appearance of fibrin or a coagu- 
lum, no glossiness of surface, no stiffening of the stained 
fibre, and an absence of anything approaching to crimson or 
red tint of blood. Water will not dissolve or diffuse the 
stain ; but a mixture of equal parts of water and hydrochloric 
acid will speedily dissolve it, especially by the aid of heat— 
the iron-mould, as it is called, disappears, and the acid liquid 
now holds a salt of iron, which may be discovered by all the 
usual tests. If tincture of guaiacum is added to an iron-mould 
on cotton or linen, it undergoes no change. The peroxide of 
iron is in a perfectly insoluble form, and it has no action on 
the guaiacum resin. The iron-mould remains equally unchanged 
by the addition of the peroxide of hydrogen to the guaiacum. 
There can, therefore, be no difficulty in distinguishing stains 
of blood from iron-moulds; but it may be desirable to demon- 
strate that the stain is really caused by peroxide of iron. The 
iron-stain, wetted with tincture of galls, undergoes no change, 
owing to the insolubility of the oxide. It should be first 
wetted with glacial acetic acid and dried by a gentle heat. 
The stain is not thereby removed, but the iron is converted 
into an acetate, and if, when dry, a drop of the tincture of 
galls is added, the stain at once acquires a dark purple color. 
Its ferruginous character is thus indicated. 
§ 740. “ Ink-stains.—Stains caused by ink, owing to their 
peculiar color, are not likely to be mistaken for stains of blood 
so long as they are on colorless articles of clothing; but if such 
stains are upon black cloth, silk, or woollen, and the guaiacum 
test is applied directly to the stuff', a fallacious result might he 
obtained. Ink contains a persalt as well as a protosalt of 
686 BOOK V.] 
IRON-STAINS. 
687 
iron. Tincture of guaiacum added to very dilute ink pro- 
duces a mixture which becomes rapidly blue by oxidation. 
All the salts of iron, including the sulpho-cyanate, operate in 
a similar manner, and at once render the guaiacum blue. A 
very minute quantity of perchloride of iron will also cause 
this change in guaiacum. The addition of any form of anto- 
zone is not necessary to produce this change of color with the 
salts of iron, and it does not in any way increase it. Herein, 
then, lies the distinction. If the stain is on black cloth the 
guaiacum solution should be added, with a little water to dis- 
solve the ink, and the wetted stuff firmly pressed on white 
blotting-paper. If ink is present, there will be a blue spot 
produced, showing that the stain is probably owing to a salt 
of iron. The cloth cut into fragments and macerated in dis- 
tilled water, will yield a dark-purple or bluish-black liquid, 
having the usual appearance of diluted ink, and wholly unlike 
blood. The guaiacum solution added to this aqueous liquid is 
precipitated, and the precipitated resin rapidly acquires a blue 
color without the addition of peroxide of hydrogen. 
§ 741. “But iron may, in some instances, be present without 
being indicated by a stain or discoloration in the substance. 
Thus, white or tawed leather produces a blue color with 
guaiacum and peroxide of hydrogen, very like that caused by 
blood: it also produces a blue color, but more slowly with 
guaiacum alone. Alum and salt are used in the manufacture 
of this leather, and, as, when sold for manufacturing purposes, 
these substances frequently contain a notable quantity of iron, 
the bluing effect on the guaiacum may be owing to the 
presence of this metal thus transferred to the skin. Some 
kinds of white kid leather are open to the same observation ; 
hence, blood-stains on white kid gloves should, if possible, be 
removed by water, and the red aqueous liquid separately 
tested. Some kinds of writing-paper sized with sulphate of 
alumina containing iron, produce spots of a blue color with 
the guaiacum. When flour paste has been used in the dressing 
of the paper, the guaiacum may be rendered blue by the gluten, 
which is incorporated with the pulp. Filtering paper and 
calico are occasionally charged with flour paste, and in this 
687 § 745J 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
case the guaiacum might be colored by coming in contact with 
the gluten.” 
§ 742. Stains on weapons.—These should be scraped off and 
dissolved in water. If any blood he present it will .slowly 
acquire a blue color on the addition of tincture of guaiacum 
and peroxide of hydrogen. Should the stain be due solely to 
iron-rust, the guaiacum will produce no blue color, since com- 
mon rust is insoluble in water. However, the rust produced 
on iron by certain vegetable acids, citric or acetic acid, is solu- 
ble in water, as it contains a soluble persalt of iron. This 
blues guaiacum without the addition of the peroxide of 
hydrogen and has all the usual reactions of iron, so this need 
give no trouble. 
§ 743. In conclusion, Dr. Taylor remarks, that “ the use of 
guaiacum adds another and valuable chemical test to those 
hitherto employed for the detection of blood. It enables a 
chemist to speak with reasonable certainty as to the presence 
of blood when in very small quantities; and to trace it in 
those cases in which an attempt has been made to remove 
the marks by washing. On the other hand, when the results 
are negative, it enables him to say that a suspected stain was 
not caused by blood—a fact of considerable importance in 
some medico-legal inquiries.” 
§ 744. In a later paper,{q) Dr. Taylor states, that further 
experience has shown him that the aqueous solution of per- 
oxide of hydrogen which he has advised to be used above, is 
difficult to obtain in a state of purity. It is liable to contain 
some acid, sulphuric or hydrochloric, and which acts on the 
precipitated resin. He therefore recommends, with Dr. Day, 
the use of “ the ethereal solution of the peroxide, sold as 
ozonized ether.” This is perfectly pure, and does not change 
on keeping, so long as it is in a well-stoppered bottle and in a 
cool place. 
§ 745. Other tests have been proposed, but none of them are 
as distinctive and reliable as those mentioned. Thus, nitric 
acid coagulates the albumen and changes the color to a gray 
or dirty brown, according to the amount of liematin; the 
(q) Guy’s Hospital Reports, 18G9-70, p. 273. 
688 BOOK V.] 
STAINS ON WEAPONS. 
[§ 746 
tincture of galls occasions a precipitate without altering the 
color, and hypochlorous acid chauges it to a greenish-brown 
color. 
§ 746. When the spot of blood is upon a hard substance, it 
may, in most cases, be removed by careful scraping. If upon 
the point of a weapon, it may be macerated for a short time 
in a narrow vessel containing water, hut if on any other part, 
if not easily removable by scraping, as when the blood has 
dried in a film or in streaks, the stained part should be laid 
upon a clean plate of glass, after having been previously 
moistened with distilled water. The two surfaces should be 
in immediate contact with each other, but care should be used 
that the metal be not left too-long exposed to the action of 
the water. Blood-stains upon iron and steel may sometimes 
be mistaken for rust or salts of the oxide of iron made by some 
of the organic acids. In the case of rust the color is different, 
being more or less yellow, but occasionally this distinction is 
not sufficiently evident. If, however, the spot be detached 
and placed in distilled water, it does not dissolve, although 
part of it may remain suspended in the water. By filtration, 
however, the rust is entirely separated, the filtered liquid re- 
maining colorless. The residue upon the filter will give the 
proper reactions with the ferrocyanide of potassium or the 
alkalies, after having been first digested with dilute hydro- 
chloric acid. If, however, the stain be due to lemon-juice or 
other organic acid, it will be observed in the first instance 
that the color is darker than that of blood, being often nearly 
black; it is also very soluble, and although slightly coagulable, 
the solution yields at once to the tests for iron, giving an in- 
tense blue color with the ferrocyanide, and a deep red with the 
sulphocyanide of potassium.(r) 
(r) Dr. Carl Sclimidt, Diagnostik der verdaclitigen Flecke in criminal 
Fallen. Leipzig, 1849. 
The detection of blood-stains upon iron is difficult, but important. Vau- 
quelin was the first to remark that iron rust upon domestic utensils and in- 
struments contains ammonia, hence, if on being heated it yields ammonia, 
this is no proof of the presence of blood. If this experiment is performed 
with a gentle heat upon iron rust in a glass tube, and if after the ammonia is 
driven off the heat is increased, a peculiar odor, such as always attends the 
vol. ii.—44 
689 § 749] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
§ 747. There is a number of insoluble stains which present 
a certain similarity to those of blood. Such are, madder and 
logwood dyes, iron moulds, and red paint. The insolubility 
of these stains ought to be a sufficient indication of their 
being due to some other cause than the presence of blood. 
The coloring principle in madder is, however, rendered yellow 
by acids and violet by alkalies, a change which of course will 
not be produced in a spot of blood. 
§ 748. Still, the spot may be soluble, and yet not be due to 
blood. In some cases stains, somewhat similar to blood-stains, 
are made by the juices of fruits, or by soluble coloring matters. 
Dr. Albert found, on the clothes of a young man accused of 
attempted assassination, a large number of red spots which 
had the appearance of blood. On examination, however, he 
found that a portion of them only were caused by blood, and 
the rest by red chalk, the prisoner’s trade being that of a wall- 
colorer. All the' stains were soluble, but those which were 
really due to blood were distinguished from the others by their 
more shining appearance, the appearance of fibrin in the so- 
lution, which sank to the bottom, the want of change upon 
the addition of caustic ammonia, and their appropriate re- 
action with nitric acid and with tincture of galls. The spots 
made by the red chalk disappeared in a fine powder on being 
rubbed, communicated their color uniformly to the w’ater, and 
the solution was changed to a violet-brown color by caustic 
ammonia, dark brown by nitric acid, and remained unchanged 
upon the addition of tincture of galls.(s) 
§ 749. If the supected stain on the clothing be caused by 
iron rust, it will be readily dissolved out by hydrochloric acid, 
carbonization of albuminous substances, is exhaled, and a brown, offensive, 
empyreumatic oil is deposited on the less heated portions of the tube. Still 
stronger evidence is afforded by the following test: Melt a small quantity of 
the slightly heated rust with an equal volume of potassium or sodium in a 
very small glass tube closed at one end ; when cool, mix -with water, filter, 
and decompose the liquid with a very small quantity of a solution -which 
contains both the protoxide and the peroxide of iron, and saturate the whole 
with an excess of hydrochloric acid. If blood be present, a greater or less 
quantity of prussian blue will be developed, but if the ferruginous solution 
is in too great quantity, the color will be green. (Casper, loc. cit.) 
(s) Henke’s Zeitsclirift, 1855. H. ii. p. 392. 
690 BOOK V.] 
CHEMICAL EXAMINATION. 
[§ 750 
and then may be subjected to the appropriate tests. Ddvergie 
reports an instance in which iron mould awakened consider- 
able suspicion of violent means having been used. The body 
of a young man, bearing the marks of many injuries upon it, 
was taken out of the Seine, where it was supposed to have 
lain for three weeks. Red stains were found on the shirt, 
which were supposed to be of blood, but, upon examination, 
they were satisfactorily proved to have been due to the rust- 
ing of a steel guard-chain and a bunch of keys on the person 
of the deceased. Dr. Taylor gives an instance in which spots 
of red paint upon the dress of an individual, were the occa- 
sion of his being arrested on suspicion of being concerned in 
a murder which had been perpetrated shortly before. The 
color in this instance was due to the peroxide of iron, which 
was readily detected. 
§ 750. The distinction of arterial from venous blood, except 
when recently effused, is manifestly impracticable. Their 
chemical reactions are very nearly alike, and the only ground 
of distinction is in the more florid color of the former when 
recently poured out, and occasionally also in the form of the 
spots; those made by arterial blood being generally of an oval 
or elongated shape, in consequence of the blood having been 
thrown in a jet from the divided vessel. Moreover, in prac- 
tice the two kinds of blood will almost always be mingled 
together, as it is difficult to conceive a wound being made 
which shall not involve both sets of vessels. Dr. Taylor makes 
some interesting observations on the form and direction of 
spots of blood, suggested by the case of Reg. v. Spicer:(t) “At 
the top of the stair, and at the height of four or five feet above 
the level, several spots of blood were observed upon the brick 
wall, which was whitewashed. The spots took an oblique 
direction from above downwards, were of a pale-red color at 
the upper part, but dark-red below, terminating in a point 
consisting of the fibrin, and the greater part of the red color- 
ing matter. Their form and regularity proved that they had 
proceeded from a small artery, and that the wounded indi- 
vidual could not have been very distant from the wall, while 
(t) Berk’s Lent. Assizes, 1846. 
691 §751] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
their shining lustre rendered it probable that they were of 
recent origin, and their well-defined termination in a firm 
coagulum showed that they had proceeded from a living blood- 
vessel. The deceased had died from fracture of the skull and 
vertebral column, by a fall from the top stair; one branch of 
the right temporal artery was found divided, and this wound 
could not have been produced by the fall. It was, therefore, 
evident that a murderous assault had been made upon her at 
the top of the stairs; this had led to the spirting of the arte- 
rial blood on the brick. The height at which the spots ex- 
isted, and their appearance, proved that the jet of blood had 
been from above downwards; thereby rendering it probable 
that the deceased was standing up, or that her head was 
raised at the time the wound was inflicted. Further, as the 
brick with the spots was on the left hand in the descent, and 
the wounded artery was on the right side, it is probable that 
the deceased was face to face with her assailant in the act of 
ascending the stairs, and that she was killed by being precipi- 
tated to the bott.om.”(w) It has been supposed that menstrual 
blood could be distinguished from other kinds by the absence 
of fibrin; but, although this discharge does not usually coagu- 
late, it nevertheless contains fibrin, and sometimes in very 
appreciable quantity. Dr. Franz Simon says : “ There can be 
little doubt that there is fibrin in the menstrual secretion; its 
determination is, however, usually rendered impossible by the 
presence of a large amount of mucus, which seems to deprive 
the blood of its power of coagulating.”(v) M. Robin has 
given as characteristic qualities of menstrual blood, that it 
contains, besides blood-disks, epithelial cells and globules of 
mucus (leucocytes) ;(w) but the latter elements are wanting 
whenever the menstrual flow is excessive, and in such cases, 
therefore, the liquid presents no distinctive characters. 
§ 751. The presence of fibrin in a blood-stain is merely 
corroborative proof of the origin of the spot, but does not 
indicate with any certainty that the stain was derived from 
(u) Med. Jur., p. 203. See also case of Drory, by the same author. Guy’s 
Hospital Rep., vol. vii. 1851. 
(t>) Animal Chemistry, Syd. Soc. ed., p. 338. 
(u>) Ann. d’Hyg., 2eme ser., x. 421. 
692 BOOK V.] 
CHEMICAL EXAMINATION. 
[§ 752 
the blood of a living person; nor, on the other hand, does its 
absence give any support to the opinion that it was derived 
from a body already dead, since, if the stain be superficial, it 
may yield no traces of fibrin, even though it came from a 
living vessel, and coagulation in a dead body is not complete 
immediately upon the extinction of life. Hence, if the phy- 
sician be able clearly to discover the traces of blood by the 
reactions of the colored serum before indicated, it is superflu- 
ous to inquire for the presence of fibrin; and, on the other 
hand, this element of the blood could hardly be detected 
without ample proof of the nature of the fluid having been 
already obtained from other sources, since the quantity re- 
quired would be considerable. 
§ 752. The discrimination of the blood of animals from that 
of man by chemical means, is too uncertain to be used as 
evidence. M. Barruel has stated that, if one-third or one- 
half its volume of pure sulphuric acid be added to blood 
and agitated, a peculiar odorous principle is evolved, resem- 
bling that of the animal from which the blood was derived. 
Thus, human blood is said to give oft' an odor of perspiration; 
that of the cow, horse, sheep, pig, etc., a smell recognized as 
peculiar to the animal. M. Barruel claims to have discovered 
this property even in blood which had been dried. According 
to Schmidt, the experiment succeeds only with the blood of 
the ram, sheep, and cat. But more recently, an experiment 
was made by MM. Tardieu, Barruel, and Chevalier, which 
shows how little confidence can be placed in this test. These 
experts were charged with the duty of determining whether 
some blood found in the cellar of a woman accused of murder 
was human, or, as she alleged, that of a sheep. Being unde- 
cided in opinion, they procured the blood of sheep, oxen, and 
of the living and dead human subject, and these, with the blood 
from the cellar, and that upon the clothes of the accused, were 
placed in separate test-tubes by an assistant, and numbered. 
Sulphuric acid was then added to each, and the mixture stirred. 
Each expert was required to write secretly his opinion as to 
the source of the blood in each glass. The result was the 
greatest confusion, the human blood being constantly mistaken 
693 § 754] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
for that of the animal, and a correct opinion seemed only to 
be obtained by chance.(:c) 
§ 753. 3d. Microscopical evidence.—An additional and valuable 
means of detecting the presence of blood in suspected stains, 
is by the microscope. If the spots are recent (a week old, for 
example), three to six hours are sufficient to disaggregate the 
mass of globules, but a solution of the sulphate of soda pene- 
trates very slowly those which are old, and several days may 
be required for this purpose. When the tissue has been well 
soaked, the stains may be carefully detached with a scalpel, 
and the liquid thus removed should be placed upon a glass 
slide, and immediately covered with another one. Upon ex- 
amining a blood-stain thus prepared, many other objects will 
be seen besides the blood-globules, such as filaments of tissue, 
etc., but the observer should abstract his attention from these, 
unless there is reason to suppose that they may indicate the 
locality from which the blood came, as in the case of mucus, 
etc., in attempts at rape. A portion of the globules will be 
found free, while others will be attached to the fibres of the 
stuff, but they will preserve their natural color, volume, and, 
more or less, their shape also, to such an extent, however, as 
to be readily recognized.(y) The microscopical characters of 
spots upon woollen cloth are less easily recognized than those 
on linen, hemp, or cotton. The investigation should, of 
course, be conducted only by one familiar with the use of the 
microscope. If this be done, there can be no hesitation in 
saying that the results will be fully as valuable as, and open 
to fewer objections than, the chemical tests. 
§ 754. The stain to be examined should be treated with a 
solution of sulphate of soda or of white sugar, in order to 
preserve the natural shape of the blood-corpuscles. If the 
stain have been previously washed, it is very possible that the 
microscope will afford only negative results; but whenever it 
is possible to recognize distinctly even a single blood-disk in 
the liquid examined, this is quite sufficient to attest the pre- 
(a:) Casper’s Yierteljahrscbrift, 1854, H. i. p. 120. See also Henke’s 
Zeitsclirift, 1855, H. ii. p. 892, for a number of experiments made with a 
similar result, by Dr. Albert, of Euerdorf. 
($0 Robin. Briand, Med. Leg., p. 790. 
694 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
[§ 755 
sence of bloocl. Dr. Taylor says be baa obtained “clear evi- 
dence of their existence in, and separation from, a minute 
fragment of dry blood, which had been kept in a* dried state 
for a period of three years.” M. Robin detected them in 
spots from eight to twelve years old. But such certainty can- 
not be expected if the spots have been washed, or if, while 
fresh, they have undergone putrefaction. Sometimes, when 
the red corpuscles cannot be detected, it may be possible to 
distinguish the lymph-globules, which are larger than these, 
but few in number, and colorless. Professor Wyman says 
that when blood is allowed to dry in masses, he has failed to 
detect the presence of the blood-disks. “ The lymph-globules, 
on the contrary,” he says, “ may be softened out after they 
have been dried for months, and their characteristic marks 
readily obtained.” He fouud it easy to detect them in blood 
which had been dried six months.(z) Virchow also states that 
they resist being dried and moistened anew better than any 
other constituent of the blood.(a) Still, they are much fewer 
in number than the red corpuscles, and, according to the best 
authorities, not in greater proportion than 1:400.(5) Virchow 
lays great stress upon their presence in blood subjected to 
medico-legal examination, on account of their power of resist- 
ing the influence of desiccation and subsequent moistening, 
and further, because their presence may confirm a doubtful 
opinion regarding the existence of red corpuscles in the spot 
examined. Much will depend, however, upon their number, 
for, if it should equal that of the red corpuscles, or nearly so, 
they must be regarded as belonging to pus rather than to 
blood. The possibility of their number being explicable by 
leukaemia, or leucocythemia, a disease in which they may be- 
come one-third as numerous as the red corpuscles, is also to be 
borne in mind. 
§ 755. The red corpuscles of man have an average diameter 
of of an inch, and this size is not affected by age, being 
the same in the young and the old. They have a flattened 
(s) Statement by Prof. Wyman in Bernis’ Webster Case, p. 90. 
(a) Archiv, xii. 335. 
(Z>) See Kolliker, Mikroskopiscbe Anatomic, Bd. ii. p. 576. 
695 § 755] 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
shape, depressed centre, and circular outline. These charac- 
ters suffice to distinguish them from those of birds, fish, and 
reptiles, in which creatures they are of an oval or elliptical 
form, and have a distinct central nucleus. They have the 
same shape also in the camel tribe. But the globules in all 
the mammalia (with this exception of the camelidce) are so 
nearly alike in size and other characters to those of man, that, 
practically, no distinction can be made. Thus, the blood of 
an ox or of a sheep cannot by the miscroscope be, for medico- 
legal application, distinguished from that of a human being, 
for although the globules are somewhat smaller than those of 
human blood, yet the size of the globule of human blood varies 
according to whether it is fresh or dried, and the difference 
between its size in man and animals is too slight to be made a 
point of evidence in cases where such momentous consequences 
may depend upon the decision.(c) 
(c) For the comparative size of the blood-globules in man and animals, 
the reader may consult with advantage Kolliker’s Mikroskopische Anatomie, 
Bd. ii. p. 580; Briand, Manuel Pratique de M6d. Leg., 781 ; Todd and Bow- 
man’s Physiological Anatomy, part iv. p. 299 ; C. Gulliver on the size of the 
red corpuscles of the blood in the vertebrata, in the Proceedings of the 
Zoolog. Soc., ciii. 1842; R. Wagner, Beitriige zur vergl. Physiologie de3 
Blutes, i. 1833, ii. 1838 ; Partium Elementarum Mensiones Micrometricae, 
1834. Carl Schmidt has also conducted such measurements with great in- 
dustry (see an excellent paper upon blood-stains, by Dr. Fleming, Am. Med. 
Sci., Jan. 1859, p. 110), but his results, while they show a considerable 
average difference between the size of the human blood-globule and that of 
various domestic animals, are still insufficient to be brought in evidence in 
the decision of medico-legal questions. This also is the emphatically ex- 
pressed opinion of Virchow and of Briicke. (Virchow’s Archiv, xii. 336.) 
In the following case of presumed infanticide, in which a medical expert 
was required to determine the nature of some spots found upon a towel (de- 
scribed as having served to envelop the child) which was found concealed 
under a threshing-floor, the reader will perceive the nature of the investiga- 
tion sometimes required:— 
(1) The towel was of coarse huckaback, quite rotten, as a year had elapsed 
since it was concealed in the locality in which it was discovered, and the 
letters J. E. A., 20, were marked in red cotton upon one corner. It was 
very much torn, and full of holes. 
(2) In one corner three spots of a dark-red color, resembling blood, were 
found. 
(3) On another portion of the towel numerous large spots of a dark-green 
color were seen, resembling dried meconium. The texture of the cloth was 
696 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
[§ 757 
§ 756. The application of the higher powers of the micro- 
scope, and especially the use of immersion lenses, has of late 
years enabled observers to widely extend the field of medical 
jurisprudence in regard to the examination of blood-corpuscles 
in dried stains. 
Dr. J. G-. Richardson, of Philadelphia, microscopist to the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, has recently pointed out(<7) that 
with suitable precautions the outlines of the red corpuscles 
can be recognized in a fragment of dried blood when magni- 
fied 1000 diameters, and that the material left when a coagu- 
lum is acted on by water hitherto considered (as taught by 
Virchow and Robin) to'be fibrin, is made up of the membrane- 
like external portions of the red cells, with a very few delicate 
fibrin filaments interspersed among them. 
§ 757. Dr. Richardson’s method of examination is as follows: 
a minute particle of the suspected blood clot, about the size of 
a grain of writing sand or less, is scraped from the surface of 
a button, stud, glazed collar, cuff, etc., or from among the 
60 penetrated with this matter that even upon the opposite side it was slightly 
tinged with green. 
(4) Spots of various sizes, of a grayish-yellow color, were found on other 
parts of the towel. These spots were dry, and could be detached in scales. 
(a) The red spots were cut out and softened in some fresh liquor amnii, 
and revealed, upon examination by the microscope, all the characteristics of 
human blood. 
(b) The portions discolored by the green material were also cut out and 
placed in distilled water, others in alcohol. These solutions, when treated 
with concentrated sulphuric acid, and a few drops of a solution of sugar 
(according to Pettenkofer), gave traces of a violet color, which was consid- 
ered to indicate the presence of bile. 
(c) Some of the same spots, dissolved in liq. amnii, and examined by the 
microscope, were found to consist of biliary cells, -cylindrical epithelium, and 
fatty crystals. 
(d) The grayish-yellow stains, being prepared in a similar manner, exhibit- 
ed epidermic cells, and cells from the sebaceous follicles. Hence it wras in- 
ferred that the various discolorations upon the towel arose—1. From blood; 
2. From the secretions of the liver and intestines ; and 3. From the cutane- 
ous secretion ; and that they could all be explained on the supposition of a 
new-born child having been wrapped in it. It was further supposed, from 
the ragged condition in which the cloth was found, that it had been torn by 
some animal which had carried away and devoured the body of the child.— 
Wistrand, Hygiea, Bd. xiv. p. 220. 
(d) Hand-book of Medical Microscopy, Phila. 1871. 
697 § 758] 
WOUNDS. 
[eook v. 
fibres of muslin, linen, or cloth, with the point of a cataract 
needle, letting it fall upon a microscopic slide which has been 
carefully cleaned. A thin glass cover should then be laid 
upon the minute fragment, pressed down firmly so as to crush 
the particle into powder, and the whole transferred to the 
stage of the microscope. 
§ 758. After finding a suitable portion of clot with a thin 
bevelled edge, such as frequently splits off under pressure, pure 
water should be introduced at the margin of the cover and 
allowed to flow very slowly toward the chosen specimen; 
when this is reached by the wave of fluid, a remarkable 
appearance of boiling up from the ce’ntre is presented for a 
few moments and then as the tinged liquid is replaced by clear 
water an aggregation of compressed corpuscles,^1) very faint 
and colorless, but yet of unquestionable distinctness, come 
into view. A few straight interlaced filaments of fibrin are 
often visible, and at intervals the well-defined, granular, spheri- 
cal lymph globules occur among the other elements. The de- 
colorized red corpuscles may be rendered more obvious by in- 
troducing at the margin of the cover a minute portion of 
iodine or red aniline solution. Great care must be taken to 
avoid any movement of the cover upon the slide, wdiich, when 
it occurs, often rolls the interposed disks into an apparently 
homogeneous mass, and it is advisable to keep up a current of 
fresh water beneath the cover until all tinge of color is removed 
from the clot, otherwise none but the granular lymph corpus- 
cles may be visible. 
From experiments made for the purpose, this observer con- 
cludes, that the corpuscles of blood-stains upon muslin, dried 
with various degrees of rapidity, do not vary in their average 
diameter more than of an inch; and, in regard to the 
detection of different kinds of blood, he therefore concludes, 
“although it must be admitted that the blood-corpuscles of a 
few mammals approach so nearly in size to those of man as to 
render their distinction doubtful, yet for the practical testing 
of blood-stains in criminal trials we will rarely find such a 
decision necessary, since, as a rule, justice only requires that a 
((?') Vide Fig. 27, Hand-book of Medical Microscopy, p. 284. 
698 book v.] 
[§ 758 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
positive diagnosis shall be made between human blood and 
that of animals which are commonly slaughtered for food, 
such as the ox, the sheep, or the pig; and of birds, as, for ex- 
ample, chickens, ducks, etc.and adds that in all such cases 
a careful observer with our present improved microscopes may 
give a positive opinion. The smallest amount of blood in which 
Dr. Richardson claims to have distinguished human red cor- 
puscles from those of the ox, sheep, or pig is the T2,W<jth of a 
grain of the dried clot.(d2) 
(d2) In the trial of Leavitt Alley, in Boston, in February, 1873, it became 
a material question whether certain dried blood was human, as the prosecu- 
tion alleged, or was that of a horse. The blood was not subjected to exami- 
nation until it had dried. As part of the evidence in chief, Dr. S. Dana 
Hayes and Dr. Horace Chase testified to the effect that the blood was human. 
This was met by the defence by the evidence of Dr. Chas. T. Jackson, Prof. 
J. F. Babcock, and Prof. G. B. Harrison, to the effect that it is impossible to 
distinguish dried blood of men from dried blood of horses. 
The following is the report of the testimony as published in the Boston 
Daily Advertiser :— 
“Dr. S. Dana Hayes testified : Have examined many stains of blood and 
supposed blood-stains ; I examined a vest that was stained on the inside ; the 
buttons were gone from the vest, having apparently been torn off violently 
quite recently ; examined an undershirt and drawers, and found certain spots 
upon them both ; I cut out the pieces and carried them to my laboratory ; 
the stain on the sleeve of the undershirt is pure blood ; it is different 
from horse blood and menstrual blood; have compared it with the 
human blood of Mr. Ellis and found no difference between the two ; I do 
not wish to be understood that the blood was identical, for science will 
not allow of that decision ; science can only say that it is blood ; science 
cannot say that it is human blood, but it can say that it is not horse blood or 
menstrual blood; the blood upon the right knee of the drawers was rather 
a doubtful stain, because there were more of the white corpuscles of the 
blood than in any other ; it was the stain of blood, but cannot say of what 
kind ; the blood removed from the crotch of the drawers resembled menstrual 
blood ; the blood upon the right knee of the pants was pure blood; it was a 
large stain, about one-third as large as my hand, having the appearance of 
being recently washed ; it corresponded to the stain on the right knee of the 
drawers ; all the stains on the clothing and the boards were alike, and all 
pure blood except the blood on the crotch of the drawers ; there was a clot 
of blood on the lining of the coat tail; it was not horse’s nor menstrual 
blood ; I divided my specimens of these spots with Dr. Chase ; it was on the 
13th of January ; the chief of police handed me a small piece of skin which 
I found to be human flesh ; I live in Longwood, in Brookline ; know where 
Parker Street is and am familiar with the locality ; the Brookline bell rings 
in the morning at seven o’clock ; can hear it distinctly. 
699 § 759] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
§ 759. An additional and still more certain proof of the 
presence of blood is derived from certain microscopical crystals 
“Cross-examined : I began the examination on November 9, and have con- 
tinued at intervals up to tlie present time ; the fact that a substance is blood 
or not is determined by analysis and by microscopic examination ; if it stands 
both of these tests it is blood, and there can be no mistake; the difference 
between horse’s and human blood is this—that in horse’s blood the corpuscles 
are about one-third smaller than in human blood ; the differences in human 
blood are very minute, hardly perceptible. 
“ Dr. Horace Chase testified : Have been in practice as a physician about 
eight years ; am also a chemist; have examined many stains of supposed and 
real blood; had six specimens of the blood found upon Mr. Alley’s clothes 
and on boards in his stable ; the blood upon them was the same ; compared 
it with horse blood and found that there was a difference; should judge it 
was human blood.” 
For the defence the following testimony was introduced : — 
“ Dr. Charles T. Jackson sworn : Have lived in Boston forty years, and 
am an analytical and consulting chemist and State Assayer for the Common- 
wealth ; have taken a regular medical degree at Harvard College ; have fre- 
quently had occasion to examine blood in reference to trials ; it is not a diffi- 
cult thing to ascertain whether stains are blood ; the drying up of blood de- 
pends on the weather ; I think it would dry entirely in twenty-four or thirty- 
six hours ; there is no way to tell how long blood has been in a place after it 
has dried; if blood was scraped off with a knife after it had dried there 
would be no way of telling how long it had been on any place it was found ; 
blood is a liquid, the fluid part of which is yellow, containing fibrine and 
red corpuscles ; some 79 per cent, of blood is water ; corpuscles are circular 
disks having a central point, and are the same in all mammalia ; if corpuscles 
were thrown on a board the serum would sink into the wood and be absorbed, 
leaving the corpuscles shrunk up in all manners of shape ; when warm and 
fresh the corpuscles of a man are much larger than those of a horse ; there 
are different-sized corpuscles in man in the same blood, varying from one 
three hundred and twenty thousandths to one three hundred and seventy-five 
thousandths ; there are also in the blood colorless globules which are very 
irregular; assuming that dry human blood was brought to me, the corpuscles 
can be swelled out again, but there is no method known to science which can 
determine whether the corpuscles after being swelled are of their original 
size ; I know of no means, and none are recorded in scientific authorities, of 
determining the difference between the dried blood of man and that of mam- 
malia ; this is settled by the highest authorities ; the measurements of Dumas 
and Prevost are used all over the continent of Europe ; in the best authority 
of England, a work by Wm. A. Guy, it is stated that there is no means of 
knowing the difference between the corpuscles of the different mammalia. 
“ The citation of authorities by the doctor was objected to by the Attorney 
General, and excluded by the defence. 
700 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
ts 759 
which this liquid contains. They were discovered in 1853 by 
Teichmann, and the method of detecting them has subse- 
“ Cross-examined by Mr. May : The last time I made a personal examina- 
tion of blood in reference to the size of corpuscles was within two years ; 
have never made an examination of the blood of different mammalia with 
reference to their relative size; a corpuscle can best be compared to a biscuit, 
the disks being rounded up and the highest in the middle ; the highest au- 
thorities known maintain this ; in their normal condition I know that cor- 
puscles are not depressed in the centre ; Lelirmann is a high authority on this 
question ; there is a difference of a third in the size of a particle of human 
blood and horse’s blood; if you took particles of human and horse’s blood, dry, 
by putting those two into an artificial serum, it is altogether an uncertain ex- 
periment to bring them back to their normal shape ; do not believe that with 
a powerful microscope a man could tell when a dry corpuscle was brought 
back into its original shape, and in my opinion they could never be restored 
with any certainty ; in one drop of blood a single corpuscle might possibly 
be restored to its original shape, but it is hardly within the range of proba- 
bilities ; it requires the most powerful microscope to even distinguish cor- 
puscles ; the blood of reptiles and birds is contained in elliptical or oval- 
shaped vessels, which are much easier examined than the corpuscles of mam- 
malia ; never have examined the blood of birds or reptiles, but in my opinion 
if it once became dry it would be impossible to restore the vessels to their 
original condition; if a globule of blood was magnified 800 times, it would 
be about as large as the point of a sharp pencil; if the blood of two different 
mammalia was taken in a fresh shape, under certain conditions, and then 
placed under a magnifying glass, I think a different size in the globules might 
be observed, but it would be a very difficult and delicate task to observe the 
difference ; it would be very slight, however ; dog’s blood would be the same 
size as man’s blood, and sheep’s blood the same as horse’s; I know that 
Dumas was engaged on his work thirty years ago, for I was one of his pupils 
in Paris. 
“Dr. James F. Babcock sworn: Reside in Boston and am an analytical 
chemist and professor for five years in Massachusetts College of Pharmacy ; 
was previously with Professor Horsford at Cambridge ; have frequently been 
called upon to examine blood and stains ; have examined stains perhaps a 
dozen times and blood many times ; it is a delicate matter to determine blood, 
but by a proper method it is an easy thing to recognize it; blood chemically 
is a fluid, consisting of the clear portion called the serum, fibrine, corpuscles, 
and other constituents of small qualities ; the time of the drying up of blood 
would vary according to circumstances ; blood spattered upon wood in ordi- 
nary weather would dry in a day ; in a building blood would dry up in 
twenty-four or thirty-six hours ; after blood has once dried up it is impossible 
to tell how long it has been there ; could tell whether blood had been upon a 
surface two or three weeks, but could not tell whether it had been there four 
or five weeks ; if blood was scraped from a surface with a knife you could 
701 702 
[book V. 
WOUNDS. 
quently been perfected by Briicke, Virchow, Buchner and 
Simon, and Bryk. Blood-crystals most frequently are seen as 
not tell liow long it had been there ; take warm blood, and the only way to 
measure the disks is by a micrometer screw ; the difference in the size of 
mammalia corpuscles vary within certain limits ; the corpuscles of the same 
animal are not of the same size, though perhaps ninety per cent, are; the 
average size of the human corpuscle is one thirty-two hundredth of an inch in 
diameter ; the extremes are from one two thousandth of an inch to one four 
thousandth of an inch ; the blood coagulates and becomes solid, the corpus- 
cles previously floating in the fluid contract, the edges shrink together, the 
mineral salts crystallizing, and the shape of the corpuscles when dry, before 
scraping off or after, cannot be told ; they shrink up like a sponge ; from my 
experience you cannot tell whether it is human or horse blood ; the average 
size of a human corpuscle is a little larger than a horse’s, one twenty thou- 
sandth of an inch ; corpuscles are shaped like cheeses, and after dried blood 
had gone through a chemical process it would be impossible to restore the 
corpuscles to their normal condition ; I do not know of any authority which 
tells the way to distinguish between the dried blood of man and that of mam- 
malia ; there is no standard of measure to tell the difference between the 
dried blood of a human person and that of a mammalia ; authorities on this 
point are not doubtful, but are all unanimous in saying that the difference be- 
tween the dry blood of man and mammalia cannot be distinguished. 
“ (Witness produced a copy of Guy’s Forensic Medicine, and read there- 
form a passage in support of his statements) ; the best authorities are Leh- 
mann’s Physiology, Watt’s Chemical Dictionary, and Horswell’s Toxicolo- 
gists’ Guide. 
“Cross-examined by Mr. May : The size of corpuscles in human blood 
varies within certain limits ; taking the average at one thirty-two hundredth of 
an inch, they would vary from one thirty-one hundredth to one thirty-three 
hundredth of an inch ; the difference between the size of corpuscles in human 
blood and those of horses is about one-third; have examined human blood 
with reference to the related size. 
“ The best illustration of a corpuscle would be a cent; in so speaking I do 
not mean its exact shape, because no object is quite like a corpuscle; the 
shape of a corpuscle is slightly concave toward the centre ; I have seen a 
particle of human blood magnified from a diameter of 50 to 500. (Witness 
then drew the size of a corpuscle as it appeared to him under a diameter of 
GOO.) Had seen a photograph of the blood of an animal under 1500 dia- 
meters. 
“Re-direct examination: There is no certainty in pointing out on paper 
the size of an object as it appears under a microscope. 
“ Re-cross-examination : Lehrmann in his work says that the moist blood 
of different vertebrae can be distinguished, but the statement is qualified ; I 
think the most improved micrometer is in the eye-piece. 
“ Prof. Babcock then read other passages in the work at the request of Mr. 
702 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
703 
rhomboidal plates, but sometimes as rhomboidal columns, and, 
when less perfectly developed, have the form of a shuttle, or 
Somerby, and claimed that it substantiated bis statements; tlie experiments 
made by Sclimidt were by drying fresh blood in thin layers on a glass plate. 
“George B. Harriman sworn : Live in Boston ; am a dentist and professor 
of microscopic anatomy in the Boston Dental College ; my experiments lead 
me to examine the tissues of the human body; blood consists of fluid in which 
float red and white corpuscles ; its other substances perhaps chemistry alone 
can decide; blood drawn from a body will coagulate: the corpuscles in a 
human body will vary from 2000th of an inch to 3800th ; 400 diameters is as 
small as corpuscles can be examined, but can be magnified to 5000 or 10,000 
diameters ; I have a microscope which will magnify 10,000 diameters, and 
do not know of another instrument of that size in this country ; have ex- 
amined sheep’s, cats’, dogs’, and horses’ blood with this microscope ; the 
corpuscles in a horse’s blood will vary ; the moment blood is exposed to the 
air it coagulates and dries up, and the corpuscles shrink and assume such a 
shape that it would be impossible to determine whether it was human blood 
or horse’s blood ; in a dried condition the corpuscles in human blood and 
horse’s blood resemble each other ; it would be impossible to tell the difference 
between the corpuscles of human and horse’s blood, in a dry state, by a 
chemical test; have made this a specialty, and the highest authorities agree 
with my statement; microscopes varied, as the lenses were different, and in 
determining the size of corpuscles it was a matter of judgment. 
“Cross-examination : Have been a dentist sixteen or seventeen years ago ; 
was educated at the New Hampshire Literary and Biblical Institute ; I then 
studied dentistry with Dr. Clough eight or nine years, and was in company 
with him ; entered the Boston Dental School five years ago, and graduated 
there ; attended nine months’ lectures there, and made a specialty of the ex- 
amination of the tissues in the human body ; the size of the corpuscles of a 
frog would be from 1500th to 2500th of an inch in diameter, or about twice 
as large as human corpuscles ; this could be determined by a microscopic 
examination ; with my microscope I have compared human blood and that 
of sheep, horses, and cats ; there is no particular difference between the 
blood of these I have enumerated ; have made such an examination since the 
great fire ; I know white corpuscles are the largest by comparison wTith my 
microscope ; out of a hundred corpuscles I do not think from ninety to 
ninety-five would be of the same size ; the same would hold true of man or 
horse ; upon the authority of Dr. Beal the difference between drjr human 
blood and that of mammalia cannot be distinguished ; do not think that 
science could determine the difference between a fresh drop of human blood 
and horse’s blood. 
“Emmanuel Samuels sworn : Live in Quincy, and my business is prepar- 
ing microscopic specimens ; have been engaged in that work twenty years, 
and think that there is hardly a medical man in the United States but what has 
some of my specimens ; without mechanical arrangements microscopes are 
not alike ; I have never seen two people vrho saw an object the same through 
703 § 759] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
that of a §. Like other microscopical crystals, they tend to 
intersect one another, and often form a St. Andrew’s cross, a 
a microscope ; do not remember of ever having examined horse’s blood, but 
have that of animals ; have had no experience in examining blood. 
“No cross-examination.” 
We give below a letter which appeared in the Advertiser, Feb. 20, 1873 :— 
“ To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser:— 
“ In your paper for February 17, under the above heading, appears an 
editorial article, possibly based upon the closing argument of the defendant’s 
counsel in the recent trial for murder in this city, which certainly reflects 
unjustly upon me and my evidence. The official records of this case will 
show that I did not make such broad statements as have been attributed to 
me, although I admit and can substantiate all that I did say on the witness 
stand. 
“First, with regard to my microscopic examinations, without reference to 
the chemical analysis. There were nineteen specimens of blood and soft 
flesh taken from the stable and suspected clothing ; these were repeatedly 
and carefully compared, upon several instruments, in different lights and 
with different powers, with the blood obtained from two horses, and also 
with that on Mr. Ellis’s clothing. These comparisons were made at different 
times—when the specimens were first received and when they were appa- 
rently quite recent, again at the end of a month, and again just before the 
trial. New portions of the materials W'ere taken for each of these examina- 
tions, and they were always placed ‘side by side,’ the horse’s blood being 
that obtained personally from the animals at as nearly the time of Mr. Ellis’s 
death as possible, one of them shortly before and the other soon after this 
event; and instead of taking other human blood I preferred to compare with 
that taken from the contents of the barrels found in Charles River. 
“ In all these comparisons there was no apparent difference between the 
suspected blood and that of Mr. Ellis, but in every instance the difference 
between these and the horse’s blood was positive, and so distinguishable that 
the horse’s blood could be selected from the others when it was not known 
upon which part of the slides it had been placed. These specimens were 
developed in the same vehicle, and, every condition necessary for exact com- 
parison having been carefully preserved, the differences were then found to 
be very distinct, the horse’s corpuscles being alike, and about one-third 
smaller than the others, when I viewed them with the micrometer. 
“ Secondly, referring to my evidence—when called by the government, 
and knowing the responsibility that rested upon me, I testified in the direct 
examination only to the results of my investigation, that it was impossible to 
determine whether the suspected blood was human ; that it was not like any 
horse’s blood that I had ever examined, and spoke of my comparisons. In 
the cross-examination, when adroitly asked about fresh warm blood, I stated 
in reply that the corpuscles of human and horse’s blood, being of different 
sizes, could be readily distinguished under the microscope. 
“ I expresely stated that the accepted authorities gave the measurements of 
704 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
[§ 760 
stellate figure, or a rounded body studded with points like a 
stramonium apple. Their prevalent color is a dull brownish- 
red, but it may vary from a dirty yellow to deep black, accord- 
ing to the amount of coloring matter of the blood which is 
present in the solution. Their number is likewise subject to 
great variation. They are wholly insoluble in water, alcohol, 
ether, and chloroform, and in acetic, phosphoric, and muriatic 
acids; slightly soluble in ammonia, and in dilute sulphuric or 
nitric acids; but entirely so in solution of potassa, to which 
they give a dark-green color, also in English sulphuric acid, 
and in fuming nitric acid. To the last-named liquid they im- 
part a brownish-red color. In chlorine-water they become 
disintegrated and corroded, and lose their color.(cP) 
§ 760. These characteristic crystals have been obtained from 
these corpuscles, not that they were my measurements ; and, when asked to 
quote these authors, inadvertently said thousandths instead of hundredths, a 
mistake which I corrected before leaving the room. 
“ These are the parts of my evidence that you have taken the opportunity 
to criticize so severely, saying that 4 very small human corpuscles and very 
large horse corpuscles might be placed side by side and found equal. ’ I think 
you have overlooked the fact, that, although there are differences between 
the maximum and minimum measurements that have been made of corpuscles, 
by the authors you quote, all authorities agree upon a constant difference, 
and that, when the observer of maximum dimensions gives the measurement 
of human corpuscles, he also gives the maximum measurement of horse’s cor- 
puscles comparatively large, or, in other words, that the differences are those 
of different observers and not different corpuscles in the same kind of blood. 
And again these differences in the blood of mammalia have been sworn to by 
others, in capital cases previously tried in this country and in Europe, when 
the offenders have been convicted and made confession of their crimes. 
“In scientific discussions of this kind it is dangerous to rely upon the state- 
ments made in books, as inferences may be nearly always drawn from them 
which are quite contradictory ; and this, with the advantage taken by the 
counsel of professional jealousies, often throws discredit upon scientific testi- 
mony and perplexes a jury. 
“ In the present case, working as I did upon soft flesh and blood, I am very 
certain of my results, and they were fully confirmed by an able colleague 
who gave his evidence at the trial, and who has made practical proofs of these 
truths to many other observers; but I think that my connection with this 
case has been sadly misrepresented in your editorial already mentioned. 
“No. 4 State Street, Feb. 19, 1873.” 
(d3) Buchner and Simon, Virchow’s Arcliiv., xv. 52. 
“S. Dana Hayes. 
vol. ii.—45 
705 § 761] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
all kinds of blood—from that of man,\piadruped, fowl,and fish ; 
from fresh and putrid blood; from newly-drawn blood and from 
spots several years old; from arterial, venous, and menstrual 
blood ; from pure blood and from that which was mingled with 
all sorts of impurities. It is to be observed that various coloring 
matters, mostly from the vegetable kingdom, form crystals 
which bear some analogy to those peculiar to the blood—as in- 
digo, alkanet, logwood, madder, etc. But the blue color of the 
first of these, and the want of color in the rest, with the rhombic 
forms of their crystals, are sufficiently distinctive, to which, 
however, may be added their ready solubility in many liquids, 
and, for the most part, even in water. Purpurate of ammonia 
presents some difficulties. It forms, both with and without 
the addition of acetic acid, crystals very closely resembling 
those of hsematin, in form and in color. Its acetic solution 
gives residue, after evaporation, of a clear brick-red color, but 
blood similarly treated is a dull brownish-red. The same 
residue becomes purplish-red on the addition of water; mu- 
riatic acid destro}’s its color, arid solution of potassa gives it a 
blue tint; whereas blood-crystals are insoluble in the first 
liquid, and form a dark-green solution with the other. 
§ 761. In making this examination, the suspected spots on 
soft substances—as clothing, etc.—should be cut out, and those 
on hard substances carefully removed by scraping, and liquids 
thought to contain blood should be concentrated by evapora- 
tion. Spots a few weeks or months old yield their coloring 
matter readily to water, but older and faded stains require 
maceration or boiling in acetic acid until the latter is reddened. 
Indeed, this is the speediest and most certain process for all 
blood-stains, except when they are upon a substance the color- 
ing matter of which is extracted by the acid. The acetic 
solution thus obtained should be gradually evaporated in a 
watch-glass at a temperature of 100° to 140° F. If blood is 
present, a thin, reddish, transparent crust is left behind, in 
which the crystals of hsematin lie firmly imbedded, and ready 
for examination by the microscope. It is not necessary, as 
was at one time supposed, to add common salt to the acetic 
solution. On the contrary, this addition tends to confuse the 
result where the blood-crystals are abundant. Still, it must 
706 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
[§ 763 
be admitted, as Buchner and Simon insist, that, if a first trial 
without salt gives a negative result, the experiment should be 
repeated with this addition; and, if enough only of the sus- 
pected material is preserved for a single experiment, the use of 
salt should not be omitted. It is essential that a very 
minute grain of salt should be added to the solution before it 
is heated. 
§ 762. The following important details respecting the ap- 
plication of the above method to the examination of blood- 
stains under different circumstances are furnished by Prof. 
Bryk.(e) Spots of blood left by fleas or bugs yield no crystals. 
Blood-stains on wood differ with the character of the wood. 
If smooth, dry, and hard, it does not interfere with the for- 
mation of crystals ; but if it imbibes the blood, it will still, 
during the first six or eight days, yield by maceration a solu- 
tion of the hsematin which will furnish crystals. At the end 
of six or eight weeks this is no longer the case with soft 
wood, the tannin of which apparently renders the coloring 
matter insoluble. On clean iron the susceptibility to crystal- 
lization remains so long as rust does. not form. On clay 
and chalk blood also remains indefinitely, unless it is in a 
very thin layer, or is exposed to the action of the weather. 
§ 763. Examination of blood by the spectrum-miseroscope.— 
The following directions are given by Mr. Sorby for the detec- 
tion of blood by the spectroscope.^1) 
“ In applying the spectrum test to the detection of blood- 
stains, the method of examination must to some extent depend 
on the amount of material at command. If there be not too 
little, a small portion of the stained fabric should be soaked 
in a few drops of water in a watch-glass, the liquid squeezed 
out, allowed to stand a short time in the glass, so as to deposit 
any insoluble matter, and then poured into one of the small, 
deep cells used in examining the spectrum. These cells should 
be made from barometer tubing, having an internal diameter 
of one-eighth or one-tenth of an inch, and should be one-half 
or three-quarters of an inch long; one end being fastened to a 
(e) Prager Yierteljahr., lxii. anal. p. 106. 
(e>) Guy’s Hospital Reports, 1869-70, p. 271. 
707 § 763] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
piece of plate glass, like an ordinary cell for mounting objects 
in liquids. If the stain had been recently made, the spectrum 
of fresh blood would then be seen, which has two well-defined 
absorption bands in the green. If, however, the blood had 
been exposed some time to the action of the air, these bands 
would be fainter, and another would be seen in the red. The 
relative distinctness of this shows the amount of change, and 
is some indication of the age of the stain; but in forming 
any such conclusions, it is necessary to know the circumstances 
of the case, since the sulphurous acid met with in towns or 
in rooms where gas is burned, produces more change in a day 
than purer air does in a week. If, however, little or no 
change had occurred in a town, it would be good evidence of 
the stain having been recently made. In order to make the 
detection of blood still more certain, it is well to observe 
the effects of reagents and examine other spectra. A piece of 
citric acid about one-fiftieth of an inch in diameter should 
therefore be dissolved in the liquid in the cell, when it will be 
seen that the absorption bands of the fresh blood gradually 
disappear, and are not restored by the subsequent addition of 
excess of ammonia. This is a most important fact, since it 
shows that the acid produces a permanent change, which is 
not the case in nearly all other red coloring matters. To re- 
move all doubt about the presence of blood a very small piece 
of sulphate of protoxide of iron, not above T J 0th of an inch 
in diameter, should be added to the cell, care being taken to 
insure the presence of excess of ammonia, and to avoid, as 
much as possible, oxidization by exposure to the air. It is 
therefore well not to stir up the liquid, but, having previously 
rather more than filled the cell, to cover it with a small piece 
of thin glass, and, after removing excess of liquid by blotting- 
paper, to fasten down the glass by putting round it a little 
gold size. If enough citric acid, and not too much sulphate 
of iron, have been added, the protoxide of iron may be made to 
dissolve by turning the cell upside and downside over and 
over again ; or by keeping it for a time upside down if the 
oxide has adhered to the bottom. By this means the hsematin 
is slowly deoxidized, and the well-marked absorption band of 
deoxidized hsematin gradually makes its appearance in the 
708 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
[§ 764 
green, with a second fainter band nearer the blue end. If the 
solution be at all turbid, the cell should be kept horizontal for 
a time, so that the insoluble matter may be deposited on the 
side. The production of such a remarkable and characteristic 
spectrum by the addition of sulphate of iron, as far as I am 
.aware, only occurs in the case of blood, and therefore affords 
very conclusive evidence of the presence of that substance. 
With proper care these various results may be seen to perfection, 
with about grain of blood, but I need scarcely say that 
before any one attempts to apply the test in any important 
case he should try the experiments with a little undoubted 
blood so that he may be made familiar with the various 
spectra, and quite certain that he understands all the requisite 
manipulations. In all cases the spectra of a suspected stain 
should be compared side by side with those of blood, in order 
to see that there is a perfect agreement; and, of course, in all 
these experiments the solutions must be diluted to such an 
extent as to show the spectra in a proper manner. 
§ 764. “ It may, however, often happen that the suspected 
stain may contain so little coloring matter that it would be 
essential to examine it without any loss. Since exposure to 
the air may make the stain only partially soluble in water— 
and if it had been previously washed nothing but such 
insoluble matter might be left—the stained fabric should be 
digested in a few drops of water in which the small piece of 
citric acid had been already dissolved, and the excess of 
ammonia afterwards added before the liquid is introduced 
into the cell. The spectrum should then be examined before 
and after the oxidization by sulphate of iron. With proper 
care good evidence of the presence of blood may thus be ob- 
tained from an extremely faint stain, since T 0th of a grain of 
blood suffices to show a decidedly characteristic spectrum. 
“The above methods apply to staining on cloth, silk, linen, 
and calico; and I need scarcely say that it is desirable to 
ascertain whether any important amount of color is dissolved 
from unstained portions. In the case of stains on leather or 
any substance containing tannic acid special precautions are 
requisite, since it precipitates the coloring matter of blood, 
which, therefore, might not be detected, even though present 
709 710 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
in considerable quantity. If the stain be on leather, a thin 
shaving should be cut off from the surface, so as to have as 
much blood and as little leather as possible, and the blood 
should be dissolved off without exposing the solution to the 
action of the leather itself. This may be accomplished by 
taking one of the experiment-cells, nearly filled with water, 
bending the shaving, and inserting it into the upper part of 
the tube, so as to touch the water, being careful to arrange it 
so that the stain may be on the convex side of the leather and 
in contact with the water. When a drop of blood falls on 
leather, many of the red globules are filtered out from the 
serum, and left on the surface; and when thus treated they 
dissolve, and the colored solution sinks at once to the bottom 
of the cell without coming in contact with the leather. If, 
however, the stain had been previously sponged or washed, it 
might, perhaps, be impossible to detect blood by the spectrum 
method. 
§ 765. “ For detecting blood in urine, it is best to use a tube 
of thick glass, ten inches long, and a quarter of an inch in 
diameter, permanently closed at one end with a circular 
piece of glass, and, when filled, covered at the other end 
with another glass. If the urine be at all turbid, it should 
be filtered ; but, since most of the red globules would also be 
separated, the precipitate on the filter should be washed with 
a little water, and the solution examined by itself, or added 
to the filtered urine. If the depth of the color in the ten-inch 
tube be so great that the yellow end of the green part of the 
spectrum is absorbed by the urine, it must be somewhat 
diluted, or examined in a shorter tube. In the case of urine 
of average depth of color, I find that as little as T^,^ath part 
of blood can easily be detected, which is- equivalent to about 
one drop in a pint. 
§ 766. “In conclusion, I must say, that, in examining some 
thousands of spectra, I have been led more and more firmly to 
believe that with anything like reasonable care there then is 
no difficulty in obtaining satisfactory proof of the presence 
or absence of blood. I do not at present see any probability of 
deciding by the spectra from what kind of animal it came; but 
710 BOOK V.] 
MICROSCOPICAL EVIDENCE. 
711 
of course the mere fact of its presence or absence may be of 
very great importance in connection with other evidence. (/)” 
§ 767. For the modes of detecting hair, and also dried cere- 
bral matter, under the microscope, we would refer the reader 
to the suggestions of Orfila and Kobin, in Briand’s Manual de 
Med. Leg., pp. 810-816. For cases in which evidence from 
these sources was considered of importance, see the same 
work; also Med. Gaz., vol. xlviii. p. 729, where it was neces- 
sary to distinguish between the hair of a human being and an 
animal; also Taylor’s Med. Jur., p. 249, where some cotton- 
fibres detected by the microscope on the edge of a razor showed 
that the weapon had cut through the strings of a cotton night- 
cap, in giving a fatal wound upon the neck; and, finally, one 
in Henke’s Zeitsclirift, 1853, p. 334, in which an assassin was 
detected and convicted partly upon the indicatory evidence 
furnished by a lock of hair remaining firmly grasped in the 
hand of the murdered man. The hair resembled, in all its 
physical character, that of the prisoner; the individual hairs 
were found to be some of them broken, others torn out by the 
root, and others cut, and a bare place was found on the 
prisoner’s head to which they corresponded. 
§ 768. The value of microscopical evidence of the charac- 
ter of stains and of hair is well illustrated by the following 
case^/1) which occurred in Norwich, England. A female 
child, nine years old, was found lying on the ground, in a 
small plantation, quite dead, with a large and deep gash in 
the throat. Suspicion fell upon the mother of the murdered 
girl, who, upon being taken into custody, behaved with the 
utmost coolness, and admitted having taken her child to the 
plantation where the body was found, whence the child was 
lost by getting separated while in quest of flowers. Upon 
being searched, there was found in the woman’s possession a 
large and sharp knife, which was at once subjected to minute 
and careful examination. Nothing, however, was found upon 
(/) “For general directions in using the spectrum-microscope, I beg to 
refer to my article in Dr. Lionel Beale’s 1 Howto Work with the Microscope,’ 
4th edition, 1868, p. 218.” 
(/') Quoted by Dr. Fleming, loc. cit., from Chambers’s Journal, part xxxv. 
Dec. 1856. 
711 712 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
it, with the exception of a few pieces of hair adhering to the 
handle, so exceedingly small as scarcely to be visible. The 
examination being conducted in the presence of the prisoner, and 
the ofiicer remarking: “ Here is a bit of fur or hair upon the 
handle of your knife,” the woman immediately replied: “Yes, 
I dare say there is, and very likely some stains of blood, fpr, 
as I came home, I found a rabbit caught in a snare, and cut 
its throat with the knife.” The knife was sent to London, 
and, with the particles of hair, subjected to a microscopic ex- 
amination. Ho trace of blood could at first be detected upon 
the weapon, which appeared to have been washed ; but upon 
separating the horn handle from its iron lining, it was found 
that between the two a fluid had penetrated, which turned 
out to be blood—certainly not the blood of a rabbit, but bear- 
ing every resemblance to that of the human body. The hair 
was then submitted to examination. Without knowing any- 
thing of the facts of the case, the microscopist immediately 
declared the hair to be that of a squirrel. How, around the 
neck of the child, at the time of the murder, there was a 
tippet or “ victorine,” over which the knife, by whomever 
held, must have glided; and this victorine was of squirrel’s 
fur. The woman was convicted, and, while awaiting execu- 
tion, fully confessed her crime. 
V. Causes of Death in Wounds. 
§ 769. 'Wounds become the cause of death either by direct 
or indirect influence. In the first case the tendency to death 
is necessary and immediate, or nearly so. In the second, the 
injury is the remote cause of death, other causes intervening 
by which the fatal result is accelerated or rendered inevitable. 
The mode in which a wound proves directly fatal is either by 
hemorrhage, shock, or great mechanical injury. 
§ 770. 1st. Hemorrhage.—The rapidity of dissolution, when 
this is brought on by loss of blood, is proportionate to the 
amount and suddenness of the hemorrhage. These, in their 
turn, depend upon the size and nature of the vessel wounded. 
Thus a person may sustain the loss of an enormous quantity 
of blood, provided it ooze but slowly from the body; while a 
far smaller amount would produce fatal syncope, if rapidly 
712 BOOK V.] 
CAUSES OF DEATH IN WOUNDS. 
713 
poured out from some large vessel. Blood escapes also from 
a wounded vein more slowly than from a divided artery, and 
venous hemorrhage is therefore less likely to prove fatal than 
arterial, as well as because the blood which is lost is not so 
essential to life. A third form of hemorrhage becomes, in 
some special cases, of serious importance. This is capillary 
hemorrhage, in which the blood effused upon the surface of 
the wound is extremely serous in its character, less dark than 
venous blood, and appears in the form of drops, which quickly 
run together and cover the wound. It occurs in persons of a 
hemorrhagic disposition upon the most trifling wound, and is 
exceedingly difficult and often impossible to control. In these 
persons a common epistaxis becomes a matter of grave im- 
portance, a scratch with a knife, the bite of a leech, or the 
extraction of a tooth, is followed by an oozing of blood which 
no hemostatics will arrest. This hemorrhagic disposition 
sometimes is hereditary, and, according to the large number 
of observations now on record, is generally confined to the 
males in a family. Most of these cases have been collected by 
Dr. Beck.(y) 
§ 771. Age and disease have also their influence upon the 
fatality of hemorrhage. Children readily succumb from a 
trifling loss of blood, and those whose constitution has been 
impaired by chronic disease have, as might be expected, little 
power of recovering from hemorrhage. A number of small 
wounds may occasionally lead to as grave results as a single 
large one. A singular case is related in which a dealer in leeches 
(g) Med. Jur., vol. ii. p. 595 et seq. Vide also Sclineider—Die Bliiter, 
erbliclie Blutung Oder so genannte Bluterkrankheit, etc. Henke’s Zeitschrift, 
1847, H. i. The following additional cases may also be consulted : Dunlap, 
N. York Journ. (N. S.), iv. 314; Strong, Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., July, 
1854, p. 80; Miller, Edinb. Journ., Jan. 1856, p. 638; Townsend, Boston 
Med. and Surg. Journ., Jan. 1857, p. 447; Huss, Archives Gen., Aug. 1857, 
p. 165 ; and Heymann, Virchow’s Arcliiv., xvi. 183. See also A Treatise on 
Haemophilia, sometimes called The Hereditary Haemorrhagic Diathesis, by 
J. Wickham Legg, M.D., London, 1872; An Account of a Family Predis- 
position to Hemorrhage, by Drs. William and Samuel Buel, Transactions 
Physiomed. Soc. N. Y., 1817, p. 304 ; Observations on Hereditary Hemor- 
rhage, by Reynell Coates, M.D., of Philadelphia, N. A. Med. and Surg. 
Journ., 1828, vol. vi. pp. 37-53. 
713 §774] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
was set upon by highwaymen, who, after having plundered 
him of his money, thrust his head into the sack containing 
the leeches and bound him fast. The unfortunate man, a 
short time afterwards, was discovered still alive, but notwith- 
standing medical aid was given him, he perished in conse- 
quence of the loss of blood from the multitude of leech- 
g1) 
§ 772. Where the hemorrhage is internal, besides the ex- 
haustion attending it, death is accelerated by the mechanical 
action of the blood. Thus, if an intercostal artery have been 
wounded, the blood, being effused into the cavity of the chest, 
will compress the lungs and seriously embarrass respiration. 
In wounds of the pericardium the blood effused into this sac 
is most probably the immediate cause of death, owing to its 
interference with the functions of the heart. If the throat 
has been cut, the blood may flow into the trachea and lungs, 
and thus cause death by asphyxia. But the mechanical effects 
of hemorrhage are best seen in those injuries of the head in 
which any of the cerebral vessels have been wounded. Here 
the fatal result of compression from a clot is evident in the 
apoplectic state induced by it, when, perhaps, the actual loss 
of blood has been trifling. 
§ 773. All of the above-mentioned circumstances must be 
taken into careful consideration, in the post-mortem inspection 
of persons who have died soon after receiving one or more 
wounds. "Where death has resulted from hemorrhage alone, 
the fact is usually indicated by the pallor and waxy appear- 
ance of the skin, the absence of cadaveric blotches, and the 
paleness of the internal organs. Putrefaction occurs also later 
than usual. These appearances will be found more marked 
in those cases in which the hemorrhage has not been very 
rapid. 
§ 774. 2d. Shock.—The possibility of a person dying from 
the shock attendant upon an injury, which by itself appears 
to be unimportant, is attested by experience. Many theoretical 
explanations have been offered to account for this fact, a con- 
sideration of which would here be out of place. The shock 
714 
(g') De Neufville. Henke’s Zeitsckrift. Erg. H. 1851, p. 40. BOOK V.] 
CAUSES OF DEATH IN WOUNDS. 
[§ 775 
from an injury may prove fatal in two cases. 1st. When the 
blow leaves no trace behind it; and 2d. Where great violence 
has been done to some important organ without occasioning a 
sufficient amount of hemorrhage to produce death. If a per- 
son receive, for instance, a violent blow in the pit of the 
stomach, or behind the ear, he may be almost instantaneously 
deprived of life. On post-mortem examination, there may be 
found externally but slight marks of contusion, and internally 
neither laceration, fracture, nor hemorrhage by which the 
cause can be brought into any visible relation with the fatal 
result. “ Mr. Lambert, a respectable individual of Hew York, 
received a blow on the stomach from some rioters, immediately 
after coming from a supper party. He died almost imme- 
diately. On dissection no mark of injury could be discovered, 
except some small red spots on the internal surface of the 
stomach, and there was no mark of external contusion. The 
brain was healthy. I)r. Post and other witnesses concurred 
in believing that the blow was the cause of death, and not 
sudden fright. The prisoners were convicted of manslaugh- 
ter. ”(h) A similar case is related by Sir Astley Cooper, and 
another by Mr. Wood .(A1) 
§ 775. 3d. Mechanical injury.—If, again, some part of the 
body, especially any of the internal organs, have suffered any 
great mechanical injury, as from being crushed by a heavy 
weight or projectile, or by a fall from a height, there will very 
frequently be no external mark of violence and no internal 
hemorrhage sufficient to account for death. But the fatal 
result is no less evidently due to the powerful impression made 
upon the nervous system by the violent disruption or lacera- 
tion thus produced. The following may serve as an example: 
An American Philhellene was struck by a cannon ball, in the 
batteries of Hapoli di Romani, which carried off the right 
hand that had been resting on the haunch, a portion of the 
right half of the pelvis, and part of the thigh. The abdominal 
viscera were laid bare but not torn, and there was trifling 
hemorrhage from the wounds. He conversed calmly about 
(h) Beck, Med. Jur., vol. ii. p. 387. 
(A1) Med. Gaz., vol. x^v- P- 213. 
715 § 776] 
WOUNDS. 
[book V. 
the Greek wars, in which he had taken an active part, asked 
if a man could live who had lost the half of his body, and 
died suddenly three hours after being injured.(i) 
§ 776. Under this head might be properly introduced in- 
stances of death from ill-treatment or from a large number of 
trifling wounds, unattended with any serious hemorrhage. 
Death in such cases takes place rather from the exhaustion 
and terror of the sufferer than from the momentary shock of 
the injury, but it may also be due to inflammation of internal 
organs following upon extensive injury to the skin. Examples 
of this mode of death have been known to ensue from severe 
flogging ordered by military Such is also pro- 
bably the immediate cause of death in many cases of extensive 
burns or scalds, where the function of a large portion of the 
skin is at once destroyed.(j') 
(i) Navy Medical Reports, by Sir John Liddell, M.D., etc., Med. Times, 
April, 1854. 
(j) Vide Lancet, 1846, for an account of the case at Hounslow. A case 
of epilepsy and one of congestion of the brain produced by this brutal pun- 
ishment are recorded by Dr. Davidson, Med. Times and Gaz., Dec. 1858, p. 
623. Quite recently, April, I860, a boy of fifteen died at Eastbourne, Eng., 
from the effect of blows upon his back and legs, inflicted by his tutor with a 
skipping-rope with wooden handles, and with a thick walking-stick. This 
punishment was resorted to as a means of conquering the boy’s obstinate and 
perverse disposition, and obliging him to learn. Ibid., Ma}r, 1860. It is 
evident that the boy was insane. 
Dr. Taylor (Med. Jur., 6th Am. ed., p. 254) says: “In death from severe 
flagellation, blood may be effused in large quantity beneath the skin and 
among the muscles ; this effusion will operate as fatally as if it had flowed 
from an open wound.” 
(j1) A painfully interesting chapter on the cruelties and injuries inflicted 
upon children has been written by M. Tardieu. (Ann. d’Hyg., Avr. 1860, 
p. 361.) These are various in their character as the instruments which are 
employed ; cuffs, blows, kicks, stripes, and bruises from rods, cords, thongs, 
whips, clubs, forks, shovels, tongs, and every Variety of instruments. Some- 
times children are dragged, pinched, or have their flesh torn ; they are de- 
prived of all means of cleanliness, coarsely fed or starved, hid away in dun- 
geons, closets, or boxes; exposed to icy cold or tortured with hot coals, or 
iron, or corrosive liquids ; their limbs are mutilated, the ears and nose lace- 
rated, or the hair torn out; or they are suffocated with food', or obliged to 
swallow the most disgusting and loathsome substances. 
The victims of these cruelties are generally very young. In seventeen out 
of thirty-two cases, they were under the age of five years, and in seven cases, 
716 BOOK V.] 
CAUSES OF DEATH IN WOUNDS. 
[§ 776 
The causes now enumerated which render wounds directly 
fatal without the intervention of secondary causes, may be 
from five to ten years old. In nearly all the instances the cruelties were in- 
flicted by the parents; eleven times by both together, eight times by the 
mother and five times by the father only, four times by a stepmother, four 
times by a school-teacher, and once by a woman to whom the child was ap- 
prenticed. 
Their aspect is generally peculiar ; they are pale and thin, and sometimes 
wasted almost to the bones, with a dull, downcast, saddened look, and a 
timid manner. The marks of their cruel treatment generally consist of 
bruises, wheals, and excoriations. The bruises are usually upon the face, 
limbs, and back, and are peculiar in not generally occupying prominent parts, 
as they would do if produced by a fall. Their shape is often distinctive, and 
resembles that of the hand, nails, stick, shoe, etc., which inflicted them ; or 
they are red, oval, and ecchymosed from pinching; present double parallel 
and bruised lines when produced by blows with a ruler, or the stripes occa- 
sioned by a whip-lash, etc. The wounds are contused, lacerated, accom- 
panied with fracture of bones, or are produced by fire or by corrosive agents ; 
or certain marks, such as deep furrows in the skin, or a permanent stiffness 
of the limbs, or a deformity of the bones, indicate the use of cords, or the 
confinement of the body in a constrained position. 
In 18 of the 32 cases collected by M. Tardieu death was caused either 
directly or indirectly by blows or prolonged ill usage, and it is to be ob- 
served that the former may be fatal by their direct shock to the nervous 
system. 
As illustrations of this painful subject, a brief notice of two cases contained 
in the paper above referred to may here be presented. 
A father and mother were condemned to hard labor for life upon convic- 
tion for having cruelly maltreated their daughter from the age of eight to 
that of seventeen years. She was incessantly whipped, knocked down, 
beaten with all manner of instruments, and lashed upon the back with a cat- 
o’nine-tails while hung up by the wrists. One night, while she was naked 
and firmly bound down, her father applied red-hot coals to her back and 
limbs, renewing them as fast as they ceased to burn ; and on the following 
night, after she had been flogged with the cat, her mother applied a sponge 
soaked with nitric acid to the wounds. These abominable and unparalleled 
atrocities were several times repeated, with variations of intenser cruelty. 
The unhappy victim slept in a chest about six feet long by twenty inches 
high and twenty-four inches wide, upon a litter of stinking straw, with which, 
after her back had been made raw, they mingled nettles and brambles. In this 
she was confined by a lid secured by means of a padlock, and only raised enough 
to permit her to breathe. If it was possible to add anything to these cruel- 
ties, it was done by the father of the victim, who addressed her in filthy 
language, and attempted indecently to touch her person, and finally, after 
binding her firmly with her limbs asunder, he thrust a wooden plug into her 
717 § 778] 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
variously combined. Practically there are few fatal wounds 
in which they are not united. This fact should not be lost 
sight of by the medical witness in giving his opinion as to the 
immediate cause of death. 
§ 777. 4th. Diseased condition of body.—Sometimes a wound 
which, under ordinary circumstances, would not be imme- 
diately fatal, becomes so, in consequence of the existence of 
some abnormal or diseased condition of the body. The cases 
which fall under this remark are exceedingly numerous. An 
undue thinness of the skull, a displacement of the viscera, an 
abnormal distribution of the arterial trunks, an aneurism, a 
hernia, and many other similar defects may prove the occasion 
of a wound being rapidly fatal, which otherwise would not 
necessarily have been so. Thus, if a person have an aneurism 
of the aorta in the chest or abdomen, and be struck with a 
certain degree of violence over these cavities, he may sud- 
denly die from a rupture of the aneurismal sac caused by the 
blow. Or if he have at any time been subjected to the opera- 
tion of trepanning, by which a portion of the skull is re- 
moved, which is not again reproduced, a blow or wound on 
this part will necessarily prove eminently dangerous.(&) A 
constitutional disposition- to hemorrhage upon slight causes 
has often brought on a fatal termination in trifling wounds.(/) 
It is hardly necessary to state that old age, infirmity of any 
kind, or that even a highly excitable condition of the nervous 
system, may rapidly accelerate the approach of death. 
§ 778. It is also of importance to remember that owing to 
internal disease death may occur during a quarrel although no 
blow shall have been given. Two women were engaged in a 
violent altercation, when one was seen suddenly to fall down 
dead. On examination she was found to have died of con- 
genitals. It is remarkable that the girl attempted to explain all of the in- 
juries found upon her person in such a manner as not to accuse her parents. 
The remaining case is, briefly, the following. The stepmothor of a fine, 
robust boy, four years of age, suffocated him by forcing food into his throat. 
The mouth and throat were distended by a compact mass of doughy bread, 
large quantities of -which were also found in the stomach and oesophagus, 
and some portions of it even in the trachea. 
(k) Vide Hinze, Ilufeland's Journal, 1819, p. 79. 
{1) Vide Beck, ii. 295. 
718 BOOK V.j 
CAUSES OP DEATH IN WOUNDS. 
719 
gestion of the brain; yet, but for the witnesses of her mode of 
death, her adversary might have been suspected of dealing her 
a fatal blow.(^) 
§ 779. (1) Wounds inflicted on 'pregnant women.—Pregnancy 
obviously renders the prognosis of a wound more grave. The 
mere shock of the injury may bring on premature birth of the 
child, and hence endanger the life of the mother. But wounds 
which involve the abdomen, and especially those in which 
violence is done to the uterus, are necessarily of extreme 
gravity for the mother and her child. The injury may result 
in the death of either or both. The amount of external vio- 
lence necessary to produce this result it is of course impossible 
to determine, since many instances are on record in which 
very severe injury has been inflicted under these circumstances 
without being followed by fatal results. On the other hand, 
contusion of the abdomen from kicks or similar violence, may 
produce death by shock or peritoneal inflammation,and wounds 
of the impregnated womb are always attended with severe 
bleeding and the danger of a premature delivery. 
§ 780. (2) Indirect complications.—A wound may prove in- 
directly fatal in a vast number of ways. We shall only enu- 
merate the more common and important of these, as it is, we 
conceive, of more consequence that the principle of the remote 
dependence of death upon a wound, perhaps not necessarily 
mortal, should be understood, than that all the circumstances 
which may possibly intervene between the period at which 
the wound was given and that of the fatal result, should be 
enumerated. 
Should the person not die from the immediate effect of the 
wound, he may nevertheless succumb from some one of the 
chain of disturbing causes to which it has given rise, or from 
the wound itself, rendered fatal after a length of time, by ex- 
traneous causes. In many instances the fatal result can be 
traced to its origin in the wound, partly from the evidence 
derived from a post-mortem inspection, and partly from the 
history of the patient’s condition from the time he received 
his injury. The length of time that may elapse after the in- 
(Z1) Prager, Vierteljalirs., lxyi. 20. 
719 § 782] 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
fliction of violence, before death follows it, is of course inde- 
terminate. 
§ 781. Without the supervention of any of the complica- 
tions to be presently enumerated, the wound may have in- 
terested parts not essential to life, and yet may render its pro- 
traction for any considerable period impossible, since the 
changes produced by it in the organism may go on gradually 
increasing in their gravity till death result. Thus injuries to 
the spine, producing paralysis of the lower limbs and of the 
sphincter muscles of the bladder and rectum, or blows on the 
head, giving rise to chronic disease of the brain, will gradu- 
ally undermine the powers of life, and bring it to a deplorable 
end, after long confinement, suffering, and distress. Such is 
often, also, the result of gunshot wounds, where the ball re- 
mains in the body, and the patient is wasted away by suppu- 
ration and hectic. 
The old division of wounds, into those which are necessarily 
and those which are conditionally mortal, gave rise to so many 
errors of prognostication, that it has now much less authority 
than formerly. It will, of course, always be necessary to 
discriminate concerning the gravity of wounds, but it will 
never be possible to draw a line of distinction, which will be 
universally recognized, between the absolutely and the con- 
ditionally mortal. The truth of this statement will, we think, 
he fully borne out, when the multitude of circumstances is 
considered which may influence the result favorably or the 
reverse. 
§ 782. (3) Tetanus.—Among the most frequent and serious 
complications of wounds, is tetanus, or lockjaw\ This disorder 
occurs most frequently after punctured or lacerated wounds, 
especially such as interest the nerves or tendons. It is said 
to be occasionally epidemic, and to be of more frequent oc- 
currence in warm than in temperate climates. In fact, it may 
occur idiopathically ; that is, without any -wound having been 
received. The wound giving rise to it is often exceedingly 
unimportant. Thus, it has been caused by the sting of a bee, 
the stroke of a whip, or the irritation of a small splinter of 
hone. But it is “mostly connected with wounds of fibrous 
and ligamentous structures, accompanied with tearing, bruis- 
720 BOOK V.] 
CAUSES OF DEATH IN WOUNDS. 
[§ 783 
ing, partial injury, and exposure of the nerves; with wounds 
of the joints, of the face, neck, fingers, toes, and of the sper- 
matic cord; it usually begins during the suppurative period, and 
even during or after the scarring of the wound. Foreign bodies 
in the wound, especially splinters of bone, ligatures of arteries, 
if a nerve be included in the ligature, are all to be considered 
as not unfrequent causes of tetanus. Likewise, hot seasons 
of the year, cold, frequent changes of the temperature, espe- 
cially in low districts and in the neighborhood of rivers, and 
the influence of a moist, cold, foul air upon nerves after their 
exposure by the separation of sloughs. ”(m) The time at 
which it may supervene after the injury is not precisely 
known. Occasionally it ensues upon recent wounds immedi- 
ately, and in other cases does not occur for several days. 
Hot unfrequently the wound is entirely healed before the 
attack. Brodie mentions the seventeenth day as the latest 
period after the accident in which he had known tetanus to 
come on.(ft) Sir James McGrigor notices a case twenty-two 
days after,(o) and Blane speaks of it as happening within a 
month.(p) It is a very serious complication of a wound, 
proving fatal in the majority of cases. Dr. O’Beirne states, 
that of two hundred cases which he saw, not a single one 
Hennen says: “I have never been fortunate to 
cure a case of acute symptomatic tetanus; in some instances 
of the chronic species I have effected or witnessed a cure.”(r) 
§ 783. (4) Erysipelas.—This affection, which increases great- 
ly the gravity of wounds, is a frequent accompaniment of 
those which are lacerated and contused, and especially if seated 
upon the scalp. It spreads rapidly in the wards of hospitals 
under certain conditions of the atmosphere, which are not 
well understoood; and an important question will therefore 
arise, as to the degree of responsibility of the person who 
inflicts the wound, when the injured man dies from an attack 
(m) Chelius’s Surgery, by South, Am. ed., vol. i. p. 417. 
(n) Lond. Med. Gaz., vol. ii. p. 344. 
(o) Med.-Chir. Trans., vol. vi. p. 453. 
(p) Diseases of Seamen. 
(q) Dub. Hosp. Rep., vol. iii. 
(r) South’s Chelius’s Surgery, vol. i. p. 419. 
YOL. II. 4:6 
721 § 786] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
of erysipelas. This disease is, however, far less frequently 
fatal than traumatic tetanus. 
§ 784. (5) Hospital gangrene.—Such is the name given to an 
ulcerative and gangrenous disorder which seizes upon the 
wounds of persons placed in close and crowded apartments. 
It is rarely seen except in military hospitals in time of war, 
or in other situations where fresh air and cleanliness are 
wanting. 
§ 785. (6) Nervous delirium, secondary hemorrhage, and puru- 
lent resorption, may be mentioned as other causes rendering 
wounds fatal. All of these accidents may ensue upon surgical 
operations undertaken for the relief of the injured person, as 
w7ell as be induced by the wound alone. Thus gangrene or 
erysipelas may attack the stump of an amputated limb, or 
the patient may die from secondary hemorrhage, or from any 
of the foregoing diseases notwithstanding the best care and 
foresight and most judicious treatment. 
§ 786. 5th. Surgical operations.—Death, indeed, sometimes 
takes place during or immediately after surgical operations 
undertaken for the relief of the wounded person. The ques- 
tion of responsibility in this case, belongs to the legal portion 
of the subject. It may not, howTever, be out of pdace to 
remark that the surgeon can seldom foresee, with confidence, 
the issue of capital operations, for there are many individual 
peculiarities and causes beyond his control, which may make 
it unfavorable. The same may he said of any plan of treat- 
ment, whether it involves a serious operation or not. The 
question may arise, whether the surgical treatment employed 
was the best that could be devised, and whether, had some 
other course been pursued, a favorable result might not have 
been obtained. Or, it may be alleged that the treatment 
was so unskilful, or the patient so much neglected, as to be 
the occasion of the fatal termination of the injury. That 
these facts should be established beyond dispute, it ought to 
be shown that the treatment was marked by the omission of 
something universally recognized as of primary importance. 
But as every surgeon has some peculiarities in his practice, 
and as the mode of treatment of bodily injuries, from the 
progressive nature of the medical art, is various, this omis- 
722 BOOK V.] 
CAUSES OF DEATH IN WOUNDS. 
[§ 787 
sion should be looked for only in those points which betray 
an ignorance of the fundamental principles of surgery. How- 
ever much the opinions of competent persons may differ re- 
specting the choice of remedial means, they will generally, 
we think, be found united upon the principles which should 
govern their application. Still, occasionally, the plan of treat- 
ment may be so singular, although apparently founded upon 
correct notions of the curative process, as to call for reproba- 
tion. Thus, in a case which occurred in Saxony, a surgeon 
was deprived of the liberty of practising his profession in 
that country for having attempted to promote bony union 
between the fragments of a fractured patella, by the novel 
expedient of tiring a pistol between them. Although no per- 
manent injury was done to the patient, who, indeed, a few 
months after the operation, declared that his leg was nearly 
as good as the other one, and that he was even able to dance 
and to walk long distances, yet the medical commission 
charged with the case very properly considered the operation 
as likely to prove a dangerous precedent if it were not con- 
. 
§ 787. The difficulty is not so great where the original wound 
has been trifling, chiefly because its comparatively innocuous 
character can be clearly shown. Thus, for instance, if the hand 
have been wounded and one of the arteries divided, compres- 
sion may be necessary to arrest the hemorrhage. But if a 
surgeon, with this view, should apply a bandage so firmly, or, 
on the other hand, leave it on so long, as to cause mortification 
of the part, and death ensue in consequence, it is evident that 
the treatment has not only been unskilful, but that it has 
really been the cause of death, since the wound of the hand 
was neither, in itself, mortal, nor would it have produced death 
in the manner described. But, in severe injuries, in which 
various complications arise and require the exercise of the 
greatest skill that learning and experience can give, it cannot 
be expected that some will not terminate fatally, which, per- 
haps, under more favorable circumstances, or a better plan of 
treatment, might have had a fortunate issue. The most hum- 
(«) Casper’s Vierteljahrschrift, 1852, Bd. 1, H. 1. 
723 § 788] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
ble surgeon may chance to receive the charge of an injury 
which calls for the enlightened tact and experience of a highly 
educated man ; if his treatment should not prove successful, 
he should be prepared to show, if required, that his patient 
had the best care which he was able to afford him, and, if pos- 
sible, that he consulted with one or more colleagues respecting 
the treatment. In the language of Judge Woodward, “The 
implied contract of a physician or surgeon is not to cure—to 
restore (e. y.) a fractured limb to its natural perfectness, but to 
treat the case with diligence and skill. * * * He deals not 
with insensate matter, like the stonemason or bricklayer, who 
can choose their materials and adjust them according to math- 
ematical lines, but he has a suffering human being to treat, a 
nervous system to tranquillize, and a will to regulate and con- 
trol.”^) 
§ 788. It is now a very general practice among surgeons, to 
administer ether or chloroform in surgical operations. In spite 
of every care and precaution the vapor of chloroform may de- 
stroy life in a sudden and unexpected manner during an ope- 
ration. The facts of the case may leave no doubt that the 
person died from the effects of the chloroform and not from 
the wound. On post-mortem examination the heart is usually 
found in a diseased condition, and this is considered as suffi- 
cient to account for the fatal effects of the chloroform vapor. 
The question then arises as to the responsibility of the person 
who inflicted the original wound. Dr. Taylor(T) says, “Ho 
decision, so far as I know, has ever been given on this point. 
Was the use of chloroform vapor in a professional view a neces- 
sary part of the treatment? Was it skilfully and properly 
administered? Could the diseased condition of the heart, 
which rendered the effects of the vapor more fatal than usual, 
have been detected by the operator so as to show the impro- 
priety of administering it in this case? These questions should 
receive satisfactory answers before the aggressor is rendered 
responsible for death under such peculiar circumstances.” 
(t) McCandless v. McWha, Error to Common Pleas of Beaver County. 
Am. Journ. Med. Sci., Jan. 1854, p. 273. 
(<’) Med. Journ. sixth Amer. from the eighth Lond. ed., 1866, p. 272. 
724 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VAKIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 792 
§ 789. The voluntary and persevering refusal of surgical as- 
sistance, when this holds out the only probable means of safety, 
may be enumerated among the causes which indirectly increase 
the fatality of wounds. Thus, if the amputation of a limb, 
the tying of an artery, or the observance of a prescribed medi- 
cal course, be resisted and refused by a patient, he may very 
often pay the penalty of his obstinacy or timidity with his 
life. Such instances are by no means rare among the ignorant, 
with whom often the most assiduous medical attention has to 
contend against every obstacle to success. 
VI. Wounds of Various Parts of the Body. 
§ 790, 1st. Injuries of the head, from their frequency and 
gravity, as well as from the various medico-legal questions 
they often give rise to, are deserving of particular attention. 
§ 791. (1) Concussion of the brain.—This term is applied to 
those cases in which, either from direct or indirect violence to 
the head, the brain receives a shock which may prove fatal, 
without being revealed after death by any physical alteration. 
Thus, a blow upon the head, or a fall from a height upon the 
feet, knees, or buttocks, may, without producing any serious 
external lesion, be the cause of death by a commotion or con- 
cussion of the brain. Cases are also related, in which a blow, 
familiarly designated as a “box on the ear,” has resulted fatally 
in this manner. In Hennen’s Military Surgery, a curious ex- 
ample of concussion of the brain is quoted from an old German 
author, in which a cannon ball took away the queue from the 
nape of a soldier’s neck, without injuring the integuments in 
any sensible degree. He continued in a complete state of 
stupor for many days, during which he was bled at least 
twenty times.(w) Sometimes, indeed, the immediate cause of 
death is found in a laceration of the brain, a rupture of a 
bloodvessel in the brain, causing a compression of this organ 
by extravasation of blood, or, again, inflammation is set up 
with a like fatal result. Such accidents are thus conjoined 
occasionally with concussion. 
§ 792. The question has sometimes arisen as to the distinc- 
(«) Hennen’s Surgery, p. 318. 
725 § 793] 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
tion between the symptoms presented by a person laboring 
under concussion of the brain, and one in a state of intoxica- 
tion. Very often they are coincident in the same individual. 
Symptoms of slight concussion are, however, so similar to those 
produced by intoxication, that it is sometimes difficult to 
know which cause they should be attributed to. There are 
indeed few peculiarities by which a physician could, better 
than an unprofessional person, recognize the difference, and, 
practically, the history of the case and the odor of liquor upon 
the breath will be the only sources upon which a judgment 
can be founded. Mr. South says, “It is often very difficult to 
distinguish between drunkenness and either concussion or 
compression ; especial care should therefore always be taken to 
ascertain, as far as possible, the condition of the patient pre- 
vious to the accident, lest he should be lost by too slight con- 
sideration of his symptoms.”(v) 
Injuries of the head may prove fatal, whether they involve 
immediately the contents of the skull or not. Among the 
most serious of the external wounds are those affecting the 
tendinous aponeurosis of the occipito-frontalis muscle and the 
pericranium. Erysipelas is very apt to follow these injuries. 
Inflammation of these parts is, moreover, readily propagated 
to the membranes of the brain, and especially after contused 
wounds. The prognosis must therefore be always reserved, 
since wounds of these parts, in appearance trifling, may result 
fatally. 
§ 793. (2) Fractures of the skull vary in their danger accord- 
ing to their situation, their extent, and the amount of depres- 
sion. Fractures of the base of the skull are the most dangerous, 
both from the fact that they are not within the reach of surgical 
interference, and also because the effusion of blood resulting 
often from the laceration of the lateral sinuses, exercises a 
compression upon that portion of the encephalon most inti- 
mately connected with the functions of both organic and 
animal life. These fractures are often not recognized during 
life, in consequence of their position; and it should not be 
forgotten that the portion of the skull which is broken does 
(») Chelius’g System of Surgery, vol. i. p. 451. 
726 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 793 
not always correspond in situation with the part where the 
blow was received, but may indeed be produced by counter- 
stroke, at a point directly opposite to it. The cranium is com- 
posed of two tables of bone, between which is a vasculo-cellular 
substance, called the diploe. The external table alone may be 
fractured, and although no compression be thereby exercised 
upon the brain, yet from the intimate vascular connection 
between the diploe and the dura mater, the inflammation re- 
sulting may be communicated from it to the latter. Or necrosis 
may follow the contusion, resulting fatally at a later period. 
The inner table, which from its great brittleness is called 
vitreous, may be fractured without fracture of the outer one, 
and by compression of the brain by fragments of bone, effused 
blood, or by subsequent disorganization from necrosis, a fatal 
result ensue. M. Bayard relates several cases of this kind. 
In one, a man received a blow from the fist upon the forehead; 
no mark was left, but he became dizzy and fell to the ground, 
lie suffered afterwards from headache, nausea, and vomiting, 
and on the twenty-sixth day became paralyzed and died in 
convulsions. The inner table of the skull, under the right 
eyebrow, was found to be necrosed. Both hemispheres of the 
brain were covered with a purulent exudation, and the ven- 
tricles were filled with the same.(w) When, however, as is 
generally the case, the whole thickness of the bone is broken, 
the danger is proportionably increased, and although the 
injury is by no means necessarily fatal, yet if the bone press 
upon the brain, and there be an extravasation of blood over 
the membranes or into its substance, death is the common re- 
sult, unless the bone be elevated by surgical aid, and the com- 
pression removed. The cases in which it is proper to trepan, 
and the appropriate place for the application of the instrument, 
are fully discussed in surgical works. Questions arising out 
of the neglect of trepanning or its alleged unnecessary employ- 
ment, have a bearing not unfrequently in charges of malprac- 
tice, as well as in Any abstract of surgical 
(w) Ann. d’Hyg., yol. xxxv. 
(*) Such questions are often difficult of decision, as may be learned from 
the following case, which is discussed at length in Henke’s Zeitschrift, 1860, 
Bd. 79, s. 177. In Dresden, on the 21st June, 1856, a jealous husband in- 
727 § 794] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
opinion on this subject must necessarily be extremely imperfect. 
The standard surgical authorities should be consulted in every 
case. Simple fissures of the skull, or separation of the natural 
sutures, are not without their gravity, for, though seldom 
rapidly fatal, they often give rise to a slow effusion of blood, 
which, having no external issue, extends over the surface of 
the brain and sinks between its lobes, thus causing a fatal 
compression of the organ. 
§ 794. A very interesting case is related by Deutsbein, in 
Horn’s Vrtljrschr. f. Ger. Med. xii. 1870, of abscess of the brain 
after, but not dependent on, an injury to the head.^1) “A young 
man, as the immediate consequence of a slight blow upon the 
head, exhibited only a simple wound of the scalp; subsequently, 
however, he became attacked with convulsions and other symp- 
toms of disease, which, after first abating, then increased very 
much in intensity, and in the course of several weeks termi- 
nated in death. An examination after death showed an ab- 
scess in the right of the cerebellum, in connection with the 
indications of a long preceding chronic otitis interna of the 
flicted repeated blows upon his wife’s head with a hatchet, and left her for 
dead. The scalp was badly lacerated and the parietal bone was fractured 
and depressed. The woman’s consciousness was, however, only momentarily 
suspended, and she was soon able to arise from the ground and enter the litter 
in which she was carried to the hospital. Here she improved rapidly, and 
on the 2d and 3d of July was able to make a full and clear deposition of all 
the circumstances of the assault. On the 4th of the month, however, she 
suddenly became worse, and died on the 5th. On examination, one of the 
fractures seated in the parietal bone was found to be depressed and to project 
a quarter of an inch upon the inner surface of the skull. The membranes of 
the brain were uninjured, but underneath them the brain itself was softened, 
and pus was found covering the whole hemisphere. The medical gentlemen 
commissioned as experts to examine the case reported that the original vio- 
lence was really the cause of death, but not necessarily so, because a timely 
use of the trephine might have prevented the disorganization which proved 
fatal. It W'as objected to this criticism that it was a mere matter of opinion 
extraneous to the proper functions of medical experts, and so the court held, 
declaring that the only question for decision was whether the blows inflicted 
by the prisoner were or were not the cause of death. He was convicted, and 
sentenced to death, and the sentence was confirmed by the court of appeal, 
but it was afterwards commuted by the king to imprisonment for life. 
(xl) Am. Journ. of the Med. Sci., July, 1871, from Centralblatt f. d. Med. 
Wissenscliaften, 17 Dec. 1870. 
728 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 796 
right side, and caries of the petrous portion of the right tem- 
poral bone, so that it was evident that the blow on the head 
had only an accidental connection with the intracranial ab- 
scess.” 
§ 795. (3) Wounds of the substance of the brain are not in 
themselves necessarily fatal. Many instances are recorded in 
which a portion of the brain has been lost, others in which it 
has been traversed by a bullet,(y) and others, again, in which 
a foreign body has remained in it for a considerable time, and 
the person has yet escaped with his life. 
A man fired a gun, which burst and inflicted a large wound 
with fracture of the skull in the middle of the forehead. 
Consciousness and senses were unimpaired, and no pain was 
felt. After the discharge of several fragments of bone and a 
small piece of iron, the wound healed. A month or six weeks 
later the man was sent to jail and put to hard labor, at which 
he continued for three weeks, when he complained of head- 
ache, and died rather suddenly at the end of a week. There 
was an abscess of the right anterior lobe of the brain, and 
between the dura mater and the right orbitar plate of the 
frontal bone was a piece of iron which weighed an ounce and 
a half.(2) In another case a man had a knife-blade penetrating 
the brain to the depth of two inches without pain or charac- 
teristic symptoms, for twenty-four hours after he received the 
wound. He then became comatose, and so died.(a) 
§ 796. The following extraordinary case of recovery from 
the passage of an iron bar through the head, reported by Dr. 
Bigelow, Professor of Surgery in Harvard University, will 
illustrate the violence which the brain is capable of enduring. 
Phineas P. G-age was occupied in charging with powder a hole 
drilled in the rock, for the purpose of blasting. His assistant 
having neglected to cover the powder, as is usual, with sand, 
Mr. Gage, who was not aware of the omission, dropped the 
head of the iron upon the charge, to consolidate or “ tamp it 
in.” The iron struck fire upon the rock, and the charge ex- 
ploded. The bar of iron was projected directly upwards in 
(y) Med. Facts andObs., vi. 91. (z) Lancet, Sept. 1858, p. 307. 
(a) Charleston Med. Journ., xv. 256. 
729 § 797] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
the line of its axis, passing directly through his head and high 
into the air. It was picked up at some distance, smeared with 
brains and blood. “ From this extraordinary lesion, the pa- 
tient has quite recovered in his faculties of body and mind, 
with the loss only of the sight of the injured eye.” The 
weight of the iron bar was thirteen and a quarter pounds, its 
length three feet seven inches, and its diameter one and a 
quarter inches. The end which entered first was pointed, the 
taper being seven inches long, and the diameter of the point 
one quarter of an inch. The track taken by the bar was the 
following, as ascertained by an experiment upon an ordinary 
skull—the entering hole was under the zygomatic arch, en- 
croaching equally upon its walls. “ In the orbit, the sphenoid 
bone, part of the superior maxillary below, and a large part of 
the frontal above, are cut away, and with these fragments, 
much of the spheno-maxillary fissure; leaving, however, the 
optic foramen intact about a quarter of an inch to the inside 
of the track of the bar.” The base of the skull upon the in- 
side of the cranium presents a cylindrical hole of an inch and 
a quarter in diameter, and the calvarium is traversed by a hole, 
two-thirds of which is upon the left, and one-third upon the 
right of the median line, its posterior border being quite near 
the coronal suture. “It is obvious that a considerable portion 
of the brain must have been carried away; that, while a por- 
tion of its lateral substance may have remained intact, the 
whole central part of the left anterior lobe of the front of the 
sphenoidal or middle lobe must have been lacerated and de- 
stroyed. This loss of substance would also lay open the ante- 
rior extremity of the left lateral ventricle, and the iron, in 
emerging from above, must have largely impinged upon the 
right cerebral lobe, lacerating the falx and the longitudinal 
sinus.” 
§ 797. Immediately after the injury the patient was slightly 
convulsed, but spoke in a few minutes. He was carried to an 
ox-cart which stood at a short distance, and rode in it, sitting 
erect full three-quarters of a mile. He got out of the cart him- 
self, and, with a little assistance, walked up a long flight of 
stairs, into the hall, where he was dressed. He retained his 
senses and memory perfectly, and gave an intelligent and con- 
730 book v.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 798 
nected account of the aceident.(6) Many other instances of 
surprising recoveries after wounds of the brain might be re- 
lated, but the preceding case gives, we think, ample proof that, 
even in very extensive injuries of the cerebrum, with fracture, 
hemorrhage, and loss of substance, death is not the necessary 
termination. 
§ 798. Wounds of the central portion and of the base of the 
brain are more uniformly and speedily fatal than those of the 
hemispheres. Wounds of the cerebellum are said to be con- 
stantly mortal. In whatever portion of the brain, however, 
the injury may he seated, or whether the organ be merely com- 
pressed by effused blood, the important fact is still applicable, 
that the individual may recover, apparently, from the imme- 
diate shock or consequence of the injury, and die unexpectedly 
from it afterwards. Thus a person has received a blow upon 
the head, causing extravasation of blood, and has been able to 
continue on his way apparently not much injured; he dies, 
nevertheless, a few hours afterwards, with symptoms of com- 
pression of the brain. The Prince of H was thrown from 
his horse, but felt himself quite well, and mounted his horse 
again a few hours afterwards. Before, however, he had pro- 
ceeded far, he dismounted, complained of nausea, was seized 
with convulsions, and died comatose. Ho fracture was dis- 
covered, but under the dura mater, on the great falx and in 
the base of the cranium, there was found a considerable extra- 
vasation of blood.(c) In the Lancet for October, 1843, is re- 
lated the case of a man who walked nearly a quarter of a mile 
after having been kicked on the head by a horse. Two or 
three fractures were found at the base of the skull. Months 
or even years occasionally elapse before the injury terminates 
fatally. A sailor received a blow upon the head, from which 
he soon recovered, and suffered no ill consequences, with the 
exception of a discharge from the ear. After a time, however, 
he suffered violent pain in the head, and had fever and con- 
vulsions. He was trepanned, and issue given to a large quan- 
tity of pus, with temporary relief. lie died one year after the 
injury. The dura mater was covered with a purulent exuda- 
(5) Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., July, 1850. (c) Langenbeck. 
731 732 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
tion, which extended also into the spinal The great 
orator and statesman, Daniel Webster, was thrown from his 
wagon May 6, 1852, and for a few minutes was insensible. On 
the 24th of the same month he delivered a speech to the people, 
nor then nor subsequently, up to the time of his death, was 
any mental disorder to be observed. He died on the 24th of 
October following, and on examination his brain was found 
covered with a thick layer of fibrin extending over both hemi- 
spheres, and which must have been the remains of an effusion 
of blood occurring at the time of the fall.(e) Where bullets 
have penetrated and remained in the brain, they often give 
rise gradually to fatal disorganization. Morand relates the 
case of a soldier who was wounded at the battle of Parma, in 
1784. He returned on foot to Paris, and died nine and a half 
months after his wound. The ball was found between the 
bone and the dura mater. One-half of the cerebrum was de- 
stroyed by suppuration. Reich found in a soldier who had 
received a gunshot wound at the battle of Leipsic, and died 
eleven months afterwards, a portion of the brain in a gangren- 
ous condition, and the ball adherent to the tentorium. He had 
suffered only from headaches and occasional epileptiform at- 
tacks^/) 
§ 799. The physician may be required to determine whether 
an extravasation of blood in or upon the brain is the effect of 
violence or disease, and if being due to the former, it has not 
been favored by the excitement of passion. Extravasation of 
blood, ensuing upon violence to the head, is perhaps most gene- 
rally found over the dura mater, or upon the surface of the 
brain; that which arises from disease, in the substance of the 
brain or in the ventricles. Apoplexy is comparatively rare in 
the young and healthy, and it is hardly probable that in such 
persons a diseased condition of the vessels would be found 
occasioning the effusion. If, however, the blow has beeii in- 
flicted upon an old person, and the extravasation is found in 
the cerebral hemispheres, there may perhaps remain a doubt 
(d) Denmark, Medico-Chir. Trans., vol. v. 1814. 
(e) Jeffries, Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., Jan. 1853, p. 110. 
(/) Henke’s Lekrbuch, 19te. Auff. p. 246. 
732 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
733 
whether a predisposition to the effusion did not already exist, 
and was awakened by the violence inflicted. If, however, it 
can be shown that the blow was sufficiently violent to produce 
this result, there can be no doubt, medically speaking, that it 
was the cause of it. Passion has, moreover, by the excitement 
of the circulation, a direct influence in causing an already 
weakened vessel to give way, and when a blow comes oppor- 
tunely in, it would certainly perplex the most learned casuist 
to say which of the three causes of death was the effective 
one. The legal responsibility will be elsewhere set forth. 
§ 800. (4) Wounds of the face cannot in general be considered 
as dangerous to life. They are often followed by serious de- 
formity and tedious sickness. The parts about the eye and 
this organ itself form the seat of more dangerous wounds. 
Blindness, without any apparent external alteration in the 
eye, has been produced by blows dividing or injuring the supra 
or infra-orbitar nerve.(a) Severe neuralgia may be produced 
by the same cause. Penetrating wounds of the orbit, it is 
evident, may reach the brain and cause fatal injury, and many 
instances of this form of injury are on record. Even where 
the orbitar plate of the frontal bone has not been broken, seri- 
ous consequences may ensue from the spreading of inflamma- 
tion from the eye and its appendages to the membranes of the 
brain. In comminuted fractures of the nose from external 
violence, the blow may have been so severe as to injure the 
ethmoid bone, in which case, the brain may readily become 
involved. 
§ 801. 2d. Wounds of the neck.—In this region there are nume- 
rous structures and organs, the wounding of some of which is 
generally attended with fatal results. The neck being tra- 
versed by important bloodvessels and nerves, by the oesophagus, 
larynx, and spinal marrow, injuries which involve any of these 
(a) Hippocrates was aware of this fact. He says: “Visus obscuratur in 
yulneribus supercilii et paulo altius, prout autem vulnus recentius est, plus 
vident, cicatrice vero diutius persistente plus excsecantur.” Anfangsgr. der 
Wundarzneik ii. § 320. In a case where the amaurosis resulted both from 
concussion and from laceration of the eyebrow with a cricket-ball, the loss of 
sight was temporary, vision being gradually restored under the use of mer- 
cury. Med. Times and Gaz., Sept. 4, 1852. 
733 § 804] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
parts, must be looked upon, in general, as serious. Hemor- 
rhage resulting from the division of any of the large arterial 
trunks, as the carotid, lingual, or vertebral, is most rapidly 
fatal, and life is usually extinct before the requisite surgical 
aid can be rendered. The loss of blood from the internal 
jugular veins is equally fatal with that from the arteries, and 
in addition, the entrance of air into these vessels is considered 
to be frequently the cause of instantaneous death. A division 
of the principal nerves of this region or of the oesophagus, is 
usually accompanied with a destruction of other parts more 
essential to life, hence it is but seldom, as, for example, in 
punctured wounds of the throat, that the dangers from such 
injuries need be separately estimated. 
§ 802. Incised wounds of the larynx and trachea are not in 
themselves directly fatal, and more or less perfect recoveries 
are often made from them. But they may become fatal through 
the effusion of blood into the air-passages, or by subsequent 
inflammation. While in wounds of the carotids and jugulars 
death is often immediate, the fatal result in those wounds of 
the neck which do not implicate the bloodvessels is seldom so 
rapid. There are also many cases of wounds of the neck which 
may terminate fatally, although none of the above-named parts 
are wounded. Such are those in which the cellular tissue be- 
comes inflamed, in consequence of which abundant and ex- 
hausting suppuration takes place. 
§ 808. A case is related by Dr. Simeons, in which an old 
woman was struck on the neck with a pewter soup-ladle; 
she died in a few hours afterwards, asphyxiated. Upon ex- 
amination after death, blood was found extravasated under 
the muscles of the neck, and into the anterior mediastinum 
from a rupture of the external jugular vein. The cricoid car- 
tilage and some of the rings of the trachea were broken, by 
which injury the size of the respiratory tube was necessarily 
much diminished.(6) The skin was not broken. 
§ 804. A case of fracture of the larynx is reported by Dr. 
Hunt, where a man was struck in the neck with great violence 
by a piece of wood, two feet long and four inches wide, which 
(b) Henke’s Zeitsclirift, 1848, H. i. 
734 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 806 
flew from a circular saw he was superintending. The patient 
survived the injury about sixteen hours. There was great 
dyspnoea and tracheotomy was performed greatly to the relief 
of this symptom, six hours before death. It is not stated if 
there was any external injury,but there was extensive emphy- 
sema of the sides, front, and root of the neck. 
At the post-mortem examination congestion of the posterior 
and lower lobes of the lungs was observed in a marked degree, 
and emphysema of the upper lobes. The anterior mediastinum 
was filled with air, and the connective tissue communicating 
with that of the neck was emphysematous. There was an 
oblique fracture of the thyroid and cricoid cartilages, involv- 
ing posteriorly on the right side the arytenoid, which pro- 
truded through the lacerated mucous membrane. (Edema of 
the glottis was marked, and the aryteno-epiglottidean folds 
were swollen greatly with serum and blood.(t') 
§ 805. A division of the oesophagus is not only in itself 
almost always fatal, if complete, but because also, being situ- 
ated behind the trachea, it can hardly be incised without the 
important bloodvessels of the neck being injured. A case of 
recovery from a wound dividing the larynx and oesophagus to 
the posterior wall of the latter is given by Dieffenbach, and 
an example of complete restoration to health after an entire 
division of both of these passages with a pruning-knife is re- 
lated by Boey.(cf) 
§ 806. Dr. Ryan related to the Medical Society of London 
a case of suicide, in which, after several ineffectual attempts 
to divide the thyroid cartilage, a man had succeeded in inflict- 
ing upon himself a wound five inches in length, between this 
cartilage and the os hyoides, dividing completely the pharynx 
to the vertebrae. The fourth vertebra was roughened by a 
cut, and there was another cut in the intervertebral cartilage. 
Some branches of the carotid arteries were divided, but neither 
these vessels, the jugular veins, nor the sterno-mastoid mus- 
cles were injured.(e) 
(c) Amer. Journ. Med. Sci., April, 1866, p. 378. 
(d) Reference to both of these cases may be found in Henke’s Lehrbuch, 
p. 254. 
(e) Lancet, Am. ed., 1852, p. 218. 
735 § 809] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
§ 807. As Dr. Ryan properly remarks, “ a person wonders 
at the possibility of a wound of this sort without cutting the 
larger vessels ; and had the occurrence taken place in a lonely 
dwelling, where no third party was present, it might become 
a serious question,- particularly under unhappy domestic dis- 
cussions, whether the wound was self-inflicted, as its extent, 
the two incisions on the thyroid cartilage, the two on the 
vertebra, and that on the intervertebral cartilage would argue 
a determination of purpose and strength of wrist which fall 
to the lot of few.” 
§ 808. 3d. Wounds and injuries of the spine.—The danger to 
life in wounds that interest the spinal marrow is exceedingly 
great; indeed, they are almost uniformly fatal, either imme- 
diately or indirectly. These injuries are, however, more rare 
than those of other parts of the body, and are often the result 
of casualty, such as a fall from a height, or being crushed 
under a heavy weight. In many cases of death from falls 
upon the seat, the spinal marrow will not exhibit any material 
lesion. In such cases it is supposed to have suffered concus- 
sion, by which some elementary change in its structure has 
been produced inconsistent with the maintenance of life. In 
concussion of the spine, death may be almost immediate, but 
usually it approaches gradually. 
§ 809. Any substance compressing the spinal marrow will 
interfere with or arrest its functions below the point of pres- 
sure. Hence the height at which the injury has been in- 
flicted has an important bearing upon its gravity. If.the 
compression be above the origin of the pneumogastric nerves, 
death i3 immediate, owing to the sudden suspension of respi- 
ration. Below this point a wound or injury is not inconsistent 
with the maintenance of life for a considerable period. A 
division of the spinal marrow at any part interrupts, of course, 
if complete, the functions of the part below it more effectually 
than compression. Dr. Staub gives an instance of immediate 
death from a wound of the spine by a knife, between the atlas 
and epistropheus; the spinal marrow was divided almost 
completely in the middle, between the corpora olivaria.(/) 
(/) Henke, Zeitsch. Bd., xxxy. S. 406. 
736 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 812 
§ 810. Another rare instance of injury of the spine by crimi- 
nal violence is related by Dr. Simeons, of Mayence. A robust 
young man, twenty-six years of age, quarrelled with three 
others, who fell upon him, threw him on the ground, and after 
having kicked and dragged him for some time, finally left 
him helpless. He was soon found, and carried into a neigh- 
boring house. He survived two days, completely paralyzed, 
but retaining his consciousness. The fifth cervical vertebra 
was found to be completely separated from the sixth, all the 
ligaments being torn; the whole of the spinal canal was filled 
with partly coagulated blood, and the muscles in the vicinity 
of the injury much infiltrated. No other injury of import- 
ance was detected.(y) 
§ 811. “ A bone-setter, named Richard, famous in the neigh- 
borhood of Napoleon Vendee, but still more famous by having 
been fined five francs, which made him a martyr, and in- 
creased his practice fivefold, was consulted on June 4th, 1853, 
by a farmer of the commune of St. Denis, named Lacfiavasse, 
who complained, after a heavy fall, of violent pain in the neck. 
The bone-setter, meeting him, made him enter a neighboring 
cottage, and said that he would soon put his neck right. 
With both hands he seized the patient’s head, and by a rapid 
motion from left to right he three times turned the head over 
the shoulder. At the third time a crack was heard, and the 
bone-setter exultingly exclaimed, ‘ It is done; the neck is re- 
duced.’ But at this, very instant the patient was seized with 
paralysis of the arms and legs; his speech became very diffi- 
cult; he complained of violent pain, and died the next day, 
firmly convinced of the skill of the operator, and asserting to 
the last that his neck was properly set. Examination of the 
body showed an effusion of blood at the level of the second 
and third vertebrae, the ligaments between which were 
stretched and torn; there was another effusion between the 
cerebellum and the base of the skull, evidently arising from 
lesion of the cord and its membranes.”^1) 
§ 812. In cases where the vertebrae are fractured, the injury 
done to the spinal marrow may be due to the constriction it 
(g) Ibid., Bd. lyi. II. 3, p. 131. 
vol. ir.—47 
(g}) Rev. Therap. du Midi. 
737 §813J 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
undergoes from pressure, its irritation by a spicula of bone, or 
to the effusion of blood upon it. To whichever cause it may 
be attributed, the ultimate effect is, in the majority of cases, 
fatal. It is not unimportant to observe that sudden death 
may take place from the spontaneous luxation of the second 
cervical vertebra; the odontoid process, which maintains it in 
its place, being liable to caries and consequent sudden fracture. 
This circumstance, as well as the existence of caries of the 
spine in any other and more usual position, may, in some cases 
of death after ill usage, explain the facility with which death 
has come on. Hence it is of great moment that, in case of 
death from supposed injury to the spine, the absence of this 
disease should be carefully ascertained. Sir Astley Cooper 
mentions the case of a woman in the venereal wards of St. 
Thomas’s Hospital, who, while sitting in bed, eating her din- 
ner, was observed to fall suddenly forward. The patients, on 
hastening to her assistance, found that she was dead. At the 
autopsy .it was ascertained that the dentiform process was 
broken off, and the head, in falling forwards, had forced the 
root of the process back upon the spinal marrow, which occa- 
sioned her instant death.(A) 
Another case of extensive disease of the cervical vertebrae, 
with death from fracture of the odontoid process, is admirably 
reported by Hr. Buckminster Brown, of Boston.(A1) 
§ 813. Hr. Stephen Smith in a valuable paper on “ Fractures 
of the Odontoid Process,”(£) quotes six cases of spontaneous 
fracture of this process. One of these is Sir Astley Cooper’s 
case, referred to above. Another striking instance is reported 
by Hr. A. G. Faywell.^'1) “A man, set. 30, scrofulous habit, 
on May 12th, 1871, suddenly threw his head backwards to 
avoid a ball; felt something give way ; swelling occurred at 
upper and posterior part of neck ; had pain in deglutition ; on 
fifth day his head was bent forward and there was such numb- 
ness of the legs as to prevent walking; on sixth day was com- 
pletely paralyzed, and suddenly died on raising him in bed. 
(A) Dislocations and Fractures of the Joints, p. 463. 
(A1) Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., Jan. 1853. 
O') Am. Journ. Med. Sci., Oct. 1871, p. 378. 
O' ) Ed. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. viii. p. 132. 
738 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 814 
“ Autopsy. Odontoid process was fractured at its base and 
undergoing caries; body of axis carious; internal and external 
common ligament was destroyed; spinal cord uninjured.” 
This accident is not necessarily immediately fatal. In one 
instance, in which the fracture was caused by the person turn- 
ing in bed, death did not occur for sixteen In an- 
other case^/1) a man had fallen from a building and received a 
blow on his head. At first he experienced no inconvenience, 
and continued his work for six weeks; but finally, a swelling 
made its appearance on the back of his neck, which was painful. 
Three months after the injury he was taken to Bellevue Hos- 
pital, Hew York. By this time the deformity of the neck had 
increased, the head had become fixed with the chin carried to 
the left side and upward. Complete paralysis of the left arm 
and leg existed, and weakness of the right arm. As the case 
progressed there were marked evidences of defective aeration 
of the blood in purpleness of the face and left arm, general 
duskiness of the skin, and severe attacks of dyspnoea. The 
patient died 160 days after the receipt of the injury. At the 
autopsy “ the odontoid process was found to be fractured and 
carried forward so as to lie in a nearly horizontal position in 
contact with the anterior ring of the atlas; the atlas was dis- 
located forwrards and slightly to the left side; the articular 
facets resting anterior to the body of the axis; the spinal canal 
was diminished to three-eighths of an inch; there was no 
rupture of ligaments or other fracture.” 
§ 814. Three well-authenticated cases of recovery after frac- 
ture of the odontoid process are given by Dr. Smith. One is 
a case reported by Dr. Bayard,(k) where a child of six years 
fell five feet, striking on the head and neck. She was unable 
to move her head without great pain, but there was no swell- 
ing or irregularity of the neck. Two months after she had 
convulsive movements of the arms and legs, followed by para- 
lysis of the body below the neck. After remaining in this 
condition for three months, the patient gradually recovered the 
O') Copeland, Diet. Pract. Med., art. Paralysis. 
O’1) Smith, op. cit., p. 352. 
(&) Canada Med. Journ., Dec. 1869. 
739 §816] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
power of walking. About two and a half year3 after the acci- 
dent, a post-pharyngeal abscess formed, from which a bone 
escaped, which was decided to be the odontoid process. 
These fractures have an important bearing in certain medico- 
legal cases. Dr. Taylor^1) states that on several criminal 
trials this injury was proved to have been the cause of death. 
§ 815. 4th. Wounds of the chest.—"Wounds which do not 
penetrate the cavity of the chest, or which are not accom- 
panied with very great violence, offer but little gravity. In 
the latter case, however, one or more of the ribs or the sternum 
may be fractured, a complication which at once enhances the 
importance of the injury. The same force which has pro- 
duced the fracture may also cause serious disturbance of the 
subjacent organs and their rupture. The broken ends of the 
bones frequently also cause hemorrhage, a disorganization of 
the lungs, or wound of the heart. The danger of penetrating 
wounds of this cavity cannot, of course, be too highly esti- 
mated, although it is, perhaps, less than in similar wounds in 
the abdomen. From the great vascularity of the organs con- 
tained in the chest, and from the fact of their functions being 
the aeration and the propulsion of the blood, the immediate 
danger of any injury to them lies in the sudden and abundant 
arterial hemorrhage, by which the heart and the system gene- 
rally are deprived of their necessary vital stimulus, and the 
natural play of the apparatus of respiration and circulation is 
mechanically obstructed. The hemorrhage in wounds of the 
chest is almost entirely internal. 
§ 816. 5th. Wounds of the lungs cannot receive any detailed 
consideration. The chief point of interest in this connection 
is the fact that they may not prove fatal until a considerable 
period after their infliction. This is especially the case with 
gunshot wounds of these organs, in which, if the larger ves- 
sels have escaped laceration, the foreign substances introduced 
into the wound may continue for many months and years to 
be a constant source of distress, and be the source of an ulti- 
mately fatal disease. 
740 
(&') Med. Journ., sixth Am. ed., p. 286. BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 817 
§ 817. A question may sometimes arise as to the ability for 
motion after severe wounds of the chest.. No general rules can he 
laid down upon this point, but in illustration of the possibility 
of locomotion after severe injuries to the chest, and the fortunate 
issue of some which are of apparently the most formidable 
character, we adduce the following case, reported by Mr. Gall- 
way, Surgeon in the Royal Artillery.(^) 
“A gunner and driver of the royal artillery had made a 
murderous attack upon his sergeant with a bayonet, whereby 
he inflicted two wounds, happily superficial only, upon one 
leg and arm. Foiled in his efforts of greater success by the 
seasonable arrival of some other soldiers, the culprit rushed 
through the barrack-square to escape his pursuers, when the 
sentry on duty at the gate interposed himself with his car- 
bine, in the attitude of ‘charge bayonets’ to obstruct him. 
The consequences of this movement to the other were that 
as he was rushing through a narrow passage with an impetus 
which he could not at the time control, he threw himself (not 
premeditately, it will be understood) with great force upon 
the bayonet of the sentry, which entered his body an inch to 
the left of the ensiform cartilage, and, passing through the abdo- 
men, emerged by its point on the left of and close to the spinal 
column, some inches lower down. When I reached the scene 
of action, within two minutes after, I found the subject of 
this wound sitting upon a form in the guard-room, as insensi- 
ble to any effects from the injury as he was unconcerned at 
his crime. I could not, therefore, at first believe the statement 
of his comrades, who told me what had happened, although 
the bayonet was handed to me bent by the violence to which 
it had been exposed; but on stripping the wounded man, I 
discovered the two openings of entrance and exit of the bayo- 
net, corresponding, in form and diameter, to those which the 
different parts of the weapon would have occasioned. Added 
to this, the bayonet was withdrawn from his body by a non- 
commissioned officer, upon whose testimony I could rely; and 
wffiat is more, this withdrawal was witnessed by a crowd of 
other soldiers around. Now this desperate character marched, 
(l) Med. Times and Gaz., May 6, 1854. 
741 §819] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
in a quarter of an hour afterwards, to the hospital, three- 
quarters of a mile distant; and at the end of a fortnight was 
discharged from the same, to he placed upon trial for his life. 
The day after his admission his urine was a little bloody; and 
subsequently there was a general anaesthesia of the walls of 
the thorax and abdomen, which lasted but for awhile. With 
these exceptions, the injury was not followed by a symptom, 
nor did the subject of it require a dose of medicine for his 
recovery. To the circumstances of this affray having been 
enacted before dinner, I am disposed to attribute much of the 
immunity from evil which this ruffian enjoyed. Had the 
stomach been full, it is not easy to conceive that a bayonet 
could have travelled through such a track of vital organs, with- 
out endangering one or more. The reader may be interested 
to know that the life of this soldier was spared, transportation 
for the rest of his days being the sentence of his court-martial.” 
§ 818. One of the most extraordinary instances of recovery 
from a wound traversing the whole thorax, is related in the 
Abeille Medicale, 15 Jan. 1855, from the Journ. de Mdd. de Bor- 
deaux. A young soldier fell from a cherry-tree upon an up- 
right stake, such as is used in the vineyards. It entered the 
left side between the seventh and eight ribs, and the pointed 
extremity projected on the other side between the fourth and 
fifth ribs, at the posterior part of the axilla, and to the length 
of a foot and a half. The young man retained his conscious- 
ness and intelligence, did not appear to suffer much, and after 
one end of the stick had been sawn off, was conveyed to the 
hospital. There the stake was extracted without difficulty, 
and it was found that it had carried part of the shirt with it. 
A few bleedings and an antiphlogistic treatment sufficed to 
remove some inflammatory symptoms which arose, and in 
three weeks the patient was entirely convalescent. 
§ 819. In 1831, a sailor named John Toylor, aged twenty, 
was guiding the iron pivot of the trysail mast into the main 
boom, when the tackle broke, and the mast, which was thirty- 
nine feet long, and weighed 600 lbs., descended upon him, 
tearing off half his scalp, knocking him down, piercing his 
chest obliquely, and fixing him to the deck. While thus 
transfixed he felt no pain. He recovered entirely, returned 
742 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 820 
to his duties as a sailor, and for twenty-seven years enjoyed, 
without interruption, the most excellent health.(ra) 
§ 820. 6th. Wounds of the heart.—When the cavities of the 
heart have been opened death is generally the immediate, as 
it always is, sooner or later, the certain result. When the 
cavities of the heart have not been penetrated, but their walls 
alone injured, the danger is still very great, not so much from 
the loss of blood as from its compression of the organ and 
the subsequent inflammation. This is particularly to be 
dreaded when the coronary arteries have been wounded. No 
case has yet been recorded in which a person has recovered 
from a wound penetrating the cavities of the heart. One of 
the most singular instances of apparent recovery from a gun- 
shot wound of the heart (if it can be properly so called), is 
contained in the “ Notes of Observation at the Field Hospital 
of Rangoon.” Here a soldier survived his wound two and a 
half months, emaciating, however, rapidly, although he was 
able to walk about. On dissection, the course taken by the 
ball was traced through the pleura and lung, by a cartilagi- 
nous canal of condensed tissue, to the root of the lung, where 
all trace of it was lost. On opening the pericardium, how- 
ever, a hard body was felt in the apex of the heart which, 
when the cavity was laid open, proved to be a musket ball 
lying at the apex of the left ventricle, partly covered by a 
thin coating of white lymph. There was no injury to the 
heart nor evidence of diseased action. The heart was pre- 
served in spirits and sent to Calcutta. The only manner in 
which the ball could have found its way to the situation in 
which it was found, must have been through one of the pul- 
monary veins, as there was no trace of its passage through 
the substance of the heart. A case which would seem to con- 
firm this idea is mentioned in Schmidt’s Jahrbuch, vol. lxxii. 
p. 328. A man was struck in the back by a bullet which 
entered his thorax, and caused his death in twenty minutes. 
On dissection it was found that the ball had entered over the 
sixth rib behind, grazed the lung, and wounded the pulmo- 
nary artery. But it could not at first be discovered. It was 
(m) Lancet, Jan. 1859, p. 45. 
743 § 822] 
[book V. 
WOUNDS. 
soon found, however, in the right ventricle of the heart, where 
it had fallen by its own weight after penetrating the pulmo- 
nary artery.(rax) 
§ 821. The period at which wounds of the heart prove fatal 
varies in different cases. The reason of this variation is found 
not only in the extent and locality of the wound, but in the 
fact that the point of the weapon or the bullet may have re- 
mained in the walls of the heart, and thus the sudden loss of 
blood have been mechanically prevented. A coagulum of 
blood may, in some cases where the wound is not extensive, 
cause the prolongation of life for a similar reason. Should 
the patient escape the fatal results of inflammation ensuing 
upon such a wound, he is nevertheless exposed to sudden 
death by the removal of this mechanical obstacle to hemor- 
rhage. Ollivier d’Angers found, out of twenty-nine cases 
collected by himself, that only two proved fatal within forty- 
eight hours, and the others in from four to twenty-eight days. 
§ 822. Dr. Trugien, of Portsmouth, Va., observed a case in 
which a young negro man was stabbed in the chest on Mon- 
day night and continued to do well until Saturday morning, 
at which time, contrary to orders, he went out, and used 
other improper exertion, in consequence of which he died. 
(to1) An instance of long survivance after an injury of the heart of an 
extraordinary character may he found in the Transactions of the Provincial 
Med. and Surg. Association, vol. ii. p. 357: A boy ten years old, in discharg- 
ing a wooden gun, was wounded in the thorax by a plug of wood about 
three inches long, which he had used to form the breech of this apparatus. 
It could not be found. He walked about for a fortnight and said he was 
well, but finalty wasted away and died in five weeks and two days after the 
accident. On dissection the stick was found in the right ventricle, forcing 
itself between the columns} carnei and the internal surface of the heart, and 
incrusted with a thick coagulum. No wound could be discovered in the 
heart or pericardium. Hence it is supposed that the stick first entered the 
lung, and afterwards passed into the vena cava and thence was carried by 
the stream of blood first into the right auricle, and then into the right ven- 
tricle. 
A man, whose case is related by Prof. Malle, received a gunshot wound 
near the left nipple; he fell instantly in syncope, but afterwards revived, 
and lived 42 days, when he died of erysipelas of the leg. A piece of wood, 
“ as large as a full-sized writing quill, was found transfixing the left ventricle 
and the septum, and projecting into the cavity of the right ventricle.”—Brit, 
and For. Med. Chir. Rev.,vol. x. p. 46. 
744 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 824 
The wound, which had healed externally, perforated the carti- 
lage of the fourth rib, passed through a part of the anterior 
wall of the right ventricle, without opening it, and thence 
into the left ventricle. About a pint and a half of blood, 
partly fluid and partly coagulated, was found in the pericar- 
dium. The wound in this membrane had completely cica- 
trized, and tvio-thirds of that in the heart.(n) 
§ 823. In a case reported by Dr. Bowen, the right ventricle 
was perforated a half an inch to the right of the septum, and 
through the septum the wound extended into the left ventri- 
cle, at the orifice of the aortic valves; the wound was lined 
with coagulable lymph. The patient had survived his injuries 
eleven days and walked abouthe died suddenly from hem- 
orrhage into the pericardial and pleural sacs^n1) Muschner 
reports a case of penetrating wound of the heart which proved 
fatal on the fourteenth day.(o) 
§ 824. Stadelmayer gives a case in which not only the heart 
was penetrated, but the stomach also, and an intercostal artery 
wounded, when death ensued on the 5th day.(p) These cases 
might readily be multiplied, but enough has been said to show 
that wounds of the heart, even when the left ventricle has 
been penetrated, are not of necessity immediately fatal.(q) 
(n) Am. Jour. Med. Sci., July, 1850. See also Am. Jour. Med. Sci. for 
May, 1829, p. 263, in which there is a notice of a case of gunshot wound of 
the chest, in which the patient, a negro boy aged 15, lived 67 days after the 
accident, and, on post-mortem examination, three shot were found lying 
loose in the cavity of the right ventricle, and two in the right auricle. 
For the case of Wm. Poole (pugilist), see N. York Med. Times, April, 
1855. In the same Journal for May, 1855, will be found “ Statistical Obser- 
vations on Wounds of the Heart and on their Relations to Forensic Medicine, 
with a Table of Forty-two Recorded Cases.” By Samuel S. Purple, M.D. 
(n.1) Am. Jour. Med. Sci., October, 1849. 
(0) Yer. Deutsche Zeitschrift. III. 1. 1848. 
(p) Med. Correspond. Bl. Bayer. Aertze. No. 318. 
(q) A case of some interest in reference to the power of surviving a severe 
wound of the cavities of the heart occurred at Guy’s Hospital in February, 
1854. An Italian, set. 38, discharged a brace of pistols into his chest on the 
left side. The man was brought to the hospital, was able to converse on his 
condition, and lived one hour and fifteen minutes after the infliction of the 
wound. After death it was found that one bullet had perforated the peri- 
cardium, entered the right ventricle, and after traversing the septum of the 
ventricles, made its exit from the heart at the junction of the left auricle 
745 § 825] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
§ 825. Death is usually sudden, but does not always follow 
immediately upon the receipt of the wound, although the first 
effects are exceedingly alarming. In nearly all the cases, 
where the wound seriously implicates the heart, the individual 
staggers a few paces, or falls instantly in a state of syncope. 
Exceptional cases have, however, been reported in which, even 
where the wound has been found subsequently to have pene- 
trated the cavity of the heart, the person has nevertheless 
retained his consciousness and power of locomotion for a short 
period after receiving it. Thus in the case of Mrs. Hamilton, 
murdered by Clough in 1833, at Bordentown, by repeated stabs 
with a dirk, three entered the left ventricle, and seven the 
lung. She walked some distance down stairs after this, and 
held some conversation, but soon fell, and died in fifteen 
minutes.(r) In a case related by M. Boyer, a young man, who 
received a knife wound in the left ventricle, walked about for 
ten minutes and did not die until six days afterwards.(s) In 
another, where the right ventricle was wounded, the man ran 
up stairs, but died in half an Mr. Baird relates a case 
in which a man continued fighting and ran 150 yards after 
receiving two penetrating wounds of the chest, and one of 
them penetrating the left ventricle.(w) In an instance given 
by Dr. Babington, a man walked twenty-five feet after a bayo- 
net-wound which pierced the peritoneum, colon, stomach, left 
lobe of liver, diaphragm, pericardium, right ventricle in two 
places, and the lungs.(v) 
with the ventricle. It traversed the upper lobe of the left lung, and was 
found fixed in one of the dorsal vertebrae. The second bullet perforated the left 
ventricle, and then traversed the left lung. The wound was of such a nature 
that at every contraction of the ventricle, the opening must have been closed 
so as to arrest the flow of blood. This man, owing to severe suffering, rolled 
about the floor and was with difficulty kept quiet. It will be seen that in 
this case there were bullet wounds traversing completely the cavities of the 
heart, yet the man could talk and exert himself, and he actually survived 
their infliction one hour and a quarter.”—Taylor's Med. Jur., 5tli ed., p. 308. 
(r) Beck’s Med. Jur., vol. ii. p. 331. 
(*) Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. ii. p. 209. 
(t) Am. Journ. Med. Sci., N. S., vol. xxvi. p. 85. 
(u) Edinb. Month. Journ., vol. iii. 1843. 
(®) Med. Records and Researches. Lond. 1798. 
746 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 827 
§ 826. Rupture of the heart.—This occasionally results from 
external violence, generally of an accidental nature, as from 
the falling of a heavy body upon the chest. The cause of the 
occurrence is usually too obvious to require any explanation 
here. The only case in which rupture of the heart may be- 
come the subject of medico-legal investigation, is when a per- 
son engaged in a quarrel dies suddenly after receiving a blow' 
upon the chest, and this lesion is found after death. The case 
is one which evidently admits of discussion, belonging to that 
category of cases in which death already impending is appa- 
rently anticipated by external violence. The fact of the heart 
being in a diseased condition favoring its rupture, such as 
fatty degeneration, ulceration, aneurismal dilatation, must be 
ascertained, as well as the force of the blow inflicted. It must 
be remembered, however, that the rupture may occur sponta- 
neously in these morbid conditions, even when the person is in 
a tranquil state, but that a fit of anger greatly increases the 
probability of its occurrence. Hence a blow upon the diest 
may really have had nothing to do with causing the rupture, 
this having been due entirely to the strong excitation of a 
weakened heart. Rupture of the heart from disease usually 
takes place in the left ventricle, except where the disease is 
ulceration, when of course it may take place at any portion. 
The heart is also ruptured sometimes by great physical exer- 
tion, in which case the left auricle is apt to give way. Violent 
emotions of any kind are enumerated among the causes of 
this accident, but it is probable that they are only effective 
when the heart is already weakened by disease. The same 
may be said of rupture of the aorta. Wounds of this and the 
other great vessels of the chest are inevitably mortal, if the 
opening is not very slight. 
§ 827. 7th. Wounds of the abdomen. (1) Superficial wounds. 
—A severe blow in the epigastric region has in several in- 
stances sufficed to produce immediate death, and this may 
result w'ithout any external or internal mark of violence- 
Death in these cases has been generally attributed to the 
violent impression made upon the solar plexus of nerves. 
Blows upon other parts of the abdomen not accompanied by 
any solution of continuity in the integuments may prove 
747 § 828] 
[book v. 
WOUNDS. 
serious or fatal by causing peritoneal inflammation or the 
rupture of some organ in this cavity but contused and 
lacerated wounds which are not attended with these effects 
may still give rise to serious consequences from the formation 
of fistulous communications. Incised wounds, also, which do 
not penetrate the cavity, may nevertheless prove fatal from a 
wound of the epigastric artery. 
§ 828. (2) Tenetrating wounds of the abdomen usually prove 
fatal by causing inflammation of the peritoneum, either as a 
direct effect of its division or indirectly from the effusion of 
blood and the entrance of air. When the omentum or mesen- 
tery is wounded, death usually takes place by hemorrhage, but 
sometimes from inflammation and gangrene. Wounds of the 
stomach and intestines prove fatal by hemorrhage, or by inflam- 
mation resulting from the effusion of the contents of these 
organs into the peritoneal cavity. The natural tendency of 
these injuries is to death, although by timely and skilful 
surgical treatment many cures may be A 
most remarkable case is reported by Dr. Nicholls, of a man 
sixty-nine years old, who attempted suicide by thrusting a 
red-hot poker into his abdomen about an inch and a half above 
the navel. There was no hemorrhage, and a partial protrusion 
only of omentum, which sloughed off. In three weeks the 
wound had nearly healed, when the patient tore away the 
dressings, enlarged the wound, and cut or tore away a portion 
of the omentum, and a piece of the colon thirty-two inches 
long. He survived these horrible injuries eight days.^1) 
(»’) Numerous examples exist of fatal rupture of the spleen from compa- 
ratively slight causes. The reader is referred to the following recent cases : 
Archives Gen., July, 1854, p. 85; Barth, ibid., Feb. 1855, p. 235; Lancet, 
March, 1859, p. 329 ; ibid., July, 1859, p. 8; Lopez, N. Amer. Med.-Chir. 
Rev., iv. 28G ; Adams, ibid., p. 756 ; and Charcot, G>z. des Hopitaux, 1858, 
reports that a rupture of the spleen was found in a new-born child produced 
by a fall of the mother some weeks before. 
(w) Vide South’s Chelius’s Surgery, vol. i. p. 522, for several cases. For 
a case of speedy recovery after a penetrating wound of the stomach made 
by a bowie-knife, see The Stethoscope, June, 1855. (Richmond.) From 
Charleston Med. Journ. and Review. 
Dublin Med. Press, Oct. 4, 1854. 
748 BOOK Y.J 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
L§ 830 
§ 829. 8th. Wounds of the liver vary in importance according 
to their extent and situation. Superficial wounds of this 
organ have much less gravity than those which penetrate its 
substance deeply, and interest the large arterial and venous 
trunks which traverse its lower surface. If the gall-bladder 
is wounded, violent peritonitis usually results from the effu- 
sion of bile into the peritoneum. Incised and punctured 
wounds of the spleen may produce death by hemorrhage, and 
this is the more likely to be the case when this organ is ab- 
normally enlarged. Wounds of the kidneys usually prove 
fatal by the effusion of urine and consecutive inflammation. 
It is hardly necessary to mention that wounds of the great 
abdominal vessels are unavoidably fatal. 
§ 830. 9th. Wounds of the diaphragm.—Mr. Guthrie says 
that wounds of the diaphragm rarely if ever close, but remain 
open during the rest of the life of the sufferer, ready at all 
times to give rise to a hernia, which may become strangulated, 
and thus destroy life. Among other cases given by him, the 
following is interesting. On the day preceding the battle of 
Fuentes d’Onor, in 1811, Sergeant Barry was wounded in the 
chest. The ball entered close to the nipple of the left breast, 
and passed out at the back, between the eighth and ninth ribs. 
The anterior opening of the wound soon healed, but the poste- 
rior did not for a considerable period, when he became affected 
with such a severe cough, with expectoration, that his medical 
attendant deemed it proper to reopen it. The symptoms were 
relieved, and portions of his shirt and jacket were discharged. 
After this his health improved so rapidly as to enable him 
soon to rejoin his corps; the wound in the back repeatedly 
opened and healed again, generally at intervals of twelve or 
fourteen months, but for five or six years it ceased to do so. 
He died of another disease, twenty-two years after the receipt 
of this wound. On examination, the whole of the stomach 
and the greater part of the transverse arch of the colon were 
found in the left cavity of the chest, having passed through 
an opening in the diaphragm about three inches long in a 
transverse direction near the centre. The wound in this in- 
stance was through the muscular and not through the tendi- 
749 §831] 
WOUNDS. 
[book V. 
nous part.(a-) Slight penetrating wounds of the diaphragm, 
Dr. Taylor says, will heal, instances of the fact being upon 
record. 
§ 831. 10th. Wounds and rupture of the bladder.—The con- 
sideration of these has considerable practical importance, from 
the fact that the bladder is occasionally ruptured spontaneous- 
ly from over-distension. If a person have received a violent 
blow or kick upon the lower part of the abdomen, and the 
bladder after death is found ruptured, the defence may deny 
that this was caused by the blow. To the medical mind this 
line of defence cannot but appear very precarious. Sponta- 
neous rupture of the bladder is extremely rare. A case is 
reported of this accident to a man, which could only be attri- 
buted to his suddenly jumping from a table on w~hich he had 
been sitting.^1) In another case the same accident resulted 
from a violent fall upon the buttocks while the bladder was 
distended.(y) The well-marked symptoms of distension can 
hardly be concealed,(y1) and the cause of it would certainly 
be found after death; hence, if rupture has followed a blow, 
the dependence of one upon the other is, in the absence of 
undoubted evidence of the pre-existence of over-distension 
from natural causes, as satisfactory and conclusive as possible. 
In the words of Dr. Taylor: “If a man were in good health 
prior to being struck—if he suddenly felt intense pain, could 
not pass his urine afterwards, and died from an attack of peri- 
tonitis in five or six days—if after death the bladder was found 
lacerated, but this organ and the urethra were otherwise in a 
healthy condition, there can be no doubt that the blow was 
the sole cause of rupture and death. In such a case, to attri- 
bute the rupture to spontaneous causes would be equal to 
(x) Lancet, April 16, 1853. Vide also Lancet, April, 1852. 
(a;1) Edinb. Med. Journ., ii. 847. (y) Ibid., iv. 811, 844. 
(y1) Nevertheless, Mr. Hird related an interesting case at the Medical 
Society of London, which is quoted by Mr. Coulson, to show that the patient 
may walk several miles after complete rupture, and for a time exhibit no 
symptoms which attract more than ordinary attention. (Brit, and For. 
Med.-Chir. Rev., July, 1852.) An analysis of seventy-eight cases of rup- 
ture of the bladder is published by Dr. S. Smith in the New York Journal 
of Medicine, new series, vi. 336. 
750 BOOK V.J 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 833 
denying all kind of causation.*’ Rupture of the bladder is 
usually a fatal injury, producing death by peritonitis; but if 
it occur in the anterior portion, which is not wholly covered 
by the peritoneum, recovery will sometimes occur. Thus, in 
a case reported by Mr. a boy ruptured the bladder by 
falling upon two upright stakes of wood, in jumping over a 
fence. Under an appropriate and skilful treatment he finally 
got well. 
§ 832. A case is related by Ur. Mason (21) of a man who 
fell down a flight of stairs, thereby causing rupture of the 
bladder. About thirty-six hours after the injury, the symp- 
toms being urgent, it was determined to lay open the bladder 
through the perineum, as in the lateral operation for stone. 
Ur. M. thought he detected, on passing his finger into the 
bladder, a rent in the posterior wall of that viscus. The pa- 
tient did well after the operation, and was discharged well on 
the thirty-ninth day after the accident. 
§ 833. There is rarely any external injury to correspond 
with the violent internal disorganization. In a case where 
the urethra was completely torn across by external violence, 
there was no external wound—not even an abrasion of the 
skin, (a) 
A case is reported (a1) of a woman who was admitted into 
King’s College Hospital, London, under the care of Sir ¥m. 
Fergusson, having been knocked down while drunk by a blow 
on the head, which caused a small scalp wound. She is stated 
to have fallen on her back. When brought into the hospital 
she was in a state of semi-collapse, but afterwards recovered 
sufficiently to give some account of the accident. She died 
of peritonitis two days after the injury. At the autopsy 
there was no sign of external wound, but the bladder was 
found ruptured at the upper and back part, there being a 
clean longitudinal rent of two inches in length. There was 
a considerable amount of urine in the abdominal cavity, and 
(z) Edinb. Month. Journ., p. 332. 
(z1) New York Med. Journ., Aug. 1872. 
(«) Neill, Hospital Cases. Med. Examiner, Aug. 1854. 
(a1) Medical Times, 1806, vol. ii. p. 253. 
751 § 834] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
a great deposit of lymph gluing the intestines together. The 
other viscera were healthy. 
§ 834. The occasional immunity from serious effects in 
wounds of the abdomen of apparently the most dangerous 
character, is well illustrated by two cases, very similar to one 
another, which have occurred in this country. Dr. Sargent, 
of Worcester, Mass., reported to the Boston Society for Medi- 
cal Improvement, a case which occurred in his practice. A 
woman, about 37 years of age, in sliding down from a hayloft, 
impaled herself upon the handle of a pitchfork, which passed 
in at her vagina to the length of twenty-two inches, when her 
feet struck the ground. The handle was immediately with- 
drawn. Dr. S. saw the handle of the fork, which was rounded 
a little larger at the end than elsewhere, perfectly smooth, two 
inches in diameter, and showed distinctly the stain of blood 
up to an abrupt line, twenty-two inches from the end. It was 
supposed that the instrument perforated the end of the 
vagina on the left side, passed between the uterus and rectum, 
in front of the kidney, behind the spleen, and between the 
diaphragm and false ribs, peeling up the costal pleura till it 
reached the scaleni muscles. The subsequent history of the 
case, which showed a fracture of the first rib, proved this 
diagnosis correct. The woman recovered in a few weeks 
entirely.(6) Another case is reported by Dr. Bryant, of Mis- 
sissippi, of a negro woman who leaped from the height of ten 
feet and alighted upon a tobacco stick, which had been driven 
firmly in the ground, and was concealed by some loose fodder. 
The stick was four and a half feet long and one inch square. 
It entered the vagina, penetrated its upper part, and traversed 
the abdomen to the eleventh or twelfth rib. The stick was 
smeared with bloody mucus to the extent of twelve and a 
half inches, and its termination was abrupt and distinct. “It 
was quite clear that the stick was not stained by the fluid 
running down upon it.” This woman also recovered, after 
losing a considerable quantity of blood.(c) 
(5) Am. Journ. Med. Sci., Oct. 1853, p. 355. 
(c) Ibid., p. 399. The sequel of Dr. Sargent’s case is given in the Boston 
Med. and Surg. Journ., Dec. 1856, p. 387, and several analogous ones are 
there referred to by Dr. Coale. Dr. Maynard has reported a fatal case in a 
752 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 836 
§ 835. 11th. Wounds of the genitals.—In the male these are 
usually self-inflicted, and instances of the kind most usually 
occur among the insane. The danger to life is great if the 
injury have been inflicted with a sharp instrument and is of 
considerable extent; the hemorrhage being profuse, and not 
easily controlled. Impoterce may be the result of an im- 
perfect mutilation. 
M. Toulmouche^1) has contributed some interesting cases 
of wounds of the genitals. One of them, a case of castration 
of the right testicle, is specially interesting, inasmuch as M. 
Toulmouche was enabled to state, from the appearance of the 
wound and in spite of the obstinate silence of the patient, that 
the castration’must necessarily have been performed by a second 
person. The recipient of the injury must have been forcibly 
held. The tunica vaginalis was neatly opened from above 
downwards, the testicle drawn out, and the cord divided above 
in an artistic manner. 
§ 836. “ Fracture” of the penis.—Although this accident is 
rare, a sufficient number of cases have been reported to make 
it worthy of notice. In the Cincinnati Journal of Medicine 
for July, 1866, Dr. J. P. Bing relates a case which was tried 
in the Court of Common Pleas, in Meigs County, Ohio, Feb- 
ruary, 1866. The indictment was substantially as follows:— 
“ That one Mary Broderick, of the county aforesaid, did, 
on the 29th day of July, 1865, purposely and maliciously, but 
without deliberation and premeditation, with her right hand, 
grasp and wrench the penis of Patrick Broderick, with intent 
to inflict a mortal wound; thus the urethra with the corpus 
spongiosum and corpus cavernosum were broken and severed; 
and that Patrick Broderick (her husband) died from the effects 
of the wound, on the eleventh day after the injury was in- 
flicted.” 
The physicians who attended the case stated that there had 
been retention of urine with apparent extravasation; and it 
woman who, in sliding down a hay-mow, fell upon a hay-hook. (Ibid., Aug. 
1857, p. 29.) 
(e1) Ann. d’Hyg., xxx. p. 110. From Year-Book of Med. and Surg. 18G7-8. 
vol. ii.—48 
753 § 837] 
WOUNDS. 
[book v. 
was not until after three days that they had succeeded in in- 
troducing a catheter and drawing off the urine. 
At the post-mortem examination -the “ corpus cavernosum, 
left side, was found to be ruptured; corpus spongiosum muti- 
lated, and urethra entirely severed; infiltration of urine into 
cellular tissue of penis, perineum, and into scrotum, with in- 
cipient gangrene.” 
The defence set up was that the injury was received by fall- 
ing down stairs—the deceased having been in a state of intoxi- 
cation at the time. 
The verdict rendered was, “ Guilty of manslaughter,” and 
“not guilty of murder in the second degree.” 
Dr. Blackman refers, in the same journal, to several other 
cases of a similar injury. One of them is from the Bulletin 
de la iSociete de Chirurgie, of Paris, vol. iii. p. 514, and is re- 
ported by M. Iluguier. There was “ complete rupture of the 
canal of the urethra and partial rupture of the corpora caver- 
nosa followed by death.” “The patient, a vigorous man, set. 
37, had some affection of the ear, for which he applied a 
blister. Some days afterwards, while in bed with his wife, 
and having des erections conlinuelles, from the effect of the 
blister, had connection, the wife having the superincumbent 
position. The whole weight of her body was brought to bear 
upon the organ then in violente erection, and the latter was 
thrust against the thigh and perineum.” 
On account of retention of urine and failure to introduce a 
catheter, the bladder was tapped above the pubis. “ Erysipe- 
latous inflammation, with emphysema, showed itself at various 
points, and the patient died on the twelfth day after the acci- 
dent. The post-mortem showed that the rupture of the canal 
was complete, and the corpora cavernosa were partially di- 
vided.” 
§ 837. Upon the female, wounds of the genitals are generally 
due to the violence of others. This appears to have been a 
favorite mode of committing murder in Scotland, probably 
from the facility with which it would be overlooked. Several 
cases of the kind have been recorded, in which criminal trials 
took place. The latest are the trials of Andrew Paterson 
and Win. Hetherton, charged with the murder of their wives 
754 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF BODY. 
[§ 838 
by wounding them in the genital organs. In one case, the 
woman had been recently confined. A wound an inch and a 
half long was found in the vagina, supposed to have been in- 
flicted with the iron hold-fast of a sign-board. In the other, 
the woman was in the eighth month of her pregnancy. There 
was found a lacerated wound of the genitals immediately on 
the left side of the urethral orifice. There were numerous 
contusions on both thighs and in the neighborhood of the 
vulva; the injuries were attributed to kicks.(d) 
§ 838. Occasionally, as has before been mentioned, there may 
occur spontaneous hemorrhage from a ruptured vein at the 
root of the labia; hence the necessity of establishing the pre- 
sence of marks of violence, such as contusions, abrasions, etc. 
In a case, however, related in the Lancet, a woman received a 
kick in the private parts from her husband, while she was 
stooping, and died within an hour, from hemorrhage. The 
left root of the clitoris was crushed, and there was a wound 
on the edge of the vulva about an inch long, but otherwise no 
contusion or marks of violence.(e) Examples of accidental 
wounds of this description have already been given (Chap. I. 
§ 705). Lacerated wounds of the uterus, produced by the 
throes of parturition, are not necessarily fatal; and there are 
even cases of recovery after the complete avulsion of this organ 
and its appendages by an ignorant or brutal accoucheur. 
(d) Ed. Month. Journ., June and Sept. 1848. For other cases, see Wat- 
son on Homicide, p. 104, and London Med. Gaz., xliv. p. 813. 
(e) Lancet, Oct. 1846. 
755 § 839] 
BURNS AND SCALDS. 
[book V. 
CHAPTER II. 
BURKS and scalds. 
I. How classified, § 839. 
II. Appearance of burns upon dead body, § 840. 
III. Wounds upon the burned, § 843. 
IY. Effects upon the system, § 846. 
Y. Post-mortem appearances, § 847. 
§ 839. I. How classified.—The effect produced upon the 
living person by a heated body, varies, according to the nature 
of the vehicle by which the heat is applied. Thus, boiling 
liquids produce scalds, which are serious in proportion to the 
density of the liquid; solids in a state of ignition, burns 
which are deep and extensive in proportion to the elevation 
of temperature and the duration of contact; while gases, in a 
state of combustion or flame, consume and destroy the living 
structure more completely than either of these other agents. 
The injuries produced by certain chemical substances of a 
caustic nature also . receive the name of burns, in ordinary 
language, although an elevated temperature is not required 
for their effects. The ordinary division of burns, according 
to their gravity, is that made by Dupuytren:— 
1st degree. Superficial inflammation of the skin, without 
the formation of blisters. 
2d. Vesication. The serum contained in the blisters is 
sometimes clear, sometimes opaque and of a yellowish-white 
color, or, again, sanguinolent. If the cuticle have been re- 
moved, the true skin is found granulated, of a vivid red, or 
secreting pus. 
3d. Destruction of the external surface of the true skin. 
That portion which has lost its vitality is seen in the form of 
eschars, which are soft and yellow if made by a liquid, but 
hard and brown, or black, if made by a heated solid or burnt 
with flame. The skin surrounding them presents the charac- 
756 BOOK V.] 
BURNS UPON THE DEAD BODY. 
[§ 840 
ter of burns of the first or second degree, being red and blis- 
tered. This form of burns leaves scars, which are on a level 
with the skin, or nearly so, and are white and shining. 
4th. Disorganization of the whole thickness of the skin. 
These burns differ from the preceding only in the greater 
thickness of the sloughs. The scar which is left is charac- 
teristic, being sunk below the level of the skin, and irregular, 
radiated, and puckered. 
5th. Hot only the skin, but the subcutaneous cellular tissue, 
and a portion of the muscles underneath are destroyed. The 
injury is graver in its character than the last, although the 
external appearances are not strikingly different. 
6th. Complete carbonization of the burned part. 
§ 840. II. Appearances of - burns made upon the dead body.— 
Orfila says that vesication manifestly denotes that the burn 
was made during life. According to Devergie, if boiling 
water or a red-hot iron be applied to the skin of a person, ten 
minutes after death, neither redness nor vesication will be 
produced, and it is not possible to mistake a burn made after 
death for one which was made before it. Dr. Christison made 
six experiments, with a view of satisfying himself as to the 
distinction. He says that it is evident from these that the 
application of heat, even a few minutes after death, causes 
no effects which can be mistaken for those induced by the 
vital reaction. In one case, in which a young man lay in a 
hopeless state of coma from poisoning with laudanum, a hot 
iron was held on the outside of the hip-joint, and half an 
hour after death, a red-hot poker was applied to three places 
on the inside of the arm. It is stated that vesications were 
formed in both instances, those made during life contained 
serum, and those formed after death air. Dr. Taylor says 
that he has performed many experiments on the bodies of 
infants, eighteen and twenty hours after death, both with 
boiling water and heated solids; but that in no case did he 
observe any kind of vesication to follow at that period. The 
skin became shrivelled, and was partly destroyed by the heat, 
but no blisters were produced. Dr. Casper made four experi- 
ments with the same result. It is stated, however, by MM. 
Lcuret and Champouilloh, and also by Dr. Wright, of Bir- 
757 § 840] 
[book v. 
BURNS AND SCALDS. 
mingham, that serous blisters may be produced after death in 
anasarcous subjects. In M. Leuret’s experiment, the blister 
contained an abundance of reddish-colored serum. In those 
of the other two observers, the serum was not tinged with 
blood. In one of Casper’s experiments, however, a flame was 
held close to the dropsical scrotum of a dead body; the skin 
nearest the flame shrivelled up and acquired a shining silver- 
gray surface, but no blister was raised. We think, however, 
it may be fairly objected to this and the preceding experiments 
of Casper, alluded to, that the degree of heat employed was 
much beyond that necessary to produce vesication. In two 
of the other three experiments, cotton wadding soaked in 
turpentine was placed in contact with the skin and lighted, 
In one case it was allowed to burn four minutes, in the other 
three and a half. In the third experiment, the flame of an oil 
lamp was held three minutes in contact with the back of the 
foot. In each case the skin was superficially roasted. The 
result might, perhaps, have been different had a less intense 
heat been employed. Casper also alludes to a fact of some 
importance in this connection. He says that it is a common 
practice to drop burning sealing-wax upon the pit of the 
stomach immediately after death, with the hope of reviving 
the defunct, but that in the large number of bodies he has 
seen, in which this unintentional experiment had been per- 
formed, not one presented a trace of vesication in consequence. 
It may therefore, we think, be fairly inferred that, with per- 
haps the exception of anasarcous bodies, the presence of vesi- 
cations upon the skin may be looked upon as a sure indication 
of the burn having been made during life, or immediately 
after, while the body is still possessed of a certain degree of 
organic vitality. Their absence, however, will be no evidence 
that the burns were not made upon the living person, since it 
is very possible that only the more serious results of burning 
may be found. There is, however, another sign of burning 
during life which cannot be simulated upon the dead body, 
viz., the congested and inflamed state of the skin around the 
blister or the burn, which is indicated by a red line which 
gradually merges into the color of the surrounding skin. This 
red border remains after death, and experiments made by Drs. 
758 BOOK V.] 
BURNS UPON THE DEAD BODY. 
759 
Christison and Taylor prove that it cannot be produced by the 
application of beat to the dead body. The same may be said 
also of the red and granulated appearance of the true skin 
under the blisters.^1) 
§ 841. The only experiments which appear to throw doubt 
upon the correctness of these conclusions are those of Dr. 
Maschka(/) and Graff.(y) The first of these gentlemen found, 
in his experiments upon the dead body, that when the flame 
was brought in contact with the skin, blisters were formed of 
various sizes from that of a pea to that of an apple, within 
the space of one minute. These burst with a noise and dis- 
charged serum. No redness, however, was observed under or 
around these vesications, until the denuded surface had been 
some time in contact with the air. The application of boiling 
water produced the same result. 'When the heat was main- 
tained, the further changes could not be distinguished from 
such as would have been caused upon a living person. Dr. 
Graft', whose object in his experiments was to ascertain the 
length of time required to consume a head to a degree similar 
to that in which this portion of the body of the murdered 
(e>) Prof. "W. Hoffmann claims that by means of the microscope burns of 
the skin of the third order originating before death may he distinguished 
from those inflicted post-mortem. 
A piece of the leathery skin is cut out and held up to the light; when, if 
the burning took place before death, the apparently uniform brownish-red 
color resolves itself into an exceedingly fine network of capillaries, of a rusty 
color, traversing the dried corium. This is made clearer by a pocket micro- 
scope. The injection is as complete as if produced artificially. This obser- 
vation is confirmed by the microscope by showing the capillaries of the 
corium, through almost its entire extent, full of dried rusty-brown blood. 
The existence of this condition here described proves that at the time of 
the burning or scalding the capillaries must have been full of blood ; the body 
must, therefore, have been alive. In bodies in which the burns were of 
post-mortem origin, the author has never found a trace of injection of the 
dried corium, the capillaries of which under the microscope wrere seen to be 
empty ; in the subcutaneous cellular tissue the vessels are almost empty, but 
a few larger branches contain a small amount of dried blood. (Journal of 
Psycholog. Medicine, vol. iv. p. 639, and Prager Yierteljahrschrift, in A. M. 
Centr. Ztg.) 
(/) Canstatt’s Jahresbericht, fur 1852, Bd. vii. p. 46. 
(g) Prager Yierteljahrschrift, 1850, 4 Bd. p. 123. 
759 760 
BURNS AND SCALDS. 
[book v. 
Countess of Gorlitz was found, laid tlie emaciated body of a 
person aged about fifty years upon a table in such a manner 
that the head hung over one end of it. A vessel containing 
alcohol was placed between five and six inches below it, and 
the spirit set on fire. The integuments of the head were con- 
sumed in about half an hour, and, at the distance of from ten 
to fifteen inches from the burning parts, white vesications 
were formed, some of which had a moist and red base, and a 
pale-red areola around them. Accident furnished Dr. Taylor 
with evidence of the same nature. “A man was accidentally 
drowned; his body was immediately taken from the 
and soon afterwards placed in a warm bath”—within ten 
minutes after apparent death. The water was so hot that 
portions of the cuticle came off when his body was removed, 
for it was found impossible to resuscitate him. On an inspec- 
tion of the body, over a considerable portion of the skin, 
especially of the extremities, there were several vesicles filled 
with bloody serum. There was no anasarca here to account for 
their production; and the fact of their occurrence appears to 
bear out the view of Dr. Wright, that the production of a 
serous blister on the dead body depends upon the amount of 
organic life remaining in the body. The man was pulseless 
and to all appearance dead when placed in the hot bath ; hence 
the effects of hot liquids on the living and the recently dead 
body are proved by this case to be very similar.(/i) 
§ 842. These experiments are directly in conflict with those 
before enumerated, and although the weight of authority and 
of facts is opposed to the possibility of the production of vesi- 
cations after death, which can be mistaken for those which 
result from the application of heat during life ; yet as these 
experiments seem to prove the contrary, the question still re- 
mains open, except, perhaps, when the comparison lies between 
the effects of burns upon the living body and upon one in 
wThich life has been extinct for a considerable length of time. 
In such a case we do not think it would be difficult to show 
important means of distinction depending upon the absence of 
vital reaction. 
(h) Med. Jur., 5th ed., 1855. 
760 BOOK V.] 
WOUNDS UPON THE BURNED. 
[§ 844 
§ 843. III. Wounds upon the burned.—From the frequency 
with which a criminal, after having robbed a dwelling and mur- 
dered one or more of the inmates, sets fire to it with a view 
of destroying the traces of his crime, it is often the province 
of the physician to seek for wounds upon the dead bodies there 
discovered, and determine their mode of origin. There are 
certain mechanical effects produced by fire upon the skin 
which should not be mistaken for wounds. Thus, in a case 
given by Casper, of an old man whose clothes caught fire as 
he was seated before his stove, the body was burned black, 
and on the right side, over the liver, was a gaping wound, 
through which the viscera could be seen. It was nothing more 
than a fissure caused by the intense heat.(z') In another case, 
however, in which two old people were found burned in their 
house, the fact of their having been previously stunned, if not 
killed, by blows upon the head, was ascertained by the exist- 
ence of fractures of the skull, under which coagulated blood 
was found effused upon the dura mater. The criminal was not 
discovered for a long time, but the circumstances of the mur- 
der were betrayed by an associate. A singular circumstance 
was observed in this case, viz., that, although the bodies were 
both almost destroyed by fire, the element had spared that 
portion of the head by which the murder was 
Dr. "Wyman, in his evidence in the Webster case, stated that 
“ some of the fragments of the bones of the skull (of Dr. 
Parkman) had the appearance of having been broken previous 
to calcination, or being burned with fire. Calcination,” he 
remarked, “ removes the animal matter which gives to bone 
its tenacity; before this is removed, it breaks with sharp 
angles, and is more likely to splinter. Common surgical ex- 
perience shows this. After calcination, the bone is more likely 
to crumble. ”(&) 
§ 844. In a highly interesting case of assassination related 
by Casper, the presence of contused wounds and extravasated 
blood upon the forehead and face of an aged woman, and vesi- 
(i) Gericht. Leichenoff. ii. Hundert. Fall. 99. 
(j) Henke’s Zeitsclirift, 1844, p. 284. 
(k) Bemis’s Report of the Webster case, Boston, 1850. 
761 762 
[book v. 
BURNS AND SCALDS. 
cations from burning, upon some portions of the body, gave 
indubitable evidence of violence during life. Here the crimi- 
nal confessed that he had struck his victim in the face with 
his fist and a paving stone, by which she was rendered sense- 
less ; but with a strange refinement would not acknowledge 
that he had designedly set fire to the apartment in which the 
half-consumed body was found.(1) 
§ 845. A conflagration having taken place in Paris, which 
caused the death of numerous persons, M. Tardieu, to whom 
the examination of the human remains was officially intrusted, 
took the opportunity of minutely observing and recording the 
effects produced upon the human frame by fatal burning. The 
soft parts on the bodies examined were in various conditions; 
completely charred to cinder, partly carbonized, or reduced to 
fibrinous shreds. The bones were dried and brittle, and in the 
long bones, fractures with obliquely splintered and charred 
ends were observed, differing distinctly from the character of 
ordinary fractures. In the flat bones, which were thinned by 
the heat, the fractures caused by the heat assumed the form of 
fissures confined to one surface, and not 'penetrating the substance 
of the bone. The intervertebral disks were contracted in their 
diameters. Teeth and cartilage seemed to resist the action of 
fire more than other hard parts. The soft parts exhibited 
great diminution of volume; this was more especially observed 
upon the viscera, which had been more or less protected from 
the immediate action of the fire. Some of these were mummi- 
fied. The blood in the heart, aorta, and other large vessels 
presented an extraordinary appearance, resembling wax or 
fatty matter, of a most beautiful carmine color. The cerebral 
substance was contracted to half its bulk, and in consistence 
resembled a half dressed sweetbread. To the preceding details, 
M. Tardieu has added the appearances discovered on the body 
of an infant that had been lying several years behind a stove, 
and had become completely mummified. The effects of slow, 
long-continued heat were much the same as the above-described, 
(l) Gericht. Leichenoff. sup. lstes Hundert. Fall. 96. On this subject see 
a paper by M. Tardieu, Ann. d’Hygiene, Jan. 1860, p. 124. 
762 BOOK V.] 
POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES. 
763 
with the absence of the destructive agency of fire seen in the 
carbonization of the external soft parts.(m) 
§ 846. IV. Effects on the system.—Burns and scalds are well 
known to be excessively dangerous, especially in children. 
The greater the superficial extent of the burn, the more apt 
is it to prove fatal with rapidity, especially when upon the 
chest or abdomen. When the burn is extensive, or the sub- 
ject impressionable, the general irritation produced by the 
excessive pain is sufficient alone to cause death. This gene- 
rally ensues upon a kind of stupor, characterized by inertness, 
somnolence, paleness of the face, slow and stertorous respira- 
tion, and small pulse. 
§ 847. V. Post-mortem appearances.—These are often by no 
means well marked; the most constant being a capillary in- 
jection of the mucous membrane of the bronchia and alimen- 
tary canal and serous effusion into the ventricles of the brain. 
In a child 13 days old, which was scalded to death by being 
placed in a bath of boiling water, the official examination dis- 
closed the fact that the mouth, throat, and oesophagus almost 
as far the stomach, were denuded of their epithelium, which 
lay upon the surface as a white and greasy substance. The 
only appearances that could be considered at all abnormal, 
were a slight injection of the meningeal vessels, rosy and ap- 
parently inflamed patches in the small intestine, and an un- 
usual amount of thick dark blood in the lungs and liver.(n) 
§ 848. Hearly the same appearances were found in two 
children who perished in a room which wTas set on fire. In 
them, however, the trachea was filled with a dark, frothy 
mucus, in which particles of soot could be easily recognized. 
It is probable, therefore, that the immediate cause of their 
death was suffocation.(o) 
(to) Brit, and For. Med. Rev., from Ann. d’Hyg., April, 1854. 
(n) Schmidtmuller. Henke’s Zeitsch., 1848, p. 175. 
(<?) Casper, ger. Leich.. 2 Hund. 97 and 99 Falle. 
« 
763 § 850] 
[book V. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
CHAPTER III. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
§ 849. In approaching the examination of the question, 
whether such a phenomenon as the spontaneous combustion of 
the human body is really possible, we encounter the usual ob- 
stacle to discovery of truth, viz., a doubt of the authenticity 
of the facts upon which the belief reposes. From a very early 
period in the history of medical curiosities, instances of ap- 
parently spontaneous human combustion may be found on 
record; but the credulous superstition and love of the mar- 
vellous, which, at the period when some of these observations 
were made, science rather encouraged than restrained, weaken 
our reliance upon their authenticity. Hot having adopted a 
theory with a desire to find those facts only which might be 
adjusted to it, but desirous of discovering the real extent of 
our knowledge relative to the phenomena of what is called 
spontaneous combustion, we have examined the subject, not 
without some care and earnestness. The result of this inves- 
tigation has shown us that if there is not such a phenomenon 
as the actual spontaneous combustion of the human body, 
there is sufficient evidence to prove, that in some cases it may 
acquire a preternatural inflammability, and that this peculi- 
arity can be recognized by the trifling source of combustion 
compared with the rapidity and extent of its progress. We 
do not hesitate also to affirm that a belief in the actual occur- 
rence of the phenomena referred to may be entertained, with- 
out a satisfactory scientific explanation. 
§ 850. We propose to refer only to such cases of spontaneous 
combustion as have been reported at a comparatively recent 
date, and by men of standing and authority. The first which 
we quote is reported by M. Devergie.(p) A washerwoman 
(p) Ann d’Hyg., t. xlvi. pp. 383-431 
764 BOOK V.] 
[§ 851 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
named Marie Jeanne Antoinette Bally, fifty years of age, and 
of intemperate habits, returned to her lodging one evening in 
December in a state of drunkenness. Her room was not more 
than ten feet long by six to seven feet wide, and was lighted 
by two little windows from a corridor. The only furniture 
consisted of a chair, a chest in the corner, and muslin window 
curtains. There was no bed. The next morning at eight 
o’clock, the neighbors, perceiving a strong smell of smoke, 
entered her room, and there found the unfortunate woman 
upon the floor almost completely burned, with her feet turned 
toward the chimney-place, in which, however, there was no 
fire. Under one of her arms there was still a portion of the 
chair upon which she had been seated, and underneath her an 
earthen pot such as is used by the poor to hold a few coals to 
warm their feet. The chair was almost entirely burned, the 
floor was covered with a black soot, and an exposed beam in 
the wall of the room was charred upon the surface. The chest 
was, however, untouched, as were also the muslin curtains, 
which were only three feet distant from the body. The body 
was sent to the Morgue, and examined by direction of the 
judicial authorities. The body was lean; the face and hair, 
the anterior portion of the neck and upper part of the shoulders 
were not injured. The skin and muscles of the back were, 
however, thoroughly burnt, as were also the sides and anterior 
portion of the trunk. The anus and vulva escaped. Nothing 
was left of the upper extremities but the bones; there was, 
however, a portion of the chemise in each armpit still intact. 
The upper portion of the lower limbs was also burnt. The 
stockings were entire. 
§ 851. The following is abridged from a case reported by 
Dr. John Grigor:— 
The body of John Anderson, a man aged fifty, and of spare 
habit, a carter of wood from the forest of Darnaway to the 
pier of Nairn, was found dead by the road-side, and so much 
blackened and charred by the action of fire that it was identi- 
fied only from the fact of his horses and cart being known. 
A post-mortem examination was imperfectly made, the result 
of which was that the eyes, ears, and nose were burned away, 
as well as the hair and skin of the head; the skin and cellular 
765 § 852] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
[book v. 
tissue of the trunk were much charred, the thighs not to the 
same extent, and the burning had ceased about midway between 
the knees and feet, where there was a reddish and slightly 
blistered line. The back was not so much destroyed. This 
man was a notorious dram-drinker, consuming daily at least a 
bottleful of ardent spirits, besides porter, beer, etc. He left 
Hairn on the day of his death intoxicated, and parted company 
with a brother carter within half a mile of the place where 
the body was found. “Before this, however, he wished his 
pipe to be lit and handed to him; but his friend, thinking he 
had no need of a smoke, merely put a little fire on the old 
tobacco ash, when he drew, and immediately said,4 She is not 
in.’ The conversation went on for ten minutes, when the poor 
man turned his horses’ heads homewards. All this time the 
pipe was in his hand. Ilis dress was a woollen shirt, a canvas 
frock, corduroy trowsers, and a ‘ wide-awake.’ The weather 
was very warm and dry. When a little further on his way 
homewards, smoke was seen rising up from the cart in which 
the man was, and which contained a good deal of hay, by a 
herd-boy on a neighboring rising ground, about one-fourth of 
a mile distant. The man was next seen to descend from the 
cart, to stand, then to stagger and fall. The horses stood still. 
In a few minutes smoke again appeared, from the ground, 
when the boy ran down and found the body lifeless, black, dis- 
figured, and burning.” With the aid of another person water 
was procured and the fire extinguished. The clothes were all 
consumed, except the lower part of the legs of the trowsers, 
and a small portion of the shirt, frock, and hat. The pipe 
was found lying below the body, with the cap on, apparently 
as it had been put into his hands. None of the hay was 
burned.(q) 
§ 852. The following case was communicated to Dr. Beck by 
Wm. Dunlap, Esq., of Hew York:— 
“ Hannah Bradshaw, aged about thirty years, had lived 
about a dozen years in the city. She was a healthy, hearty- 
looking woman, remarkably industrious, and neat in her per- 
son and manner of living, but bore a bad character with 
(q) Edinb. Monthly Journ. of Med. Sci., Dec. 1852, p. 555. 
766 BOOK V.] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
767 
respect to chastity and sobriety. On account of her robust 
appearance and bold behavior she had obtained the name of 
Man-of-War Nance. She resided in an upper room, which had 
no connection with the rooms below, occupied by a family. 
On the evening of the 31st of December (1771) she desired a 
young woman who worked for her, and was going home, 
to come again early the next morning ; and about seven o’clock 
the same evening another acquaintance parted from her, at 
which time she seemed to have drank a little too freely. She 
was neither heard of or seen again until the next morning, 
when the young woman returned to her work. After knock- 
ing and calling, and having waited until past eleven o’clock, 
this person, by the aid of a man who lived below, got in 
through a back window and opened the door. On looking 
within a screen, which went quite across the room, and was 
fitted to reach the ceiling, she discovered the mutilated remains 
of Hannah. The body, or rather the bones, were lying near 
the middle of the floor, wherein a hole of about four feet in 
diameter was burned away, and the bones were on its bottom, 
about a foot beneath that part of the floor. The flesh was 
entirely burnt off the bones of the whole body, except a small 
part on the skull, a little on one of the shoulders, the lower 
part of the right leg and foot, which was burnt off’ at the 
small, almost as even as if cut off, and left lying on the floor. 
The stocking was burnt off as far as the leg, and no further. 
The hones, some of which were black and others white, were 
so thoroughly burnt as to crumble to dust between the fingers. 
The bowels remained unconsumed. One of the sleepers, which 
lay under the shoul ders, was burnt almost through. Part of 
the head lay on the planks at the edge of the hole, and near 
it was a candlestick, with part of a candle in it, thrown down, 
but it did not appear to have touched any part of the body, 
or to have set anything on fire. The tallow was melted off’ 
the wick, which remained unscorched by the fire, as also the 
screen, which almost touched the hole. The leg of a rush- 
bottomed chair, and about half the bottom, were burnt so far 
as they were within the compass of the hole in the floor, and 
no further. The ceiling of the room, which was whitewashed 
plaster, was as black as if covered with lampblack, as also 
767 768 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
[book v. 
part of the walls and windows; and the heat had been so 
great as to extract the turpentine from the boards and the 
wainscot. After all these operations the fire went entirely 
out, so that when the body was found not a spark remained.(r) 
§ 853. A well-known and privileged beggar, of 60 years of 
age, and quite corpulent, accustomed to hard drinking, came 
on a Christmas evening into a tavern, already intoxicated. 
There, for a wager, he drank four bottles of brandy, and, being 
entirely overcome by it, was carefully deposited on the floor 
behind the German stove, but some distance from the latter, 
with his head resting on his sack containing bread, in order 
that he might sleep away his debauch. The remaining guests 
soon retired. Early in the morning, the landlord was awak- 
ened by a penetrating, insupportable smell; he arose, and 
approaching the public room found the smell still more power 
ful. The room was cold, and the fire had long before died 
out. The unfortunate beggar was found nearly reduced to 
ashes, a portion of the face and occiput remained, and the 
legs below the knee were not burnt, the shoes and stockings 
being also untouched. Ilis pouch of bread was not consumed, 
but was covered with a fetid soot. The whole room was filled 
with the same, and no cleansing afterwards availed to destroy 
the odor. 
§ 854. An old lady of corpulent habit, and 70 years of age, 
was accustomed to have herself bathed with cologne water 
and alcohol, and every night before retiring took a so-called 
sleeping potion of spirituous liquor. Early one morning, as 
in the preceding case, the neighbors and servants were awak- 
ened by a fearful smell, proceeding from the old lady’s room. 
On entering it, her body, completely carbonized, was found 
upon the floor by the bed; only the hands and feet remained. 
The floor was not burnt nor the furniture, but everything was 
covered by a fetid, black, and fatty soot.(s) 
§ 855. A case of 'partial self-combustion is reported, in which 
it would appear that the burns produced upon the face were 
(r) Beck’s Med. Jur., vol. ii. p. 99. 
(«) Beitrage zur gerlclit. Medicin (with two original observations), by 
Dr. Schneider, of Fulda. Henke’s Zeitsch., E. H. 32. 
768 [§ 857 
BOOK V.] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
made by the vomited contents of the stomach. The man was- 
an incorrigible drunkard, and was left by his companions upon 
the floor of his room, stupid from drink. It is positively 
stated, that there was no light in the room nor means for 
procuring it.(^) 
Other cases might be cited of equal authenticity with the 
foregoing, but these, we think, depict with sufficient clearness 
the phenomena attending this peculiar mode of combustion. 
§ 856. In striking contrast with them is the process of 
ordinary combustion, by the prolonged application of fire to the 
human body. The phenomena attending it are familiar to 
every one, and have been already described in the foregoing 
chapter. The effects are purely local, being confined in extent 
to that portion of the body exposed to the heat, and they cease 
with the withdrawal or extinction of the burning material, 
finding no self-sustaining combustible principle in the body 
itself. The cause is always evident, and the extent of injury 
is in proportion to the amount of the fire. 
§ 857. If, again, this have been designedly kept up, the 
quantity of fuel required for such a destruction of the body 
as is related in the foregoing instances, is enormous. The 
history of the death-scene of those who have perished at the 
stake, and the widow-burning in India, sufficiently attest this 
fact. We might add here the evidence given in the Webster 
case upon this point. Dr. Strong said: “In the pursuit of my 
anatomical studies, I have had considerable experience in 
burning up or getting rid of human remains by fire. Where 
I had my office, at an early day, in Cornhill, I had poor ac- 
commodations for dissecting, and it was frequently necessary 
to burn up the remains of a subject. Once in particular, I 
had a pirate given me by the United States Marshal, for dis- 
section ; and, it being warm weather, I wanted to get rid of 
the flesh, and only preserve the bones. He was a muscular, 
stout man, and I began upon it one night, with a wood firer 
in a large old-fashioned fireplace. I built a rousing fire and 
sat up all night, piling on the wood and the flesh, and had not 
got it consumed by morning. I was afraid of a visit from the 
vol. ii.—49 
(t) Sclimidtmuller, Henke’s Zeitscli., 1842, p. 225. 
769 § 858] 
[book V. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
police; and by eleven o’clock they gave me a call, to know 
what made such a smell in the street. I finished it up, some- 
how, that forenoon; hut I look upon it as no small operation 
to burn up a body.”(w) 
§ 858. Recently the case of Stauff, tried for the murder of 
the Countess of Goerlitz, gave rise to a discussion of the 
question of spontaneous combustion, in the course of which 
certain experiments were conducted by Dr. Graff, for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining the amount of fuel necessary to effect an 
equal destruction with that observed in that case. The result 
of these trials was, that as much as one hundred pounds of 
•wood was required to produce even a partial combustion of a 
human body. In the case of the Countess of Goerlitz, whose 
body was found in her apartment partly consumed by fire, the 
heat must have been intense. The secretary near which the 
body lay was half burned; several chairs further removed 
from it than was the body, took fire, and the floor underneath 
it was burned. A mirror on the opposite side of the room, 
nearly twenty feet distant, was cracked by the heat, and was 
still so hot when the room was broken open that the hand 
could not be borne upon it. The heat developed by the burn- 
ing of the secretary was so great, that articles of gold and 
silver, and also of iron, had been melted by it. Yet with 
such a degree of heat as this, and the body only two feet 
distant from the burning secretary, the traces of fire did not 
extend below the chest; the head, neck, and upper extremities 
being the parts which were chiefly destroyed, (h) 
(«) Bemis’s Report of the Webster case, p. 69. 
(v) The following abstract of the trial of John Stauff, for the murder of the 
Countess of Goerlitz, we have condensed from an admirable report in the 
Prague Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine (vol. xxviii. p. 108), from 
several accounts in Henke’s Zeitsclirift, and from a translation of Dr. Graffs 
Memoir, in the London Medical Gazette (1850, vol. ii.). 
On the 13th of June, 1847, the partially burned body of the Countess of 
Goerlitz -was found at 11 £ o’clock at night in her chamber. She was known 
as a person of active, industrious, and somewhat parsimonious habits, and 
enjoyed good health. She was frequently known to retire to her own apart- 
ments and shut herself up there for half a day at a time. She lived on good 
terms with the Count, but their apartments were on different floors. On 
the day of her death she was last seen by her servants at 4 o’clock in the 
770 BOOK V.] 
[§ 859 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
§ 859. Such cases as these are entirely unlike those well- 
authenticated cases of combustion, where the body has been 
afternoon, in good health. Between 4 and 5 o’clock there was no one in 
the house but herself and the valet StaufF. On his return in the evening, 
the Count knocked at the door of the anteroom, but received no answer, 
when he went out again. This was about 7 o’clock; at 9 P. M. he returned. 
During his second absence a bright light, which speedily disappeared, had 
been noticed at the closet window of her apartment, which looked to the 
south, and also a thick smoke from a chimney, which corresponded with the 
stove in the parlor. (These rooms adjoined each other.) At 9 P. M. the 
servants who had returned were sent in search of their mistress by the Count, 
and Stauff himself was sent after the locksmith to open the door of her apart- 
ment. He returned and said that the locksmith was sick and could not come 
until morning. In the mean time smoke was seen issuing from the rooms, 
and finally doors and windows were broken open. On this being done flames 
burst out simultaneously from the hangings, and a writing-desk and the floor 
underneath it. The dead body of the Countess was found a foot distant 
from the writing-desk, with the feet towards the middle of the room, and the 
head towards the window. 
After the fire had been extinguished, which was done without much diffi- 
culty, it was found that the writing-desk had burned from below upwards, 
the lower drawer being entirely burned, the two upper ones not so much, 
and the floor under it was burned through to the joists. Its contents of a 
combustible character were mostly destroyed, and in the ashes underneath 
were found keys, melted gold ornaments, pearls and diamonds much injured 
by the fire, and papers partly burned lay scattered about the room. A 
mirror on the opposite wall, fifteen feet distant from the desk, was cracked 
and covered with a brownish-yellow ammoniacal soot. The bell-rope on the 
left side of the door was broken. A divan in the adjoining closet or cabinet 
was burned in a large oval hole in the centre, and one of the slippers of the 
Countess was found on the floor near it. The remaining slipper was found 
on one of the feet of the corpse. 
The dress on the upper part of the body was almost wholly consumed. 
The head exhibited the form of a nearly shapeless black mass, in which the 
mouth was imperfectly distinguishable, with the charred tongue protruding 
from it. The body lay on its left side, the head and chest retracted, the neck 
everywhere blackened and charred, as were the skin and muscles on the 
fore and upper parts of the chest, the former thus being affected to within an 
inch of the pit of the stomach. The marks of the action of fire did not ex- 
tend quite so far along the back part of the trunk. The joints of both upper 
extremities were flexed and their surfaces charred, except at the hands. The 
left shoulder and the right elbow-joints were laid open. From the former of 
these the blackened humerus, and from the latter the heads of the radius and 
ulna, protruded. The skin in the vicinity of the left knee was slightly acted 
on. The body exhaled an empyreumatic odor. The further examination of 
it was objected to, and was not carried out at that time. After carefully 
771 § 859] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
[book V. 
found destroyed in a greater or less degree by the action of 
fire, without any apparent external cause, or, at most, with 
one which lias been entirely disproportioned to the effect pro- 
duced. Could the phenomena in the two sets of cases be pro- 
perly designated by the same name, it is difficult to conceive 
Iioav in one the ashes of a pipe, a few smouldering coals, or the 
flame of a lamp, could cause a greater destruction of the human 
body, with an immunity of surrounding objects from the 
action of fire, than in the other the hottest fire was able to 
produce. Evidently there must be in one case some self-sus- 
taining principle of combustion, a preternatural inflamma- 
bility of the body, which does not exist in the other. When 
cleansing the head, a fissure about half an inch long was found on the tem- 
poral bone. 
The key of the apartment could nowhere be found. It was not, until the 
subsequent proceedings, remarked that Stauff was not present at the above 
examination of the body, while every one else gave all the assistance in their 
power. He was observed to be in an exceedingly tremulous and frightened 
condition until the body was buried, and his subsequent conduct Avas very 
suspicious. He was not, however, taken into custody until some months 
afterwards, when be was detected in an attempt to poison the Count. 
The proceedings in this case unfortunately were complicated, by the sug- 
gestion that this lady had possibly met her death by spontaneous combustion. 
Naturally enough the facts of the case did not support this idea, and in con- 
sequence unmerited discredit, we think, was thrown by the eminent exami- 
ners, Liebig, Bisclioff, and others, upon the possibility of this phenomenon 
under any circumstances. Nevertheless this suggestion gave rise to pro- 
tracted debates and experiments by burning dead bodies, which do not appear 
to have resulted in the development of any important facts not before known. 
The conclusion, however, to which the medical commission to whom the 
case was referred, came at last, Avas, that the Countess had been assaulted in 
her room, that in her effort to call for help she had broken the bell-cord, and 
that the murderer had then dragged her into the cabinet, and here killed her by 
a bloAV upon the head, and by strangulation ; and to conceal his crime set 
fire to the combustible materials in the room. At the diet of the assize, on 
the lltli of April, 1850, John Stauff Avas found guilty of the murder of the 
Countess of Goerlitz, and of the subsequent arson, and attempt to poison, 
and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He afterAvards confessed his crime. 
He declared that he had entered the room of the Countess, to announce to 
her that he was going out, when, finding no one in the room, he was tempted 
by the articles of value he saw there to commit a robbery. When doing so 
the Countess came in, a struggle took place, and he seized her by the throat 
and strangled her. He afterwards placed the body on a chair, and putting 
round it a quantity of combustible articles set fire to them. 
772 BOOK V.] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
[§ 861 
this has been said, we believe that all has been said which the 
present state of our knowledge permits. ' 
§ 860. “ The most prevalent theory,” says a recent intelligent 
writer,(iv) “ has been that held by the early writers, and sup- 
ported by Orfila, Fodere, Gordon Smith, Paris, Briand, etc., 
that, under certain circumstances, the body is capable of gene- 
rating under the skin, and in the connective tissue and cavi- 
ties of the body, hydrogen, or other gases similar to those 
formed in the intestines, and that the electrical condition of 
the body can sometimes ignite these gases. What these gases 
are has not been clearly stated; Gordon Smith being of the 
opinion that carburetted hydrogen is the chief compound; and 
others, such as Averardi and Apjohn, believing it to be plios- 
phuretted hydrogen. 
“Another theory, advocated by Lair, Ritter, Kuhn, and 
Mitchell, and based on the fact that most of the victims of 
this occurrence have been drunkards, is, that alcohol is present 
in their blood to such an extent as to be combustible. Now, 
Liebig and Bischoff say that alcohol cannot be present in the 
blood and tissues without coagulating their albumen. But 
this is not true: the author himself has seen cases of death 
from alcoholic poisoning, or in people under the influence of 
alcohol, where the smell was strong in the blood, and some- 
times so marked in the ventricles of the brain that it was 
possible to ascertain the nature of the beverage used. Chem- 
istry, too, has frequently detected alcohol in the blood, and, in 
a case observed by the author’s father, there existed so much 
alcohol in the body that the serum in the ventricles of the 
brain caught fire and burned on the approach of a lighted 
match. Marc and Sclierf declare that the eructations and 
breath of drunkards are occasionally capable of taking fire, 
though this point seems rather doubtful. But even admitting 
the presence of large quantities of alcohol in the body does 
not make this theory tenable, as the experiments of Fontanelle, 
Liebig, and Bischoff, on flesh soaked in alcohol, sufficiently 
demonstrate. 
§ 861. “Fifty-seven cases are recorded,some of them dating 
(w>) Ogston, Brit, and Foreign Med.-Cliirurg. Review, Jan. 1870, p. 179. 
773 774 
[book v. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
back two centuries. They may be. divided into two classes ; 
in the first of which may be placed those manifestly false, or 
where the statements bear absurdity on their face, as well as 
thos6 the truth of which may justly be suspected, until fresh 
and better evidence shall have been collected to prove or dis- 
prove them. 
“In the second class maybe placed those whose accuracy 
cannot be denied; and it will be seen from this division that 
the conclusions based on the authentic cases are very different 
from those which can be deduced where all the cases, true and 
doubtful, are admitted indiscriminately as evidence.” 
§ 862. The cases of the first class, which the author cites, 
certainly justify him in calling them “worthless data,” al- 
though they furnish very entertaining reading. An hysterical 
girl feels a sudden burning in her fingers, and sees a blue flame 
hovering about them, “ visible only in the dark,” which cannot 
be extinguished by water. A blacksmith has a similar ex- 
perience. A man sees a flash of fire seize on his shirt, which 
is suddenly reduced to ashes, wfithout his wristbands being 
touched at all; he cries out, and when help arrives he is found 
on tlie floor, surrounded by a light flame (of spirit, spilt over 
his clothes ?) which disappears as his friends approach. A man 
lies down in bed with his clothes on, and burns spontaneously: 
his “ whole trunk” and thighs are said to be badly burnt—yet, 
“ remarkable to state, at the places where his clothes were com- 
pletely burnt, the body was uninjured, and vice versa.” 
§ 863. Most of these cases rest upon the authority of the 
person injured. It is upon this class alone that the doctrine 
of spontaneous ignitability rests; those to follow, whose veracity 
cannot be impeached, speak merely for increased combustibility. 
§ 864. The second class of cases, too truthful in their nar- 
ratives to be disbelieved, and attested by so many competent 
observers, present a character differing much from the fables 
cited above. In the first class, many of the patients recovered ; 
in the second class, the subjects all died; and not only so, but 
were all found dead—their bodies, their clothes, and the articles 
in their neighborhood, being partially or entirely destroyed by 
fire, the only remarkable thing about them being that the 
bodies were burnt and charred out of all proportion to the 
774 BOOK V.] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
775 
destruction of the neighboring objects, and to an extent which 
seems incapable of being accounted for by the beat of the 
burning clothes and objects in the vicinity. (For illustration, 
several specimens of cases are cited, from which only one is 
here presented, as follows):— 
§ 865. “ On the 14th March, 1869, my father and I were re- 
quested to examine the remains of Mrs. Warrack, or Ross, 
aged sixty-six, who resided alone in a house near the Bridge 
of Dee, Aberdeen. She was said to have been stout, of in- 
temperate habits, and her son stated that he had left her at 10 
A. M. on the 14th, in her usual health. She was found at 11 
A. M. on the same day, lying burnt on the lower steps of the 
stair of her house, on her left side. The house was pervaded 
with a disagreeable smell, but liker that of burning straw 
than of burning animal matter. The room which she usually 
inhabited, the door of which was within two yards of the 
place where she lay, had the same smell; the chair in which 
she sat stood in the middle of the room, its back almost en- 
tirely consumed, and its arms wholly so. The seat of the 
chair showed mere traces of the action of fire. The bed, about 
two feet from her chair, had its straw mattress slightly burnt 
at its fore part. The wood-work of the bed and the curtains 
were uninjured. Iler chair was about four feet from the fire- 
place, and about two feet from an uninjured mahogany table, 
on which stood an empty beer-bottle, smelling of whiskey. 
Hottiing else in the room was touched by fire. The stairs 
were of wood, and underneath, and in the immediate vicinity 
of where she lay, they were charred to the depth of a quarter 
of an inch. The perpendicular bars of the hand-rails simi- 
larly charred beside her for a foot up, the top rail and the wall, 
which was half a foot from the hand-rail, blackened by smoke. 
“ The condition of the body, however, showed that the fire 
had caused the greatest alterations in it. The hair was burnt 
oft', the soft parts of the face and front of the head burnt oft*, 
the bones exposed, blackened, and calcined. The back of the 
head, the neck, and the trunk everywhere converted into 
greasy charcoal to the depth of about an inch, the skin totally 
removed, and the bones of the trunk lying bare, blackened, 
and calcined. 
775 § 866] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
[book v. 
“ The front wall of the abdomen totally destroyed and 
wanting;; the intestines burned into a hard and blackened 
mass; the liver converted into ashes for the depth of an inch, 
but retaining its shape, its left lobe projecting nine inches from 
the margins of the ribs. 
“ The upper limbs distorted ; the elbows strongly flexed, 
and everywhere charred to a great depth, the bones, however, 
even of the fingers, preserving their position. The right thigh 
had its deeper muscles still uncharred, but of the appearance 
of roasted beef, and very dry; the skin and superficial mus- 
cles totally burnt away. The right leg only partially attached 
to the thigh, and entirely converted into a soft, black, greasy, 
and shapeless cinder, through which the finger could be pushed 
Avith ease. The left thigh and leg in a condition similar to 
that of the right extremity, but still attached to the foot, 
which was a charred and shrivelled mass similar to the right 
foot. Not a vestige of clothing remained anywhere.” 
§ 866. Some authors have fallen into the error of attempting 
to explain by chemical theories the phenomena of spontaneous 
combustion, but they have hereby given their opponents the 
opportunity, not only of easily refuting these speculations, 
but furnished them with a plausible pretext for denying the 
correctness of the facts. MM. Liebig and Bischoff have, per- 
haps, disproved the accuracy of the doctrines which attribute 
the origin of spontaneous combustion to a saturation of the 
body with alcohol, unusual corpulence, and the development 
of inflammable gases. They allege that as the watery ele- 
ment of the body constitutes seventy-five per cent, of its bulk, 
it must first be dissipated before the latter can burn, that al- 
cohol cannot be present in the tissues without coagulating 
their albumen, and that it may burn without communicating 
its flame to the flesh; and, finally, that the evolution of in- 
flammable gases in the living body is either not a fact, or if it 
were so, could not explain the alleged process of spontaneous 
combustion.^1) 
(w!) Henke’s Zeitsclxrift. Bd. 60, p. 162. Ann. d’Hygiene, t. xvi. p. 383. 
See also an “ Essay on the use of Alcoholic Liquors,” by John Chadwick, 
M. D., London, 1849, where proof is given of the presence of alcohol in the 
brain of drunkards after death. 
776 BOOK V.] 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
[§ 868 
§ 867. Yet, admitting that the phenomena of spontaneous 
combustion, so called, are incongruous with the laws of com- 
bustion so far as they are known, it does not follow that we 
should, with these chemists, reject as unworthy of belief the 
many curious and authentic facts on record. These may he 
true, although incorrectly accounted for. Indeed, there are 
many examples of the spontaneous combustion of organic and 
inorganic matter, which chemistry is yet unable satisfactorily 
to explain. But the number of cases now known, amounting 
to between forty and fifty (some of them, perhaps, indeed fic- 
titious), the uniformity in the description of the phenomena, 
and of the age and habits of the persons attacked, require us 
to regard them as scientific facts yet unexplained. The fol- 
lowing characters are those generally described:—• 
§ 868. 1st. The extent and gravity of the burns is altogether 
out of proportion to the apparent external cause. 
2d. The persons have been inordinately addicted to the use 
of spirituous liquors. 
3d. Women are more frequently attacked than men. 
4th. The great majority were aged and corpulent. 
5th. The combustion of the body has been nearly total, 
while the adjacent objects have been only slightly or not at 
all injured. 
6tli. The flame has been difficult to extinguish. 
The deposit of a fatty and fetid soot upon surrounding objects 
cannot be considered as peculiar to this form of animal com- 
bustion. 
777 § 870] 
HEAT AND SUNSTROKE. 
[BOOK V. 
CHAPTER IY. 
IIEAT AND SUNSTROKE. 
I. S}rmptoms, § 869. 
II. Post-mortem appearances, § 872. 
§ 869. I. Symptoms.—The frequency with which, in this 
country, fatal results are observed from exposure to heat or 
the direct rays of the sun, renders necessary some notice of 
the prominent symptoms and post-mortem appearances cha- 
racterizing sudden illness or death from these causes. The 
report of the City Inspector of the city of Yew York, alone, 
shows two hundred and sixty deaths from coup de solid during 
the summer of 1853, without including many cases designated 
as “ congestion of the brain,” and the “ effects of cold water.” 
In the city of Philadelphia, during the months of June, July, 
and August, of the same year, the number of deaths reported 
under this head amounted to fifty-seven ; a number which is 
also certainly much below the true mortality. 
§ 870. Rapid or sudden insensibility, after exposure to the 
intense heat-of the sun in summer, usually occurs in those 
who are engaged in some laborious out-door occupation, but 
the same condition may result after exposure to artificial as 
well as solar heat. Dr. Swift, of Yew York, in his “ Observa- 
tions on Exhaustion from the Effects of IIeat,”ty) states that 
eleven patients were admitted into his hospital from the 
laundry of one of the principal hotels in that city, and that 
several were brought from a sugar refinery, where, after work- 
ing several hours in a close and overheated apartment, they 
fell down suddenly in a state of insensibility. Upon a com- 
parison of the symptoms and lesions of these with those of 
the patients who had become exhausted after laboring in the 
sun, no distinction could be perceived. 
(x) N. Y. Jour, of Med., July, 1854. 
778 BOOK V.] 
HEAT AND SUNSTROKE. 
[§ 873 
§ 871. Tlie immediate cause of the symptoms or of the 
death of those who are said to be “ struck” by the sun is not 
always the same. In the majority of cases the affection is one 
depending upon exhaustion from heat with, most probably, 
some molecular change in the blood, the character of which is 
not now understood, but which is ascribable to intense heat 
and prostration from fatigue. In other cases, however, which 
are comparatively few, inflammation of the brain or its mem- 
branes is the result of exposure to the sun’s heat, and, occa- 
sionally, apoplexy is produced. The symptoms vary, there- 
fore, but a neglected case of the first variety may pass into 
the second. For interesting details relative to the mode of 
distinction between exhaustion from heat and insolation, we 
would refer the reader to the paper already quoted, and to 
a discussion on the subject in the Philadelphia College of 
Physicians, (y) 
§ 872. II. Post-mortem appearances.—In four cases (those of 
exhaustion) examined by Dr. Pepper, “ the brain exhibited no 
indications of congestion, and nothing, in fact, of an unusual 
appearance.” Dr. P. was, however, struck with the appearance 
of the heart. In all of the four subjects it was pallid, flaccid, 
and softened, while the other muscles of the body were florid 
and firm. The lining membrane of the heart and of the large 
bloodvessels was of a very dark, almost purple color. The 
cavities of the heart contained but little blood, and no coagu- 
lum. The examinations were made from six to eight hours 
after death. 
§ 873. The following may serve as an example of death from 
the direct cerebral disturbance. Two women were washing 
clothes in the sun. One fell down in a state of insensibility, 
and remained so for twenty-four hours, but finally recovered 
under free depletion. On recovering, she described her sensa- 
(y) Transactions Coll. Phys., yol. iii. p. 99 et seq. ; also, Trans, of Med. 
Soc. of Pennsylvania, yol. iv. p. 112. For the most recent accounts of this 
affection see Times and Gaz., Dec. 1858, p. 638; Levick, Am. Journ. of Med. 
Sci., Oct. 1858, p. 404 ; ibid., Jan. 1859, p. 40 ; Martin, Lancet, Jan. 1859, 
pp. 2, 28, 52 ; ibid., March, p. 315 ; Pirrie, Lancet, May, 1859, pp. 505 and 
533 ; Merrill, Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., July, 1859, p. 118; Gordon, Edinb. 
Journ., y. 985; Longhurst, Lancet, Jan. I860, p. 7. 
779 § 875] 
[book v. 
IIEAT AND SUNSTROKE. 
tion, when attacked, as though she had been suddenly struck 
upon the head. In the other case the attack was precisely 
similar. The patient died in twelve hours. Upon examina- 
tion after death, blood was found effused beneath the mem- 
branes of the brain. 
§ 874. Dr. II. C. Wood, in a recent paper on sunstroke,(y1) 
considers that intense heat of the skin is one of the charac- 
teristic symptoms in this affection. In some instances the 
temperature of the patient reaches 110° F., and in one case, 
recorded by Dr. Dowler, of Hew Orleans, the temperature 
was 113°. 
The breathing is always affected, sometimes stertorous, and 
sometimes deep and labored. In many instances, the face and 
often the whole surface is congested. The motor nervous sys- 
tem is almost always disordered; there are present subsultus 
tendinum, restlessness, and at times partial spasms or general 
convulsions. In some cases, before death, the patient appears 
to be completely paralyzed. 
§ 875. Dr. Wood found, in all the autopsies made by him, 
the heart firmly contracted, especially the left ventricle. Some 
previous observers, for instance, Levick, Pennsylvania Hospital 
Reports, 1868, and Pepper, quoted above, had noted the heart 
as being soft and relaxed, wThile others did not report the 
condition of the organ. Dr. AY. accounts for this difference 
in the fact that in none of his cases was the autopsy made 
later than two hours after death. In Dr. Levick’s cases, the 
post-mortem examinations were made from thirteen to thirty 
hours after death; and in Prof. Pepper’s cases six to eight 
hours after death, and besides, all his patients had been bled 
before he saw them. 
“ As the temperature of the body remains above 100° for 
hours, it is evident that putrefactive changes, often already 
entered upon before demise, must go on very rapidly, and that 
probably even three or four hours would afford sufficient time 
for the relaxation of commencing decomposition to follow the 
heat rigidity. Moreover, direct evidence of the truth of this 
(y]) Thermic Fever or Sunstroke. By H. C. Wood, Jr., M.D. Boyleston 
Prize Essay. Pliila., J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1872. 
780 BOOK V.] 
[§ 876 
HEAT AND SUNSTROKE. 
is not wanting. It lias been experimentally demonstrated Q/2) 
that in animals rigidity of the heart is found directly after 
death from excessive heat, but that in a very few hours it 
disappears.” 
The other post-mortem appearances are mostly negative. 
Congestion of the brain or effusion into the ventricles is not 
of frequent occurrence. The lungs, however, and the right 
side of the heart are found gorged with dark fluid blood. 
Dr. Wood has not observed any change in the blood micro- 
scopically, but the coagulability is always impaired to a greater 
or less degree. 
§ 876. This author performed a number of experiments on 
the lower animals, exposing them to high temperatures, nat- 
ural and artificial, and observing the effects and the changes 
immediately after death. From these it was shown that sun- 
stroke can be readily produced in the lower animals by heat; 
the symptoms being the same as in man. After death the 
lesions observed are changes in the blood, with rigidity of the 
heart and general muscular system ; u this rigidity of the heart 
comes on in most cases after, not before, death, and is a result, 
not cause, of death; that post-mortem rigidity is dependent 
upon coagulation of myosin, and that the rigidity of the heart 
is of similar origin, coagulation of the muscle plasma occur- 
ring almost instantaneously at 116° F., a degree almost attained 
in sunstroke; that, when a muscle has been in great activity 
immediately before death, the myosin coagulates at a much 
lower temperature, and that cases of sudden cardiac death 
occurring in battle among the East Indian English troops, 
were no doubt due to the coagulation of the heart’s myosin; 
that heating the brain of a mammal produces sudden insensi- 
bility, with or without convulsions, at a temperature of 108° 
E., and death when a temperature of 113° F. is reached; that 
this effect of the local application of heat is not due to induced 
congestion, but is the result of the direct action of heat upon 
the cerebrum, and that consequently the nerve-centres are 
as perniciously affected by a high temperature as the muscles 
are.” 
(y2) See Boston Journal of Med., vol. x. p. 350. 
781 § 878] 
LIGHTNING. 
[book v. 
§ 877. The conclusions arrived at are as follows: “ that the 
nature of sunstroke is that of a fever, or, in other words, that 
coup de soleii is a fever, not dependent upon blood-poisoning, but 
upon heat.” 
Dr. Wood thinks that in the majority of cases there are 
some premonitory symptoms, but that in some cases the sun- 
stroke is absolutely sudden, followed by instaut death. 
CHAPTER Y. 
LIGHTNING. 
I. Symptoms, § 878. 
II. Post-mortem appearances, g 879. 
§ 878. I. Symptoms.—Cases of sudden death from this cause 
are quite common, and there can rarely, if ever, be any doubt 
of the agency by which the person is killed. This is usually 
sufficiently attested by the circumstances. The person may 
be found dead either in an open place or in a building. The 
fact of a thunderstorm having occurred will, of course, be 
generally known, and the traces left by the electric fluid upon 
the body and surrounding objects can hardly be misunder- 
It is remarkable that in death from this cause, as 
(2) It is not impossible that the stroke of lightning should have been neither 
preceded nor followed by rain and wind, as is usual in thunderstorms. On 
Sunday, the 2d of July, 1843, about 3 o’clock P.M., five negroes were simul- 
taneously prostrated by a single stroke of lightning, on a plantation in 
Georgia. “ The sun was shining brilliantly at the time, and a greater por- 
tion of the visible hemisphere presented the usual serenity of the summer 
sky. A singular and rather angry-looking cloud had for a short time pre- 
viously been observed near the verge of the southeastern horizon, from which 
occasionally proceeded the low rumblings of very distant thunder. But 
nothing in the appearance of the heavens betokened the immediate proximity 
of a thunderstorm, or prepared them for the terrible electrical explosion which 
followed. Not a drop of rain had yet fallen, and the earth was quite dry. 
Such was the condition of things when suddenly the whole atmosphere in 
the neighborhood was momentarily illuminated by what appeared to be a 
782 BOOK V.] 
LIGHTNING. 
[§ 878 
in other kinds of instantaneous death, the body retains the 
position in which it was performing the last act of life. M. 
Boudin has collected numerous examples of this fact. Ac- 
cording to Carden, quoted by Riviere, eight reapers, taking 
their food under an oak, were struck by lightning, and died, 
preserving their attitude—one of a man eating, another drink- 
ing. In Lorraine a woman and one of her children were 
killed, and remained in a sitting posture. At Dover a man 
killed with four horses was found sitting under a bush. A 
man of law at Troyes was struck dead by lightning when on 
horseback. On January 22, 1849, a goat was killed near Cler- 
mont, and was found sitting on his haunches, with a bunch 
of green leaves in his mouth. A woman was struck while 
plucking a flower, and her body was found standing nearly 
erect, with the flower in her hand. A priest was killed while 
on horseback; the animal reached home, a distance of two 
leagues, his dead master still sitting erect in the saddle. The 
clothes are torn and burnt; metallic articles upon the person, 
if in the track of the fluid, are fused; and there will be found 
upon some part of the person, usually about the head or 
shoulders, a reddened spot, a lacerated puncture, or a dis- 
colored streak, indicating the point at which the electric fluid 
has entered the body. A great many cases have been reported 
in which images of trees and other objects have been found 
universal flash, which was accompanied, or rather succeeded, by a single 
astounding report. No dust was observed to rise from the ground, nor any 
other evidence of mechanical violence. No thunder was heard after this 
explosion ; the cloud quickly dispersed, precipitating only a little rain a few 
minutes after the accident; and in the course of an hour the atmosphere 
resumed its usual tranquillity. The five negroes were taken up in a state of 
insensibility amounting to apparent death.” Three of them had been instan- 
taneously killed. In two no marks of injury were discovered ; in the third 
there was a burnt spot of the size of a dollar under the right axilla. The 
other two recovered. One of these was a woman aged seventy years, and 
the singular fact is stated that in her the catamenial discharge, which had, in 
the ordinary course of nature, ceased for more than twenty years, was com- 
pletely, and thus far (about a year afterwards) permanently, re-established. 
For this and many curious cases and ingenious speculations we beg leave to 
refer the reader to Le Conte on the effects of lightning, New York Journ. of 
Med., vol. iii. p. 295; also Hist. Med. de la Foudre et de ses Effets sur 
l’Homme, etc., par M. Boudin, Ann. d’Hygiene, 1852. 
783 § 879] 
LIGHTNING. 
[book v. 
imprinted upon tlie skin of persons struck by lightning or 
exposed to its vivid glare.^1) The amount of visible injury 
is generally trilling, and it is said that occasionally no marks 
whatever are perceived. In the latter case the person is pro- 
bably killed by the agency of the returning stroke or electric 
shock, his body being the conductor by which the positive 
electricity of the earth is transmitted to a cloud which has 
come in near proximity to it. The absence of any external 
mark of injury may indeed leave us in doubt of the mode by 
which death has been produced, but it at the same time 
equally negatives the suspicion of homicidal violence. In 
such cases death can therefore be attributed only to natural 
causes, or to those poisons which act rapidly. A post-mortem 
examination can hardly fail to show to which of these it is 
due, and, if required, a chemical analysis may be made of the 
contents of the stomach. These suggestions are, however, of 
but little practical importance, since attendant circumstances 
will, as we have already intimated, enable us to dispense with 
any examination of the body. 
§ 879. II. Post mortem appearances.—In the examination of 
the bodies of two women, one 32 years of age and the other 
17, who were struck instantly dead by a flash of lightning as 
they were seated spinning near the fireplace, the following 
observations of the external appearances were made by Dr. 
Martin twenty hours after death. In both bodies putrefaction 
had begun, the abdomen was already distended and of a bluish 
color, and dissolved blood flowed from the mouth and nose. 
On one of them the whole surface of the neck and breast was 
covered with reddish-brown spots, under which, however, the 
arborescent tracks of the electric fire could be traced, until, 
uniting into three larger branches, they ended in the left 
lumbar region, in an oblong burn, of a dark-red color, six 
inches long and three broad, and penetrating into the sub- 
stance of the true skin, under which, however, there were no 
lesions discoverable. The skin was here and there, in the 
course of the marks, of a parchment-like consistence. On the 
other body, which was that of the young girl, the electric 
(z1) Poey, Med. Times and Gaz., March, 1857, p. 317 ; and Boudin, loc. cit. 
784 BOOK V.] 
COLD. 
[§ 880 
fluid appeared to have entered over the left temple, as here a 
tolerably deep scorched spot was to be seen ; the eyebrows and 
lashes on this side were burnt. The skin was striped and 
spotted, exactly as in the preceding case. The neckerchiefs 
worn by both these females were torn to rags, but did not ex- 
hibit the slightest trace of combustion, nor was any other part 
of their clothing, or of the furniture of the house, burnt in 
the least degree.(a) Sometimes, however, there is considerable 
external injury, the skin being contused and lacerated, but it 
does not appear that there is ever any actual burning of the 
skin, unless the clothes have been set on fire by the electric 
current. The idea that the blood remains fluid in the persons 
struck by lightning, and that putrefaction occurs at a very 
early period, is not sustained by the observation of all authors 
upon the subject, but it is probable that such is the general 
rule in the human subject. It is also generally supposed that 
rigidity is very slight or is absent after death from this cause. 
But it is not uniformly so. A case is reported by Maerklin 
in which cadaveric rigidity began within three or four hours 
after death, and in the course of twenty-four hours reached a 
very high degree.^1) 
CHAPTER YI. 
COLD. 
I. Symptoms, § 880. 
II. Post-mortem appearances, § 882. 
§ 880. I. Symptoms.—Where the body of a person is found 
who is supposed to have perished from exposure to cold, the 
chief inquiries which require attention are, whether the cold 
was the sole cause of death, and, if not, what were the ad- 
ditional causes, or whether the disease or injury, if any, was 
(a) Henke’s Zeitsclirift, 1844, p. 193. 
(a1) Casper’s Vierteljalirs., xvi. 332. 
VOL. II.—50 
785 § 882] 
[book v. 
COLD. 
not in itself suddenly fatal; the cold having had nothing to 
do with the result. 
§ 881. The effect of intense cold upon the human body is 
too familiar to need illustrating. After prolonged exposure 
to its influence, the whole body becomes benumbed, the respi- 
ration oppressed, and the head heavy. Perception and sensa- 
tion are obtunded, the mind wanders, an invincible lethargy 
steals over the senses, the limbs become paralyzed, and the 
unfortunate person, overcome with drowsiness and exhaustion, 
sinks down into apparent death. Unless speedy relief is 
afforded, this condition soon merges into real death. Accord- 
ing to Larrey, death is preceded by a general pallor, stupor, 
difficulty of speech, dimness of sight, and sometimes a total 
loss of these functions. In the retreat from Moscow, some 
men, he says, led by their comrades, were able to march for a 
considerable time in this condition. But their limbs soon 
refused to support them, they reeled like drunken men, and 
fell benumbed and lethargic, and soon expired. Almost all 
the men who perished in this manner were found lying with 
their faces to the ground. 
§ 882. II. Post-mortem appearances.—The post-mortem exami- 
nations which have been made of persons dying from cold, 
have shown that the most constant appearance is an extreme 
congestion of the venous system in the principal organs of the 
body, but especially in the brain. Serous effusion into the 
ventricles, or under the arachnoid, is met with. Dr. Kellie 
observed it in two cases, and Professor Blosfeld mentions it in 
three of six cases of death by cold.(b) 
Such are the only positive results of post-mortem investiga- 
tions. Unless the examiner knew the circumstances in which 
the body was found, which favored the supposition of death 
from cold, he could not possibly assert from these signs that 
death had resulted from this cause. Practically, therefore, 
they are of little importance except in those cases in which, 
from the absence of other injuries, and of serious disease, and 
(5) Beck’s Med. Jour., vol. ii. 68 ; Henke’s Zeitschrift, 1845, p. 245. One 
hundred legal autopsies made in the Institute for instruction in Forensic 
Medicine in the Russian University at Kasan. 
786 BOOK V.] 
[§ 883 
COLD. 
from a knowledge of the circumstances under which the body 
was found, the cause of death is already rendered probable. 
Adults, who perish in this manner, are generally either in- 
toxicated or else helpless and infirm. The intemperate, the 
aged, or those whose nervous energy is exhausted by long 
watching, fatigue, hunger, or depressing emotions, succumb 
to this form of death much more speedily than the temperate 
and vigorous. Children, and above all, infants, can sustain only 
a moderate degree of cold. Hence intoxication, old age, and 
privation, as well as actual disease, must be enumerated as 
predisposing causes of death from cold. 
§ 883. If marks of violence be found upon the body, they 
must be judged according to the rules already laid down in 
the chapter on wounds. If necessarily mortal, the influence 
of cold need not be considered, but in all other cases it is 
obvious that cold must have greatly accelerated the fatal result. 
The same remarks are applicable when the subject is very 
young. It must be remembered, however, that cold itself 
may here be more readily employed as a homicidal agent, and 
that possibly the other marks of ill-treatment may be few or 
none. An atrocious case of murder by cold has been fre- 
quently quoted, on account of the rarity of examples of the 
kind. A man and his wife, at Lyons, were tried for the 
murder of their daughter, a girl aged eleven, under the fol- 
lowing circumstances. On the 28th of December, at a time 
when there was a severe degree of cold, the female prisoner 
compelled the deceased to get out of her bed, and place her- 
self in a vessel of ice-cold water. The deceased complained 
of exhaustion and dimness of sight; the prisoner then threw 
a pail of iced-water upon her head, soon after which the child 
expired, (c) 
(c) Ann. d’Hyg., 1831, p. 207. 
787 § 885] 
STARVATION. 
[eook v. 
CHAPTER VII. 
STARVATION. 
I. Mode, § 884. 
II. Period, § 885. 
III. Symptoms, § 887. 
IV. Post-mortem appearances, § 888. 
§ 884. I. Mode.—A person may starve himself to death ; he 
may perish from the want of food, being unable to procure, to 
swallow, or to digest it, or he may purposely be deprived of 
it. Medical evidence can only attempt to establish the fact 
of death by starvation, and can, in many cases, indicate the 
physical cause of it, but cannot, of course, determine whether 
the act was voluntary or homicidal. In the case of young 
children, however, homicidal intentions may be inferred, 
while in adults, on the contrary, starvation is mostly a sui- 
cidal act.(c*) The mode of starvation is not always the same. 
In some cases the privation of suitable nourishment is gradual, 
and death ensues only after a considerable period ; in others, 
although no solid food is swallowed, life is prolonged by the 
use of a little water, and in others, again, after a variable 
period of total abstinence from food or drink, the impera- 
tive demands of nature are gratified, perhaps too freely and 
too late to save life. 
§ 885. II. Period.—The period at which death ensues after 
starvation is, therefore, dependent not only upon the age and 
constitutional powers of the individual, but also upon the 
foregoing varieties in the manner in which it is effected. It 
cannot be determined with precision. "Wonderful examples 
of prolonged abstinence may be found in abundance in the 
(c1) A case is related in Henke’s Zeitschrift, lxxxix. 147, in which a man 
seventy-seven years old was killed by ill-treatment and starvation. His as- 
sassins were his own daughter and his son-in-law. 
788 BOOK V.] 
[§ 886 
STARVATION. 
older works, and are not wanting in our own day. But the 
numerous instances in which trickery has been detected should 
make us wholly incredulous of their genuineness. Instances 
of abstinence for months, and even years, are gravely related ; 
but it is probable that there is no well-authenticated case of 
entire abstinence from food and drink for more than thirty 
days, while on the other hand it is highly probable, that, in 
the majority of cases, death takes place within a week or ten 
days. Dr. Gadermann reports a case, however, in which for 
twenty-three days all liquid or solid nourishment was refused, 
the person being bent upon self-destruction. At the end of 
this time he ate and drank greedily, which did not, however, 
avail him ; he died shortly afterwards. The body was almost 
a skeleton. In this case, the author says, there could not be 
the slightest suspicion of deception.(<f) Professor McHaughten 
has published a case where a man lived fifty-four days on water 
alone.(e) In another case, of a prisoner at Toulouse, who 
resorted to starvation to avoid punishment, life was prolonged 
to the fifty-eighth day. He drank water occasionally. Valentin 
refers to the case of a woman who lived seventy-eight days on 
water and lemon-juice.(/) In another case a man lived sixty 
days on a little water and syrup of A man aged 
56 years was accidentally shut up in a coal mine. He remained 
there twenty-three days before he was discovered, almost com- 
pletely exhausted. He had been able to procure a small 
quantity of dirty water during the first ten days of his con- 
finement. Notwithstanding every effort was made to save 
him, he died three days after he was found.(A) 
§ 886. Two very interesting cases of prolonged abstinence 
in persons afflicted with slight mental derangement, or melan- 
choly, are related by Dr. Taylor, of Ohio. In one, after two 
periods of fasting, of ten and fourteen days respectively, during 
the last of which he took neither food nor water, this gentle- 
man, on the fifteenth day, took a little water, and then at 
(d) Henke’s Zeitschrift, 1848, 3 H. 
(e) Am. Journ. Med. Sci., vi. 543. 
(/) Lelirb. der Physiol., vol. i. p. 218. 
(g) Arcliiv. gen., xxvii. p. 180. 
(h) Lond. Med. Gaz., xvii. 389. 
789 § 888] 
STARVATION. 
[book v. 
intervals a small quantity of milk in it. lie died about one 
hundred days afterwards, having lived in “ an almost constant 
state of abstinence.” In the other, a little water was taken 
on the twelfth day after complete abstinence from food and 
drink, and a gill every twenty-four hours afterwards for thirty- 
nine successive days, when he died. For the last seventy-two 
days prior to his death, he had no fecal evacuation, but passed 
urine in small quantities every three or four days.(f) 
Under the subsequent topic of “ Priority of Death,” or 
“ Survivorship,” a case will be found of a party of miners who 
survived over fourteen days without food, without any per- 
manent serious consequences. 
§ 887. III. Symptoms.—u Dr. Donovan gives the following 
description of those who suffered from the Irish famine in 
1847. They described the pain of hunger as at first very acute, 
but said, that, after twenty-four hours had been passed with- 
out food, the pain subsided, and was succeeded by a feeling of 
weakness and sinking, experienced principally in the epigastric 
region, accompanied with insatiable thirst, a strong desire for 
cold water, and a distressing feeling of coldness over the whole 
body. In a short time, the face and limbs became frightfully 
emaciated, the eyes acquired a most peculiar stare, the skin 
exhaled a peculiar and offensive fetor, and was covered with a 
brownish, filthy-looking coating, almost as indelible as var- 
nish. The sufferer tottered in walking, like a drunken man; 
his voice became weak, like that of a person in cholera; he 
whined like a child, and burst into tears on the slightest occa- 
sion. In respect to the mental faculties, their prostration kept 
pace with the general wreck of bodily power; in many there 
was a state of imbecility ; in some, almost complete idiotism; 
but in no instance was there delirium or mania, which is often 
described as a consequence of protracted abstinence among 
shipwrecked mariners. ”(j) 
§ 888. IV. Post-mortem appearances.—In a child, six months 
old, which was starved to death by its mother, the following 
(t) Am. Journ. Mecl. Sci., Jan. 1851. In tlie same place will be found 
some references to remarkable cases of abstinence by the editor, Dr. Hays. 
(j) Taylor, Med. Jur., from Donovan, Dub. Med. Press, Feb. 1848. 
790 BOOK V.] 
STARVATION. 
[§ 889 
conditions were observed: Excessive emaciation; the body 
weighed only six pounds and a half, and the thickest part of 
the thigh measured only an inch and a quarter in diameter. 
There was no fat anywhere to be found, not even in the omen- 
tum, and only a small amount of blood in the body. There 
was no food in the stomach or intestines. A trifling quantity 
of old and hardened feces remained in the rectum. Extreme 
contraction of the stomach and all the intestines existed.(&) 
§ 889. Wildberg examined the body of a man 50 years of 
age, who died of hunger, seven days after being buried in the 
ruins of a fallen house ; he was known to have been healthy 
before the accident. The body was extremely emaciated, 
being reduced almost to a skeleton; the eyes stood open, and 
were highly injected; the mouth and tongue exceedingly dry ; 
and the abdomen so flat, that the anterior wall lay almost in 
contact with the spine. Although the body was still fresh, it 
exhaled a peculiar penetrating fetor, different from that of 
putrefaction. The lungs were shrivelled and of a yellowish- 
white color, the heart small and flaccid, and a small quantity 
of loosely coagulated and highly offensive blood was found 
in it and in the great vessels. In the abdomen there was not 
a trace of adipose tissue remaining; the stomach was very 
much shrunken, and contained a little dark and viscid liquid. 
The mucous surface was corroded in several places. The in- 
testines were pale and contracted, and entirely empty, with 
the exception of a little greenish fluid in the small intestine, 
and in the large a very small quantity of dry excrement. 
The liver was pale, the gall-bladder very much distended 
with thick, dark-brown bile, which, exuding through its 
coats, had tinged all the neighboring viscera. All the other 
abdominal organs were small, flaccid, and contained but little 
blood; in the bladder, the internal coat of which had an 
inflamed appearance, there was found a little dark and fetid 
urine. The brain and its membranes were extremely anaemic, 
and the former firm and dry. In addition to this description, 
it may be stated that Dr. Donovan found, in some cases in- 
spected by him during the Irish famine, a peculiarly thin 
(&) Rotliamel, Henke’s Zeitscli., 1845, 3 H. 
791 §891] 
STARVATION. 
[book v. 
condition of the small intestines, “which, in such cases, were 
so transparent, that if the deceased had taken any food imme- 
diately before death, the contents would be seen through the 
coats of the bowel; on one occasion (at an inquest) he was 
able to recognize a portion of raw green cabbage in the duo- 
denum of a man who had died of inanition.” The above 
description, from Wildberg, coincides very closely with the 
statements of other observers, and may probably be assumed 
as correct when there is no other cause of death present. It 
is further substantiated by the observation of Casper, in a 
case where, from occlusion of the mouth by disease, death 
took place from hunger.(Z) 
§ 890. In 1869, a girl, 12 years of age, in Carmarthenshire, 
Wales,(V) excited a vast amount of interest from the state- 
ment that she had lived for two years without eating or drink- 
ing, except a drop of water which was placed on her lips every 
few days. It was also asserted that nothing was evacuated 
from her bowels ; but that every nine days she passed a drachm 
or two of urine. She occasionally had “ swooning fits.” The 
parents positively denied that any food was given her, and 
many persons believed their account of the case. The girl 
was confined to bed, but looked fat and rosy. 
§ 891. At the request of her father, who expressed a strong 
desire that the case should be investigated, a committee, con- 
sisting of the vicar of the parish, a surgeon, and several gen- 
tlemen and respectable farmers, met and determined to have 
the girl closely watched. For this purpose four nurses were 
sent from Guy’s Hospital, London, one of whom was to be in 
constant attendance on the case. The watching began on 
Dec. 9th, and ended with the girl’s death on Dec. 17th, 1869. 
On December 11th, she is reported as not looking as wTell as 
usual, but up to the 14th she is stated to have been cheerful 
and amused herself with reading. On December 12th stains 
of excrement were observed on her dress. On the 13th she 
passed a large quantity of urine, and on the 14th and 15th 
smaller amounts were voided. For three days before death 
(Z) Casper, Gericlit. Lichenoff, 2tes Hundert. Fall. 99. 
(Z1) Lancet, 1869. 
792 BOOK V.] 
STARVATION. 
[§ 892 
her extremities were cold, and during the last two days she 
was very restless. She asked for no food and made no confes- 
sion of imposition. There was no attempt made to force her 
to take food, but it was offered to her on the day of her death. 
“ She made no reply, but appeared to go off in a fit.” On the 
same day her father refused to allow the surgeon in attendance 
to give her food, but afterwards, “when it was too late,” he 
consented. 
§ 892. At the post-mortem examination made by Mr. J. 
Phillips and Mr. Thomas (l2) the following appearances were 
noted:— 
“ Exterior.—Hair nearly black, long and plentiful; eyes 
very sunken, pupils dilated; very handsome features; left 
cheek still florid; chest and body generally well developed ; 
mammse slightly so; armpits and pubes showing preco- 
cious puberty ; right shoulder more developed than left; left 
axilla more than usually hollow, as if a bottle or hard sub- 
stance had been kept there ; thighs well rounded, but the legs 
below the knee small in proportion—less developed than the 
thighs; soles of the feet soft, bearing no evidence of being 
used for locomotion. * * * * 
“ Head.—On removing calvarium, found the vessels on the 
surface of brain turgid, the membranes quite healthy, .brain 
beautifully developed, the anterior lobes especially, cerebellum 
of ordinary size (on cutting into the substance it was found 
firm, having a large portion of cineritious matter, a few red 
spots only visible on the cut surface); ventricles empty, base 
quite normal, containing no fluid. 
“ Chest.—Lungs collapsed, free, rather small, but quite 
healthy in color and touch. Heart in every respect natural; 
pericardium containing no fluid or adhesions. 
“ Abdomen.—The whole alimentary canal free from any 
thickening or contraction, and perfectly healthy throughout. 
Stomach of ordinary size, containing no food, but about half 
an ounce of a thickened acid mucous exudation; duodenum 
contained a little of the same fluid tinged with bile; jejunum 
also a little of the same fluid, as well as the ilium, where it 
(l2) Medical Times and Gazette, Jan. 8, 1870, p. 45. 
793 §891] 
STARVATION. 
[book v. 
became slightly grumous. Five half-grown lnmbrici, and one 
full-grown, were in the ileum. In the csecum the fluid became 
thicker but same in character. Colon fairly distended with 
gas, and, with the rectum, contained about eight ounces of 
hardened feces—not in one spot, but diffused through its entire 
length. Anus pervious, having a little thickened mucus 
therein; bladder empty; uterus small, but quite healthy; 
spleen normal, also kidneys and liver; gall-bladder distended 
with healthy bile; omentum contained a little fat. The body 
measured fifty-three inches in length; and under the integu- 
ment was a thick layer of fat; from half an inch on the 
thorax to one inch on the lower portion of the abdomen.” 
§ 893. It may be mentioned that the parents of the deceased 
girl were tried for having caused her death. The father was 
sentenced to imprisonment for twelve months, and the mother 
for six months, it being represented that she acted under the 
orders of her husband. 
§ 894. In estimating the value of the post-mortem appear- 
ances, as evidence of death from starvation, it should be re- 
membered, that, unless there is absence of disease sufficient to 
have induced the emaciation and anaemic condition described, 
death cannot be attributed to starvation as its cause. There 
are many diseases which would produce a similar condition of 
the body—some by mechanical obstruction to the ingestion or 
chylification of the food, and others by their baleful effect 
upon the system generally. Hence, the medical witness should 
be extremely cautious in attributing, upon the grounds of a 
post-mortem inspection alone, the death of the individual to 
starvation, especially if the person have been the subject of 
any chronic disease. 
794 BOOK V.] 
SUFFOCATION. 
795 
CHAPTER VIII. 
SUFFOCATION. 
I. Post-mortem appearances, § 896. 
II. Accidental, § 897. 
III. Suicidal, § 899. 
IY. Homicidal, § 902. 
§ 895. Although the general definition of this word may 
not improperly include all those modes of death in which the 
respiration is mechanically prevented, yet, as hanging, stran- 
gulation, and drowning require a separate consideration, it 
remains for us here to speak only of those modes of suffoca- 
tion not elsewhere discussed. These are exceedingly numerous, 
and comprise all those cases in which by any means air is ex- 
cluded from the larynx, or the chest prevented from expanding 
to receive it. 
§ 896. I. Post-mortem appearances.—These, as Casper has 
pointed out, will be found to differ more or less according to 
whether death has been sudden or prolonged, whether it was 
produced by syncope or by congestion of the internal organs, 
and whether the person was scantily or abundantly furnished 
with blood. Lividity and turgescence of the face, fluidity of 
the blood, and sanguineous engorgement of the thoracic and 
abdominal viscera are the general and most constant features. 
Casper pronounces erroneous the opinion that cadaveric rigidity 
is absent after death by suffocation, and declares that it exists 
neither more nor less than in other cases. The heat of the 
body, and particularly of the internal organs, is of longer 
duration than usual; the blood is uniformly more liquid, and 
of a darker color, than is usual except after death from putrid 
fevers, septic poisons, etc., and hence it flows more abundantly 
when sections of the vascular organs, as the brain, are made. 
Bloody infiltration of the eyes and eyelids, and minute ecchy- 
795 796 
SUFFOCATION. 
[book v. 
mosis of the neck and chest, are common.(m) The lungs, 
according to Casper, are generally engorged, as well as the 
right side of the heart and the pulmonary arteries, while the 
left cavities of this organ contain little or no blood. M. Tar- 
dieu, on the other hand, declares that in general the lungs do 
not present the characters usually attributable to asphyxia, 
being in the majority of cases of moderate volume, rosy or 
even pale, and sometimes engorged about the base and poste- 
rior portion.(n) Underneath the scalp and the pulmonary 
pleura, on the lining membrane of the heart and aorta, and 
in the mucous membrane ©f the larynx and trachea, within 
and upon the thymus gland, bloody points, spots, and stripes, 
resembling ecehymoses, but more strictly circumscribed, may 
be found, which are probably due to the efforts of inspiration 
made when no air can enter the lungs, and when of course the 
struggle to breathe forces the blood through the walls of the 
vessels. The permanence of these spots renders them valuable 
signs. M. Tardieu found them under the pleura of a foetus 
which had been for ten months in a privy well. Frequently, 
but not in every case, a pale-reddish foam is found in the 
trachea and bronchia, the lining membrane of which is pale 
or dusky, according to the condition of the lungs. Congestion 
of the kidneys is another and peculiar indication of this mode 
of death. On the other hand, projection of the tongue be- 
tween the teeth is far from peculiar to death by suffocation, 
(m) The following case proves the necessity of caution in regard to the 
significance of such spots. A watchmaker, aged fifty years, was found dead 
upon the floor of his chamber, at nine o’clock in the evening. He had not 
been seen since the previous evening. During the day several persons had 
knocked at his door in vain, and it was at last perceived that a forcible 
entrance had been made. This circumstance suggested that the man had 
been assassinated. On examining the body, no trace of violence was dis- 
covered, but upon the neck and chest were many spots resembling those of 
purpura ; no similar spots were found in the pleura. The brain and lungs 
■were strongly congested, and the tongue and lips were wounded by the teeth. 
It was clear that death had occurred in an epileptiform attack, and the man 
was found to have formerly been subject to this disease. Robbers, supposing 
the occupant of the room absent, had effected an entrance, but, probably 
alarmed at the sight of the corpse, had fled.—Annales d' Hygiene, 2eme s6r., 
iv. 389. 
(n) Annales d’Hygiene, 2eme ser., iv. 378. 
796 BOOK V.] 
SUFFOCATION. 
[§ 896 
ancl the same remark is true of foam upon the lips. It is 
evident that the greater number of these signs are valuable 
only in proportion to the freshness of the body; when once 
decomposition has set in, they gradually lose their distinctness 
and their significance. It will be observed, also, that the 
above signs are those merely of asphyxia in general. In 
hanging, strangulation, and drowning, there are one or more 
signs characteristic of the agent by which life is extinguished, 
the presence of which, together with the general signs of this 
kind of death, is almost if not quite conclusive. But in other 
modes of suffocation, if any trace of the instrumentality by 
which death was produced is found, it will be most probably 
due, in homicidal cases, to haste on the part of the assassin, 
and yet cannot atford any addition to the medical evidence. 
Thus, if a person have been smothered with the bedclothes, 
or suffocated by a hand held before the mouth, or by compres- 
sion of the chest, a distinct and satisfactory indication of the 
fact will seldom be had. For this reason the medical examiner 
will often be at a loss whether to ascribe the death to natural 
or to violent causes. The case may be one of apoplexy, of 
faucial disease, or of pulmonary congestion, or may be due to 
a variety of accidental causes, not apparent without a careful 
inspection of the body. This must, therefore, in all cases 
where it is important to remove doubt, be conducted in the 
most careful and searching manner. The absence of any cha- 
racteristic mark to indicate the mode of death gives a latitude 
to conjecture, and to the proposition of general questions, 
which, in case of trial, will seriously embarrass the physician. 
If no accidental cause, such as a foreign body in the larynx, 
nor any evidence of disease fatal by the production of asphyxia 
be discovered, the physician should still be guarded in his 
opinion, and leave the explanation of the manner of the death 
to those whose duty it is to investigate the collateral evidence. 
This is of greater weight than the medical testimony, for 
while the physician has merely to declare the probability of 
the person having died suddenly by suffocation, the collateral 
evidence must establish the instrumentality by which the act 
was done. In cases where marks of other violence are found 
upon the body, or the hands and feet are tied, these facts will, 
797 § 898] 
SUFFOCATION. 
[book v. 
of course, require an interpretation from the medical witness. 
When a dead body is discovered in sand, earth, ashes, or 
similar substance, the question whether the person was alive 
or dead when placed there, must arise. From experiment and 
observation, M. Tardieu concludes that if the substance has 
reached the oesophagus or stomach, it must have been during 
life; and that if the body was buried after death the substance 
will seldom penetrate beyond the entrance of the mouth and 
nostrils; some traces of it may occasionally be found in the 
fauces, and quite exceptionally in the air-passages, but in the 
oesophagus and stomach, never. 
§ 897. II. Accidental suffocation.—M. Tardieu distributes 
cases of suffocation into four groups: 1. When the mouth and 
nostrils are obstructed by the hands or other foreign body; 2. 
When death is produced by pressure upon the chest or the 
abdomen; 3. Burial in earth, sand, ashes, snow, etc.; 4. In- 
closure in a narrow space, as a box or closet, etc. The 
modes in which accidental suffocation occurs are very nume- 
rous. They bear, however, only upon the question of surviv- 
ance. In those cases in which persons are buried alive under 
banks of earth, covered up in the ruins of falling houses, or 
in any way confined in a narrow space in which the air be- 
comes unfit for the sustenance of life, they perish by suffoca- 
tion. 
§ 898. Those, however, in which a foreign body becoming 
impacted in the air-passages causes death by suffocation, are 
more important, because the cause of death is not at all 
suspected. This accident happens usually from over-liaste in 
eating, but an instance has been reported in which it occurred 
probably during the act of vomiting. The case was an un- 
usual one, from the fact that the man who fell a victim to the 
accident was entirely alone at the time of his death. Hence, 
a suspicion of violence might have been entertained, had not 
the evident cause of death, the vomited food, been found in 
the larynx.(o) A case of fatal asphyxia has occurred from the 
(o) Henke’s Zeitsch., 1858, 4 IL A similar case may be found in the Ed. 
Med. and Surg. Journ., April, 1844, p. 390, and a more recent one, in the 
Lond. Times and Gaz., April, 1859, p. 419. In a case related in the Lancet 
(March, 1850, p. 313), a person having died suddenly after eating, previous 
798 BOOK V.] 
ACCIDENTAL SUFFOCATION. 
[§ 898 
detachment of a diseased bronchial gland which became im- 
pacted in the larynx,(p) and another, in which a lumbricus 
ascended from the stomach and entered the larynx.(<7) A case 
is recorded of a child,(r) three years of age, who while eating 
her dinner was suddenly seized with symptoms of suffocation, 
the face becoming turgid, the lips livid, and the respiration 
seemingly arrested. A probang was passed to the stomach, 
and tracheotomy performed, but no reaction took place. O11 
examination after death, a constriction of the lower part of 
the oesophagus, reducing its calibre to that of a quill, was 
found, but the stomach was tilled with food. The vertebrae 
from the fifth to the ninth dorsal were softened or broken 
down, and the corresponding portion of the spinal marrow 
was surrounded with scrofulous matter. In this disease the 
cause of the suffocation probably originated, but its mode of 
action cannot be explained. The case, however, supposing it 
to be accurately reported, presents a mode of suffocation 
hitherto without example. Children are peculiarly liable to 
suffocation from the introduction of peas, marbles, etc., into 
their mouths. In the great majority of these cases, however, 
as well as in those of sudden death from diseases which leave 
the aspect of suffocation upon the body, the cause of death 
will be known, and no examination required. Cases also 
sometimes occur in which persons, helpless from age, infirmity, 
or intoxication, are found with their face buried in dust, snow, 
and other such substances. The cause of death is here self- 
evident, since the slightest effort would have enabled the 
person to escape. Still another form of accidental suffocation 
may be mentioned as occurring to young children, in being 
overlaid by persons with whom they sleep.(s) 
to which he had been engaged in a scuffle, the man with whom he had been 
fighting was arrested on a charge of manslaughter. A post-mortem exami- 
nation disclosed the cause of death to be a piece of meat wedged in the throat. 
The prisoner was therefore discharged. 
(p) Edwardes, Med.-Chir. Trans., xxxvii. 151. 
(q) Aronsohn, Arch. Gen., October, 1855, p. 475. 
(r) Times and Gaz., July, 1855, p. 88. 
(s) The Prussian penal code provides punishment by imprisonment for 
mothers and nurses who take children under two years of age to bed with 
them.—Casper. 
799 § 900] 
SUFFOCATION. 
[book v. 
§ 899. III. Suicidal suffocation.—The possibility of suffoca- 
tion being made a voluntary act, is undoubted; but this mode 
of suicide must be extremely uncommon. The only manner 
in which, without the aid of others, it has been accomplished, 
is either by an alleged retroversion of the tongue (a power 
which few if any possess), or by a mechanical obstruction of 
the mouth and fauces, with various articles. In the latter 
case, the presumption will, of course, be in favor of homicide. 
Several instances of the sort referred to are related by Dr. 
Taylor, who also quotes the remarkable case of a woman who 
placed herself in bed under the bedclothes, and desired her 
young child to pile several articles of furniture upon her. 
When found, some hours afterwards, she was dead. 
§ 900. One of the most remarkable cases of suicidal suffoca- 
tion occurred in Germany. It is related by Dr. Roth, and the 
following is an abridgment, in the Lond. Med. Gaz., from the 
original, in Henke’s Zeitschrift:— 
The deceased was well formed, about the middle height, and 
about 25 years of age. She had been seen to retire to her 
sleeping-room, at nine o’clock one evening, in her usual 
state of health and spirits. The apartment was only separated 
by a partition from the one in which her master and mistress 
slept, and was over a room occupied by others of the house- 
hold. At half-past five o’clock in the following morning, the 
master knocked against the partition to awaken II., but, receiv- 
ing no answer, supposed she had risen and gone out to her 
work. On getting up, however, he found all the doors and 
windows of the house closed, when he went into the servants’ 
room, but did not find her there. On the bed was an axe of a 
peculiar shape, employed in that part of the country for clip- 
ping oft’ branches from the trees, and which used to hang 
behind the door. The blade of the axe rested against the 
back of the bed, and the handle on the bed. Reside it lay 
the best bonnet, which she used to keep in her chest. The 
bed appeared to have been slept on. After searching the well, 
lest she had drowned herself, H.’s father was sent for, from a 
neighboring village. On his arrival, he suggested that the 
chest should be opened to learn in what trim' his daughter had 
left the place. Finding the chest locked, and the key missing. 
800 BOOK V.] 
SUICIDAL SUFFOCATION. 
[§ 901 
a blacksmith was got to force it open, when the body of the 
servant was discovered in the chest, lying in a prone position, 
on the left side, with its knees drawn up, the upper extremities 
flexed, and the missing key grasped in the right hand. The 
chest was about four and a half feet in length, and of propor- 
tionate depth. It locked itself on the fall of the lid, and 
could not be opened from the inside. The corpse was nearly 
dressed, and the vest (camisole) was put on with its inner side 
out. On the following day, the body, which had been re- 
moved and laid on a bed, was viewed by the reporter. The 
cuticle was abraded and reddish-brown at seven or eight 
points, about the centre and upper part of the forehead. The 
largest of these abrasions corresponded with the thick part of 
the axe, and underneath them, the integuments were slightly 
swollen and bluish. The face and upper part of the chest 
were mottled with cadaveric lividity, the ears were blue, the 
eyelids closed, the conjunctiva injected, and the pupils dilated. 
There was bloody froth about the lips and nostrils, partly dry, 
partly fresh, and giving this part of the face a blood-stained 
appearance. Bloody froth was issuing at the time from the 
right nostril. The mouth readily opened, showing the tongue 
in its natural position. The key was still grasped in the right 
hand. "With the exception of the abrasions on the forehead, 
no traces of injury were detected on the body. The clothes 
w'ere entire. 
§ 901. From the foregoing circumstances, the reporter was 
of opinion that the deceased had employed the axe which 
hung in her room, to kill herself, in the way she had seen 
others slaughter oxen, and that, failing in the attempt, and, 
perhaps, ashamed of the injuries on her forehead, she had 
then shut herself up in her chest, and perished by smothering. 
This conclusion satisfied the law authorities so completely, 
that they decided that there was no necessity for making a 
post-mortem, inspection. 
Dr. Wossialo relates the following remarkable case: A 
young woman about 20 years old, who had given birth to an 
illegitimate child seven days before, died suddenly. Poison- 
ing was suspected, but this was negatived by the autopsy. 
vol. ii.—51 
801 § 902] 
SUFFOCATION. 
[book v. 
The signs of death, however, by suffocation were very distinct. 
The eyes protruded, the face was swollen, the tongue projected 
between the lips. The outer surface of the neck was in vain 
examined for any sign of strangulation ; but a large ball of 
hay, the size of a goose’s egg, was found in the throat, reach- 
ing down into the pharynx at the back of the larynx, and 
just visible when the mouth was widely opened. 
There was no doubt that this was the cause of death ; the 
question was whether the case was one of suicide or murder. She 
had just left the room in which were several persons. The 
mistress of the house went out to seek her, and saw her stand- 
ing on the floor of a hay-loft, and noticed that she trembled 
and breathed with difficulty. When the girl was asked what 
was the matter, she made no answer. The woman, therefore, 
called her son, and they got her down through a hole in the 
floor of the loft, and led her indoors. Several women were 
present, and they thought she was in a fit; she was blue in 
the face, trembled in the hands and feet, rolled her eyes, and 
from time to time opened her mouth as if gasping for breath. 
After about a quarter of an hour she died. 
In spite of the improbability of the thing, there was no 
doubt that this was a case of suicide. There were no marks 
of violence, and the people in the house heard no cry. She 
had also full opportunity of calling attention to the cause of 
her sufferings when she was first found standing in the loft.(5J) 
§ 902. IV. Homicidal suffocation.—Those who are usually 
the victims of this form of murder are infants and the aged, 
or those who are otherwise helpless. So slight a degree of re- 
sistance is necessary to defeat the purpose of the assassin, that 
a great disproportion of strength must exist for the attempt to 
be successful. Nevertheless, those miserable wretches, Burke 
and his accomplices, reduced murder by suffocation to a system, 
choosing it as the mode of death most likely to leave no 
marks of crime behind it. The murderer bore with his whole 
weight upon the breast of his victim, and with his hands 
covered forcibly the mouth and nostrils till death came on. 
(s1) Yjlirschrift. f. ger. Med., N. F. I., p. 293; Year-Book of Med. and 
Surg., 1864, p. 458. 
802 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL SUFFOCATION. 
[§ 902 
The body of one of the victims presented, according to Dr. 
Cliristison, so few traces of injury, that without the assistance 
of proof from other sources, it would have been impossible to 
have declared that the death was not a natural one. In a case 
related by Dr. Casper, the body of a rich old lady, who lived 
in one of the most frequented streets of Berlin, was found one 
morning, in her bed, her head buried among the pillows, and 
heaped over with bedclothes. Her hands were tied fast be- 
hind her back, and her legs bound together by a band, includ- 
ing also her underclothing. The room being warm, the body 
was rapidly decomposing, the head was blackish-green, and 
the epidermis was loose. At the same time the eyes were 
prominent and injected, and the tongue swollen and protrud- 
ing. Some marks were found upon the neck, which, being 
hard and distinct in color from the surrounding skin, were 
thought to indicate an attempt at strangulation. Everything 
was in the greatest disorder in the chamber, the drawers and 
cabinets being rifled of their contents. The opinion of the 
examiners was that death resulted from asphyxia, produced 
both by strangulation and suffocation.(0 
(t) The following is an extremely interesting case in this connection ; it 
is reported by Dr. Charles A. Lee, in the N. Y. Journal of Medicine, July, 
1844:— 
A ease of trial for murder, by suffocation, lately came before the Court of 
Oyer and Terminer of the City of New York, Judge William Kent presid- 
ing, in which William Leitga, the prisoner, was accused of thus destroying 
his wife, and afterwards setting fire to her bed, by which the body was con- 
siderably burned before the fire was discovered and arrested. It appeared in 
evidence that they had lived very unhappily together, both being addicted to 
habits of intemperance, and had been quarrelling at one or two o’clock in the 
morning on which the fire took place (it being discovered about six o’clock). 
The deceased was found lying on a cot, a little on her right side, with a large 
pillow over her feet, but not covering the whole head : the arms bent up 
and lying across the breast under the pillow, which was partly burnt—her 
limbs were burnt to the knees, and also her right arm, the rest of the body 
not much burnt—the countenance was distorted, the eyes open, and the 
tongue protruded from the mouth nearly an inch. The cot on which she lay 
was about four feet from the stove ; there was no appearance of fire between 
the cot and the stove ; but everything showed that the fire had commenced 
at the foot of the cot and worked up ; an empty lamp lay on the floor about 
three feet from the foot of the cot; bedclothes were lying about the room, 
and everything indicating that there had been a violent quarrel. As the tes- 
803 [book y. 
804 
SUFFOCATION. 
§ 903. Still another circumstance under which death maybe 
accomplished by suffocation, will be found in some cases of 
timony of Dr. Rogers contains the principal facts in the case, we present it 
in detail:— 
Dr. James L. Rogers testified, that he “saw the body about 8 o’clock in 
the morning of October 29tl\, 1843 ; the body was slightly inclined to the 
right; the arms were up, inclining to the breast, but not on it ; the lower 
part of the right arm and hand were burnt to a crisp ; the hair was burnt off 
the top of her head ; the left cheek was burnt on a place about as large as 
half a dollar; the transparent part of the left eye was scorched; the body 
was burnt across the stomach down ; below the knee the flesh was burnt al- 
most entirely off—above the knee to the abdomen, it had the appearance of a 
ham being smoked ; there was no burn on any other portion of the body ex- 
cept the left ear ; the mouth was not burnt ; the tongue protruded ; the 
countenance perfectly calm ; no mark was perceptible about the neck or any 
other place, except a small flesh wound in the right side of the eye. On dis- 
section, the brain was found perfectly natural—stomach also healthy, con- 
taining about two spoonfuls of liquid matter; the bowels were perfectly 
healthy, as were the kidneys, except that they all appeared somewhat con- 
gested ; the lungs and heart were healthy, but the vessels of the lungs were 
deluged with dark venous blood, as was the right side of the heart; the 
left side of the heart was nearly free of blood.” 
The District Attorney asked, What was his opinion of the cause of death ? 
Witness : “ In the absence of all natural causes, of which there were none, 
I should say she died from stoppage or prevention of air from the lungs; it 
may be called suffocation : the same appearances would be produced, either 
by the breath being stopped by something placed over the nose and mouth, 
or by drowning. I observed no appearance of intoxication ; I think I never 
examined a body where there was a more healthy appearance than that pre- 
sented. Where there is a dense smoke of carbonic acid gas from the burning 
of charcoal, the same appearaces of the lungs and heart would exist in some 
measure, but not so fully, as the air in such cases continues partially to have 
effect. The fact that one eye was burnt, the placid state of the countenance 
(this was denied by other witnesses who first saw the body, and can hardly 
be presumed from the protruding of the tongue, etc.), and the position in 
which she lay, led to the conclusion that she must have died before the fire. 
The probability is, that, if the person had been alive when the fire reached 
her, she would have shut her eyes, and one of them would not have been 
burnt. There was no blister in the eye, as there would have been, had it 
been burned during life. There was also no red line on the body to where 
the fire came, which is also a very certain sign of burning before death.” 
Cross-examined : “In the case of a person who dies of suffocation there 
is a congestion of the brain ; the eyeballs are distended, and there is at all 
times” (in drunkards dying thus) “a smell of alcohol in the stomach and 
brain.” 
Mr. Brady asked the witness, If a person got intoxicated and in a position 
804 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL SUFFOCATION. 
[§ 903 
rape. An instructive example of this kind will be found in 
the following German case. In it, the subsequent confession of 
to prevent respiration, whether the same appearances would not be presented 
as in the present case ? 
Witness : “ It would depend upon this position. If the head was down 
and respiration stopped, there might be a paralysis ; it is very difficult for per- 
sons to suffocate themselves. If paralysis did occur from intoxication, the 
brain would show it; but there was no appearance of the kind in the present 
case at all. There was hardly the usual quantity of water in the brain.” 
Brady : “ Could not this woman have got so beastly drunk, that she might 
have got in a position to suffocate ?” 
Witness : “ Such might have been the case, but it would show itself in the 
brain.” 
Brady : “ Would you say, that she did not go to bed drunk that night ?” 
Witness : “In the absence of all appearance or symptom to that effect, we 
were induced to believe that there was nothing to justify a supposition of 
the kind. If a person died of intoxication, the brain would show it, and in 
persons habituated to intoxication, there would be a morbid appearance about 
the stomach and lungs—a bloated countenance, and other marks which 
would distinguish it. Suffocation and apoplexy present different appear- 
ances after death ; in the first case the lungs cease their functions for want of 
air, yet the blood passes to the brain and returns, as there is nothing in the 
neck to prevent it; but in apoplexy or strangulation, as in the case of a cord 
round the neck, the blood stops and the brain exhibits the effect. In suffoca- 
tion, the breath may be stopped in a minute or half a minute, so that a per- 
son would cease to struggle, and in ten minutes be dead. There was an in- 
dentation of a key on the left breast of the deceased, which might have been 
made by a heavy arm pressing on it.” 
Dr. Putnam testified to nearly the same effect. He said: “ That none of 
the viscera exhibited any marks of intemperance ; that if death had been so 
caused, the brain, stomach, and countenance would show it; the brain par- 
ticularly would be congested. In death by strangulation, there would pro- 
bably be proof of violence perceptible about the neck, and the tongue would 
ordinarily protrude; it generally produces apoplexy. Suffocation may be 
produced by stopping the respiratory organs, or by inhaling gases. To dis- 
tinguish which of these causes, one must know the attending circumstances. 
A person dying of suffocation by inhaling carbonic acid gas would exhibit 
some change of countenance. I saw nothing in the body externally or in- 
ternally, that could account for death. Taking everything into considera- 
tion, I conclude the death to have happened from suffocation. A pillow laid 
over the nose and mouth produces such death in two or three minutes, with- 
out external marks. I believe the fire to have been communicated to the 
body after death.” 
Cross-examined : “ My opinions have been formed from reading ; never 
attended but four post-mortem examinations; never of one who died from 
suffocation from any cause. Congestion of the brain would certainly be 
805 806 
SUFFOCATION. 
[book v. 
the criminal confirmed the accuracy of the opinion given by the 
medical officer, which was, that after a struggle the woman 
found after death from intoxication; so would also inflammation of the 
stomach. Post-mortem examination was made at 11 o’clock A. M. Stomach 
appeared as if she had not eaten for six or eight hours ; had she gone to bed 
drunk at one or two o’clock the night before, should expect to find evidence 
of the fact. I should not expect to find a morbid state of the stomach in the 
case of a person who drank moderately, that is habitually, but not to intoxi- 
cation ; never read of a case of strangulation without marks of external 
force ; whether the tongue protrudes or not, depends upon the peculiar way 
in which the exterior force is applied. Suffocation may happen accidentally, 
by getting into a position in which it is impossible to breathe ; this is the case 
often with infants ; it is not impossible that this might occur in the case of an 
adult, in a case as helpless as a child, but the probability is against such an 
occurrence. In the case of a person in a room where there was smoke, or 
gas, or corrupt air of any kind, a drunken person’s death might be much 
expedited. In cases of death by noxious gases, the tongue is usually more 
or less protruded, and there is more or less frothy appearance about the 
mouth. In ordinary suffocation, not by gases, etc., it is rare that the tongue 
protrudes; in cases of violent suffocation it is not common ; difficult to say, 
on a post-mortem examination, whether the person died from violent or acci- 
dental suffocation.” 
Physicians, as usual, were called on behalf of the prisoner, and some con- 
flicting if not opposing opinions were advanced. 
Dr. Archer (Coroner): “Thought that the burns had been inflicted after 
death; saw the stomach, thought it did not look entirely healthy, as there 
was a turgid appearance of the vessels, showing that it had been a good deal 
stimulated. There was no pink margin around the burns ; never found an 
exception of death from burning that there was absence of the pink margin; 
did not consider it a sign of suffocation .that the tongue protruded ; thought 
the eye was burnt after death. In death from carbonic acid the countenance 
is generally placid, and it is not common for the tongue to be protruded ; the 
brain and lungs are more or less congested; if there are no external marks, 
no person can say positively whether the persons died from natural causes or 
from violence. If a person dies after a debauch, I should expect to find evi- 
dence of it in the brain or stomach. It is impossible to say how long after a 
person has been drinking, its traces would be lost from the system ; when the 
effect is gone, however, the liquor is gone.” 
Dr. Ramson testified that “he had attended post-mortem examinations in 
cases of death from suffocation, and lately, where two persons were suffo- 
cated by charcoal; their countenances were swollen, and the eyes somewhat 
protruded ; there was a distortion of features (one more than the other, as 
the patient lay on his face) ; in cases of suffocation, the brain is generally 
congested and the blood blacker in the different vessels than in ordinary 
cases, and the lungs more or less congested; countenance more or less dis- 
torted ; in such cases should judge more from the blood in the arterial sys- 
806 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL SUFFOCATION. 
[§ 904 
had been overpowered and forcibly compelled to submit to the 
desires of her ravisher; who at the same time held his hand 
over her face to prevent her crying for help. In doing so, 
however, he had, according to his own story, unintentionally 
suffocated her. The body of the deceased, in this case, pre- 
sented the signs of asphyxia in a marked degree, the face 
being purple and turgid, the eyes injected, the lips and tongue 
swollen aud livid, and the fingers convulsively clenched. The 
lungs were perfectly black with blood, and so distended that, 
upon incision, the blood escaped in profusion; the vena cava 
and right side of the heart were also gorged with dark, but 
coagulated blood. The cerebral veins and sinuses were not re- 
markably full. If the crime had in this instance been un- 
connected with rape, it is probable that some marks of vio- 
lence would have been found, but the weight of the man’s 
body, no doubt, as well as other causes, contributed to the 
ease with which the suffocation was accomplished. 
§ 904. A curious case of suffocation, unintentionally pro- 
tem, than from the brain ; there is no particular condition of the heart, ex- 
cept there is black blood.” 
The testimony of Dr. Middleton Goldsmith was to the same effect. 
In summing up the case, Mr. Warner, the counsel for the accused, among 
other remarks, said, that the medical testimony did not agree, and that it was 
filled with doubts and uncertainty. “ The positiveness,” he observed, “with 
which medical men give their testimony, is to be ascribed to the care they 
have of their own reputation in their profession, and to the fear they have of 
seeming ignorant of their profession. These witnesses disagree as to the in- 
dications of intemperance presented by the stomach of the deceased. Dr. 
Archer alone said any. The fact will appear abundantly that she was very 
intemperate,” etc. Mr. Brady quoted from Beck’s “ Medical Jurisprudence,” 
where it is stated that most physicians are not competent to make post-mortem 
examinations, and hence argued that those who made the dissection in the 
present case were probably incompetent! Judge Kent, in his charge, came 
to the conclusion, after a full recapitulation of the testimony, that, first, 
nothing positively certain was shown as to the cause of death ; and, second, 
nothing positively excluded the idea that it was occasioned by suffocation—the 
probability being in favor of the latter. The judge also instructed the jury 
that unless they found the death was occasioned by smothering, no matter in 
what way effected, they could not find the prisoner guilty ; although they 
might come to the conclusion that the deceased perished from burning, or in 
some other manner, not stated in the indictment, and by the hands of the 
prisoner. Verdict—Not guilty. 
807 § 905] 
[book v. 
SUFFOCATION. 
duced, is given in the London Lancet. A lad, eighteen years 
of age, was, by way of a joke, forced head downwards into a 
sack containing about a bushel of bran, by two of his fellow- 
laborers on the farm. According to the testimony of one of 
the parties, who were at the same time the perpetrators and 
the only witnesses of the outrage, the mouth of the sack was 
tied with rope-yarn, round the legs of the lad. This was 
almost immediately cut, and the boy released from the sack. 
He was reported to be black in the face and frothing at the 
mouth, but became sufficiently sensible to drink a small quan- 
tity of water. lie breathed, however, with great difficulty, 
remained insensible, and lived only twenty minutes after 
being extricated from the sack. Upon post-mortem examina- 
tion, it was found that sixteen hours after death the thorax 
and abdomen retained a considerable degree of warmth. At 
the bifurcation of the trachea a large quantity of bran was 
found; the left bronchus was entirely filled with it, and the 
right nearly so, and their subdivisions, as far as they could be 
traced into the substance of the lungs, were full of the same 
material, (u) 
§ 905. The following interesting and curious case occurred 
at Edinburgh in 1855: Janet Stewart, between 60 and 70 years 
of age, lived in the family of her niece, consisting of three 
adults and a child besides herself. All were grossly addicted 
to intemperance. Janet was found dead with a contused and 
lacerated wound of the scalp, extensive emphysema beneath 
the skin of the trunk and in the chest, and seven ribs of the 
left side fractured. The face was pale and slightly swollen, 
the features composed, the eyelids shut, the lips nearly closed? 
and the tongue slightly protruding. On examining the neck, 
a hard mass was felt at the back part of the throat, which 
proved to be the cork of a quart bottle, tightly inserted into 
the upper part of the larynx, the sealed end being uppermost- 
It was covered with a frothy brown mucus. The epiglottis, 
larynx, and trachea were considerably injected. The last with 
the bronchia presented a bright florid appearance, and their 
(u) Another case in many respects similar to this one.is reported by Ray- 
mond and Devergie. Ann. d’Hyg., July, 1852. 
808 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL SUFFOCATION. 
H 906 
whole surface was coated with mucus. By experiments on 
the dead body it was ascertained that when a cork, such as 
had here been found, was pushed along the mouth against the 
cervical vertebrae, the upper end was forced backwards, while 
the lower end was tilted forwards, and by continuing the 
pressure made to enter the larynx. It was hence concluded 
that the attempt to kill indicated by the wound of the scalp, 
and the fractured ribs, had been successfully completed by 
suffocation by means of the cork, the frothy mucus around 
this body and the redness of the mucous membrane proving 
that death had not immediately followed its introduction. 
One of the party, who was indicted on the testimony of the 
rest as the author of these outrages, was tried. The jury 
returned a verdict of “ not provenbut a few weeks after- 
wards a body believed to be that of the prisoner was found 
floating in the Clyde.(v) 
In infants, murder by suffocation is undoubtedly very com- 
mon, it being very rapidly effected, and leaving no character- 
istic traces behind it. Death, thus criminally produced, has 
often been attributed to convulsions. 
§ 906. It is a common habit among nurses, in order to quiet 
a child, to thrust into its mouth a bag made of rag or wash 
leather containing sugar or crushed crackers. The infant is 
thus generally pacified, and, the mouth being filled with the 
bag, it breathes chiefly through the nostrils. If by any acci- 
dent these should be obstructed or by a sudden act of inspira- 
tion the bag should fall back into the throat, death by suffo- 
cation must result, unless prompt assistance be rendered. 
Should this occur through the carelessness of the nurse, she 
may remove every trace of the cause of death by taking the 
bag out of the mouth.(v1) 
(») Edinb. Med. Journ., i. 511. 
(«’) Dr. Taylor states that he knows of but one instance in which it gave 
rise to a criminal charge. (Reg. v. Cox, Warwick Lent Assizes, 1848.) 
809 § 907] 
[book v. 
STRANGULATION. 
CHAPTER IX. 
STRANGULATION. 
I. Cause, § 907. 
II. Marks, § 908. 
III. Period, § 910. 
IV. Accidental, suicidal, or homicidal, § 911. 
§ 907. The causes of death in simple strangulation, as in 
that which is complicated with suspension, are an interruption 
of the access of air to the lungs, by pressure upon the wind- 
pipe, and congestion of the brain from the impeded return of 
the blood to the heart through the jugular veins. The first of 
these causes is in hanging the efficient and principal one, but 
in strangulation, owing to the more complete constriction of 
the neck, especially where a cord is used, the cause last men- 
tioned certainly greatly accelerates the fatal result. The con- 
striction varies with the band and its adjustment. Sometimes 
a rope is used, sometimes a handkerchief, a strap, a ribbon, or 
a strip from the bedding or some article of clothing. Some- 
times it is wound several times around the neck, in others 
twisted like a tourniquet with a spoon, knife-handle, or some 
similar body. But throttling by the hand is by far the most 
frequent mode in which the violence is employed, especially in 
cases of homicidal strangulation. The aspect of a person who 
has been strangled resembles, therefore, more closely that which 
was formerly described as characteristic of hanging, viz., a 
livid and swollen condition of the face, staring eyes with 
dilated pupils, and protruded tongue. The swollen features, 
the neck, chest, and eyes are studded with minute ecchymoses 
which are very characteristic of death by strangulation, when 
they exist, and they do so whenever the violence applied 
has been great and the- struggle protracted. The other and 
internal post-mortem appearances are sometimes incorrectly 
said to be those of death by asphyxia. The lungs and right 
810 BOOK V.] 
MARKS OP VIOLENCE. 
[§ 908 
cavities of the heart are not usually filled with dark fluid 
blood, the abdominal organs and especially the liver and kid- 
neys are not congested, and the mesenteric veins and the 
vessels of the head are not always engorged. M. Tardieu 
states that an intervesicular emphysema resulting from a rup- 
ture of the pulmonary vessels is an almost constant phe- 
nomenon. It gives the surface of the organs the appearance 
of being studded with very white pseudo-membranous spots 
of variable dimensions. Sub-pleural ecchymosis, which is 
characteristic of suffocation, is not met with, but in its stead 
apoplectic nodules in the tissue of the lung measuring from 
half an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. If death 
have been caused by suffocation combined with strangulation, 
punctated ecchymoses under the pulmonary pleura will be 
found in addition.(w) In young children much reliance is 
placed by Dr. Casper upon the existence of petechial ec- 
chymoses upon the pulmonary pleura, the heart, and aorta. 
Actual extravasation of blood upon the brain is, however, of 
very rare occurrence, if, indeed, it ever appears as a direct 
result of the strangulation. This fact is of considerable im- 
portance in many cases, since in death by apoplexy, the turgor 
and discoloration of the countenance may occasionally lead to 
a suspicion of homicidal strangulation, especially if any ques- 
tionable traces of constriction be discovered upon the neck. 
§ 908. II. Marks of violence upon the neck.—These are far 
more evident and important than in hanging, because in 
homicidal strangulation more force usually is employed than 
is necessary to accomplish the object of the murderer. If the 
strangulation have been effected with the hand, the marks of 
the fingers will be found upon the front of the neck; and 
sometimes by the form, number, and arrangement of the marks 
it is easy to determine which hand was used to make the con- 
striction. If by a cord or other ligature, the mark will be 
nearly horizontal, more or less distinct, and generally ecchy- 
mosed. The differences between the slight marks produced 
by strangulation, as compared with those caused by hanging, 
depend upon the continuity of action of the compressing 
(w>) Annales d’ Hygiene, 2eme ser., xi. 133. 
811 § 909] 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
cause in the latter case, and also in some cases, as in those of 
infants and aged persons, upon the small degree of force re- 
quired to arrest the breathing. Subcutaneous extravasation 
is not always found. In a case of suicidal strangulation ex- 
amined by Dr. Casper, in which the ligature consisted of a 
pack-thread wound thrice around the neck and tied fast over 
the larynx, the mark was but slightly depressed, and only con- 
sisted of a single line, broad, white, and here and there tinged 
with blue.(;r) The subjacent parts will present traces of injury 
corresponding to the violence which has been used. The con- 
dition of the more deeply seated organs of the neck cannot be 
at all inferred from the state of she skin which covers them. 
M. Tardieu has shown that, even when no external bruise 
exists, effusion of blood may be discovered beneath the skin, 
among the more deeply seated muscles, and even upon the 
larynx and trachea, or, if the hand has been used to effect the 
compression, the effusion may extend to the upper part of the 
neck and the chest. Two cases are referred to below in which 
the ossified thyroid cartilage was fractured, but these lesions 
are unusual. The interior surface of the larynx and trachea is 
usually congested and of a uniformly red or violet color, and 
bathed with frothy and bloody mucus which extends also to 
the smaller air-tubes. We are not acquainted with any case 
in which laceration of the carotid artery has been found after 
death by homicidal strangulation. But as this lesion can be 
produced by imitating strangulation on the dead body,(y) it 
is also probably one of the occasional effects of the homicidal 
act. 
§ 909. The distinction of the signs of apoplexy from those 
of strangulation consists essentially in this, that in the former 
none of the derangements which have been described of the 
parts beneath the skin can be detected. The proofs of strangu- 
lation are also different from those of hanging. This distinc- 
tion is important chiefly when a dead body is found suspended; 
for it must be remembered that this position generally de- 
notes suicide, while strangulation ordinarily indicates death by 
(x) Gericht. Leicli., 2tes Hund. 1854, Fall. 59. 
(t/) Simon, Virchow’s Arcliiv., xi. 297. 
812 BOOK V.] 
BEFORE OR AFTER DEATH? 
[§ 910 
homicidal violence. The cases most apt to be confounded are 
those in which strangulation has been effected by a cord or 
similar constricting band. The obliquity of the mark has 
been generally insisted upon as proving death by suspension- 
But, when the whole weight of the body has not exercised its 
traction, this sign may fail, and, on the other hand, the complete 
circular mark is often wanting even where strangling has 
been the cause of death. In the latter case, also, the con- 
stricting band or cord leaves a comparatively slight impression, 
while in the former a deep furrow is produced. But in 
strangulation the injuries to the soft parts beneath the skin 
are very marked, while in hanging they are comparatively 
slight as a general rule. The discharge of feces, urine, and 
semen, which has been regarded as peculiarly the effect of 
death by hanging, may result from almost any form of violent 
death, and occurs in many forms of natural death when the 
bodily vigor is not greatly impaired. 
The signs of death by strangulation differ from those of 
death by suffocation, in this, that the latter are observed about 
the nostrils and the mouth, and not upon the neck; but in 
many cases the evidences of both forms of violence will be 
found combined.^) 
§ 910. III. Was the strangulation effected before or after death? 
—This question is one of inferior practical importance. The 
object of any one, in applying a ligature around the neck after 
death, would be, of course, to convey the idea that the person 
had committed suicide. As, however, this mode of self- 
destruction is extremely uncommon and usually attended 
with circumstances which betray it, the presumption, in the 
case of a person found strangled, is that the deed was com- 
mitted by another. Hence the probability of suicide, which 
obtains in hanging, from the frequency with which this mode 
of self-destruction is chosen, is, in cases of strangulation not 
to be entertained, unless direct or circumstantial evidence 
supports it. Moreover, the cases in which it may be possible 
to admit the suspicion of suicide, are not those in which any 
doubt can be entertained, because, if the cord have been 
(z) Tardieu, loc. cit. 
813 §911] 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
placed upon the neck merely for the purpose of concealing the 
fact of murder, the means by which life really has been taken 
will not fail to be revealed. Thus, marks of fatal violence 
will be found upon some part of the body, or traces of poison 
in the stomach. Yet, if any doubt should still remain of the 
truth of these considerations, it only remains that the signs 
of death by strangulation cannot be closely imitated after 
death. We have seen above, that, when death has resulted 
from this cause, not only will the marks of the fingers or of 
the constricting band be found of various depths and of differ- 
ent degrees of discoloration, but also that the aspect of the 
countenance taken in connection therewith as well as the in- 
ternal signs of death by asphyxia will indicate the mode of 
death. Although the experiments made upon dead bodies by 
Dr. Casper show that if the attempt to imitate the mark of 
strangulation were made six hours after death, it would be 
unsuccessful, yet, as the attempt would most probably be made 
immediately after death, and even before life was quite extinct, 
it is evident that any satisfactory conclusion can be drawn 
only from an examination of the mark, in connection with the 
other signs of asphyxia. These cannot be produced after death, 
and we may, therefore, be certain where we find a mark indi- 
cating strangulation, and, at the same time, the face purple 
and congested, the tongue protruded, the eyes prominent, and 
the other indications of death by apncea, that the individual 
has been strangled during life. This will lead us to the 
question— 
§ 911. IV. Was the strangulation accidental, homicidal, or sui- 
cidal?—A few cases of accidental strangulation are upon record. 
Dr. Ta}-lor relates that a girl was accidentally strangled in the 
following way: “She was employed in carrying fish in a 
basket at her back, supported by a leathern strap passing round 
the forepart of her neck, above her shoulders in front. She 
was found dead, sitting on a stone wall; the basket bad slipped 
off, probably, while she was resting, and had thus raised the 
strap, which firmly compressed the trachea. A similar case is 
recorded by Watson (Homicide).” Should the body not have 
been removed from the position it occupied at the time of 
death, and if the evidence of veracious and disinterested 
814 BOOK V.] 
SUICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
[§ 912 
witnesses relative to this fact can be obtained, there will seldom 
be any hesitation in admitting the possibility of the accident. 
The allegation, may, however, be made for the purpose of 
concealing crime.' A person, who, in a state of helplessness 
from intoxication or other cause, has fallen into a position in 
which his throat becomes compressed by a tight cravat, may 
possibly thus die accidentally of strangulation. But if marks 
of constriction be found upon the neck, it is much more pro- 
bable that they were caused by criminal violence than that 
they were due to accident. As in courts of law undue stress, 
medically speaking, may be laid upon the possibility of strangu- 
lation marks being accidentally produced, the medical witness 
will do well to compare closely the impressions upon the neck 
with the ligature supposed to have produced it, as in many 
cases an important and conclusive discrepancy will be found. 
§ 912. Suicidal strangulation.—Were there not a sufficient 
number of well-attested cases of suicide by strangulation upon 
record, it might fairly be doubted whether it were possible 
for persons voluntarily to destroy themselves in this manner. 
But the annals of legal medicine abound with examples of the 
most determined tenacity of purpose, and the most singular 
choice of modes of death upon the part of suicides. Without 
dwelling upon this fact, it may be stated that in this mode of 
death an infirmity of purpose is less likely than in many 
others to frustrate the intentions of the suicide. Unconscious- 
ness steals in such an insidious but rapid manner over the 
senses, that the will and power to escape are speedily lost. 
The ligature used by those who thus destroy themselves is 
generally chosen from those articles of dress which lie nearest 
at hand, as cravats, garters, and the like. The knot will most 
probably be found in front, or a little to the side, and the 
mark left will convey the idea of less violence than will that 
made in homicidal cases, where no other injury has been in- 
dicted. The question often arises, says Casper, whether the 
mark upon the neck has been caused by a certain instrument 
■which is supposed to have been used. This question it is not 
always easy to answer. It is true that hard, rough substances, 
cords, etc., usually produce excoriations, which is seldom the 
case with softer ones. It is also true, as a general rule, that 
815 816 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
the breadth or diameter of the mark upon the neck corre- 
sponds to that of the instrument used. But many exceptions 
occur to these rules. The instrument may be of a soft texture, 
and yet have rough edges; it may be twisted, and the sides 
press against the neck, etc. Some light may often be thrown 
upon cases of murder or suicide by hanging, by observing 
what kind of a knot is tied in the ligature, as it is known 
that different classes of tradesmen are in the habit of tying 
knots in a way peculiar to themselves. 
§ 913. A remarkable instance, showing the rapidity and 
ease with which self-strangulation may be effected, is the fol- 
lowing. A gentleman was placed in a private insane asylum. 
Ilis relatives desired the superintending physician to use every 
endeavor to prevent him from committing suicide, as he had 
repeatedly attempted it. In consequence of this request, two 
attendants were placed near him. Fatigued with the long 
journey he had made, the patient desired permission to retire 
to bed; the two attendants remained at his bedside. A short 
time after, at his pressing solicitation, these men were directed 
to leave his bedside, but still remained in the room, keeping 
a close watch upon him. In two hours afterwards the physi- 
cian paid a visit to his patient. The attendants remarked 
that he had been and was still sleeping quietly, and had not 
stirred. Upon approaching the bed, however, and proposing 
a question to the gentleman, no answer was received, and, to 
their horror and surprise, he was found to be dead. lie had 
torn a strip from the bottom of his shirt, rolled it into a cord, 
and simply tied it around his neck.(a) 
Mr. Pollock, in his evidence in the case of Drory, gave the 
following case: “ Pizzala, an Italian, about fifty years of age, 
employed as a porter, was found dead in the forenoon of the 
3d of January, 1851, in an attic of the house of his emplo}Ter. 
He had been missing from his employment thirty hours. 
When found, he was lying on his back, rather inclining to the 
left side, with a piece of ordinary sash-line coiled four times 
around his neck, two of the coils so tight and imbedded 
therein that there was some difficulty of undoing it. The 
(a) Ann. Med.-Psycholog., tome iv. p. 113. 
816 BOOK V.] 
SUICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
817 
right hand held one end of the line, and the left hand the other, 
with a turn of line around each, to hold it the more securely. 
The right arm was extended, the left flexed. I made a post- 
mortem examination of the body on the fourth day after it 
was found. Externally, the face was swollen and purple, the 
vessels of the conjunctivae were injected, the tongue protruded 
towTards the left side, bloody froth issued from the mouth, and 
the lower jaw was slightly twisted to the left side. The skin 
of the neck was abraded in a nearly continuous line around 
it, about five-eighths of an inch in width, and presenting the 
appearance of being produced by two coils of the line. There 
was considerable ecchymosis above and below the line of 
abrasion. Each hand retained the impression of the line 
being coiled around it. Internally, the vessels of the brain 
and its membranes were greatly congested. The evidence 
before the coroner left no doubt of this having been a suicidal 
act. This case proves that a person may strangle himself, and 
that he may accomplish strangulation by pulling the two ends 
of a cord coiled several times round the neck; and that some 
degree of local violence to the neck may thus be produced by 
the ligature used.”(6) 
Prof. Tardieu gives in the Ann. IHyg. (xxi. p. 415) a long 
account of the case of M. Armaud, of Montpellier, a trial 
which excited the greatest interest in Prance and in England. 
On July 7, 1863, Maurice Roux, a servant of M. Armaud, 
was found lying in a cellar in a state of asphyxia, with a cord 
round his neck and his feet and hands tied. He rapidly 
recovered, and in less than three hours was quite well, except 
that he was mute, being unable not only to speak, but even to 
groan or to produce the slightest sound. 
The next morning he gave by signs a description of what 
had occurred. According to this statement, his master, M. 
Armaud, came into the cellar, gave him a blow behind the 
head and afterwards strangled him and tied his hands and 
feet. This took place about 8.30 A.M., that is to say, eleven 
hours before he was found by the servant who always went 
down at that time to fetch some wine. 
(6) Taylor, Brit, and For. Med.-Chir. Hey., April, 1852. 
YOL. II.—52 
817 § 913] 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
M. Tardieu came to the conclusion that this was false, and 
that M. Roux had fabricated the whole charge. 
In forming an opinion as to the truth of the man’s state- 
ment, it is, of course, of primary importance to ascertain 
whether the ligatures were so placed that they could not have 
been applied except by another person. Row, about this there 
can be no doubt. The cord about the neck encircled that part 
several times ; according to one of the witnesses as many as 
ten times, while others gave four or six as the number of the 
turns. It was not fastened in any way. Its position was 
marked by several sugillations, which were quite recent and 
superficial and presented no ecchymoses. It is therefore clear 
that no force was used in applying it; and the numerous turns 
and the absence of any knot are much more characteristic of 
suicide than of homicide. The hands were fastened behind 
the back. The cord by which this was effected was wound 
ten times around the right wrist, and tied with a knot at each 
turn. The other hand was encircled with but three turns of 
the cord, with only one knot. The portion of the cord between 
the two hands was the length of a finger. It is quite possible, 
therefore, that Roux may have himself tied up his hands. 
The cord around the right wrist was tight, and this is of im- 
portance, for the hand was not swollen, and this could hardly 
have been the case if the ligature had been applied for eleven 
hours. 
The state in which Roux was found was extremely critical. 
His arms and forearms were cold, though his face and head were 
of the natural temperature. His respiration was stertorous, his 
pulse scarcely to be felt. His conjunctiva almost insensible. 
Mr. Surdun, who saw him a little later, says, that his respiration 
was nearly normal, his pulse feeble, regular, and very slow. 
His whole body cold, the chest and abdomen being the only 
parts at all warm. These descriptions are not quite congruous, 
but they seem to show that the pulse and respiration improved 
rapidly under the means which were used to restore animation. 
This renders it probable that the asphyxia was not of long dura- 
tion and certainly that it had not lasted, as said by Roux, for 
eleven hours. It is true that the gradual swelling of the 
tissues beneath the cord might tighten it, and so render 
818 BOOK V.] 
SUICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
819 
dangerous a ligature which at first produced no ill effets; but 
it is contrary to all experience that asphyxia should last for so 
long a time without a fatal termination. 
It was stated by Roux that his master stood before him, and 
gave him a blow with a stick or billet of wood on the neck, 
which rendered him insensible. M. Surdun examined the neck 
at the time without finding any injury, but the next morning 
he observed a small excoriation near the insertion of the right 
trapezius muscle. With reference to this, three questions were 
put to the experts, which illustrate the disadvantages of 
putting theoretical propositions without reference to the actual 
case. These questions were: 1. Can a blow on the neck occa- 
sion symptoms of concussion (“ commotion”), or of syncope ? 
2. Must a blow on that part be violent, or very violent to pro- 
duce such symptoms? 3. Must such an injury always leave 
well-marked traces of contusion, such as ecchymoses? The 
answers to these questions were: 1. Yes. 2. No. 3. No. Yet, 
as M. Tardieu observes, it is most unlikely that a blow with a 
piece of wood, on a part so well protected by a large mass of 
muscles, should produce severe effects without causing more 
than a slight excoriation. 
It is much more probable that the injury was produced, as 
a similar one on the chest was no doubt produced, by the frag- 
ments of coal which covered the floor of the cellar. 
Equally unsatisfactory is the statement of Roux as to what 
followed the blow on the head. He first described in signs 
that M. Armaud tied a cord around his neck, fastened his 
hands behind his back, and afterwards bound his legs together 
with a handkerchief. The next morning he stated that the 
blow rendered him insensible. He even gave a third account, 
according to which he was stupefied and unable to move or 
cry out; but it seemed to him that M. Armaud practised some 
extraordinary action upon him, and that afterwards he became 
strangled and bound. He also said that he heard a noise in 
the adjacent cellars without being able to call out. This state 
of clairvoyance is certainly extremely improbable as the effect 
of a blow, and no less remarkable is the state of mutism in 
which he remained for thirty-six hours after his recovery. 
He could not speak a word, nor even cry out, nor groan. Yet 
819 §914] 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
he could make gestures, describing the way in which he was 
attacked. With the aid of an alphabet he answered clearly a 
long and minute interrogatory. When confronted with his 
master the play of his countenance indicated his feelings 
towards him, as well as the perfect state of his consciousness. 
The next morning his speech suddenly returned. There can 
hardly be any doubt that the mutism, like the rest of the case, 
was simulated. 
In addition to the paper of M. Tardieu, the opinions of five 
other eminent physicians are given, expressing full agreement 
with his conclusions. 
M. Armaud was acquitted in the criminal court, but was 
afterwards heavily fined when the case was brought before a 
civil tribunal. This decision has since been reversed by a 
superior court.^1) 
§ 914. We should not expect to find the mark of fingers 
upon the neck in suicidal strangulation. It has, indeed, been 
supposed that a person might endeavor to strangle himself 
with his hand, and, failing in it, afterwards resort, to other 
more effectual means. We have not, however, met with any 
case which would bear out this view, and must consider such 
an attempt as highly improbable. In case an intoxicated 
person should fall into such a position that his cravat or the 
collar of his shirt impedes his respiration, he may instinctively 
carry his hand to his throat to remove the constriction, but it 
is more reasonable to suppose that his effort would be to draw 
aside and away from the larynx the collar which was pressing 
upon it, or unfasten it in any way, than that he should imprint 
his fingers so deeply in the skin as to leave a visible mark. 
An interesting case of suicidal strangulation is related by 
Dr. Simeons,(c) in which a sabre was used to tighten the liga- 
ture. The latter consisted of a cotton handkerchief tied in a 
hard knot on the side of the neck. The sabre had been 
inserted into a loop in front and evidently twisted several 
times upon its axis, so that the neck became very firmly con- 
stricted. The constriction indeed was so great that the sabre 
(b ) Year-book of Medicine and Surgery, 1864. 
(c) Henke’s Zeitschrift, 1843, H. i. p. 335. 
820 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
[§ 915 
could not be extricated from tbe loop, until it had been drawn 
out of tbe slieath, which was compressible. When the hand- 
kerchief was removed, it was found that a broad, deep, and 
eccliymosed impression had been left, which was still more 
marked and attended with excoriation in the point corres- 
ponding to the knot. The borders of the mark had a parch- 
ment-like appearance. The individual was a corporal, remark- 
ably robust in constitution, and destroyed himself in conse- 
quence of having been put under arrest for neglect of duty. 
Collateral evidence rendered the fact of suicide unquestionable. 
A man about sixty years of age was found in a wood, a 
napkin around his neck, tightened by a walking-stick twisted 
through a loop in it. When found, the corpse was lying on its 
back, the lower limbs extended, and the arms straight and close by 
the sides, the whole as if the body had been laid out artificially 
after death. There was, however, sufficient evidence that the 
man had strangled himself.(c/) 
Mr. Thorpe, in his evidence in the case of Drory already 
referred to, mentioned the case of a man who effected self- 
destruction in the following manner: “He passed a noose of 
cord over his head and then inserted a stick, about fourteen 
inches long, between the cord and his neck. Having done so, 
he, with the assistance of the stick, twisted the end sufficiently 
tight to cause almost immediate suffocation. Still, it appeared 
that there was time for him to insert the lower end of the 
stick in the inner side of the waistcoat, and the upper end 
was accurately adapted to the internal jugular vein and carotid 
artery.” Other cases in which a stick was employed are on 
record. In this way General Pichegru died in prison, and 
was supposed to have been strangled by the orders of Napoleon. 
But the case was most probably one of suicide. The question 
of suicide will, however, seldom rest upon an estimate of the 
evidence from such circumstances as these alone, but rather 
upon the absence of marks of violence and other signs of 
homicidal interference. 
§ 915. Homicidal strangulation.—The characteristics of homi- 
cidal strangulation will be found in the great amount of 
(d) Brit, and For. Med.-Cliir. Rev., xix. 301. 
821 §915] 
STRANGULATION". 
[book v. 
violence, the marks of which will be seen either upon the 
neck or elsewhere. The marks upon the neck will be either 
simply broader, deeper, and more ecchymosed than those which 
are met with in the rare cases of suicide, or will be attended 
with other local injury which could result only from the appli- 
cation of a rude and sudden force. A case is related by 
Casper(e) in which there was not only a brownish-yellow 
groove with reddened edges upon the neck, but also three 
ecchymosed spots, two at the angle of the jaw on the left side, 
and one on the right side of the jaw. These could only have 
resulted from outward compression, and they were supposed 
to indicate a grasp of the throat by the hand, the thumb 
leaving its impression on the one side and two of the fingers 
on the other. Without doubt, the murdered woman had been 
first seized by the throat, and then, after having been rendered 
senseless, was strangled by the ligature, the mark of which 
we have described. In a case communicated to Dr. Taylor by 
Dr. Campbell, of Lisburn, there was a mark on either side of 
the larynx under which, also, in the substance of the muscles, 
coagulated blood was found. The thyroid cartilage, which 
was partly ossified, was fractured through the ossified portion. 
The case was clearly one of homicidal strangulation with the 
hand. 
An equally clear case is reported by Dr. Wilson.(/) The 
body of a woman, two days after death, presented the follow- 
ing appearances. The right cheek, and the lower part of the 
neck over the collar bones, were deeply livid; the eyes were 
suffused and red; there was a circular contusion on the fore- 
head; a hard and parchment-like yellowish-brown mark, about 
an inch and a half in length by half an inch in breadth, on 
the left side of the chin, running along the lower margin of 
the jaw; and another similar mark of nearly equal dimensions 
passed transversely across the throat immediately over the 
larynx. There were traces of blood which had flowed from 
the right nostril. There was an extravasation of blood among 
the muscles of the neck, and the thyroid gland was largely 
(e) Gericlit. Leichenoffnungen, lstes Ilundert. 1853, Fall. 49. 
(/) Edinb. Med. Journ., i. 290. 
822 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
[§ 916 
infiltrated. The trachea contained frothy mucus ; blood was 
eft’used beneath the lining membrane of the larynx, there was 
a fracture of the right wing of the os hyoides, and the cricoid 
cartilage was broken in two places. Extravasated blood was 
found below the left mamma and greater pectoral muscle. The 
brain was congested. No other lesions existed. The probable 
interpretation of these facts was that the woman had been 
felled by a blow upon the forehead, that the murderer had 
then knelt at her right side, with his face towards hers, and 
his right knee across her chest, causing the effusion under the 
pectoralis major muscle; and then, pressing her head to the 
floor by his left hand on the left side of her chin, producing 
here another mark, he had grasped her throat with his right 
hand, and strangled her with violent pressure, either with 
the hand alone or aided by a ligature. The husband of the 
woman, who was indicted for her murder, admitted that he 
was alone with her at the time of her death, which he ex- 
plained by her falling while intoxicated. The judge objected 
to the medical evidence that it was “merely inferential,” and 
the prisoner was acquitted! Upon which, Dr. Wilson quotes 
from Archbishop Whateley: “lie who infers proves, and he 
who proves infers.” 
MM. Briand and Chaude quote the case of a woman who 
was found dead in her bed. Some discoloration of the neck 
suggested the suspicion that she had hung herself, and that 
her family, to avoid scandal, had laid her body in bed. But 
a more attentive examination showed that the bruises were 
confined to one side of the neck, that the two horns of the 
hyoid bone were unusually movable, and that the thyroid 
cartilage was flattened; the cricoid cartilage was also broken 
across its middle. The brother-in-law of the woman after- 
wards confessed that he had attempted to violate her, and, in 
order to stifle her cries, had grasped her by the neck until 
she ceased to live. lie was found guilty of murder.(y) 
§ 916. Mr. O. Pemberton (h) relates the following case. A 
maiden lady, aged 60, who resided alone, was found one evening 
(g) Manuel de Med. Leg., 6eme ed. p. 393. 
(A) Lancet, May 22, 18G9, p. 707. 
823 §917] 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
about half past six o’clock, lying dead at the top of a flight of 
stone steps leading to the cellar. The body was still warm. The 
post-mortem examination was made eighty-eight hours after 
death. The body was fresh; marked lividity of the middle 
third of the nose; nasal cartilages torn from the bones, and 
nose pushed to the right side. Mouth closed placidly; no 
marks of violence about gums or tongue. Anterior aspect of 
neck was livid and in places greenish from decomposition. 
Cricoid cartilage fractured on left side, fracture running 
through the cartilage in an angular direction, the angle jut- 
ting out and pointing to middle line. This and the thyroid 
cartilage were ossified in a marked degree—the thyroid most. 
Blood was effused about the crico-thyroid muscle and adjacent 
cellular tissue. Inside the larynx the mucous membrane was 
uninjured, but the submucous tissue was infiltrated for a space 
corresponding to the fracture. Lungs and heart in the condi- 
tion usually found after death from suffocation. Vessels of 
brain congested. 
Four persons were arrested, one of whom confessed that 
they had entered the house for the purpose of robbery. A 
fifth man, who had not been arrested, had been given the old 
lady in charge, and it was supposed that, in attempting to 
stifle her cries, he had unintentionally “ squeezed her too 
tight.” 
§ 917. A very interesting case is related by Dr. Graff,(A1) in 
which a woman was murdered by strangulation, and the 
assassin had taken great pains to convey the impression that 
the act was one of suicide by hanging. The body was found 
lying close to a door, with a string passed twice around the 
neck, and fastened in a slip-knot behind. The impression 
made upon the neck was deep, and, for the most part, of a 
dark-brown color, particularly on the sides. It was perfectly 
horizontal. The free end of the string looked as if it had been 
broken. There was a peg in the door over the body, on which 
a towel was hanging, not in the least disarranged; the peg 
itself was slight and incapable of bearing the weight of the 
woman’s body. Furthermore, there was no portion of the 
(7i!) Henke’s Zeitschrift, 1846, p. 145. 
824 BOOK V.] 
[§ 917 
HOMICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
string attached to it. An overturned chair lay near the body; 
and on a writing-table in the room, a paper was found declar- 
ing the intention of suicide, and purporting to have been 
written and signed by the deceased. It was clearly proved, 
however, that this document was not in her handwriting, nor 
correctly signed, and the fact of her having been murdered 
was abundantly shown by these attempts at deception, other 
marks of violence upon the body, and the subsequent discovery 
that robbery had been committed. 
One of the most interesting cases of homicidal strangula- 
tion is that given by Dr. Taylor, in Guy’s Hospital Reports 
for 1851. The prisoner was found guilty, and before his exe- 
cution made a confession, in which he stated that he met the 
deceased by appointment, that they talked and walked about, 
after which, at her suggestion, they sat down on a bank. She 
had come to urge him to marry her. He passed a rope, which 
he had previously secreted, gently around her neck as they 
were sitting, and had got the end of it in a loop before she 
perceived it. She jumped up at once, and put up her hands 
to save her throat, but he pulled hard and she fell without a 
struggle. We have thought this case of sufficient interest to 
present a tolerably full abstract of it in the note, since it offers 
many incidental suggestions worthy of consideration.^') 
(t) “ At the Chelmsford Lent Assizes, for 1851, Thomas Drory was tried 
for the murder, by strangulation, of a female named Jael Denny. He was 
the son of a farmer of great respectability, and resided within a short dis- 
tance of the cottage where the deceased lived. Both were about twenty 
years of age, and the girl, who was pregnant by the prisoner, had reached 
the ninth month of her pregnancy. On the afternoon of Saturday, October 
12th, 1850, the prisoner and deceased were seen conversing together for about 
twenty minutes, in the neighborhood of the prisoner’s cottage. This was 
about half-past five P. M. The evidence respecting the deceased showed, 
that about six o’clock on this day, she had tea with her parents as usual, ap- 
pearing to be in good health and in high spirits. She told her mother that 
she had made an appointment with the prisoner to meet him at a stile very 
near their cottage, at half-past six o'clock, and the prisoner, it was supposed, 
had led her to expect that at this interview he would make some arrangement 
regarding his marriage with her. At or about this time, the deceased left 
her tea half-finished, dressed herself hastily in some of her mother’s clothing, 
left the house, and was not again seen alive. She was found next morning, 
at or about eight o'clock, lying dead in a field at a short distance from the 
825 §917] 
[book v. 
STRANGULATION. 
M. Tardieu reminds us that strangulation may be simulated 
by persons who have an interest in pretending to be the vic- 
stile, at which she said she had made an appointment to meet the prisoner on 
the previous evening. 
“ When her body was found, the head was cold, and the arms and legs 
cold and stiff; but the body (the abdomen) was perceptibly warm to the 
hand. It will be remarked, that from the time the deceased was last seen 
alive, thirteen and a half hours had elapsed. 
“ The attitude of the body when found is thus described by the different 
witnesses : The deceased was lying on her face, a little inclined on one side, 
owing probably to the prominence of the abdomen. Her lower clothes were 
arranged in a straight and orderly manner, and her fur-tippet was lying on 
the ground, two or three yards from the body. Her bonnet was on her 
head, much crushed and broken. It was flattened in front as if from pres- 
sure from behind, while the deceased was on her face. Her face was flat on 
the ground, and her nose pressed down tightly. The nose is described as 
being quite flattened, and turned a little to the left side by pressure ; it was im- 
possible, in the opinion of one witness, that the mere weight of the head could 
have produced either this degree of pressure, or the indentation observed in the 
ground. The features were so altered, that, although this witness had known 
the deceased for four or five years, he could not recognize her. When the body 
was turned over, blood escaped or bubbled from the mouth, nose, and eyes ; 
and the face was observed to be black and much swollen. There was half 
a teacupful of blood on the spot where the face lay—under the mouth, and 
more blood in another spot about a foot from the head ; the hair was matted 
together with blood and dirt. The right arm was lying bent at a right angle 
underneath the body, and pressed down by its weight; the left was raised, 
with the hand directed towards the left shoulder, but partly covered by the 
body. There was a cord on the neck, which was twisted round it three 
times. One of the witnesses took the third turn from off the neck, and ob- 
served that this turn was a little loose; but on putting his finger to the 
throat, he found a knot of cord lying in front of the neck. The remainder 
of the cord was very tight, a portion being actually imbedded in the neck, 
and the cord was drawn so tightly that the skin of the neck had swollen up 
between the coils. From other evidence it appeared that the knot which 
formed the loop of the rope was pressing on the front part of the neck, while 
the bite of the noose was at the back part, a little behind left ear. There 
were three coils and a half of rope round the neck, and, with the exception 
of the last half coil, all were tight, the two innermost coils being so tight 
as to indent and cut the skin. The end of the cord went over the back of 
the left shoulder, and about an inch of its extremity was lying loosely (with- 
out being grasped) between the thumb and finger of the left hand of the de- 
ceased, which was raised towards it. One witness described this hand as 
being stretched out a little, so that the end of the cord could be seen lying in 
the hand, before the body was moved or turned over. The deceased was 
right-handed ; there was no mark of grasping, laceration, or indentation on 
826 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
[§ 917 
tims of violence. When this mode of violence has really 
been attempted without a fatal result, the signs of it are evi- 
either hand ; and from the position of the bite of the noose and the direction 
of the coils, the cord could have been tightened only by pulling to the left 
of the deceased. The cord was stout, and of the thickness of a window 
sash-line. At the part where the noose had been tightened, the pressure had 
been so great that the cord was condensed to about half its thickness, and 
some of the fibres had been cut through by the force used. There was no 
blood upon it, except just at the end, where there was a small spot. The 
second coil had, at the back part, tightly locked in a portion of the apron of 
the bonnet and handkerchief of the deceased. 
“ A woman who undressed the deceased, six hours after the body was 
found, stated that she examined her face and found the mouth bubbling with 
blood ; her tongue protruded out of her mouth, and was clenched very tightly 
with her teeth. Blood oozed from her eyes, mouth, and ears. Her body, 
from her head to the shoulders, was very black (livid). There were two 
marks where the cord went round the neck, quite lacerated through the skin. 
Upon the back of her left wrist were marks apparently of a bite from both 
rows of teeth—the impressions were quite distinct before they were washed, 
and blood was oozing from them. On the right elbow a piece of skin had 
been taken off, about the size of a shilling, and the patch was very black. 
The elbow had a bruised appearance. 
“ A post-mortem, examination of the body of the deceased was made by 
Mr. Williams, surgeon, of Brentwood, on the second day after it was found. 
The eyes were much distended and suffused with blood, and the pupils were 
dilated. There w7as a general lividity and swelling of the face; and the 
tongue, which protruded from the mouth, had been bitten by the teeth. 
There was a superficial laceration of the skin, covering the lower part of the 
throat on both sides ; and there were two deep marks, as if from two cords, 
or from two impressions of one cord, tied tightly round the neck. The twro 
impressions were both situated over the trachea, and the skin had swollen up 
between them. The trachea had been flattened by strong pressure, but had 
regained its shape ; it had a bruised appearance in the parts corresponding to 
the two marks on the neck, and its structure there was softer than natural. 
There was extreme ecchymosis on the upper part of the chest, such as might 
have been produced by a heavy blow, or by the pressure of a person kneeling 
upon it. There was a contraction of the fingers, which were drawn into the 
palms of the hands. There was an abrasion of skin at the back of the right 
elbow. There were marks, apparently of teeth, on the back of the right wrist, 
and there were also scratches on the back of the left arm and hand. On open- 
ing the head, there was great congestion of the whole of the brain. The heart 
was healthy, but much distended on the right side with blood in a coagulated 
state. The lungs were congested to an unnatural degree ; the right pleura wras 
adherent—a result of previous inflammation. The stomach contained ordi- 
nary food, and the coats were in a healthy condition. The intestines were 
healthy. On opening the uterus it was found to contain a male foetus in the 
827 §917] 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
dent in the discoloration and swelling of the neck, along with 
a marked difficulty in swallowing, and often a very great al- 
ninth month ; and this was probably alive at the time of the deceased’s 
death.” 
For the defence, two surgeons, Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Pollock, deposed— 
the first that he thought there was a doubt as to whether the deceased com- 
mitted suicide or not; the second, that he would feel considerable difficulty in 
forming an opinion as to the cause of death, whether suicide or homicide. 
Both of these opinions were founded upon cases which they had met with, 
hut which, as they had no similarity with the present case, may here be 
omitted. Dr. Taylor, however, gave a decided opinion that the case was one 
of homicide, and his observations, which are remarkable for their minuteness 
and logical accuracy, we here subjoin. 
“1. The deceased was and, on the hypothesis of suicide, she 
must have made the tension with her left arm and hand. From the position 
of the loop or noose, any traction to the right would not have tightened, but 
have loosened the cord. 
“ 2. That, supposing her to have exerted such a traction at all, she must 
have been in the erect or sitting posture. The force used, indicated by the 
great local violence to the neck, could not have been exerted by a person 
attempting to tighten a cord by drawing it to the left while in a recumbent 
posture, whether prone or supine. This hypothesis would, besides, leave 
wholly unexplained the flattening of the nose (obviously from direct pres- 
sure, not from a fall), and the fact that the deceased had bled in two places, 
one spot being a foot from the other. 
“3. The cord must have been pulled with excessive violence in a hori- 
zontal direction by one end only, as the mark was circular around the neck. 
The other end of the cord formed a noose or loop, and was tightly fixed at 
the back of the neck. Thus, then, all the force of traction must have been 
exerted to the left, in which direction the right hand of a right-handed per- 
son could not act horizontally, so as to produce the amount of violence found 
on the soft parts of the neck. 
“4. That the fact of there being three coils and a half of rope round the 
neck, formed an obstacle to the tightening of the cord, by pulling one end 
to the left so as to imbed the two inner coils in the skin, and to leave the outer 
or third coil loose. On the supposition that the deceased produced the con- 
striction by her own act, it follows that the three coils must have been round 
the neck at one time, and the two inner coils sufficiently loose to allow of 
respiration before traction was commenced. 
“ 5. The double indentation found on the trachea could not have been pro- 
duced by the two inner coils (on the supposition of suicide), except by the 
great tightening of the outer coil. 
“6. As insensibility and loss of power must have immediately followed 
the complete compression and obliteration of the trachea by the two inner 
coils, the outer coil ought not to have been found loose or unconnected with 
the object by which the force of the contraction had been produced. 
828 BOOK V.] 
HOMICIDAL STRANGULATION. 
[§ 917 
teration of the voice. An intelligent and respectable young 
woman, who desired to excite an interest in her behalf, gave 
“ To suppose that the deceased could have produced the intense constric- 
tion by the first coil, and afterwards retained sufficient power to pass a second 
coil from right to left around her neck, indenting the skin and flattening the 
trachea as much by the second as by the first coil, involves, in my judgment, 
a physiological impossibility. There was, therefore, on the suicidal hy- 
pothesis, no explanation to resort to—but that all three had been placed at 
once round the neck loosely—that one end only of the cord had then been so 
pulled to the left as to produce the great amount of violence found, and to 
tighten equally the twTo inner coils ; while the outer coil and extremity of the 
cord, by which this immense force must have been applied to the two inner 
coils, was found lying loosely, without any attachment either to the hand of 
the deceased or to any other fixed point. 
“7. To have indented the neck, compressed and bruised the trachea in two 
distinct places, to have caused effusion of blood to the amount of a cupful 
from mouth, nose, and ears—this effusion being found in two distinct places, 
a foot distant from each other—would have required a very considerable ten- 
sion of the outer coil, and, at the same time, a continued tension, lasting suffi- 
ciently long for the head to move a foot after a cupful of blood had been lost 
as a mechanical result of the first constriction. 
“ 8. Admitting such conditions of the body and cord to be compatible with 
suicide, the act could only be conceived to be possible in this case, by the 
fact of the end of the cord being found tightly wound round the left hand of 
the deceased. 
“ 9. On the suicidal hypothesis, it would undoubtedly have required a very 
firm grasp of a rope to produce such effects as were here observed ; and from 
the rapid production of unconsciousness by the compression of the trachea 
and the arrest of respiration, it would have been impossible, on the part of 
the deceased, to relax the grasp. Hence the cord should have been found, 
either firmly held in the hand in the rigidity of death, or wound round it in 
a state of tension. Unless we adopt this view, we must suppose that after 
having used an enormous amount of violence by a rope in the left hand, the 
dead body had the power of relaxing the grasp, of loosening the outer coil of 
cord, and so moving the hand that the end of the cord should be found lying 
between the finger and thumb, and barely touching the palm. Such a con- 
dition is not only physiologically, but in this case, as it will be presently 
shown from the length of the cord, physically impossible.” 
10. (This refers to the absence of any marks of the cord upon the hands, 
such as would have been there, if forcible traction had been made by them.) 
“11. The length of the cord renders it impossible to suppose that such a 
force could have been exerted by the deceased herself. The length of the 
cord was fifty-nine and a half inches. The three coils and a half must have 
consumed at least fifty-two and a half inches, leaving only seven inches for 
the traction. ‘This,’ says Dr. Taylor, ‘was barely enough to reach the 
finger and thumb of the raised left hand, and not enough to allow of such a 
829 §918] 
STRANGULATION. 
[book v. 
out that she was the victim of political conspirators, whose 
secrets she had discovered. One evening; she was found at the 
door of her chamber in a state of great excitement and appa- 
rently alarm. She did not speak, but at first made signs, and 
after a time wrote that she had been attacked by a man who 
attempted to strangle her with his hand, and at the same time 
stabbed her twice in the breast. These blows had only in- 
jured her clothing, and her corset was not pierced at the same 
place as her dress, and the alleged throttling had not altered 
the character of the voice but suppressed it entirely! Ho ex- 
ternal sign of violence could be found upon her, and ultimately 
she confessed her trick. 
§ 918. In conclusion, the fact should not be overlooked that, 
even where the body has lain a considerable time in the ground, 
and is advanced in putrefaction, the marks of strangulation, 
if this have been forcible, will occasionally be recognized. An 
instructive case is upon record, in which, after a lapse of 
thirty-eight days from the interment, a corpse was, by order 
of the authorities, disinterred. The body was already greatly 
decomposed, but the evidence of strangulation was obtained 
chiefly from the fact of the striking contrast of the integu-. 
ments of the neck with those of the rest of the body. There 
firm grasp by the hand as would be necessary to the production of so much 
violence to the soft parts of the neck. I find, by measurement, that the cir- 
cumference of a small female hand in the adult is rather more than seven 
inches. This measurement includes only the palm of the hand without the 
thumb, and embraces the part of the hand around which a coil would be 
placed, when the object of a person was to produce firm traction. Hence, 
then, the hypothesis of suicide involves one of these physical conditions. 
Without a firm hold of the cord, which could not have been had with less 
than one coil round the hand, it is impossible to conceive that such vio- 
lence to the neck could have been produced by the act of the deceased ; and 
if one coil had been thus spontaneously wound round the hand, it would have 
consumed the whole length of the cord up to the last half coil, and left no 
portion whatever to give a purchase for pulling with so much violence. 
Either condition is a physical impossibility ; and no theory will suit the facts, 
or explain them, excepting that which admits that the act was not the result 
of suicide, but of manual violence applied by another person.’ 
“The evidence by which the crime was fixed upon the prisoner Drory, it 
is not necessary here to relate. The chain of evidence was complete and 
irresistible, and, as has been stated in the text, the criminal made a confession 
previous to his execution.” 
830 BOOK Y.] 
HANGING. 
r§ 9i9 
was observed a white and shrivelled space over the larynx, 
half an inch in breadth, and extending back on each side of 
the sterno-cleido-mastoid muscles, from which, also, to the 
nape of the neck over the second vertebra, there ran a groove 
of a blackish-brown color, and parchment-like appearance. It 
was very difficult to cut through this condensed skin, which, 
upon incision, gave the sensation of old dry leather, and its 
section was yellowish-white, and perfectly dry. Another re- 
markable case occurred in Paris, where, after the body of a 
female had lain several years in the ground, and was reduced 
to an almost perfect skeleton, an examination made by M. 
Boys de Loury, Orfila, and other medical jurists, proved that 
the woman had perished by strangulation. The third, fourth, 
fifth, and sixth cervical vertebrae, as well as the right clavicle, 
were held together by a blackish mass, in the composition of 
which there could not be recognized any tissue. This mass 
was surrounded at its lower point by several twists of a cord, 
two lines in diameter ; the cord was in a very decayed condi- 
tion, and no knot could be found upon it; its direction was 
exactly horizontal. 
CHAPTER X. 
HANGING. 
I. General symptoms, § 919. 
II. Marks of the cord, § 922. 
III. Rupture of artery, § 926. 
IY. Tumefaction of genital organs, § 927. 
Y. Condition of eyes, § 928. 
VI. Suicidal or homicidal ? § 929. 
1st. Position and condition of body, § 930. 
2d. Marks of violence, § 936. 
§ 919. I. General symptoms.—In hanging, death is caused 
mainly by the pressure of the cord upon the windpipe, by which 
the access of air to the lungs is cut off. The individual is there- 
fore strangled ; he dies more rapidly, but in the same manner, 
831 § 920] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
physiologically speaking, as do those who are suffocated by 
drowning, or who are placed in any irrespirable medium. If, 
however, the air be not completely cut off from the lungs, as 
in those instances in which the cord presses upon a portion of 
the larynx which is ossified, as in some public executions, it 
tears the os hyoides loose from its connections with the larynx, 
or the noose slips from its proper position and catches against 
the lower jaw, death does not ensue with the same rapidity. 
In these cases other secondary causes aid in the extinction of 
life, the veins of the neck being compressed or the cervical 
vertebrae injured. 
§ 920. The signs of hanging are, therefore, in general terms, 
the same as those of asphyxia from other causes, but will vary 
in intensity according to the position of the body and the 
suddenness of death. While, in some cases, the face is swollen 
and livid, the eyes prominent, and the tongue protruded 
between the contorted lips; in others, these striking signs of 
struggling are absent, and the features remain placid or un- 
changed. The latter condition is more frequently observed in 
persons whose death has been voluntary, but a greater or less 
congestion of the face is found in the majority of cases of 
hanging. Dr. Burrows (w) explains the difference observed in 
executed criminals by the unequal pressure of the cord in dif- 
ferent cases. He says, “ the knot of the rope is usually ad- 
justed on one side of the neck, and it is found, after death, 
beneath the ear resting on the mastoid process. It has been 
often observed, in the dissection of such criminals, that the 
cheek and integuments on this same side of the head are not 
nearly so livid and congested as on the other side. The 
pressure of the rope has not completely obstructed the return 
of blood through the external jugular vein on the one side, 
though it has effectually stopped the current of the other. In 
such cases, it is also probable that the deep-seated internal 
jugular vein on the one side has been onty partially compressed, 
and has permitted, to a certain extent, the return of blood 
from the internal parts of the cranium. Another efficient 
cause is the subsidence of fluid blood after death, while the 
(to) “Diseases of the Cerebral Circulation,” 1846. 
832 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH BY HANGING. 
[§ 921 
body is yet suspended, through the cervical vessels, which are 
not completely obliterated by the pressure of the cord. Other 
channels not at all affected by the pressure of the rope, are the 
vertebral sinuses a,nd the spinal plexus of veins.” In addition 
to the marks of congestion in the head and face, the shoul- 
ders and upper part of the trunk are often livid. The hands 
and lower parts of the arms are also frequently of a purple 
color; the arms are usually straight and rigid, and the fingers 
clenched. A bloody froth is sometimes seen issuing from the 
mouth, and there are various marks of violence upon the neck, 
dependent, however, upon the nature of the ligature and the 
force employed. To these we shall presently refer in detail. 
The urine and feces are not unfrequently passed involunta- 
rily,^1) the genital organs become turgid, and the semen in 
the male is said to be discharged. It would appear that the 
circumscribed bloody spots in the lungs, pericardium, and 
pericranium, which are met with in all the other forms of 
suffocation, are absent in this. 
§ 921. When a person is found dead, suspended by a cord or 
other ligature, the first question which arises is, whether the 
act was his own or that of another. Before, however, this 
question can be satisfactorily answered, we must endeavor to 
determine whether the person was living at the time he was 
hung. How, the fallacy of relying upon any one medical sign 
as indicative of death from a given cause, is nowhere more 
apparent than in death by hanging. A partial consideration 
of the sign of death from this cause, or a too confident relk 
ance upon one or more of the phenomena usually observed in 
authenticated criminal cases or in public executions, often 
lead the physician to an erroneous judgment. However strong 
the presumption may be that life was destroyed in this man- 
ner, rarely, if ever, can a perfect conviction be acquired by 
medical evidence alone. On the other hand, the moral and 
circumstantial evidence is, in a large majority of cases, so 
significant that medical testimony is superfluous. This will 
(w1) Tardieu (Annales d’Hygiene Publique, Jan. 1870, and Journ. Psy- 
cholog. Med., vol. iv. G34) refers to some observations at the “Prison Cel- 
lulaire” where the evacuation of the urine and feces was noted in only two 
out of forty-one cases. 
vol. ii.—53 
833 § 922] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
at once be evident, when it is remembered that banging is 
usually a suicidal act. As, however, cases occur where life is 
first destroyed by other means and the body afterwards hung, 
in order to suggest a belief that suicide has been committed, 
it becomes necessary to consider what assistance can be ren- 
dered by medical facts to corroborate the evidence derived 
from other sources. 
§ 922. II. Marks of the cord.—In persons who are hung, the 
cord always leaves some This may be deep or 
(x) The following is certainly an anomalous case. The facts were observed 
at a public execution. The rope used was ten lines in diameter ; the knot 
was large, formed of three turns of the rope, and, on the noose being tightened 
by the executioner, corresponded to the occipital protuberance. The bolt 
being withdrawn, the man fell through a space of seven feet and a half. 
“The body fell with a tremendous jerk, and oscillated for a few minutes ; 
the arms and legs became rigid ; the forearms flexed on the arms, the fingers 
upon the palms, and the thighs adducted and slightly drawn up towards the 
abdomen ; the sterno-mastoid muscles were affected with spasms, and the 
hands became livid. After a short time the limbs relaxed ; the legs ap- 
proached each other, the toes pointing downwards ; the hands became pale, 
fell down by the side, and the fingers became relaxed. The body, having 
been suspended for forty-five minutes, was cut down, and the cord removed 
from the neck. There was not any protrusion or unnatural suffusion of the 
eyes ; the upper and lower teeth were half an inch apart, and the tongue was 
indented by them : the lips were rather livid, and the face pale ; a slight de- 
pression marked the position of the rope ; there was not any discoloration of 
the integuments of the neck, breast, or shoulders; the thumbs and fingers 
were flaccid ; the cap in which the head had been enveloped was slightly 
stained by bloody mucus, which had flowed from the mouth and nose ; the 
bladder was empty, the criminal having made water a few minutes before his 
execution ; the penis appeared as if it had been recently erect; it lay upwards 
against the abdomen, and a thin, transparent fluid had stained the shirt 
numerous spermatozoa in it were detected under the microscope. Eighteen 
hours afterwards, the body having in the mean time lain upon its back, it 
was found to be rigid, the face, lips, and ears were purple, the shoulders and 
tile upper and front part of the chest also ; the mark of the rope was scarcely 
perceptible, there being only in one place, for about the extent of a quarter 
of an inch, a slight parchment-like discoloration of the skin. The portion of 
the skin covered by the rope having been removed, there was not found the 
slightest extravasation of blood, nor any peculiar silvery-white appearance of 
the areolar tissue, and none of the bloodvessels or muscles were at all injured ; 
the thoroid cartilage was slightly flattened but not broken, and there was no 
dislocation or fracture of the vertebral column or injury of the ligaments or 
spinal cord. The brain, lungs, and right side of the heart were congested 
834 BOOK V.] 
MARKS OF THE CORD. 
[§ 924 
superficial, according to the strain upon it and its thickness 
and firmness. The skin under this mark acquires a peculiarly 
dense and tough character, and has been aptly compared, for 
this reason and from its color, to old parchment. It resembles 
exactly the desiccated skin, from which the epidermis has 
been detached, and which has been exposed to the air. This 
appearance is more marked a few hours after death, if the 
cord has been removed; its color is yellowish-brown, and the 
cellular tissue underneath is likewise condensed and presents 
a silvery appearance. 
§ 923. This color must not be confounded with that result- 
ing from an extravasation of blood under the skin, the latter 
being livid or purple. In cases which present the parchment- 
like appearance, there is often no ecchymosis, or this is con- 
fined to a slight line of lividity upon the margins of the 
depression. In cases, however, where much violence has been 
used, as in the execution of criminals, a livid mark is fre- 
quently observed. The two conditions are sometimes united, 
an ecchymosis existing upon the forepart of the neck, and 
the burnt appearance at the sides. Late writers agree that 
ecchymosis is of much rarer occurrence than was formerly 
supposed. Devergie collected fifty-two cases of hanging, of 
which three only presented traces of ecchymosis. The cases 
are taken from Klein, Esquirol, and from his own observation. 
These results are confirmed by Orfila, Dr. Taylor, and Dr. 
Casper. 
§ 924. The impression of the eord, whether ecchymosed or 
not, is, however, not positive evidence that the person was 
hung when alive, since it has been shown beyond dispute that 
the same marks may be designedly made by hanging after 
death, while the body is yet warm. Orfila(y) suspended the 
bodies of persons, of different ages, at various periods after 
death, from the moment life was extinct up to twenty-four 
hours afterwards. In every one he found the same brown and 
with blood, and the mucous membrane of the larynx was of a bright-red 
color. ( On Death by Hanging, etc. By Charles Croker King, M. D., M. B. I. A., 
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, etc. Dublin Quarterly Journal, 
August, 1854.) 
(y) Annales d’Hygiene, tome xxyii. 
835 § 924] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
parchment-like furrow which has been described as produced 
in the living. Devergie made similar experiments, with a 
like result. Those performed by Dr. Casper,(z) in addition, 
prove that when the bodies of persons have been hung within 
two hours after death, the mark upon the skin may be also 
slightly ecchymosed. In one case, the first of his series, a man 
was suspended by a double cord passed above the larynx an 
hour after death from typhus. In about twenty-four hours the 
body was cut down and examined. “ Around the neck, be- 
tween the larynx and os hyoides, was a double parallel mark, 
about three lines deep, of a brown color, with a slight tinge of 
blue. There were traces of cadaveric ecchymosis about the 
body. The whole appearance was such that any individual 
not acquainted with the circumstances would have supposed 
that the deceased had been hanged while living. Some spots 
on the right side of the neck were strongly colored. The skin 
of this part was hard, like leather, and in patches slightly ex- 
coriated. There was no extravasation of blood in the cellular 
texture, but the muscles of the neck beneath were of a deep 
violet color. In the two next cases, the body of a young man, 
aged twenty-three, suspended an hour after death from phthisis, 
and that of a man, aged seventy, two hours after death from 
dropsy, each by a double cord, and the bodies examined on the 
following day, the appearances were similar; there was a 
double depression around the neck, of a yellowish-brown color, 
without ecchymosis. The cutis looked as if burnt, and was like 
parchment, both when felt and cut. There was no blood ex- 
travasated in the cellular tissue beneath.” In other cases, in 
which the body was hung at later periods after death, there 
was neither ecchymosis nor the parchment-like appearance, 
the mark of the cord being merely a slight depression in the 
skin. In the case, however, of a child, a year and a half old, 
on whose neck, the day after death, a small cord was tightly 
drawn, a small bluish-colored mark was produced. There was 
no blood, however, extravasated beneath it. The nature of 
the ligature, as whether it be a cord or some soft material, 
such as a handkerchief, does not make much difference in the 
(2) Brit, and For. Med. Rev., vol. v. p. 615. 
836 BOOK V.] 
RUPTURE OF CAROTID ARTERY. 
[§ 926 
character of the mark, except, of course, that where a cord is 
used it is better defined in every respect. The yellow and 
parchment-like appearance may, however, be produced by 
either kind of ligature. 
§ 925. The unavoidable inference from the experiments 
above referred to is, that the mark left by the cord is not a 
reliable sign of the hanging having taken place while the 
person was alive, since it may present the same characters if 
the body have been suspended shortly after death. If this 
mark, which, at first sight, would appear to afford the most 
palpable evidence of death by hanging, is open to this objec- 
tion, much more so are those inconstant signs derived from 
the state of the countenance, position of the tongue, and dis- 
coloration of the skin. Turgescence and lividity of the face, 
ecchymosis upon the trunk, and protrusion of the tongue may 
render probable death by hanging; but, as they may all occur 
in any other mode of death by suffocation, are not indubitable 
proof that the body was suspended during life. Besides, these 
signs may be altogether wanting in persons who have evidently 
perished by hanging. Protrusion of the tongue is far from 
being invariable in hanging, and depends probably upon the 
position of the cord, and in some cases of the execution of 
criminals the face has been observed to remain quite pale. 
In those cases where much injury has been done to the neck, 
are where the muscles are found lacerated, the cartilages 
broken, and the ligaments torn, while blood is extensively 
effused in the soft parts and in the spinal canal, there can 
remain, of course, no probability of these injuries having been 
produced after death. Such cases are, however, exceptional, 
being rarely met with except among executed criminals. 
§ 926. III. A rupture of the internal and middle coats of the 
common carotid artery is occasionally found. Amussat was the 
first who observed it. Devergie examined the bodies of thir- 
teen persons who had died by hanging, and found it only in 
one case. Dr. Mildner(u) has reported an instance in which 
he discovered it, and refers to another published by a German 
physician. At the same time, he states the important fact 
(a) Vierteljahrschrift f. prakt. Heilkunde, 1850, Prag. 
837 § 927] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
that in his case the internal coats of the artery gave way very 
easily by stretching, as was proved by experiment upon the 
corresponding vessel on the other side. The experiment, more- 
over, was tried upon the carotids of persons of various ages, 
and the result obtained was that the rupture occurred only in 
those taken from old persons, where the artery had already 
lost its natural elasticity. In six cases of death by hanging, 
Simon found laceration of the internal coat of the carotid 
only twice. In one of these cases the vessel was sound, and 
•in the other not. From these observations, and from experi- 
ments upon the dead body, he further concluded that the oc- 
currence of this rupture depends upon the thinness of the 
cord, and its position between the larynx and the hyoid bone, 
and that the weight of the body and the force of its fall favor 
its occurrence. It also follows from these data that the exist- 
ence of such a laceration, even in the absence of external 
signs, renders probable the occurrence of death by hanging 
or by strangulation.^1) Malle found this lesion only twice 
in eighty-two bodies in which he imitated the act of hanging 
or strangling. The best mode of determining whether the 
rupture occurred before or after death would be by noting the 
signs of effusion in the adjacent cellular tissue. This lias 
been clearly shown by Kussmaul,(6) who adds, as still more 
important signs, injection and swelling of the surrounding 
cellular tissue in those cases in which all of the coats of the 
artery have been divided. The amount of probability in favor 
of death from hanging will depend upon the degree in which 
these two signs exist. 
§ 927. IV. Tumefaction of the genital organs, and a discharge 
of semen in the male, are regarded by some authors, but princi- 
pally by Devergie, as characteristic of death by hanging. 
There are many manifest objections to this sign, were it even 
constant in its appearance, or even if it were peculiar to this 
mode of death, neither of which it is. It will suffice, how- 
ever, to refer to the testimony of Orfila (bl) upon this point. 
According to this eminent observer:— 
(a') Yircliow’s Arcliiv, xi. 297. (b) Ibid., xiii. 60, 
(61) Bulletin de l’Acad. Roy. de Med., 1839. 
838 BOOK V.] 
TUMEFACTION OF GENITALS. 
[§ 927 
1st. Spermatic animalcules may be'found in the urine, for 
twelve hours after emission. 
2d. They may be found in the urethra of persons dying of 
various diseases.(c) 
3d. Congestion of the organs of generation may be produced 
by hanging persons after death. One of the cases was that of 
a man 50 years of age. Three hours after death, the penis 
was found to measure three inches and a line in circumference, 
and neither it nor the scrotum was discolored. The orifice of 
the urethra was full of a viscid liquid, containing seminal 
animalcules. The body was then hung, and eight hours after- 
wards the scrotum and penis had acquired a violet color, the 
circumference of the latter had increased by seven lines, and 
the meatus still contained spermatozoa. In another case, the 
body of a man aged 49 was hung five hours after death, and 
left suspended three hours and a half. The penis, which, 
before, was slightly turgid, was now erect, and formed almost 
a right angle with the abdomen; it had increased nine lines 
in circumference, was of a violet color, and all the veins about 
it were very much distended. The vesiculse seminales were 
very full, and at the orifice of the urethra, there was a drop 
of viscid fluid, containing a great number of spermatozoa, of 
which many were alive. Congestion of the genital organs, 
and an ejaculation or discharge of the seminal fluid, having 
thus been observed in those dying from other causes, and in 
those who have been hung after death, cannot be looked upon as 
a sign of death by hanging, unless these two objections are first 
satisfactorily answered. Casper emphatically states that he 
never saw erection of the penis in a person who had died by 
hanging, and in a very small proportion of cases only a slight 
degree of turgescence. In seventy-seven cases collected by 
Casper,(d) the seminal discharge was observed in nineteen only, 
(c) Klein observed the penis in a state of erection in a man who had com- 
mitted suicide by shooting; Schlegel observed freshly effused semen in a youth 
who had thrown himself from a church tower and fallen upon his head ; and 
a case of poisoning with prussic acid is related by Merzdorf, in which the 
penis was found in a state of semi-erection, with the spermatic fluid effused. 
Vide Siebold, Handbuch der Ger. Med., § 343. 
(cZ) Brit. For. Med. Rev., vol. v. p. 615. 
839 § 928] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
and in thirty-five cases reported by Remer, congestion or ejacu- 
lation was found only in fifteen. In some observations upon 
suicide by strangulation, Dr. Brierre de Boismont states that 
be has found the fact of ejaculation mentioned in on e-seventh 
of the cases (the whole number being 114), and of erection in 
one-tenth. In one case, in which the traces of the emission 
were very abundant, there was a dislocation of the second 
vertebra upon the first.(e) 
§ 928. Y. Condition of the eyes.—Dr. Dyer {e1) has made some 
observations of great value on the person of Anton Probst, 
who was hanged in Philadelphia June 8, 1866, for the brutal 
murder of a whole family, eight in number. 
Two days before the execution, Dr. Dyer made an ophthal- 
moscopic examination of Probst’s eyes, using the light from 
an ordinary lamp. Nothing unusual was observed except a 
slight prominence of the eyeballs and a sluggishness of the 
pupils to respond to light; the optic media were clear and the 
fundus normal. 
The rope used in the execution was five feet six inches long, 
five-eighths of an inch in diameter, and the fall was three feet. 
The knot was placed under the left ear, and death was very 
quiet and rapid. 
The body hung thirty minutes, and was then immediately 
removed to the dissecting-room. 
“Post-mortem examination thirty-five minutes after the 
drop fell. Body and head moist and warm; there had been 
an emission of semen; face was livid, and the upper lip dis- 
colored ; abrasions of the skin under the right ear, and a deep 
red mark all around the neck. 
“ The eyeballs were not more prominent than before death ; 
lids were closed and not discolored; there was scarely any 
tension in the eyeballs; corneae a little dull; pupils a little 
more dilated than before, and moist from mucus. 
“The body was placed upright in a.chair and supported, as 
the head had a tendency to fall. The eyes were first examined 
with the same oil lamp that had been used at the examination 
(e) Ann. d’Hyg., Juillet, 1848. 
(e') New York Medical Journal, vol. iii. 186(5, p. 416. 
840 BOOK V.] 
[§ 928 
CONDITION OF EYES. 
before death. Nothing could be obtained but a deep tan color 
from the whole of the fundus. * * * * 
“The examination of the eyes of Probst with the electric 
light gave the following results: Right eye—there was a line 
running transversely across the lens, and about a line below the 
centre. From it, at various angles, ran short and long fine 
lines, very near together but not regular. This line had an 
iridescent or opalescent appearance, and as it was illuminated, 
a gentleman standing behind remarked that it looked like a 
crack in a cake of clear ice. At first I thought it a film of 
mucus on the cornea, but soon saw that it was in the lens. It 
was a fracture involving the anterior capsule, and extending 
in a horizontal plane backwards into the substance of the lens. 
It gave even to those present, unaccustomed to the ophthal- 
moscope, the idea of a plane extending backwards. 
“ On rotating the ball downwards, the fracture could be seen 
to stop about the centre of the lens, and to end in several lines 
projecting backwards, longer than the rest. The little fissures 
running upwards and downwards from the main transverse 
fissure were of different lengths; more than half of those on 
the lower side ran down to the margin of the pupil, almost all 
those on the upper side extended above the horizontal diameter 
of the lens, and the longer ones perhaps a line further. 
“ The whole lens had a most beautiful iridescent appearance, 
which was greatest in the line of the main fissure. This was 
determined by strong convex glasses. Nothing of the fundus 
could be seen, not even a trace of a vessel. 
“The left eye presented the same transverse line, a line and 
a half below the centre of the lens. It was evidently the 
same thing as in the right, only less in extent. The line had 
very short lines running upwards and downwards, which were 
very close together. They could only be seen with a strong 
glass, and gave the line a feathery look. I judged that here 
the crack was confined to the capsule. The line was perfectly 
evident to a person standing three feet behind the examiner. 
The fundus could not be seen. Neither pupil contracted under 
the light. The body was then laid on the table, and the bat- 
tery used to contract the various muscles of the body. The 
flexors of the arms and legs responded, and I tried, from 
841 § 928] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
curiosity, to stimulate the contractile films of the iris, but 
without success. 
“ The eyes were then removed, and four hours afterwards 
carefully examined. Dr. S. W. Mitchell assisted me. The 
condition of the right lens was precisely as described above: 
Lens in place; fractured transversely from edge to edge of the 
capsule, one line below and parallel to the horizontal diameter 
of the lens. From this crack a fissure extended backwards 
into the substance of the lens, as far as the middle suspensory 
ligament, which was not ruptured.' Retina not detached; 
eyes normal, except as above mentioned; left eye showed a 
line difficult to distinguish, but made out with certainty, cor- 
responding in position to that of the right eye. It was un- 
doubtedly a fracture of the anterior capsule. The weight of 
the fall coming principally on the right side (the knot being 
under the left ear), probably explains the difference in the 
condition of the two eyes.” 
Dr. Dyer, with the view of further investigating this sub- 
ject, procured three “very large dogs,” which he hanged, the 
drop being three feet. 
The first dog weighed 35 pounds. The rope broke twice. 
The falls apparently did not affect his general condition, but, 
on examining the eyes, “a slight line, looking exactly like 
those in the eyes of Probst, about a line in length, was ob- 
served in the left eye, starting from the external border of the 
pupil towards the centre.” A third attempt at hanging him 
was successful, and he died quickly and without struggling. 
After death it was clearly seen that there was a fracture in 
the lens of each eye, but most marked in the left eye. The 
knot in this dog was on the right side. 
The second dog weighed 30 pounds. lie struggled hard 
for eight or ten minutes before death. There was no lesion 
in either eye. 
The third dog weighed 30 pounds, and also struggled, but 
not as long and hard as Ro. 2. “After 15 minutes a faint 
line was seen across the right lens; 30 minutes after, very 
marked and distinct.” 
Dr. Dyer says in conclusion: “I consider that these experi- 
ments are very satisfactory. They were made with every pre- 
842 BOOK V.] 
SUICIDAL OR HOMICIDAL? 
[§ 929 
caution and great care, and the results are certainly interest- 
ing. I will not attempt to explain the matter, but in a few 
words give the resume. 
“ One man and three dogs were violently hanged. The man 
and two of the dogs, i. <?., three out of four subjects, showed 
this peculiar lesion. The man and dog No. 1 died without 
struggle. In both the fracture extended through half the 
lens of one side and across the. capsule of the other. Knot 
on the opposite side of the greatest lesion in both cases. Dog 
No. 3 died with convulsions, which lasted a short time. Le- 
sion found in one eye well marked, the other eye normal. Dog 
No. 2 died with prolonged convulsions; no lesion could be 
observed.” 
§ 929. YI. Was the hanging suicidal or homicidal?—The 
probability is always in favor of the former, not only from 
the known frequency with which this mode of self-destruction 
is chosen, but also from the evident difficulty of accomplishing 
murder in this way. The distinction between them seldom 
rests entirely upon medical grounds. Taken alone, the medi- 
cal signs will rarely be sufficient to determine the question. 
They can afford often only a probability which must be con- 
firmed by moral and circumstantial evidence. The latter, 
indeed, is not always beyond the cognizance of the physician, 
for he may be called upon to state the verisimilitude of the 
inferences drawn from it. Thus, if the body of a person 
found hung exhibit traces of violence externally, or some 
poisonous substance be discovered in the stomach, the opinion 
of the medical expert may be required not only in reference 
to the possibility of death having resulted from these causes, 
but also whether they were immediately fatal, or whether 
there did not remain sufficient time and strength for subse- 
quent self-destruction by hanging. Questions of this nature 
can be answered only upon general principles, it being impos- 
sible to lay down any positive rules which would be applicable 
to all cases that may arise. We can, therefore, in the ensuing 
remarks, allude to them in only a cursory manner. The chief 
facts upon which the physician will base his decision, are the 
position of the body, the marks of violence, both external 
843 §931] 
[book v. 
HANGING. 
and internal, and finally, both of these elements in connection 
with the ordinary signs of hanging heretofore enumerated. 
§ 930. 1st. Position and condition of the body.—Experience 
has fully demonstrated the fact, that a complete suspension of 
the body is not necessary to produce death. The tenacity with 
which those who are bent upon suicide await the catastrophe, 
from which they could, with ease, escape, will afford a key to 
the explanation of the cases of death by incomplete suspension. 
It is, moreover, not improbable, from what is known of the 
sensations produced by a constriction of the throat in those 
who have experimented upon themselves, or who have been 
restored after apparent death by hanging, that consciousness 
and sensation are very speedily lost, or first give way to an 
indescribable feeling of pleasure. Dr. Schneider, who suc- 
ceeded in restoring a man, who had attempted suicide by this 
means, states that his patient was quite angry at being 
awakened from the delicious slumber into which he had 
fallen.(/) Wepfer and Morgagni relate, that, having interro- 
gated certain criminals as to their sensations, who had been 
hung, but afterwards restored to life, they answered, that they 
had not suffered at all, but had simply remained without sen- 
sation and plunged, as it were, in a profound sleep. Mr. 
Fleischmann, in experimenting upon himself, found that when 
the cord pressed upon the trachea, or between the principal 
cartilages of the windpipe, consciousness was almost imme- 
diately lost, but that if the obstruction to the entrance of air 
into the lungs was not so great, by constriction, for example, 
upon the thyroid cartilage, the effect was less rapid. We may, 
therefore, explain the fact of death in cases of incomplete sus- 
pension by a want both of the will and the power in the 
person to escape. 
§ 931. Dr. Duchesne,(g) from an examination of fifty-eight 
cases, arrived at the conclusion that suicide by strangulation 
may be admitted, whatever the position in which the body 
may be found, and even if resting upon the feet. Devergie 
also, from a review of a very large number of cases, states that 
(/) Henke’s Zeitschrift, 1851, 43, Erg. H. 
(#) Ann. d’Hyg., tom. xxxiv. pp. 141 and 346. 
844 BOOK V.] 
POSITION OF THE BODY.. 
[§ 933 
suspension followed by death may take place with the feet or 
knees resting upon the ground, or with the body in an almost 
horizontal posture, and that the weight of the shoulders and 
chest is sufficient to exercise a fatal constriction upon the neck. 
Dr. Taylor (h) says, “ I have now before me the reports of 
eleven cases of suicidal hanging or strangulation, which have 
occurred within the last few years. In three, the deceased 
-were found nearly recumbent; in four, in a kneeling posture 
—the body being more or less supported by the legs ; and in 
four, the persons were found sitting.” A case has been re- 
ported, -in which the body was entirely supported by the bed- 
stead, while the neck rested in a loop of leather, depending 
from the bedpost. The case was evidently one of suicide.(z) 
Many other similar cases are on record, which it would be 
tedious to enumerate. The facts here stated derive their im- 
portance chiefly from the prevalent notion, that, if the body 
were not completely; suspended, the suspicion of homicide 
would be strengthened. This opinion was held and urged by 
some medical jurists in the case of the Prince de Conde, who 
was found hanging in his room from the curtain rod, with his 
toes touching the floor. The attitude in which the body was 
found raised some suspicion of foul play, and a most accurate 
investigation of all the circumstances connected with the 
event was instituted, from which it appeared to have been a 
case of suicide. In the journal where this case is reported 
will be found also several instances of self-destruction by 
hanging, where the bodies were found in the most extraor- 
dinary situations and attitudes, accompanied with plates of 
the same.(y) 
§ 932. Tardieu^’1) found in 261 cases of incomplete suspen- 
sion, 168 in which the feet were recorded as resting on the 
ground ; the body kneeling in 42; extended and lying in 29 ; 
sitting in 19, and squatting in 3. 
§ 933. The inference to be drawn from the position of the 
body is, therefore, that, in itself, it proves neither homicide nor 
(A) Med. Jur., Am. ed., p. 505. (t) Med. Times, Aug. 7, 1852. 
(j) Ann. d’Hyg., tom. y. p. 165. 
(j1) Ann. d’Hyg., Jan. 1870, and Journ. of Psycliolog. Med., vol. iv. p. 
637. 
845 § 935] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
suicide. A person may hang himself from a high beam or 
the branch of a tree, or may choose to strangle himself by 
simply placing his neck in a noose or loop and lean forward 
against it until he loses his consciousness. On the other hand, 
a murderer may find it more convenient to hang his victim 
imperfectly than to suspend him from an elevated position. 
In either case, the position in which the body is found is 
neither a safe criterion of its position at the moment of death, 
nor an index of the voluntary or involuntary character of the 
act. The cord, in many cases, slips or stretches by the weight 
of the body or the momentum of the fall, so that the latter 
will come to occupy a lower position than at the moment when 
unconsciousness was produced by constriction of the neck. 
And, even were this not the case, the more or less imperfect 
suspension of the body cannot, as we have already seen, en- 
lighten us with respect to the question of homicide. 
§ 934. It is hardly necessary to state that, if the hands or 
feet are found tied, the inference is not necessarily warranted 
that the act was homicidal. In such cases, the opinion of the 
physician will be guided, in a measure, by the remaining in- 
dicatory evidence. Thus, if an individual is found suspended 
from a position which he could not easily have reached, or to 
attain which there were no obvious means, the fact of the 
hands or feet being tied will afford certainly a strong presump- 
tion of homicide. But if, on the other hand, chairs or tables 
or any other means of support are found near the deceased, 
this presumption will no longer hold, since it is evident that 
the person may have, himself, applied these ligatures, and 
then hung himself by thrusting his head through the noose 
and overturning or pushing away the means of support. 
§ 935. It is, however, of importance to observe whether lig- 
atures upon the wrists are tied in such a manner as could have 
been done by the person himself. The following remarkable 
case (A;) may be cited in illustration : “John Robinson, a mar- 
ried man, aged thirty-four, was admitted into the asylum of 
the workhouse, on the 24th of November last, having been in 
a desponding, melancholy state some time, caused by religious 
(&) Lond. Med. Gaz., yol. xiv. p. 388, by Mr. J. H. Taylor. 
846 [§ 935 
BOOK V.] 
POSITION OF THE BODY. 
delusions. lie had attempted to destroy himself several times, 
by throwing himself out of the window,- and rushing into the 
tire, and said he had a desire to hang himself. On admission, 
his hands were found much burnt. He refused his food for 
some days, but continued gradually to improve for the ensuing 
six weeks, and went to bed in a tranquil state on the evening 
of the 5th inst., about nine P. M. He was found next morn- 
ing at half-past six, suspended to a bar of the window of his 
cell, by means of the bandage which he had taken from his 
hands and folded double. His wrists were fastened together 
behind his back, by a piece of bandage, in which two running 
nooses had been made and slipped over his hands, and then 
pulled tight. His ankles were tightly fastened together, and 
his night-cap was pulled down over his face, below his nose. 
The toes almost, if not quite, touched the ground; the body 
hanging between the bed and a night-chair, with the face 
towards the wall. On cutting him down, it was apparent, 
from the coldness and rigidity of the body, that he had been 
dead some time. The features were quite composed. Ho dis- 
coloration of the face; eyes in the natural position, if anything 
a little depressed ; no froth at the mouth or protrusion of the 
tongue, or lividity of the neck, but, on the right side, extend- 
ing nearly from the angle of the jaw to the commencement of 
the thyroid cartilage, the skin was cut through, as if with a 
blunt knife, to the depth of nearly a quarter of an inch. The 
hands and feet were extended and pointed downwards. Ho 
erection of the penis, or emission of semen, urine, or feces. 
The body, in fact, presented the appearance of that of a per- 
son dying from other causes, and being afterwards suspended. 
It was only the absence of suspicion of any kind that made 
the cause of death appear satisfactory. He must have first 
taken the bandages from his hands and cut them into suitable 
pieces, then stood on the night-chair, then tied his legs, then 
fastened the noose around his neck and pulled the cap over his 
face, and, lastly, slipped his hands behind his back, put the 
nooses over his wrists, and then jumped off. His friends 
would not permit a post-mortem examination, and the coroner 
did not consider any medical evidence requisite.” 
847 § 937] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
§ 936. 2d. Marks of violence.—Under this denomination 
may be included alb those injuries which affect the question 
of homicide. For the sake of practical convenience, the 
various injuries to the neck, consisting of those which affect 
the windpipe as well as those of the cervical vertebrae, maybe 
classed together. Under the former are embraced, fracture of 
the os hyoides, of the cartilages of the larynx, and laceration 
of their intervening membranes and ligaments; under the 
latter, fracture and displacement of the vertebrae, and rupture 
of their ligamentous bands and intervertebral substance. The 
consequences in both cases are extensive laceration of and 
effusion of blood into the structure of the neck ; and in the 
injury to the spine, compression of the spinal marrow, either 
by the displaced vertebrae, or by effused blood. It is at once 
apparent that a great degree of violence will be required to 
produce such extensive and serious injuries, and will, there- 
fore, in almost every case exclude the idea of suicide. 
§ 937. The injuries above enumerated are sometimes made 
in criminal executions, where the fall is great, and the body 
at the moment of the execution is violently rotated by the 
hangman, but even in these cases luxation and fracture of the 
vertebrae are of rare occurrence. Orfila states that, in the 
bodies of fifty persons who had been hung, he met with a 
fracture of the os hyoides in only one case, while he had never 
met with fracture and luxation of the vertebrae. In the bodies 
of persons which were hung after death, for the sake of expe- 
riment, he succeeded, in some cases, in producing a rupture 
of the yellow ligaments of the spine, and the intervertebral 
substance. In one case the odontoid process was broken but 
not displaced, and in another the second vertebra was broken 
horizontally. In all of these experiments, however, both the 
extending and rotating force was extremely great, such, indeed, 
as can hardly be conceived in a case of suicide. 
Dr. Houston, of Dublin, in an account of the appearance 
found in two executed criminals, says: “ The cervical vertebrae 
were unbroken, and the spinal marrow and brain presented 
no trace of injury. In both, the sterno-mastoid muscle on 
the right side (the opposite to that on which the rope was 
applied) was ecchymosed, contused, and broken; that of the 
848 BOOK V.] 
MARKS OF VIOLENCE. 
[§ 939 
left side was only slightly bruised. The os hyoides and thyroid 
cartilage were completely severed from each other.” A few 
shreds of the small muscles of these parts alone remained, 
and nothing, in fact, but the skin interposed between the 
rope and the cavity of the pharynx.(0 
§ 938. There are only two well-authenticated cases of suicide 
by hanging in which injury to the cervical vertebrae has been 
met with, and in these it was far less important than in any 
of the experiments referred to, or in cases of judicial or homi- 
cidal hanging. One is reported by M. Ansiaux, of Liege. 
He found in the body of a woman who had hung herself, that 
the posterior ligaments of the spine between the first two 
cervical vertebrae were ruptured, and the transverse ligament 
of the atlas so stretched that the odontoid process of the 
second vertebra was locked against the articular surface. The 
perpendicular and oblique ligaments were not injured. The 
first two cervical vertebrae were considerably separated behind, 
the spinal marrow was injured, and extravasated blood found 
at the place of separation. The deceased was a stout woman; 
when discovered, she was hanging from a beam of the ceiling, 
and her feet were about a foot and a half above the ground. 
Hear her there was a chair overturned. 
§ 939. Another case is reported in the Lancet by Mr. Camp- 
bell de Morgan.(m) “ A married woman, aged fifty, worn 
out and exhausted by disease, was found hanging quite lifeless 
from the rail of a bed, which was not more than five feet 
eight inches from the ground. The front of her body was 
turned round towards the bed, the head thrown forcibly back 
—the knot of the ligature, an old silk handkerchief, being 
placed in the middle of the under side of the chin. Her 
heels were about three inches from the ground, the knees 
being on a level with the bed-frame, and resting against it. 
The body was seen by a medical man, about an hour after it 
was cut down—the features were perfectly calm, and there 
was no trace of congestion about the face; it was pale and in 
all respects natural. There was no lividity ; the eyes were 
(l) Dublin Hosp. Reports, yol. v. p. 817. 
(m) Lancet, Aug. 10, 1844, quoted by Taylor, Med. Jur., p. 503. 
vol. ii.—54 
849 § 940] 
[book v. 
HANGING. 
neither injected nor prominent; the tongue pale, lying far 
hack in the mouth, and without any mark of indentation. 
The cord-mark well defined, and, like parchment, dry, brown, 
and hard, without any ecchymosis, but with a thin line of 
congestion at the upper edge of the groove—it was very deep 
at the back of the neck, just over the atlas, probably owing 
to the head hanging backwards. The mucous membrane of 
the stomach was pale ; the lungs natural; no congestion of the 
large veins, or of the cavities of the heart; the two ventricles 
contained about an equal quantity of blood. These appear- 
ances seemed to show that death was not caused either by 
asphyxia or by cerebral congestion. the trachea nor 
the great vessels of the neck could have sustained any pressure 
or constriction. The deep muscles over the second and third 
cervical vertebrae were ecchymosed ; this ecchymosis extended 
to the sheath of the spinal marrow; and on the left side, and 
exterior to the sheath, there was an extensive effusion of 
blood firmly coagulated. There was no displacement of the 
second or other vertebrae, and the ligaments were sound; but 
between the third and fourth vertebrae, there was unusual 
mobility, as if they had been stretched. In this case, the 
body was not heavy, and the fall, if any, could have been but 
trifling. The effusion on the spinal marrow was the cause of 
death ; and its origin was sufficiently explained, by the falling 
back of the head and sudden bending of the.cervical vertebrae. 
Her husband and family were in an adjoining room, but heard 
no noise; it was only by accident that the deceased was dis- 
covered.” 
In a case of suicide, reported by Dr. Mildner,(n) the left 
corner of the os hyoides was broken and the adjacent soft 
parts infiltrated with dark and fluid blood. The person was 
a robust and heavy woman of forty-eight years of age. The 
indentation, which was of a yellowish-brown color, and of a 
parchment-like and desiccated appearance, was also excoriated 
and deeper on the side corresponding to the fracture. 
§ 940. It is well known that manual strangulation is one of 
the most frequent complications of homicidal hanging, and 
(n) Prag. Vierteljahrsch. f. d. praktische Heilkunde, 1850. Bd. iii. p. 157. 
850 BOOK V.] 
MARKS OF VIOLENCE. 
[§ 940 
hence the injuries to the neck here referred to will throw much 
doubt upon the idea of the act having been voluntary. A 
murderer who strangles his victim wd-ll commonly use more 
violence than is necessary for his purpose, and thus produce 
some of the serious injuries to the neck which have been de- 
scribed. But in such cases we are seldom left without a guide 
to the nature of the deed. The thumb and finger will have 
left their traces upon the throat, differing widely from the 
uniform discolored furrow left by the cord. Or if the act of 
strangulation has been accomplished with anything in the 
nature of a cord, the direction of the mark will be, if not 
horizontal, at least not oblique in the same manner as that 
produced by suspension. This distinction manifestly applies 
only to those cases in which the person is fairly hung, and in 
which the cord has formed but one noose around the neck, 
because if it has been twisted twice around itj the lower 
mark will generally be circular and horizontal. Hence, if the 
marks of fingers upon the throat, or a horizontal discolored 
impression upon it, be found, there will be good reason to 
believe, even if the person be found hung apparently with a 
single noose, that it was an act of violence committed by 
another upon him. The probability of this will be much in- 
creased by the existence of serious injury to the subjacent parts 
of the neck. A full confirmation of the fact can, however, 
only be obtained from other moral and collateral evidence, 
into which it is rather the province of the jury than of the 
physician to inquire. In the following case, the evidence of 
homicide was derived from various sources. “ The deceased 
was found sitting in a corner of her room, with a narrow tape 
around her neck, hung loosely and singly over a small brass 
hook, about three feet above her head. Her clothes were 
placed smoothly under her, and her hands stretched out by 
her side. There was a severe bruise on the right eye, and 
there were marks of blood on the tape, as well as on the floor 
and wall of the room at a distance from the body. There was 
a stain of blood on the knot of the tape where it passed over 
the hook ; and there was no blood on the hands of the de- 
ceased. The windpipe for about an inch and a half was 
lacerated longitudinally in its rings, and there was a deep 
851 §941j 
[book v. 
HANGING. 
mark round the neck in the course of the double tape, as if 
from great pressure applied by some person, or from the weight 
of the suspended body.- The latter hypothesis was untenable. 
The body of the deceased did not weigh less than 126 pounds, 
while the tape found round her neck broke with a weight 
of 49 pounds ; hence, the deceased never could have been sus- 
pended by it.” The prisoner confessed the crime.(o) 
§ 941. Other marks of violence are found in every variety 
upon the person of the hanged. We subjoiu three cases, one 
of homicide and two of suicide by hanging, to illustrate the 
nature of the evidence required for the settlement of doubtful 
cases. 
A gamekeeper, thirty-two years of age, robust and hardy 
in his constitution, was found hanging upon a tree in the 
forest, three days after he had left home in pursuit of poachers. 
The deceased was suspended by his cravat to the branch of a 
young oak-tree, and so near to the branch that the right side 
of his face was in contact with it. His feet were rather more 
than three feet from the ground, which bore no traces of a 
struggle. The tobacco-pipe of the deceased was found about 
forty paces distant from the tree, but his hunting-knife and 
rifle were nowhere to be found. The cravat had left the fol- 
lowing mark upon the neck: a groove from a half to three- 
quarters of an inch wide, the skin in it brown and parchment- 
like, and over the thyroid cartilage three-quarters of an inch 
deep. The indentation was more superficial upon the left side. 
The direction of the mark was horizontal to the back of the 
neck, and thence upwards on the right side to the angle of the 
jaw. At this point, corresponding exactly to the knot of the 
noose, the skin was very deeply ecchymosed, and also excori- 
ated. The right ear was greatly discolored, as well as the 
integuments around it. The skin of the face and head was 
excoriated in many places, and bruised and lacerated also. 
There were, moreover, a great number of small lacerated 
wounds upon the hands and arms, and bruises on the knees. 
No other external injuries of serious character were found. 
The os hyoides was broken, and the muscles and soft parts of 
(o) Taylor, Med. Journ., 5tli ed. 754. 
852 BOOK V.] 
MARKS OF VIOLENCE. 
[§ 941 
the neck infiltrated with blood. The horizontal direction of 
the mark upon the neck, the extreme tightness with which 
the cravat was fastened upon it, the fracture of the hyoid 
bone, together with the large number of trifling wounds, led 
the examiners to give as their opinion that the deceased had 
been overpowered by numbers, thrown down, strangled, and 
afterwards hung.(p) 
Another remarkable case, in which the suicidal nature of 
the act was clearly determined, is reported by Dr. Heyfelder; 
it occurred at the prison at Sigmaringen, in One 
of the prisoners, who a few hours before had been left by the 
turnkey in his cell, of which the latter alone had the key, was 
found hanging from the jamb of the door. The ligature used 
was his own silk cravat, twisted into a cord, three and a half 
feet long, two inches broad, and four lines thick. His head 
was sunk upon his breast, his face pale and without expression, 
the lips blue, eyes, tongue, and mouth unchanged in position 
and appearance. The arms were brought forward over the 
stomach, and were rigid ; the fingers were bent, and the feet 
extended and touching the ground. The mouth of the deceased 
was stopped with his own handkerchief. The mark of the cord 
was oblique, commencing between the os hyoides and thyroid 
cartilage, and ran upwards and backwards to the occiput. 
The skin was brown, and in some places shrivelled, but there 
was no ecchymosis. Five contused and lacerated wounds 
were found upon the sides of the head ; the right ear also was 
lacerated, and a portion of the head and face covered with 
blood. On the sharp edge of the window-sill, which was only 
two feet from the floor, traces of dried blood and hair were 
found, and on the wall below the window there were several 
lines of dried blood runing towards the ground. Had this 
case occurred in any other place than in a locked prison-cell 
with a single occupant, the wounds upon the head and the 
handkerchief thrust into his mouth would have raised a very 
strong presumption of homicide, and perhaps involved the life 
of an innocent person. 
(p) Henke’s Zeitsch., 1835, H. 3. 
(?) Ibid., 1849, H. 1. 
853 § 942] 
HANGING. 
[book v. 
"We would here refer the reader to another case of hanging, 
singular and important from the fact of the woman having 
previously inflicted upon her own head, with a hatchet, no less 
than fifty-five wounds, some of which penetrated to and frac- 
tured the bone. Besides these, there were twenty-six superfi- 
cial incised wounds upon the breast and stomach, made from 
three to four days previously, as they were in a state of sup- 
puration. The loss of blood must have been very great, being 
estimated at three pounds. Yet this woman had been able to 
leave the room where she had committed this violence upon 
her own person, and proceed to a stable at the back of the 
house, and there, mounting upon a milking-stool, attach the 
cord to a beam, and consummate the act of self-destruction. 
In this case the indentation of the cord left no discoloration 
of the skin, probably owing to the loss of blood. The de- 
ceased had long been melancholy, and this, together with other 
facts and circumstantial evidence which came out upon in- 
vestigation, left no doubt that the act was suicidal.(r) 
§ 942. The influence which the discovery of wounds and 
marks of violence upon the body of a person found hung, will 
exert in the determination of the voluntary or passive char- 
acter of the act, must be decided, in each case, by the light 
obtained from an inquiry into the possible motives for suicide, 
into all the circumstances connected with the act, and into those 
general principles elsewhere referred to for the discrimination 
between self-inflicted and homicidal wounds. In some cases 
the injury may have been of accidental origin, as indeed may 
the hanging itself, but the case is hardly conceivable, in which 
the true nature of the latter could not be ascertained, or the 
former not rendered probable. In conclusion, we would repeat 
the statement, that hanging is preeminently a suicidal mode of 
death, and strong evidence, both medical and other, will be 
required in any given case to overthrow this presumption, it 
being far more likely that a person should inflict barbarous in- 
juries upon his own person, and then hang himself, than that 
a murderer should resort to so difficult and unusual mode of 
assassination. This form of homicide can hardly be regarded 
(r) Henke’e Zeitsclirift, 1840, H. 1 (Kriigelstein). 
854 BOOK V.] 
DROWNING. 
[§ 943 
as practicable, unless there be an exceeding disproportion 
between the strength of the murderer and that of his victim. 
It can only be taken into consideration, when the body found 
hung is that of a very young or feeble person, or one whom 
infirmity or temporary intoxication may have rendered 
helpless. 
CHAPTER XI. 
DROWNING. 
I. How producing death, § 943. 
II. Time when body will float, etc., § 945. 
III. Signs of death by drowning, § 947. 
1st. Paleness and coldness of skin, etc., § 948. 
2d. Abrasion of the hands, etc., § 949. 
3d. Water and froth in the lungs, § 950. 
4th. Water in the stomach, § 952. 
5th. Signs of asphyxia, § 954. 
6th. Marks of violence, § 955. 
7th. Putrefaction, etc., § 956. 
IY. Accidental or otherwise, § 958. 
§ 943. I. How 'producing death.—The immediate cause of 
death in drowning has been the theme of considerable dis- 
cussion. At present, however, from the numerous experiments 
made to determine this point, there can be but little doubt 
that the true cause of death in drowning is suffocation. By 
this word is meant, the prevention of the ingress of air into 
the lungs. The truth of this statement will be apparent, by 
a consideration of the external and internal condition of the 
body after death from this cause. 
Before, however, proceeding to describe the post-mortem 
appearances in the drowned, the act of drowning demands 
our attention. A person who falls alive into the water, and 
is unable to swim, sinks at once below the surface. Presently 
the impossibility of respiring forces him to struggle to reach 
the air, and the effort to respire is instinctively repressed until 
855 856 
DROWNING. 
[book v. 
this is accomplished, when he gasps convulsively, and takes 
in with the air a certain quantity of water also, which is un- 
avoidably swallowed. Sinking once more, the air in the 
lungs is partially expelled by an act of expiration, and bubbles 
are seen to rise to the surface. New and probably involuntary 
efforts to breathe are made, and the water, being thus drawn 
into the lungs, instead of air, brings on an act of coughing, 
by which water and air are both expelled. These efforts 
alternate for a few moments. If again successful in reaching 
the surface, the death-struggle is a little prolonged; but the 
privation of air soon benumbs both the mental and physical 
faculties, and with gradually lessening effort the unconscious 
and exhausted body sinks lifeless to the bottom.^1) 
The physiological explanation of this manner of death is 
found in the fact that, in consequence of the privation of air, 
the blood ceases to undergo in the lungs those changes indis- 
pensable for the maintenance of life. Hence the functions of 
the brain and nervous system are paralyzed, and presently the 
muscular and respiratory movements also. The heart continues 
to pulsate feebly for a short time after the stoppage of the 
voluntary functions of the body; but the blood, having become 
completely venous, is not long capable of affording the neces- 
sary stimulus to this organ. 
§ 944. The rapidity with which life is extinguished by 
drowning depends upon the frequency and completeness of 
the renewal of the air in the lungs. If the individual have 
come several times to the surface of the water and breathed, 
he will, of course, not die so quickly as one who has not had 
this opportunity ; but it is probable that in cases of drowning, 
where the person has not been able to support himself above 
the water by any extraneous aid, life is extinct within five 
minutes. Where the submersion has been complete from the 
beginning, life can scarcely be prolonged more than two 
minutes. “Mr. Woolley, the surgical attendant at the Re- 
ceiving House of the Royal Humane Society in Hyde Park, 
(r1) M. Beau concludes, from numerous experiments upon animals, that 
death by drowning is always a suffocation produced by the arrest of breathing 
from spasm of the muscles of the larynx. Archives G£n., Juill. 1860, p. 64. 
856 BOOK V.] 
DROWNING. 
[§ 944 
believes that very few lives are preserved after four minutes 
of complete submersion. In the year 1840, however, he met 
with a case in which a person recovered, although there was 
reason to believe that he had been five minutes under water, 
and a similar instance has since come under his observation. ”(s) 
In an account of the pearl-fishery, by the Rev. Mr. Corder, 
who resided several years at Columbo, he says, “that he ob- 
served with attention the time during which many of the 
divers remained under water at the depth of seven fathoms. 
Some of them performed the dip within the space of one 
minute; others came up in one minute and twenty seconds. 
Some persons, who have frequently attended the fisheries and 
accompanied the divers to the banks, consider one minute and 
a half to be the longest period during which any diver remains 
under water. Other gentlemen, who are willing to allow the 
greatest latitude, say that they certainly never knew a diver 
to exceed two minutes.”(0 The same observation was made 
by Dr. Lefevre, of Rochefort, relative to the Navarino sponge- 
divers ; he says that there was not one who could remain 
entirely submerged for two consecutive minutes.(w) Never- 
theless, some cases, said to be authentic, have been reported, 
in which recovery has taken place after a much longer period 
of submersion.(v) The only exception to this rapid death in 
complete submersion is when the person falling into the water 
is in a state of syncope. As it is known that one may remain 
without respiration and circulation, in a state of apparent 
death, for a few minutes, or even longer, it may be admitted 
that occasionally a person falling or thrown into the water 
may suddenly faint from terror, and be rescued before respi- 
ration has returned. In illustration of this fact, a case related 
by Plater is often cited. A woman, condemned to be drowned 
for infanticide, fainted away at the moment she was thrown 
into the water. She was left in it a quarter of an hour, and 
upon then being drawn out recovered her senses. 
(s) Brodie’s Lectures on Pathology and Surgery. 
(<) Ibid. (u) Med. Gaz., xvi. C08. 
(v) Vide Assoc. Med. Journ., April 22, 1853 ; Med. Gaz., vol. xxi. p. 448 ; 
Ibid, xxix. p. 78 ; and Med. Times, Dec. 2, 1848, p. 125. 
857 § 945] 
DROWNING. 
[BOOK V. 
§ 945. II. The time at which a drowned body vnll float, or rise 
again to the surface after having been once sunk, appears to 
be subject to considerable variation. It depends upon the 
rapidity of the access of decomposition, and the body there- 
fore rises sooner in summer than in winter; upon the density 
of the water itself (whether salt or fresh); upon the age and 
sex of the individual, children, females, and fat persons being 
comparatively buoyant; and also upon whether or not the 
body is clothed. The question is one not merely of scientific 
interest, but, as will be seen in the following case, may have 
important legal bearings. 
“ Voltan and Adams v. The National Loan Fund Life Assu- 
rance Company. 
“ The action was brought by the plaintiffs, as assignees of 
this policy, to recover on a policy of insurance issued by the 
defendants upon the life of one Conrad Shoemaker. The in- 
surance was for $10,000, and the policy was issued on the 15th 
of May, 1850. The premium on the policy was payable 
quarterly in advance. 
“ On the 23d of August, 1850, Sooemaker paid the premium 
for the quarter ending on the 15th of November, 1850. On 
the 4th of September, 1850, the plaintiffs alleged that Shoe- 
maker was drowned, while on a fishing excursion with one 
Ottman, a German, in the waters of the bay of New York, 
about opposite to Hoboken, and nearest to the New Jersey 
shore. The theory of the defence substantially was, that 
Yoltan, Martin, and Shoemaker (Germans) had entered into a 
conspiracy to defraud the insurance company, by causing an 
insurance to be effected for a large amount on the life of Shoe- 
maker, and subsequently secreting and disposing of him. 
“ To obtain a recovery, it was, of course, necessary that the 
plaintiffs should satisfy the jury of the death of Shoemaker. 
This they attempted to do—1st, by the testimony of Ottman, 
who swore to the circumstances of his drowning, and of the 
time and place, which was on the 4tli of September, 1850, 
about dusk, in the Hudson River, opposite Hoboken, and near 
midway of the river; 2d, by showing that a body found float- 
ing on the river near Jersey City, on the 7th of September, 
1850, was the body of Shoemaker. 
858 BOOK V.] 
TESTIMONY OF CORONERS. 
[§ 945 
“ This body was examined by the coroner of Jersey City, 
soon after being discovered. The skin was somewhat bleached, 
and the face disfigured; a part of the lips being eaten off by 
crabs, lobsters, or fish of some kind. After examination, it 
was interred by direction of the coroner. 
“ It was not attempted to identify this as the body of Shoe- 
maker, except from some of the clothes found on it, and par- 
ticularly the handkerchief on the neck. The handkerchief o.n 
the body was the half of a black silk one, with stripes, and 
cut from its mate diagonally. It was shown by a witness that 
Voltan, a short period before the alleged drowning, had pur- 
chased a handkerchief for his son, and, at the suggestion of 
Yoltan’s daughter, it was cut in two, and half of it given to 
Shoemaker, after being hemmed by her; the other half to the 
son. The part retained by the son and the part found on the 
neck of the body were exhibited in court and found to match 
in color and stripes, and when laid together, formed a square, 
and although cut across the stripes, matched in the run and 
character of the stripes. The pantaloons were also shown to 
be of the same general character worn by Shoemaker, about 
the time of his alleged death. 
“ To rebut the presumption that this was the body of Shoe- 
maker, a number of witnesses were sworn on the part of the 
defence, with the view of showing that, as a general rule, 
bodies will not rise and float, even when the water is of the 
temperature that it is in the month of September, under from 
six to ten days. As Shoemaker was alleged to have been 
drowned on the 4th of September, and the body was found 
floating on the 7th of September, three days afterwards, if it 
were universally true that bodies do not float until decomposi- 
tion takes place, in the waters of the Hudson, under from six 
to ten days, then this could not be the body of Shoemaker. 
“ The first witness sworn on the subject was Dr. Barent P. 
Staats. He testified that he had had occasion, in the course 
of his professional reading, to examine the subject as to how 
long- a body will remain in the water before rising and float- 
ing. That it depends on the time of year, and the tempera- 
ture of the water, and the size and make of the man. When 
the temperature is 65°, he did not think any body would rise 
859 § 945] 
DROWNING. 
[book v. 
in from less than seven to ten days. On his cross-examina- 
tion, he said he did not know that he could point out any book 
that he had consulted. 
“ Dr. Benj. Budd was the next witness called. He testified 
that he was assistant-coroner in Hew York—has had occasion 
to see many drowned bodies—some one hundred and fifty. 
Never knew a body to rise in les3 than six days, unless some 
mechanical means were used to raise it. Should judge the 
body found at Jersey City to have been in the water from ten 
to twenty days. Has never known a body to be in the water 
less than seven days that was mutilated by fishes. Bodies 
that have been hooked up in three, four, or five days, have not 
that peculiar bleached appearance as those present that come 
up from seven to ten days. The body will not rise until de- 
composition has commenced. He is twenty-five years of age, 
and has only studied the book of experience. 
“ Dr. Seth Geer was then called. He testified that he was 
coroner in Hew York for eighteen months, during which time 
he had examined between three and four hundred drowned 
bodies. The general rule as to the rising of drowned bodies 
in the harbor of Hew York, is from eight to ten days. In his 
judgment, from the description given, the body found at Jersey 
City, had been in the water two or three weeks. Hever knew 
a body that had been in the water but three days mutilated 
by fishes. The hotter the water, the sooner the body would 
bleach. 
“ Andrew Blakeley was then called. He testified that he was 
deputy coroner in Hew York a little over two years, during 
which time he examined rising two hundred and fifty drowned 
bodies. Drowned bodies would rise in the summer months on 
an average of from six to ten days, as he found out by expe- 
rience. He did not remember any case of rising when the 
body had been in the water but three days. He never saw a 
drowned body that had laid in the water but three days eaten 
by fishes. On his cross-examination he stated that he had 
never read any medical book on the subject, nor did he know, 
except from testimony taken as coroner, of a body lying under 
water seven days. It takes a body from six to eight or ten 
860 BOOK V.] 
TESTIMONY OF CORONERS. 
[§ 045 
days to get bleached. lie means by bleaching, a soaking of 
the body—a general softening and whitening of the body. 
“ Henry C. Van Wie was called on the part of the plaintiffs. 
He testified that he was coroner of the county of Albany for 
four years. Has held a good many inquests on drowned bodies. 
Has known two or three instances where the bodies have risen 
in three or four days. In warm or sultry weather they will 
rise in from three to four days. They will bleach out directly 
in warm weather. They will be mutilated by fishes directly 
after decomposition takes place. Remembers an instance of 
holding an inquest on a body that drifted ashore, and had been 
drowned four, five, or six days. (This witness related the 
startling fact of holding, in one season, inquests on fifteen in- 
fants under three months old, found floating in cigar boxes 
near the city of Albany—cases, doubtless, of infanticide.) 
“ Henry C. Allen, called for the plaintiffs. He testified that 
he had been coroner of Albany County for twelve or fourteen 
years. He never could make up his mind as to any definite 
time that a body would remain under water. He knew an 
instance of a girl of fourteen years of age, who was drowned 
on Friday at 12 o’clock, and floated on Sunday at 12 o’clock. 
She was drowned at Grreenbush Ferry. Had known instances 
of bodies rising in five or six days ; sometimes sooner. Knew 
of one man, by the name of Moreton, who floated on the fourth 
or fifth day. The girl spoken of had turned a dark livid 
color. Females float sooner than males. 
“ George JE. Cutler, called by plaintiffs. He testified that 
he was coroner of Jersey City. He knew of the case of a 
young man who was drowned on Sunday, about 7 or 8 o’clock 
in the morning, and on Tuesday or Wednesday succeeding, 
about 11 o’clock, he was found floating about two miles from 
the place where he was drowned. He knew of a female by 
the name of Smith, was seen alive on Wednesday evening, 
about 7 o’clock; on Wednesday, about 4 o’clock,P.M., he was 
called to view the body floating. A person of temperate habits 
will bleach very quick; those who have been inveterate drink- 
ers never will bleach. 
“ John Osborn, called by plaintiffs. He testified that he was 
coroner of Albany County three years. Had occasion fre- 
861 § 947] 
DROWNING. 
[book v. 
quently to reclaim drowned bodies. Had known bodies to 
come up in two days, others not in several months. Had a 
case of an Irish girl. She had been drowned some two or three 
days; it might have been four. Had another case of a man, 
McCarregan, an Irish auctioneer, who rose in four or five 
days. 
“ Silas M. Benton, called for plaintiffs. He testified that he 
was acting coroner in 1847, 1848, and 1849, in Hew Haven 
(Conn.). He knew a case of a person, whom he saw on Friday, 
was missed on Saturday, and found floating in the water on 
Sunday. The man was a German, and a baker by trade. 
“ The verdict of the jury was in favor of the plaintifts.”(.iy) 
The same question was largely discussed on the trial of 
Spencer Cowper, for the murder of Sarah Stout.(:r) 
§ 946. In two cases mentioned by Dr. Taylor, bodies floated 
in a much shorter time. In one a woman, who was seen on 
the banks of a river at half-past eleven in the evening, was 
found drowned at eight o’clock in the morning. The body 
was floating on the water with the face downwards. In an- 
other, in the month of December, a factory girl fell into a 
river while walking along the bank in the evening. The 
body was found floating on the surface of the water the fol- 
lowing morning. The bodies in these cases were clothed, and 
this, it is supposed, may have rendered them more buoyant.^1) 
§ 947. III. Signs of death by drowning.—In the enumeration 
of the evidences of this mode of death, it is assumed that the 
inspection is made shortly after the act has occurred and before 
putrefaction has commenced. 
The countenance of the drowned is usually described as being 
natural and composed; the face is pale, but very soon becomes 
livid and swollen on exposure to the air, and especially in 
warm weather; the eyes are half open, and the pupils dilated; 
a light froth is observable about the mouth and nostrils, and 
the swollen and livid tongue reaches to the margin of the 
lips. These signs are not exclusively characteristic of death 
(w) Am. Journ. Med. Sci., July, 1853, p. 263. 
(a;) Burke’s Trials of the Aristocracy, 284. 
(a;1) Med. Jur., 5tli ed., p. 696. 
862 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH BY DROWNING. 
[§ 949 
by drowning—they merely render the cause of death by suf- 
focation probable. 
§ 948. 1st. Paleness and coldness of the skin and cutis anserina. 
—The first are ascribable merely to the presence of the body 
in a colder medium than the air, and are altogether destitute 
of significance as to the cause of death. The projection of 
the papillae of the skin, commonly called goose-flesh, is deserv- 
ing of more attention, for although it may have been caused 
by the coldness of the air, yet it cannot be produced upon a 
body already dead, by the chill of the water, unless, possibly, 
the body be thrown in while yet warm. Loffler very justly 
remarks, upon this sign:(y) “ If we should find a body drawn 
out of the water in the summer time, and the cutis anserina 
on certain parts of the body not covered with the clothing, 
we should be fully warranted in the conclusion that it was due 
to the sensation of cold, and consequently that the individual 
was living on entering the water.” A singular case is re- 
ported in the second series of Casper’s observations, in which 
the opinion that a child two and a half years old was living 
when thrown into water, rested partly upon this circumstance. 
The cutis anserina was very evident upon the right side of the 
body and upon one of the thighs. The head having been en- 
veloped in a cloth, neither froth was found in the lungs nor 
water in the stomach. The fluidity of the blood and the 
cutis anserina were, therefore, the only medical signs present. 
§ 949. 2d. Abrasion of the hands, mud and sand under the 
nails, and substances grasped in the hands.—In the struggles 
made by a drowning person to save himself, he clutches wildly 
at every object in the water ; hence, if it is not very deep, and 
the drowning person is near the bank, the fingers will most 
probably bear the marks of sand or gravel, and weeds, sticks, 
etc., will remain firmly grasped in the hands. Unless the 
substances found in the hands be such as are peculiar to the 
water, the other marks of injury upon them may have been 
received in a struggle upon the shore, or in a fall down a pre- 
cipitous bank. Or, indeed, they may be produced after death 
by the hands striking against substances at the bottom of the 
(y) Henke’s Zeitsch., 1844, 8 H. p. 6. Der Tod durcli Ertrinken. 
863 § 950] 
DROWNING. 
[book v. 
stream. Again, in many instances, these signs are not found 
at all—a fact which may be explained by the absence of strug- 
gling when the person enters the water in a state of uncon- 
sciousness from intoxication or other causes. Likewise, if the 
water be very deep, the body will not have reached the bottom 
until all its energies are lost and life is extinct. 
§ 950. 8d. Water and froth in the lungs.*—The fact that water 
is drawn into the lungs by persons who die by drowning, is, 
as a general fact, perfectly well established. It is found, 
either in substance, or mixed with air and mucus constituting 
froth. "When found in substance, it may have been imbibed 
during life or have penetrated after death. If it have entered 
during life, it must be identical with the medium in which it 
is presumed the person was drowned, and sometimes it will 
contain mud, sand, or gravel, which has been dissolved or 
suspended in the water. Devergie relates a case in which sand 
and gravel were found in the trachea, and another is reported 
by Blumliardt,(z) of an epileptic who, having fallen into a 
shallow brook, was drowned, and on 'post-mortem examination, 
his trachea was found to contain from three to four drachms 
of sand and gravel. Metzger (a) examined the body of a new- 
born child that was drowned in the drain of a slaughter-house. 
The whole of the trachea to its bifurcation was filled with 
the liquid refuse. The presence of water in the lungs is not, 
however, a proof that it was taken in while the person was 
living. The fact that water will penetrate the lungs of a 
dead body, which is submerged, rests mainly upon the autho- 
rity of Orfila, who made experiments which fully demonstrate 
its possibility. It is, indeed, true that most other experi- 
menters have not succeeded, but they have made their trials, 
either with dead animals or with stillborn children. Lbffler, 
however, in his experiments upon puppies, found that if the 
head were kept in a more or less elevated position, and the 
jaws separated by a piece of cork, the water readily penetrated 
after death into the lungs. The observations of Orfila, being 
upon the dead human body, are more to the purpose. He 
(s) Wurtemb. Med. Correspond., Bl. iv. No. 1. 
(a) Pyl’s Aufsatze, St. 6, Fall. 5. 
864 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH BY DROWNING. 
[§ 951 
found that, by placing the body in a bath-tub and coloring 
the water with lampblack or indigo, the colored water could 
afterwards be found in the subdivisions of the bronchial tubes. 
In one case even, in which the body, thirty hours after death, 
was placed upon its abdomen in the colored water, the water had 
penetrated as far as the middle of the trachea. Perhaps, as a 
general rule, water will not be found in the lungs, if the per- 
son did not perish by drowning but was thrown in after death, 
because the head by its weight falls back, and an obstacle is 
thus placed to the entrance of the water. But, where a body 
has been thrown into a well, or is otherwise found in a posture 
favorable to the ingress of the water, the discovery of this 
fluid in the respiratory passages may with plausibility be 
assumed to be of post-mortem occurrence. 
The absence of water from the lungs is certainly not sufli- 
cient evidence that the person was not drowned, because it is 
not invariably present in cases where the person has undoubt- 
edly perished in this way. Moreover, it may have drained 
away, especially if such manoeuvres have been used to resusci- 
tate the person as by rolling him on the ground or suspending 
him by the heels. It may also disappear by transudation, 
when the body remains a long time in the water. 
§ 951. Froth in the lungs has, on the other hand, greater 
significance as to the cause of death. Although found to a 
certain extent in other modes of suffocation, such as hanging 
and in epilepsy and extensive bronchitis, it does not present 
in these cases the same distinctive characters by which it may 
be recognized in death by drowning. In the cases referred to, 
it is very small in quantity, often bloody, and, being composed 
entirely of the mucous secretion of the trachea mixed with 
air, is viscid, in larger bubbles and closely adherent to the 
sides of the tube. The watery froth of the drowned is on the 
contrary abundant, foamy, made up of an infinite number of 
small bubbles which are easily separable, and which soon dis- 
solve on exposure to the air. It often extends from the mouth 
to the smaller bronchial tubes, but is generally more limited 
in extent. 
The absence of froth from the lungs cannot, however, be 
assigned as a proof that the person did not die from drowning. 
vol. ii.—55 
865 § 952] 
DROWNING. 
[book v. 
Experiments have shown that in certain cases of drowning it 
is not formed. These are cases in which, from any cause, the 
person has not risen to the surface to breathe. Piorry, Orfila, 
and others have shown, that, when animals are completely im- 
mersed in water and forcibly held there until dead, no froth 
is found in their lungs; but if, on the contrary, they are 
allowed to struggle and come to the surface, it is formed 
abundantly. Again, from its very nature, this sign is evanes- 
cent. If the body have lain for several days in the water, if 
it have been removed from the water with the head depend- 
ing, or, finally, if the inspection be not made soon after its 
removal, especially if the weather be warm, the froth that 
may possibly have existed will no longer be found. In Dr. 
Ogston’s observations, the watery froth in the lungs was not 
found later than fifty-five and a half hours after drowning in 
summer, and the fourth day in winter. This author states, 
also, that he met with a case of poisoning with laudanum, in 
w’hich a light watery froth like that of the drowned was 
found in the trachea.(6) 
Hence we may conclude, that the more extensively the froth 
is found in the respiratory passages, the greater will be the 
probability of death having taken place by drowning, and of 
the struggle having been active and prolonged before the ex- 
tinction of life. Unless there are marks of strangulation upon 
the body, pathological proof of bronchial catarrh, or evidence 
that the person has been subject to epilepsy, the sign is positive 
and conclusive of death by drowning. If, on the other hand, 
no froth is found, this circumstance is no proof that the person 
did not die by drowning, unless the inspection was made soon 
after death, the body having been carefully removed from the 
water, or unless other injuries sufficient to have caused death 
were discovered. Even then, it cannot be regarded as conclu- 
sive. 
§ 952. 4th. Water in the stomach.—Water is always swallowed 
in greater or less quantity, by a drowning person who retains 
sufficient consciousness to make a struggle for life. It will 
not, however, always be found, if the inspection have been 
(J) Lond. Med. Gaz., 1851, p. 762. 
866 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH BY DROWNING. 
[§ 953 
delayed for a long while, or if the popular means have been 
employed to restore him to life, by getting rid of the water 
in the stomach. Furthermore, there are certain cases in which 
the person falls into the water already asphyxiated, Or stunned 
by a blow or a fall, in which case, consciousness not existing, no 
struggle will be made, and, consequently, no water swallowed. 
"When, however, water is found in the stomach, it may have 
been swallowed immediately before the presumed accident. 
Casper (c) relates an interesting case in which a child two years 
old, playing in the neighborhood of a stream, being thirsty, 
drank eagerly a large quantity of water given to him by his 
nurse. She left him for a moment, and on her return, found 
that he had fallen into the water, and was already drowned. 
In this case, the usual signs of suffocation were wanting, there 
was no watery froth in the trachea or bronchia, but the blood 
was remarkably fluid, and the stomach filled with water. 
Hence it is necessary to observe whether the fluid in the 
stomach is identical with that in which the person apparently 
was drowned, for although the result will frequently be a 
negative one, yet it is often possible to detect sand, gravel, 
parts of water-plants, etc., in the oesophagus and stomach, 
which it is highly improbable would have been voluntarily 
swallowed. If the individual be discovered lying in a morass, 
a stagnant pool, or a privy well, there will be, of course, no 
difficulty in recognizing the liquids from such places, if found 
in the stomach. 
§ 953. The objection to the evidence from the presence of 
water in the lungs, that it may have penetrated thither after 
death, cannot be applied to the sign under discussion. Ex- 
periments by Riedell, Champeaux and Faisolle, Maschka, Vi- 
borg, Kansler, Orfila, and Piorry, on the dead bodies of animals 
and men, have fully established the certainty, that water 
does not enter the stomach after death, unless putrefaction is 
far advanced. Hence the conclusion is warranted, that, if the 
water can be recognized as identical with that in which the 
individual apparently was drowned (unless it was drunk pre- 
(c) Gericlit. Leiclien offnungen. Fall. 77. 
867 § 954] 
DROWNING. 
[book v. 
vious to submersion) he.must have swallowed it in his drown- 
ing struggles. 
§ 954. 5th. The general signs of death by asphyxia are found 
on drowned persons. Contrary to the once prevailing opinion, 
that apoplexy was the cause of death in drowning, an extrava- 
sation of blood in the brain is rarely met with in the drowmed. 
Those who are predisposed to apoplexy, and who suddenly 
enter cold water, particularly when the stomach is full, may 
be struck with apoplexy; or those who fall on the head, from 
a height, into the water, may rupture one of the cerebral 
vessels, but the reader should bear in mind that this is neither 
a necessary nor a usual condition in those who simply die 
from drowning. Even a congestion or fulness of the vessels 
of the brain is not constantly observed, and the appearances 
often described as such are most probably cadaveric, and due 
to the depending position in which the head is generally found. 
The amount of congestion of the brain depends usually 
upon that of the thoracic viscera. The lungs appear fuller 
and more voluminous than usual, sometimes overlapping each 
other in the anterior mediastinum, but do not contain much 
blood.(d) The ecchymoses which are found beneath the pleura, 
pericardium, and pericranium, in all cases of suffocation, and 
in some of strangulation, are never found after death by 
drowning (Tardieu). M. Faure(g) has called attention to the 
emphysematous condition of the lungs resulting from the 
rupture of the pulmonary vesicles and the escape of air mixed 
with water from them into the intra-vesicular structure, as a 
distinctive sign of death by drowning, and as being available, 
therefore, in helping to determine whether a body found 
in the water was thrown there after death, or is that of a 
person who died by drowning. Such lungs are remarkable 
for retaining their natural shape, and for their unusual weight. 
The heart always contains, in its right half, fluid or loosely 
coagulated blood, and is distended with it if the lungs are at 
the same time overloaded. 
According to some authors, the blood is always completely 
(d) Bock, Gericht. Sectionen., p. 44. 
(e) Arch. Gen., 5eme ser. xii. 301, and xv. 474. 
868 BOOK V.] 
[§ 955 
MARKS OF VIOLENCE ON THE DROWNED. 
fluid, but this statement is liable to exceptions, as coagulated 
blood has been found in some well authenticated cases of 
drowning, and also in experiments upon animals which have 
been killed in this way.(/) The abdominal organs are usually 
found much congested, especially the liver and kidneys. If 
the drowning have taken place during the process of digestion, 
the stomach, as observed by Orfila, presents a violet color. 
The bladder sometimes contains urine, at others not; as a sign 
of drowning, it is of the most complete insignificance. Re- 
traction of the penis is given by Casper as a sign peculiar to 
death by drowning. 
§ 955. 6th. Marks of violence.—The first point to be deter- 
mined in all cases where marks of violence are discovered 
upon the bodies of persons found in the water, is, whether the 
individual was really drowned. This is rendered necessary 
by the fact that persons are not unfrequently thrown into the 
water dead, or supposed to be dead, after criminal violence has 
been employed, and it is hoped in this way to conceal the 
cause of death. Moreover, suicides endeavor sometimes to 
destroy themselves by drowning, when they have failed by 
other means. If it can be shown, from an absence of the signs 
of drowning before enumerated, that the person was probably 
dead at the time of submersion, it will, of course, not be 
necessary to consider the possibility of the injuries having 
been accidentally received at that time. The character and 
extent of the wounds or other injuries will often enable us to 
determine very nearly at what period they were received. 
Indeed, it is only by a careful examination of these, and a 
comparison of them with those which could possibly be made 
accidentally in drowning, or immediately afterwards, that we 
can hope to approach to a correct judgment of the case. A 
person falling from a height into the water may sustain 
various severe injuries, especially if the water be shallow and 
he fall upon the head. Fractures and even dislocations have 
been produced by this means. The first may be caused by 
sudden, violent contact with some hard body in the water, or 
at its bottom; the second is illustrated in the case of a man 
(/) Taylor, Med. Jur. 
869 § 955] 
DROWNING. 
[book V. 
who for a wager jumped from the parapet of London Bridge, 
and dislocated both arms, probably in consequence of holding 
them in a horizontal position. Besides these injuries, various 
contusions and lacerations may occur in drowning or imme- 
diately after it, from accidental violence, sustained by the 
person in his drowning struggles, his body being possibly 
thrown againt projecting rocks, roots of trees, or sharp pieces 
of wood or iron. SoiUetimes a mark, similar to that made in 
hanging, is found upon the neck of persons who have been 
accidentally drowned, and caused by the pressure of the 
collar or fastening of the dress rendered tense by the imbibi- 
tion of water. 
A case is recorded (g) in which the body of an old man, who 
had voluntarily drowned himself, was drawn out of the water 
by means of a rope fastened round the neck for the purpose. 
This was done probably half an hour after death. The thyroid 
cartilage was broken into several pieces, and there was a dis- 
tinct ecchymosis over it, made by the rope. 
It is the proyince of the physician to determine whether 
these injuries could have been produced in this fortuitous 
manner, but most of the circumstances which throw light 
upon these doubtful cases come properly under the cognizance 
of the jury. There are some injuries, on the other hand, 
which are of such a nature as to indicate that they were in- 
flicted previous to drowning. They are such as cannot be 
attributed to any cause incidental to drowning, but must 
have been either self-inflicted or homicidal. They are stabs, 
gunshot wounds, incised wounds of the neck, etc. In estimat- 
ing the cause, nature, and effect of these injuries, the physi- 
cian will be governed by the facts referred to in the chapter 
on Wounds, since evidently the circumstance of subsequent 
immersion will not materially affect the distinction between 
homicide and suicide. If, however, the body have lain long 
in the water, and especially if the process of putrefaction 
have begun, the information derivable from the marks of 
violence upon the body will be greatly impaired in value. Not 
only will the coagula, wherever the water has gained access, 
(g) Henke’s Zeitschrift, fur 1844, H. i. 
870 BOOK V.] 
PUTREFACTION IN THE DROWNED. 
[§ 957 
be dissolved and washed away, but the size, direction, and 
color of the wound will be altered. The cause of this fact 
will be fully apparent from a consideration of the structural 
changes made by the process of decomposition. 
§ 956. 7th. Putrefaction, etc.—A body which is taken out of 
the water presents a pale and bleached appearance, which is 
more striking the warmer the temperature of the water. In 
summer it is observable in a few hours; in winter, not until 
several days after death. After the body has been removed 
from the water, and while still iresh, the face and head, the 
neck and the breast as far as the middle of the sternum, 
acquire one after the other a brick-red appearance. But the 
putrefactive process very soon begins, and spots of a bluish- 
green color appear in the midst of this redness, and generally 
are first evident upon the temples, ears, and nape of the neck, 
and then on the neck and breast. These spots mingle together, 
and more rapidly wThen the body has lain long in the water, so 
that in summer, after eight to twelve days, and in winter, in 
twelve to fourteen days, the whole head, neck, and somewhat 
later the breast also have acquired a dirty-green color, with 
interspaces .of dark red. Casper says that it is not unusual to 
see bodies of the drowned which exhibit this striking putre- 
factive change, while at the same time the rest of the body, 
particularly the abdomen and extremities, retain their pale 
color. In water of the temperature of 50° to 54° Fahr., the 
body becomes rigid in a few hours. The skin assumes a 
yellowish-white color, the lips become blue, and the joints in- 
flexible. 
§ 957. After the lapse of from three to ten days, the condi- 
tion of the body undergoes a marked change. The develop- 
ment of gas becomes so great as to cause the body to float, 
and in the course of the second week, the skin becomes em- 
physematous, the cuticle loose, and the parts of the body 
which are above the surface of the water acquire tints of green, 
blue, and brown, and become dry and parchment-like. If the 
body has rolled about in the water, as will be the case where 
the current is rapid, these changes take place more gradually. 
If taken out of the water about this time, the features become 
in a few hours scarcely recognizable in consequence of the 
871 § 958] 
[book v. 
DROWNING. 
swelling and discoloration, the latter being blackish-green; 
the whole of the body is swelled and puffy, and the scrotum 
often distended to the size of a child’s head. The penis, on 
the contrary, is very much shrunken. The internal organs, 
with the exception of the brain, are comparatively fresh in 
their appearance. If the body, however, have remained in 
the water, and the weather be cool, few changes worthy of 
note take place during the next six or seven weeks. But 
about the third or fourth month the skin has become so much 
eroded in various places, but especially over the inguinal 
region, that perforations will be found leading to the various 
cavities of the body. In consequence, the gases generated by 
decomposition escape, and the body sinks again in the water. 
The skin and the muscular tissue become transformed into 
incrustations of adipocere, and the bones are so loosely held 
together, that portions of the skeleton are apt to be separated. 
The time which a body has lain in the water cannot be deter- 
mined with any precision, after the process of putrefaction 
has once commenced. The rapidity and character of the alter- 
ations which it undergoes vary according to age, sex, habit 
of body, temperature of the water and the air, depth of the 
water, and whether salt or fresh, stagnant or running, the 
attacks of fish and birds of prey, and finally whether the body 
is clothed or not. 
Hence it may be inferred, from these remarks, how easily, 
after the body has lain some time in the water, the external 
features of wounds and other injuries may be masked by the 
progress of putrefaction and the imbibition of water by the 
skin. 
§ 958. TV. Accidental or otherwise.—Infants and the infirm 
and aged may be accidentally drowned in very shallow water, 
as may also, indeed, adults who fall into it, the mouth down- 
ward, in a fit of epilepsy or helpless from intoxication. A 
man was in tbe act of leaving a privy, when he was seized 
with an epileptic fit and fell with his face in a piece of dirty 
water, which did not exceed a foot and a half in breadth, 
with a depth of from three to four inches. When discovered 
after death, only his mouth and nostrils and one cheek were 
872 BOOK V.] 
[§ 959 
ACCIDENTAL OH OTHERWISE. 
found to have been under water.(A) Moreover, persons bent 
on suicide have been known to destroy themselves in this 
way; a case is related by Dr. Smith in which a woman thrust 
her head in an opening which she had made in the ice and so 
perishqd. Where, however, persons are found drowned in 
shallow water, the natural presumption will be that the}' have 
been forcibly held there by one or more murderers. It is only 
by the absence of any marks of violence, that we may infer 
that the act may have been suicidal or accidental. 
§ 959. The presence of ligatures upon the hands and feet, 
and of weights attached to the body, rebuts the presumption 
of accidental drowning, but does not prove that it was homi- 
cidal. In a case which occurred in Paris, the body of a man 
was found in the river, his neck, legs, and hands being fastened 
together by a cord furnished with slip knots. It was proved 
that he had died by drowning, and had himself secured the 
cord, to insure a more speedy death.(z) If, however, as is re- 
marked by Mr. Taylor, the limbs bear evidence of violent con- 
striction from the cord, and especially if these marks are found 
on the forepart of the neck or on both wrists, the presumption 
of murder becomes very strong. In another case, the body of 
a man was found in the water, with his legs tied together, 
over the trowsers, below the knee. The right wrist was fast- 
(A) Dr. Ogston, Med. Gaz., May 2, 1851. Dr. Taylor, in his critique of 
the medical evidence in the case of Kirwan (Dublin Quarterly Journal, Jan. 
1853), says: “Persons while bathing, or exposed to the chance of drowning, 
are often seized with fits which may prove suddenly fatal, although they may 
allow of a short struggle; the fit may arise from syncope, apoplexy, or epi- 
lepsy. Either of the last conditions would, in my opinion, reconcile all the 
medical circumstances of this remarkable case. It is the result of twenty 
years’ experience in the investigation of these cases, that the resistance 
which a healthy and vigorous person can offer to the assault of a murderer, 
intent upon drowning or suffocating him or her, is in general such as to lead 
to the infliction of a greater amount of violence than is necessary to insure 
the death of the victim. The absence of any marks of violence or wounds 
on the body of Mrs. Kirwan, excepting such small abrasions as might have 
resulted from accident, may be taken in support of the only view which, it 
appears to me, can be drawn, namely, that the death was not the result of a 
homicidal drowning or suffocation, but most probably of a fit resulting from 
natural causes.” 
(t) Ann. d’Hygiene, 1833, i. 207. 
873 § 959] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[book v. 
ened in a noose, and the free end of the cord, after passing 
around the body, was loosely tied or wrapped around the left. 
This latter circumstance, together with the absence of marks 
of violence, rendered it probable that this also was a case of 
suicide.^') 
CHAPTER XII. 
SIGNS OF DEATH.(jfc) 
I. Cessation of the respiration and circulation, § 960. 
II. Filmy aspect of the eyes,. § 961. 
•III. Pallor of the body, § 962. 
IV. Extinction of animal heat, § 963. 
Y. Relaxation of the muscles, § 964. 
VI. Relaxation of the cornea, § 965. 
VII. Flattening of the fleshy parts, § 966. 
VIII. Suggillations, § 967. 
1st; External, § 968. 
2d. Internal, § 970. 
(1) Lungs, § 971. 
(2) Brain, § 972. 
(3) Kidneys and intestines, § 973. 
(4) Heart, § 974. 
IX. Cadaveric rigidity, § 975. 
X. Putrefaction, § 977. 
1st. Fat, etc., § 978. 
2d. Women after childbirth, § 979. 
3d. Newly-born infants, § 980. 
4th. Manner of death, § 981. 
5th. Effect of external agents, § 982. 
(1) Exposure in the open air, § 982. 
(2) Moisture, § 983. 
(3) Heat, § 984. 
6th. External signs, § 985. 
XI. Saponification, § 986. 
XII. Mummification, § 987. 
(j) Casper’s Vierteljalirsclirift, 1854, Heft i. p. 167. 
(k) This chapter is mainly drawn from Dr. Casper’s Pract. Hand. Gericht. 
Med., Berlin, 1857; Liman’s ed., Berlin, 1871. 
874 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[§ 961 
XIII. Decomposition of internal organs, § 088. 
1st. Windpipe, § 989. 
2d. Brain of infants, § 990. 
3d. Stomach, § 991. 
4th. Intestinal canal, § 992. 
5th. Spleen, § 993. 
6th. Omentum and mesentery, § 994. 
7th. Liver, § 995. 
8tli. Brain of grown persons, § 996. 
9tli. Heart, § 997. 
lOtli. Lungs, § 998. 
11th. Kidneys, § 999. 
12th. Urinary bladder, § 1000. 
13th. (Esophagus, § 1001. 
14th. Pancreas, § 1002. 
15th. Diaphragm, § 1003. 
16tli. Arteries, g 1004. 
17th. Uterus, § 1005. 
§ 960. I. Cessation of the respiration and of the circulation, so 
that no pulsation or murmur can be discovered even with the 
aid of a stethoscope. 
§ 961. II. Filmy aspect of the eyes.f) 
(l) M. Bouchut, in La Tribune Medicate, No. 47, 1868, gives some signs 
of death as supplied by ophthalmoscopic examinations. 
“1. We are able either with the aid of the ophthalmoscope or by means of 
atropine to distinguish real from apparent death, and thus to guard against 
the dangers of premature inhumations. 
“2. If death is but apparent, the cornea is translucent, the papilla of a rose- 
red color, and the fundus of the eye red and furrowed by the arteries and 
veins of the retina. 
“3. After death we may observe with the ophthalmoscope that the trans- 
parent cornea is wrinkled, and like in appearance to a piece of moistened 
window-glass, which prevents our seeing clearly the objects behind it. 
“4. At the very instant of death, the choroid loses its red color, and be- 
comes pale, nacreous, or gray, like tarnished lead. 
“5. With its change in color after death the choroid acquires a pale tint 
similar to that of the papilla, so that the extremity of the optic nerve, being 
no longer made apparent by the red fundus, becomes almost invisible. 
“6. Although, after death, the papilla of the optic nerve is no longer recog- 
nizable by its color, its place may still be indicated by the venous trunks which 
radiate from it as a common centre. 
“ 7. Death causes the central artery of the retina to disappear, by removing 
from it all the blood that it contains. 
“8. In consequence of death, the veins of the retina are contracted, or 
875 876 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[book v. 
§ 962. III. Pallor of the body.—Persons of a very ruddy 
complexion, however, often retain a high color for some time 
after death. Red or livid rings around ulcers on the foot, etc., 
do not disappear. This is also the case with tattoo marks, 
jaundice, and discolorations produced by a blow received some 
time previous to death. 
§ 963. IV. Extinction of animal heat.—This is a gradual 
process, and the time required to produce it varies with the 
condition of the body at the time of death, with the manner 
of death, and with the medium in which the body is kept after 
death. Fat bodies, for example, retain warmth, cceteris paribus, 
long-er than those which are lean. The same is said to be true 
of the bodies of persons killed by lightning, and it is certainly 
the case with all such as perish by any kind of suffocation. 
Very much depends upon the temperature of the medium in 
which the body is kept. It is well known that a dead body 
if thrown into water will cool very rapidly, while if thrown 
into a dung-heap, or the vault of a water-closet, or even if 
closely covered in a bed, it will cool very slowly. As a gene- 
partly disappear, and the blood arrested in their interior presents more or less 
extensive interruptions, which hinder us from following the vessels along the 
whole of their intra-ocular course. 
“9. When in a state of apparent death, a solution of atropine placed be- 
tween the lids always produces at the end of a quarter of an hour a great 
dilatation of the pupil. 
“ 10. When death is real, the solution of atropine produces no effect on the 
pupil, so that the absence of dilatation of the iris after the application of 
this agent ought to be considered as a certain sign of death.”—Half-Yearly 
Abstract of the Med. Sci., 1868, vol. xliii. p. 101. 
It is important to hear in mind, however, that in some cases the pupil will 
respond to atropine and Calabar bean for some hours after death. Borelli 
found that, “in exceptional cases, effects followed their application as long as 
twenty-four hours after death. He found the result of their application less 
marked in cases where death had resulted from old age or marasmus. The 
period of time that had elapsed after death also influenced the result. A re- 
flection of the myotic action of the Calabar bean from one eye to the other 
W’as also noticed, 'which was never seen in the case of the mydriatic action of 
atropia. This difference Borelli attributes to the fact that the brain, which is 
the organ of reflex action for the circular fibres of the iris, preserves its 
vitality longer than the great sympathetic which innervates the radiating 
fibres.”—Am. Journ. Med. Sci., April, 1872, p. 562, from Edinb. Med. Journ., 
Nov. 1871, and Oiornale d' Oftalmoligia Italiano. 
876 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
877 
ral rule, bodies become entirely cold within from eight to 
twelve hours after death. 
§ 964. Y. Relaxation of the muscles generally begins imme- 
diately after death, and is the earliest symptom of the extinc- 
tion of the turgor vitalis. 
Want of electro-muscular contractility. — Dr. Taylor states 
that failure of a superficial muscle to respond to galvanic 
stimulus may be taken as a certain sign of death in a 
body.(^) 
§ 965. YI. The relaxation and sunken state of the cornea after 
death is well known. Still more remarkable is the suppleness 
or pliancy of the eyeball. Up to the last moment of life the 
eyeball uniformly remains elastic, and resists any pressure of 
the finger; but within twelve or eighteen hours after death 
this resistance ceases, and the ball becomes gradually softer 
and softer, until decomposition takes place. 
§ 966. VII. The flattening of the fleshy parts upon which the 
body rests? not only on the back and sides, but also the calf 
of the legs, on the upper and lower extremities, on the thighs, 
etc., according to the position of the body at the time of 
death and subsequently. 
§ 967. YIII. Suggillation,(l2) or livid discoloration, is the 
result of the settling of the blood in obedience to the law of 
gravity. Hence it occurs upon the depending parts of the 
body, as on the back, on the calf of the leg, on the face, on 
the ears, and on the sides of the breast. It begins to appear 
within ten or fifteen hours after death, and the spots increase 
in size until decomposition takes place. As suggillation fur- 
nishes in itself satisfactory evidence of the reality of death, 
we shall notice it further, distinguishing, for the sake of con- 
venience, between external and internal. 
§ 968. 1st. External suggillations, or death spots.—These de- 
serve careful attention, because they may be easily mistaken 
by the inexperienced for ecchymoses, or bruises, and conse- 
(Z1) Med. Jurisprudence. Sixth Am. ed. p. 59. 
(Z2) This word is now most commonly employed as synonymous with 
cadaveric lividity, to describe those violet-colored spots which form upon the 
dependent portions of dead bodies by the influence of gravity.—Nysten, Diet, 
de Med. 11 erne ed. 
877 878 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[book v. 
quent.ly for traces of violence inflicted during life. The scalpel, 
however, furnishes an easy and certain test by which the two 
may be distinguished. In post-mortem suggillations, an in- 
cision, no matter how bold and deep, will never cause liquid 
or coagulated blood to appear in the wound. At the most, 
only small specks of blood will be seen arising from the di- 
vision of small veins of the skin. But wherever there is the 
least ecchymosis, an incision will be followed by a flow of 
blood. As this is the only decisive test between these two 
appearances, which in many respects are so much alike, it 
should never be omitted by the examining physician. 
§ 969. The color of suggillations varies but little between 
bluish-red, scarlet, and copper-red. They are never raised at 
all above the level of the skin, as is often the case with ecchy- 
moses. They also assume different shapes—round, oblong, or 
angular. At first they appear in separate spots, haying the 
size ©f a walnut, of an apple, of the hand, etc., until they 
gradually run together and cover large portions of the body— 
as the half or the whole of the back. These spots are not 
affected by age, six, or constitution, and follow upon all kinds 
of death, not excepting death by hemorrhage. Engel main- 
tains that suggillations may be caused to disappear by making 
an incision into them, and allowing that part of the body in 
which they are to lie dependent. But Dr. Casper remarks 
that, after a great number of experiments, he had never seen 
one entirely disappear, although they become somewhat smaller 
and paler. 
§ 970. 2d. Internal suggillation (hypostatic congestion) ap- 
pears in several different organs, but chiefly in the lungs, in 
the brain, the kidneys, and intestines. 
§ 971. (1) In the lungs it is seen very frequently. It makes 
its appearance, according to Orfila, within from twenty-four to 
thirty-six hours after death, but there is no doubt that it often 
arises far earlier than this, at'the time that the blood in gene- 
ral begins to settle. In the case of bodies which have re- 
mained lying on the back, both lungs at their posterior part, 
or about a fourth part of the whole parenchyma, will be found 
of a much darker color than the rest, and, on being laid open, 
878 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
879 
an evident sanguineous engorgement will be seen, even when 
these organs are anaemic. This is so striking that it may 
easily mislead the inexperienced, and cause them to attribute 
the death to apoplexy of the lungs, pneumonia, etc. This is 
especially apt to be the case where the blood is unusually dark, 
and where oedema of the lungs had existed. 
§ 972. (2) In the brain.—It is important to observe that 
hypostatic congestion often occurs in the brain even in cases 
of death by bleeding; so that a quantity of blood in the cere- 
bral veins generally, and especially in the posterior sinuses, is 
no evidence against this manner of death. Whether, in case 
this condition do not appear soon after death, it can afterwards 
be made to appear by changing the position of the body, is 
doubtful. This common appearance of hypostatic congestion 
in the brain must not be mistaken for active hypersemia, as 
may easily be done by the inexperienced, who are thus led to 
attribute death to an attack of apoplexy where none existed. 
§ 973. (3) In the kidneys and intestines.—Hypostatic conges- 
tion occurs in the kidneys and other organs of the abdomen. 
It is especially common in the organs which lie in the pelvis. 
The bluish-red color which appears on the dependent folds of 
the intestines may easily be mistaken for disease, whereas it is 
only a cadaveric phenomenon. The diagnosis, however, is 
easily made by drawing out the whole mass of intestine, when 
the arborescent appearance will be seen to occur at regular 
intervals. When the body has remained resting on the back, 
the posterior half of the kidneys becomes discolored, and in 
this way may easily be distinguished from a general hyper- 
aemia in this organ. 
§ 974. (4) The heart.—Suggillation does not occur in the 
heart; but as this organ exhibits more than any other the so- 
called polypus, a Very important formation as regards medical 
jurisprudence, it may be conveniently noticed here. These 
heart polypi are merely coagulated fibrin, and are either clear 
and white, or colored red by the blood. It is not to be ad- 
mitted that this coagulation of the blood occurs before death, 
as an ordinary phenomenon, although in cases of a protracted 
agony it may take place in this long interval between life and 
death. As a general rule it takes place after death, and as the 
879 § 975] 
SIGNS OP DEATH. 
[book v. 
body gradually grows cold. Hence, where coagulated blood 
is found in wounds upon a dead body, it cannot safely be con- 
cluded that the wounds were produced before death, upon the 
ground that “ blood cannot coagulate after death.” This is 
one of the many erroneous notions which have remained un- 
detected, from the habit of treating medical jurisprudence in 
a merely theoretical way. Engel is right when he says, “ I do 
not believe that there is any disease or manner of death after 
which blood does not coagulate in the dead body. Some 
special case where it has not occurred may be cited, but many 
other cases may be adduced where it has occurred after the 
same disease or manner of death.” This coagulation of the 
blood must follow peculiar laws which are as yet unknown; 
for it not only takes place after those kinds of death of which 
a fluid state of the blood is characteristic—as after different 
kinds of suffocation—but, what seems quite inexplicable, the 
coagulation occurs in many organs and vessels sooner than in 
others, not only in the heart (the right ventricle), but also in 
the inferior vena cava, the liver, etc. The proposition that 
“ coagulated blood around or in a wound shows reaction 
during life, because no coagulation of the blood can take place 
after death,” is, with all its consequences, erroneous. 
§ 975. IX. Cadaveric rigidity.—This mark of death is well 
known. It occurs within tolerably wide limits, but commonly 
between twelve and twenty hours after death, and lasts from 
one to seven days. After this rigidity passes oft’ the body 
again becomes as pliant as before. The primary cause of its 
appearance is unknown. After death from narcotic poisons it 
does not take place, or, at least, only for a short time. Heither 
is it observed, according to Casper, in the body of the imma- 
ture foetus. These two cases constitute, perhaps, the only real 
exceptions. There is a great difference of opinion as to the 
longer or shorter continuance of cadaveric rigidity after certain 
specific diseases. A low temperature of the air and the use of 
alcohol tend to prolong it. Cases are cited by l)r. Casper, in 
which he observed it after two, four, six, and eight days. The 
stiffness of a frozen body may easily be distinguished from 
cadaveric rigidity. In the former case the whole body is as 
880 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
881 
stiff as a board, while in the latter some suppleness about the 
joints of the knees and elbows always remains. 
§ 976. Where the above marks are observed it may be con- 
cluded that the body is that of a person who has been dead 
from two to three days.(m) 
(m) The subject of cadaveric rigidity has been very thoroughly investi- 
gated by Dr. Kussmaul, whose essay upon the subject also presents an epitome 
of what had previously been written concerning it. (See Prager Vierteljahrs. 
1. 67.) From this it would appear that, whatever may he the cause of death, 
the phenomenon in question is never totally wanting. It has been observed 
by Bertelsen and by Ehrmann, even in the foetus removed by Caesarian sec- 
tion from the womb. Yet it may occupy certain portions only of the body. 
It is usually observed first in the neck and the muscles of the lower jaw, 
whence it extends both upwards and downwards. In a limb it can, if com- 
plete, be removed by forcible flexion, and if not complete, the flexed limb 
will become rigid again. The period after death at which it begins and that 
at which it ends are entirely variable. It may commence within an hour, 
or be delayed for a whole day, and it usually appears latest in the bodies of 
vigorous and muscular persons. In them, also, it generally lasts longest, 
and in cold weather may continue for eight or ten days; but when the 
weather is hot and the body emaciated it may disappear in the course of ten 
or fifteen hours. Kussmaul lays it down as a law that whatever powerfully 
depresses the vitality of the muscular fibre favors the speedy supervention of 
its rigidity. Oxygen, it is stated, being the agent upon which its vital power 
depends, the more rapidly the influence of this agent is withdrawn the earlier 
will rigidity occur. We see this condition supervening rapidly in animals 
which consume a large proportion of oxygen in breathing, as birds, while in 
those which consume but little air, as the amphibious animals, it is very 
tardily developed. 
It is stated in the text that warmth delays while cold' hastens cadaveric 
rigidity ; but such a statement would seem to be applicable only to the ex- 
tremes of temperature ; and hence it matters little in reference to this point 
whether a body is covered with the bedclothes or is nalsed, or whether it is 
exposed to the average temperature of winter or summer. Sommer placed 
two-stillborn infants in a bath at 90°-100° F., immediately after their birth. 
In from three to four hours rigidity developed itself and reached its maximum 
in six hours. 
The essential cause of cadaveric rigidity is not well known. Brucke, and 
after him Kuhne, have given plausible reasons for supposing it to depend upon 
the coagulation of the fibro-albuminous fluid which imparts moisture to the 
organs. (Prager Vierteljahrs. lxi. 93.) Other explanations have been pro- 
posed, but none suffice. 
It has been shown by Orfila, and more recently by Dr. Ogston (Brit, and 
For. Med. Rev., April, 1857, p. 303), that under the general title of cadaveric 
rigidity two conditions have been confounded which are apparently distinct 
from one another. The one comes on at a variable period after death, and 
vol. ii.—56 
881 §981] 
[book v. 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
§ 977. X. Putrefaction.—The rapidity with which the pro- 
cess of decomposition takes place depends partly upon the 
condition of the body, and partly upon external causes. 
§ 978. 1st. Fat, soft, lymphatic bodies putrefy, caeteris 
paribus, far sooner than those which are lean, because the 
quantity of moisture in them favors the work of decompo- 
sition. This will account for the fact that the bodies of very 
aged persons generally decompose more slowly than those of 
others. 
§ 979. 2d. The bodies of women who die soon after child- 
birth, from whatever disease, decompose very rapidly. But 
it is not to be supposed that difference of sex, in itself, affects 
the process. 
§ 980. 3d. It is known that the bodies of newly-born infants 
decompose, cceteris paribus, sooner than other bodies. But it 
must be observed that in the great majority of cases the 
bodies of infants judicially examined have been subjected to 
influences to which other bodies are seldom subjected. In 
most cases the body has been exposed in the open air naked, 
or only slightly covered. 
§ 981. 4tli. The process of decomposition is materially af- 
fected by the manner of death. After the sudden death of a 
person in health the body decomposes much less rapidly than 
after an exhausting sickness, or a disease which impairs the 
blood, as typhus or putrid fever, organic dropsy, tubercular 
disease, etc. The process is also very rapid in the case of 
bodies which have been much bruised or mangled. Those 
cases, however, must be excepted in which the body remains 
the other, which the former writer terms spasmodic rigidity, and the latter 
cadaveric spasm, commences at the latest instant of life, and continues until 
the muscular tissues have begun to alter under the influence of the putre- 
factive process. Like ordinary cadaveric rigidity, it differs from tetanic spas- 
modic rigidity in this, that, as Kussmaul has shown in the form last named, 
the bent limb when forcibly straightened tends to resume its previous pos- 
ture, while in both of the other forms the limb retains the position in which 
it is placed. There are numerous instances in which persons have been 
found dead in a sitting posture from which they must have fallen but for this 
cadaveric spasm, and Dr. Ogston relates the case of a man who committed 
suicide by hanging, and between whose knees a Bible was found, retained 
solely by the lateral pressure of the closely adducted thighs. 
882 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[§ 982 
protected from the air, as when buried underneath fallen walls, 
etc. The bodies of persons suffocated by smoke, coal-gas, and 
sulphuretted hydrogen-gas, decompose very quickly. Decom- 
position also takes place speedily after death from narcotic 
poisons. This is not so much the case after death from other 
poisons, especially after poison by phosphorus. Where a person 
has been poisoned by sulphuric acid, the process of decompo- 
sition is decidedly retarded, probably because the acid hinders 
the disengagement of ammonia. In the case of persons who 
have been killed by a stroke of apoplexy, while in a state of 
drunkenness, the body has been observed to remain sound an 
unusual length of time, owing to the well-known anti-putre- 
scent powers of alcohol. Where death is produced by arsenic, 
decomposition takes place as usual up to a certain point, after 
which it ceases and mummification begins. 
In addition to the above-mentioned influences which affect 
the processs of decomposition, there must be others, as yet un- 
known to us. As evidence of this fact, Dr. Casper cites a case 
in which he examined the bodies of fourteen men, all of about 
the same age, who had followed the same course of life, and 
who had been killed at the same moment by a single cannon- 
ball. In all of these cases the progress of decomposition was 
different. The same author cites also the case of a married 
couple, of nearly the same age, who had been suffocated during 
the same night by coal-gas. The bodies had been subjected 
to the same influences up to the time of examination, and yet 
the back and belly of the man were quite green, the windpipe 
was brownish-red, etc., while the body of the wife, an un- 
commonly fat woman, was perfectly sound both without and 
within. 
§ 982. 5th. Effect of external agents.—The external agents 
which affect the process of decomposition are Air, Moisture, 
and Heat. 
(1) Bodies left uncovered in the open air decompose, cceteris 
paribus, far sooner than others. It is not uncommon to find in 
the case of persons who have been drowned with their clothing 
on, that part of the leg which is protected by the boot quite 
sound, when the rest of the body is almost decomposed. 
Owing to this influence of the atmosphere, the rapidity of de- 
883 § 984] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[book v. 
composition will be affected by tlie manner in which the body 
is clothed, by the kind of coffin in which it is inclosed, by the 
soil in which it is buried, and by the greater or less depth of 
the grave. It is well known, for instance, that pine coffins 
will soon decay and leave the inclosed bodies exposed. So, 
too, bodies interred in shallow graves are less protected from 
the decomposing effect of the atmosphere, than those which 
are interred deeper. A stiff, clay soil shuts out the air more 
effectually than a porous, sandy soil. But this effect of dif- 
ference of soil may be more than counterbalanced by the pre- 
sence or absence of another agency, viz., moisture. Clay .or 
turf soils are apt to contain more moisture than sandy soils, 
and hence promote to a greater extent decomposition. 
§ 983. (2) In proportion to the amount of moisture will be 
the greater or less rapidity of decomposition. Hence bodies 
which remain in water, decompose much more quickly than 
those which are buried in the earth. 
§ 984. (3) Although heat of itself has a tendency to dry 
up the body and thus to check the process of decomposition, 
yet, when united with the above-mentioned agencies of air 
and moisture, it promotes the process very greatly. This is 
seen in the fact, that a body exposed in summer at a tempera- 
ture of 68 or 78° F., will, in the course of one or two days, 
be quite unfit for the dissecting-table, while in winter, at a 
temperature of 14° to 20° F., this will not be the case after 
ten or twelve days. The same effect of temperature is seen 
where the body is kept in water. If frozen in ice, it will 
remain sound a very long, and, indeed, an indefinite time, as 
is proved by the mammoth found in Siberia, parts of which 
are still preserved in the University of Moscow. A body 
kept in water at a temperature of from 35° to 45° often shows, 
after ten or twelve days, the marks of strangulation, while at 
a temperature of 70° or 75° these disappear in from five to 
seven days. It must also be observed, in this connection, that, 
when the water is deep, the temperature at the bottom differs 
perceptibly from that at the top, the latter being more affected 
by the sun. Hence, a body floating on the top of the water will 
decompose more rapidly than one remaining at the bottom. A 
body taken out of the water, and exposed to the atmosphere, 
884 BOOK V.] 
[§ 985 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
will undergo decomposition to a greater extent in a single day 
than it would have done in two or three days, had it remained 
in water. A higher or lower temperature of the earth quickens 
or retards decomposition in the same way as a higher or lower 
temperature of the water. 
Dr. Casper estimates the comparative effect upon a dead 
body of exposure to the air, and of protection in water or in 
the earth, as follows: “A body, when freely exposed in the 
open air, will ordinarily undergo as much decomposition in 
one week or month, as it would in two weeks or months if 
kept in water, or in eight weeks or months if buried in the 
earth after the usual manner. This, of course, is offered only 
as a general rule. In each individual case allowance must be 
made according to the circumstances.” 
§ 985. 6th. External signs of decomposition.—In describing 
these appearances, bodies which have been exposed, from the 
time of death, in the open air, may be taken as types. 
(1) The first appearance, in order of time, is a greenish 
color upon the surface of the belly, accompanied with the 
smell peculiar to putrefaction. This discoloration arises 
between twenty-four and seventy-two hours after death, ac- 
cording to the condition of the body and the temperature of 
the medium in which it is kept. 
(2) Within the same period the cornea becomes soft, yield- 
ing to the pressure of the finger. 
(3) Within from three to five days after death, this green 
color spreads over all the lower part of the abdomen, including 
the genital organs, which, in the case of both sexes, assume 
rather a dirty, brownish-green color. In all cases of death 
from suffocation, bloody, frothy discharges from the nostrils 
will be observed, mingled with air-bubbles. Green spots of 
different sizes will now appear also on other parts of the body, 
as on the back, on the lower extremities, on the neck, and on 
the sides of the chest. 
(4) Between eight and twelve days after death, the whole 
body presents this green appearance, which has become darker 
in color and is accompanied with a stronger smell. On some 
parts, as on the face and neck, the color is a reddish-green, 
owing to the exudation of blood through the pores of the 
885 § 985] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[book v. 
skin. Gases have now begun to form, and to swell up the 
body. These are generally inflammable, and a burning jet 
may be produced by applying a lighted taper to a small open- 
ing made in the abdomen. The color of the eyes may still 
be recognized, but the cornea is concave. The anus stands 
open. On some parts of the body, epecially on the extremities, 
and on the neck and breast, dirty red streaks will be seen 
where the skin remains clear. The nails still adhere firmly to 
the skin. 
(5) Between fourteen and twenty days after death, a bright 
green and reddish-brown color spreads over the entire body. 
The cuticle is raised in blebs of different sizes, many of them 
as large as the palm of the hand, and which in some places 
have burst open. Maggots now appear in great numbers, 
especially in the folds and orifices of the body. Owing to 
the continued formation of gases, the chest is dilated, the 
belly acquires the shape of a large ball, and in fact the cellular 
tissue of the whole body is enormously distended, so as to 
assume gigantic proportions. The features are distorted, and 
the entire physiognomy so changed as to make it impossible 
even for the nearest relatives to recognize the person. The 
color of the eyes is no longer discernible, for the distinction 
between pupil and iris can no longer be seen, and the whole 
sclerotica has assumed a uniform dirty red color. In men, the 
penis is greatly swollen, and the scrotum is as large as a child’s 
head. The nails lie loosened at their roots. At this stage of 
decomposition the effect of difference of temperature is re- 
remarkable. Exposure for ten or twelve days at a tempera- 
ture of 68° to 78° will produce as great changes in the con- 
dition of the body as would take place within twenty or 
thirty days if exposed at a temperature of from 32° to 50°. 
The body now swarms with maggots, and where it is left un- 
protected in the air or in water, may become the prey of 
numerous other animals, as dogs, cats, foxes, wolves, birds of 
prey, and land and water rats. Fresh-water fish (German) do 
not feed upon dead bodies. Where the body has thus served 
for food the marks will be found upon the breast and belly 
and on the extremities, the bones of which are often laid bare. 
The consequent opening of the cavities and the lesions of the 
886 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[§ 986 
soft parts of the body may easily be distinguished, with a 
little attention, from traumatic injuries. When a body answers 
to the above description it may be safely concluded to be that 
of a person who has been dead at least so long as from fourten 
to twenty days, not that this is the ultimate limit, for at this 
stage of decomposition the process is very gradual, several 
weeks and even months often making little difference in the 
appearance of the body. 
(6) The stage of putrid colliquation arises within from four 
to six months after death, or, where the body has been kept 
in a warm and moist medium, earlier than this. Owing to 
the continued swelling the chest and belly have now burst 
open, and these cavities lie exposed. The skull has also yielded 
to the pressure, and the brain has exuded. The orbitar cavi- 
ties are empty. All the soft parts are in a state of dissolution 
and finally disappear, and entire bones, especially of the skull 
and of the extremities, are laid bare, and the latter separate 
from the trunk. JSTo trace of features any longer remains. 
The breasts of females have disappeared, and of the genital 
organs nothing indicative of sex remains, unless perhaps the 
hair or the shape of its growth ; for in man it ascends towards 
the navel, but in woman is confined to the pubis. But even at 
this stage the presence of a womb may indicate to which sex 
the dead person belonged. 
§ 986. XI. Saponification. (Adipocere).—In cases where the 
body is exposed to the continued action of water, whether by 
lying in water itself or in very damp soil, the process of putrid 
decomposition proceeds no further than the stage above de- 
scribed, but is succeeded by saponification. It is difficult to 
say exactly how soon this process begins to take place. De- 
vergie thinks that it requires a year for a body lying in water, 
and about three years for one lying in the earth, to become 
entirely saponified, or converted into adipocere. This process 
cannot reach any great extent in less than half a year where 
the body remains in water, or in less than a year where it lies 
in moist earth, although it may begin to appear earlier than 
this.(m’) The appearance is that of a homogeneous, pure or 
(mx) Casper relates a case where a new-born infant which had been buried 
in a cellar for a few weeks, was found, when exhumed, to have already 
887 888 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[book v. 
slightly yellowish-white, fatty substance, which is easy to be 
cut, which melts in flame, and has a smell somewhat like 
mouldy cheese, but by no means very disagreeable. The mus- 
cles first undergo this process, but it finally reaches all the 
organs of the body, which now become one shapeless mass, 
whose original appearance is no longer discernible. According 
to Guntz,the adipocere thus formed has more bulk than all 
the fat which belonged originally to the body. This fact is 
important to observe in reference to the weight of the dead 
bodies of infants. 
§ 987. XII. Mummification.—This process, in which the 
body is dried up and assumes a rusty-brown color, is of little 
interest in connection with medical jurisprudence, since little 
is known of the influences necessary to produce it, as well as 
the time required for the process. Mummification occurs as 
well where the body is exposed in a vault to a drying wind, 
as where the atmosphere is entirely excluded. It also takes 
place often in the case of bodies buried beneath the burning 
sands of the desert. At what time the natural process of 
mummification begins to show itself where the existing cir- 
cumstances are favorable, is not determined; we only know 
that, once perfected, the mummy will last thousands of years. 
Hence where a body is discovered already mummified, it would 
be impossible to decide, with any approach to accuracy, how 
long a time has elapsed since the occurrence of death. 
§ 988. XIII. Decomposition of internal organs, in its several 
stages.—The great number of influences which combine to 
affect these organs, produce a much greater difference in the 
time of their decomposition than exists in the case of the ex- 
ternal organs, and hence they furnish marks by which the time 
of death may be more accurately determined. 
§ 989. 1st. The windpipe and larynx are the first of these 
organs which exhibit signs of decomposition. On bodies, 
which still appear quite sound upon the surface, or, at most, 
undergone partial conversion into adipocere. This author says that he has 
never seen a whole body completely saponified.—Forensic Medicine, vol. i. 
p. 41. New Sydenham Soc. 
888 BOOK V.] 
889 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
show only a few green spots on the under parts, the thin mu- 
cous membrane of the trachea exhibits a remarkable paleness 
throughout its whole extent, except when death has been 
produced by suffocation or laryngitis. When the process of 
decomposition has advanced a little further, so that the whole 
under part of the body has become green, commonly in from 
three to five days after death in summer, and in from six to 
eight in winter, this thin mucous membrane has assumed a 
uniform dirty-red color, in which no vascular injection can be 
discovered even with a microscope. This appearance occurs 
before any marks of decomposition are visible upon other 
internal organs, and is not influenced by age, constitution, or 
manner of death. The inexperienced should be careful not to 
mistake this natural effect of decomposition for capillary in- 
jection or the effect of suffocating or of drowning. In the 
further course of decomposition, the mucous membrane of the 
windpipe becomes olive-green, the cartilages of the tube sepa- 
rate, until at last the whole organ disappears. 
§ 990. 2d. The organ which next, in order of time, yields 
to decomposition, is the brain of infants, not more than a year 
old. The delicate texture of the organ at this age, and its 
comparatively slight protection from the atmosphere, render it 
an easy prey to decomposing influences, so that it will often 
be found to be quite destroyed when other organs are perfectly 
sound, and when no discoloration is to be seen, except upon 
the surface of the body. In decomposing, it changes to a 
thin pulpy substance of a rosy-red color, which discharges 
itself as soon as any opening is made in the skull, and leaves 
no trace of the several parts of the organ. 
§ 991. 3d. The stomach decomposes at an early period. The 
first traces of the decomposition are certain irregular, dirty- 
red spots in the fundus ; they vary much in size, being some- 
times as large as a plate, and often have bluish-red streaks, or 
veins, running through them. These spots appear first on the 
posterior surface, where they are partly due to hypostatic con- 
gestion, but soon after show themselves on the anterior surface. 
They are described by some authors as inflammatory, or as 
evidences of asphyxia by hanging or drowning, but are really 
nothing more than the result of early decomposition. In case 
889 890 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
[book V. 
of doubtful poisoning, it is very important to mark these 
changes. As the process of decomposition advances, the color 
changes from a dirty-red to a grayish-black. 
§ 992. 4th. The intestinal canal follows next in order in the 
progress of decomposition. The peculiar color produced by 
bile, owing to the contact of a portion of the intestine with 
the gall-bladder, cannot be mistaken. In the course of de- 
composition the intestines assume a dark-brown color, they 
burst open and discharge their contents, become greasy, and 
are finally reduced to a dark, shapeless, pulpy substance. 
§ 993. 5th. The spleen, when not diseased, commonly con- 
tinues sound longer than the intestines, but belongs to the 
class of organs which decompose at an early period. It grows 
softer and softer and is easily crushed, and afterwards assumes 
a bluish-green color, and becomes so soft that it may be rubbed 
down with the knife-handle. 
§ 994. 6th. The omentum and mesentery, if free from fat, 
may remain sound several weeks after death; but if fatty, 
not so long. These organs assume a grayish-green color and 
dry up. 
§ 995. 7th. The liver in grown persons may remain sound 
for some weeks after death. In infants it begins to decompose 
earlier. The first appearance is that of a changeable green color 
seen first on the convex surface, and which afterwards spreads 
over the whole organ, and finally changes to a coal-black. The 
size of the liver is lessened in the same proportion as that of 
the other organs by the evaporation of its fluid constituents, 
and the parenchyma becomes pulpy. The texture of the gall- 
bladder, however, may be discerned at a later period. 
§ 996. 8th. The first trace of decomposition in the brain of 
grown persons is a light-green color, seen first at its base, and 
which gradually spreads over the whole organ, from without 
inwards. In a medium temperature the brain softens within 
two or three weeks, but months may elapse before it changes 
into that reddish pulpy substance, into which, at so early a 
period, the brains of infants are converted. Where the brain 
is exposed by a wound in the skull, decomposition may take 
place much earlier. 
890 BOOK V.] 
SIGNS OF DEATH. 
891 
All the above-mentioned organ belong to the class of those 
which decompose at an early period. 
§ 997. 9th. The heart. This organ is often found still sound, 
although collapsed and quite empty of blood, for weeks after 
death, and after the decomposition of the liver, intestines, etc., 
has reached an advanced stage. It becomes soft, first in the 
columnae carnese and then in the walls, and assumes a greenish, 
then a grayish-green, and, finally, a black color. The small 
quantity of liquor 'pericardii which the heart contains disap- 
pears by evaporation, as the process of decomposition advances, 
and the pericardium becomes quite dry. This stage of decom- 
position, however, is not commonly reached until some months 
after death. 
§ 998. 10th. The lungs begin to exhibit marks of decompo- 
sition about the same time as the heart. They are often found 
in such a state of preservation that their structure may be 
readily discerned, after the external portions of the body are 
far advanced in the process of decomposition. The first ap- 
pearance upon these organs is that of little bladders, varying 
in size from a millet seed to a bean, which are occasioned by 
the formation of gas under the 'pleura. These bladders at 
first appear singly and on different parts of the lungs, but 
afterwards they increase to such an extent that they cover 
large portions of the organ, especially on its under surface. 
The color of the lungs remains for a while unchanged, but as 
decomposition advances they become of a dark, bottle-green 
color, and, finally, entirely black. They now become soft, 
collapse, and, at last, their characteristic structure is destroyed. 
§ 999. 11th. The kidneys continue sound longer than the 
heart and lungs, and will never be found to have reached the 
putrid state in such bodies as are only half decomposed. These 
organs become soft, and of a chocolate-brown color, but even 
at this stage their granular texture may be easily discerned. 
Afterwards, but long after death, they become greasy, of a 
blackish-green color, and are easily torn. 
§ 1000. 12th. The urinary bladder yields to decomposing 
influences still later than those organs which have been men- 
tioned. 
§ 1001. 13th. The oesophagus will often be found tolerably 
891 § 1006] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book v. 
firm, and only of a dirty grayish-green color, some months 
after death, when the stomach and intestines admit no longer 
of close examination. 
§ 1002. 14th. -The pancreas resists decomposing influences so 
strongly that one must have a body almost entirely putrid in 
order to observe the process in this organ. 
§ 1003. 15th. The diaphragm. Green spots appear upon this 
organ within the first week after death, but after four or six 
months its muscular and tendinous structure may be distin- 
guished from each other. 
§ 1004. 16th. The arteries decompose among the last of all 
the soft organs. Devergie reports a case where the aorta was 
perfectly discernible fourteen months after death. 
§ 1005. 17th. According to Dr. Casper, the uterus yields to 
decomposition last of all the internal organs. It is often found 
lying in its place, tolerably firm, though of a dirty-red color, 
and in such a state of preservation that it may be cut open and 
examined, when this would not be possible with any other 
organ. This statement is applicable even to newly-born female 
infants. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS.(») 
§ 1006. The physician who is called upon to make an ex- 
amination of a person found dead under suspicious circum- 
(n) The subject of medico-legal examinations in insanity has been already 
noticed, ante, § 90, etc. In addition to the cases already mentioned, we may 
here cite the following :— 
On the trial of an indictment for selling unwholesome meat, it was held 
that physicians might be allowed to testify that the eating of unwholesome 
meat does not always cause apparent sickness, and to state their opinion, 
founded on what other witnesses had testified, as to the disease of which the 
cow died, and whether the disease would cause fever, and whether the flesh 
of animals sick of fever was unwholesome. Goodrich v. People, 3 Parker R. 
(N. Y.) 622. 
Physicians who are not experts in analytical chemistry are admissible to 
892 BOOK V.] 
[§ 1006 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
stances, has devolved upon him a task of no little gravity. lie 
therefore should endeavor to come to it prepared to acquit him- 
form an analysis of the contents of the stomach in cases of poisoning. State 
Hinkle, 6 Iowa 380. 
In a homicide trial in New York (People v. Bodine, 1 Denio 288), it ap- 
peared in evidence, that the dwelling-house occupied by the deceased had 
been discovered to be on fire ; that after the fire was extinguished, her dead 
body was discovered amid the rubbish in one corner of the kitchen, where 
her bed had stood, and where she had been accustomed to sleep ; that the fire 
had been in that part of the house, and that a hole had been burned through 
the floor in that corner of the room, and that the fire had extended up the 
side walls of the room, had consumed the bed and bedding, and partly de- 
stroyed the bedstead ; that the heap of rubbish among which the body had 
been found consisted of bricks and mortar from the wall, of partially destroyed 
pumpkins and onions which had been kept under the bed, of the bedstead 
and of the cinders from the bed, bedding, and other articles which had been 
entirely consumed ; that several physicians had made a post-mortem exami- 
nation of the body, and had given it as their opinion that the body had been 
dead before it had been subjected to the action of fire, for the reason among 
others that portions of the body had been protected, and had not suffered 
at all from the action of the fire, which could not have happened unless the 
body had lain perfectly still during the continuance of the fire. Upon the 
cross-examination of one of these physicians, the counsel for the prisoner 
asked the following question : “ Would not almost any protection and stillness 
of the body be accounted for, on the supposition that the bed-cords on the 
back of the bed were burned off and the body let down, and that then the bed 
had fallen upon it before life was entirely extinct?” which question was ob- 
jected to by the counsel for the prosecution and excluded by the court, and 
exception was taken by the counsel for the prisoner and carried to the Supreme 
Court. That court held : “ The question put to one of the physicians on his 
cross-examination by the prisoner’s counsel, was in my opinion correctly 
overruled. This witness and other physicians had made a post-mortem ex- 
amination of the person alleged to have been murdered, and they gave it as 
their opinion that the death had preceded the action of fire on the body. 
This opinion, as is stated in the bill of exceptions, was founded on the reason, 
among others, that portions of the body which had been protected by cover- 
ing upon them had not suffered at all from the action of the fire.” 
If a surgical witness testify as an expert, he may, having examined a wound, 
give his testimony as to the nature of the instrument which inflicted it (State 
v. Knights, 43 Maine 11), and as to whether such wound was adequate to 
the production of death. (Livingston’s Case, 14 Grattan 592.) 
Evidence of scientific persons in a capital trial, as to any distinction evinced 
by scientific investigation between the appearance of stains of human blood 
and those of animals, is properly admissible. State v. Knights, 43 Maine 11. 
Maps and diagrams may be used by scientific witnesses, to render intelli- 
gible their verbal testimony. State v. Knights, 43 Maine 11. 
On a trial for murder, a medical witness testified that he saw defendant on 
893 § 1007J 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book v. 
self of his duty in such a manner that he will afterwards not 
have to regret having imperfectly discharged it. Not only is 
familiarity with anatomical dissection required, but a far 
greater carefulness, and a more searching examination than in 
death from disease, since in the latter, the object of the investi- 
gation is into the nature of the morbid cause of death, and 
the acquisition of greater familiarity with pathological facts. 
Moreover his attention must be given to many circumstances 
which, in these, it is not necessary to observe, viz., all those 
matters which may throw'light upon the mode of death, such, 
for instance, as the position of the body in relation to sur- 
rounding objects, and the locality in which it was found. The 
duties of the examiner, and the facts necessary to observe, may 
be arranged under the following heads:— 
o o 
I. Locality, § 1007. 
II. Identity, § 1008. 
III. Indications of violence or unnatural death, § 1009. 
IV. Manner of conducting the autopsy, § 1010. 
V. Natural aspect of the organs at different ages, § 1012: 
VI. Mode of drawing up reports, § 1022. 
§ 1007. I. Locality.—The chief points for notice under this 
head are those which, by indicating the situation in which the 
body is found, may afford a clue to the detection of the man- 
ner in which it came there. Thus in cases of infanticide an 
accurate description of the locality in which the child’s body 
is discovered is of the utmost importance in the subsequent 
investigation of the mode of death. Or, a person may be 
murdered and the body afterwards transported to a consider- 
able distance for concealment, or the deceased may have had 
sufficient strength after receiving his mortal wound to follow 
the steps of the assassin, and yet finally perish at a point more 
the evening of the day after the killing, conversed with him, and then thought 
him deranged ; that he thought the insanity was delirium tremens; that he 
knew defendant’s habit of drinking, and supposed drinking to be the cause 
of his insanity ; and that he had been present and heard all the evidence. 
The witness then stated, under objection, how long he thought defendant had 
been in this state of delirium, but was not allowed to state whether, in his 
opinion, he was in this state on the night of the alleged killing. It was held 
here was no error. People v. McCann, 3 Parker, C. 11. (N. Y.) 272. 
894 BOOK V.] 
[§ 1010 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
or less remote from the place where he was attacked, and where 
the indications of a struggle will be found. It is proper also 
in case of exhumations, but here has a closer bearing on the 
determination of the next point, viz:— 
§ 1008. II. Identity.—This subject we have treated in detail 
in another chapter. It is only necessary to state here that the 
knowledge of the identity of the deceased in cases of recent 
death, is as far as the medical evidence is concerned, secured 
by a careful notice of the clothing, the stature and apparent 
age, physical development, deformities, color of the hair, eyes, 
etc., scars, marks of tattooing and peculiarities indicating the 
habitual trade or occupation. 
§ 1009. III. Indications of violence or unnatural death.—All 
indications of a struggle in the vicinity of the body should be 
carefully observed, such as traces of blood, fragments of cloth- 
ing or hair upon the ground, and anything that may have 
served as a weapon, or been the accidental cause of death. 
The hands of the deceased should be carefully examined ; if 
they hold a weapon it should be noted whether it is loosely or 
firmly grasped, and also if there are portions of hair or clothing 
contained in them. In many cases of poisoning from prussic 
acid, the vial from which the poison was taken will be found 
in the hands or pockets, or lying near the deceased; and in 
other cases, when poisoning is suspected, the room in which 
the body is found should be carefully searched for poisonous 
substances, or for vessels which may have contained them. If 
wounds are discovered upon the body, their nature and extent 
must be ascertained, and, if lacerated, incised, or punctured, the 
weapon, if any is found, carefully compared with them. The 
examiner should not omit to ascertain whether there are any 
fractures or dislocations present, and whether any foreign 
bodies are to be found in any pf the natural openings of the 
body. In the case of females, in addition to the above, the 
signs of recent or previous delivery (as elsewhere detailed) 
must be observed, and the vulva should be examined for traces 
of injury which might otherwise go unnoticed. 
§ 1010. IY. Manner of conducting the autopsy.—The phy- 
sician should be assisted at the examination by one or more 
persons, the duty of one of whom should be to write down 
895 § 1010] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book v. 
the observations as they are dictated to him. The exterior of 
the body should be examined, if possible, before it is moved 
from the position in which it is found, and, in case circum- 
stances permit, it is better that the examination should be 
made on the spot, than that the body should be transported 
elsewhere. The time elapsed since death should be approxi- 
mately estimated by a consideration of the state of rigidity or 
flaccidity of the body, and the degree of putrefaction. The 
order in which the internal organs should be examined admits 
of some variety, although on the whole it is better, where 
time and circumstances allow, to commence with the head, 
and proceed therefrom to the other organs in regular succession. 
To open the cranium, the best method is to begin by making 
an incision vertically from the root of one zygomatic process 
to that of the other; a few strokes of the scalpel will loosen 
the attachment of the scalp to the pericranium, and by a slight 
effort the two flaps may be inverted, the one over the face, the 
other over the occiput. After removing the temporal muscles 
from their attachments, the cranium may be opened speedily 
and safely by the saw, which should be used first on either 
side and then behind and in front. A chisel used carefully as 
a lever will then easily detach the. calvarium. In young 
children a pair of strong Scissors will suffice to cut the bone, 
with less risk of injuring the subjacent parts. A triangular 
block with rounded edges, placed under the neck, will much 
facilitate these operations. The integrity of the calvarium 
having been first noted, we then proceed to the examination 
of the contents of the cavity of the head. The dura mater 
may be divided around the edges of the skull, and then, being 
cut free from its connection with the crista galli, thrown over 
the occiput. The other membranes, after being examined in 
situ, may be observed with reference to their connections when 
the brain is itself examined. This should be done partly in 
and partly out of the cranium. The upper half should be re- 
moved on each side, by.a horizontal incision which shall leave 
the thalami optici untouched while it lays open the lateral 
ventricles. Placing the fingers of the left hand under the an- 
terior lobes of the brain, the remainder of the encephalon 
should be removed by cutting successively through the nerves, 
896 BOOK V.] 
[§ 1010 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
the tentorium, and the medulla oblongata as far as the knife 
can conveniently penetrate. The various parts may be then 
examined by successive horizontal sections made regularly 
in parallel planes. The state of the sinuses should also claim 
attention. 
Previous to the examination of the neck, the block should 
be removed and the head thrown back, in order to render the 
neck tense. An incision is then made in the trachea, and pro- 
longed carefully upwards, with the precaution to hold the 
knife in such a manner as not to injure the posterior wall of 
the trachea or larynx. This done, the tongue, if it seem 
necessary, may be taken out by an incision following the inner 
circumference of the lower maxilla, and by dividing the 
posterior pillars of the fauces. The examination of the neck 
should not, however, be commenced until the cavities next to 
be examined have been prepared for inspection. A longitu- 
dinal incision, commencing at the top of the sternum, may be 
made and extended to the pubes, and a transverse one passing 
across the abdomen and intersecting the tirst at the umbilicus. 
These incisions should not penetrate more deeply than 
through the skin. 
The abdominal cavity may now be opened by carefully dis- 
secting in the epigastric region until the peritoneal cavity is 
reached ; through the hole thus made, two fingers of the left 
hand may be introduced, and holding the edges of the in- 
cision stretched apart, the incision may be prolonged by the 
knife in the other hand down to the pubis, without injury to 
the intestines. The transverse incision is then made through 
the muscles, and the four flaps thrown back. Grasping the 
upper flap on the side on which the operator stands, and draw- 
ling it tensely back over the margin of the costal cartilages, 
an incision should be carried along the edge of the thorax a 
sufficient distance in order to separate the abdominal muscles 
from their attachments. The dissection should now be con- 
tinued upwards, in order to expose the sternum and cartilages 
as far up as the clavicle, and laterally exposing an inch or two 
of the ribs. The same operation is to be repeated upon the 
opposite side. In case of wounds passing through any portion 
vol. ii.—57 
897 § 1010] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book v. 
of the parts thus noticed, they should be first circumscribed 
by circular incision, and thus isolated, so that their relations 
with the subjacent parts can be known. 
It is not advisable to use much force in cutting through the 
cartilages of the ribs, on account of the risk of wounding the 
lungs or pericardium. The best plan is to begin with the fifth 
or sixth rib, and divide first those which lie below on each 
side; then taking hold of the fragment attached to the ster- 
num, to divide the diaphragm between the two incisions of 
the costal cartilages and these up to the clavicle. In order to 
separate the sternum from the clavicle without wounding the 
large veins, take hold of the lower part of the sternum with 
one hand, and follow the articulation with the scalpel; i. e., 
make the incision upwardly and outwardly, and then inwardly. 
The thoracic and abdominal cavities being now laid open, it 
is optional with which to begin. 
It is perhaps better and more systematic to examine first the 
thorax. Having observed the relative position of the organs 
and of such of their equalities as may be judged of by the eye 
alone, the pleural cavities should be explored. In order to re- 
move the lungs without injury, the safest mode, especially 
where pleural adhesions exist, is to detach the costal pleura— 
an operation which can be easily, although it must be slowly, 
done. In this way we preclude entirely the possibility of 
lacerating the pulmonary substance, and have subsequently no 
doubts to contend with as to whether certain lacerations of 
substance are the result of disease, injury, or our own mis- 
management. The lung is less easily handled when separated 
from the body, than when it is left with its natural attach- 
ments. It is, therefore, always better in the beginning at 
least, after having drawn it out and laid it upon the thorax, to 
preserve its connections. Its roots may be afterwards divided, 
if it should be necessary to make a minute and protracted in- 
vestigation. An incision, -which will lay open as great a sur- 
face as possible of the interior of the lung, is to be preferred, 
and this is one commencing at the apex and dividing it com- 
pletely through to its base. Afterwards, incisions at right 
angles with the first one will most probably reveal any struc- 
898 BOOK V.] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[§ 1012 
tural disease or injury that may exist. The bronchia should 
be laid open with an appropriate pair of scissors, and an ex- 
amination of the bronchial glands should not be omitted. 
The 'pericardium, should be opened in such a manner as to 
prevent the escape of the fluid contained within it until its 
quantity and character have been first ascertained. The ex- 
amination of the heart for the purpose of detecting diseased 
structure need not here be dwelt upon. If gunshot or other 
wounds be found in its substance, their direction, extent, and 
character must be carefully examined, and search made here, 
or in the pericardial or pleural cavities, for any foreign bodies, 
such as balls, wadding, or fragments of weapons. 
§ 1011. In the examination of the abdomen, where poisoning 
is suspected, it is better that the stomach and duodenum should 
be each separated by double ligatures and removed, with their 
contents, from the body, for subsequent anatomical and chemical 
examination. In this case they should be put into perfectly clean 
vessels of porcelain, glass, or wood, and without the addition of 
any preservative liquid. The vessels should then be closely sealed 
and put away in a secure place. In other cases these organs 
may be opened by the enterotome, the stomach along the lesser 
curvature, and the intestines close to their attachment to the 
mesentery. The liver, in many cases of poisoning, particu- 
larly by arsenical or mercurial preparations, must be reserved 
for chemical investigation. The state of the bladder should 
be also observed. In the female the internal organs of gene- 
ration require particular attention, with a view to the deter- 
mination of questions of abortion, rape, etc. Finally, the ex- 
aminer should not forget, that, although there may be strong 
reason, from circumstances, to suppose that the individual has 
met with a violent death, yet he may unexpectedly meet with 
some lesion, such as strangulation of the intestines, rupture 
of an aneurism, intestinal perforation, etc., which is in itself 
sufficient to explain the symptoms which preceded the death 
of the individual. Hence he cannot be too careful in ex- 
amining systematically and minutely every part of the body, 
and making accurate notes of all that he observes. 
§ 1012. Y. Natural aspect of the internal organs.—The fol- 
899 § 1012] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book v. 
lowing summary we have taken, with some alterations, from 
the valuable work of Professor Engel.(o) 
The dura mater is, in children and adults, drawn tensely 
over the surface of the brain; in old persons, however, it is 
wrinkled, and sinks in between the convolutions. It increases 
in its consistence with age; is in children semi-transparent, 
and of a pale bluish-gray color, white and less transparent in 
the adult, and assumes a yellow tinge in advanced life. The 
under surface is smooth and polished. In old age the dura 
mater is frequently perforated by the glands of Pacchioni, and 
contains often, especially over the falx major, needle-like 
spiculse of bone. These phenomena are of no pathological im- 
portance, except in early life, and even then, when uncombined 
with distinct lesions, are of little significance. 
The arachnoid and pia mater are, in infants, thin, easily torn, 
colorless, and transparent, their larger veins generally filled 
with dark blood; the amount of blood is in mature years 
relatively less, and in old age the membranes have become 
thick and tough, lose much of their transparency, and assume 
a white or yellowish-white color. 
The turbidness or milky appearance of these membranes 
does not in advanced life deserve much attention, except when 
over a large surface, and is then naturally connected with other 
symptoms of disease. It is always accompanied with in- 
creased consistence, and appears first on the edge of the fissures 
and the upper surface of the cerebellum. In youth, however, 
it is a pathological sign of much importance. The arachnoid 
is chiefly concerned, the plexus choroides being the only part 
of the pia mater which is affected. The vascularity of these 
membranes is within the normal limits subject to very great 
variation, as it depends upon the general amount of blood in 
the circulation. But it would be certainly a symptom of dis- 
ease if, in a case of general anaemia or general plethora, the 
amount of blood in these membranes should be such as is found 
in health. It can only then be considered in relation to the 
amount of blood in the rest of the body, and it ought to be 
remembered that in early life it is proportionally larger than 
(o) Entwurf einer pathol. -anatomischen Propadeutik, Wien. 1845. 
900 BOOK V.] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[§ 1013 
in its later periods. The quantity of blood should he deter- 
mined, not by observation of the large vessels, but of the 
smaller ones; for the finer the vessels which are seen to be in- 
jected, the greater is the amount of blood, and the same remark 
may be made of their tortuosity. 
The amount of watery secretion in the internal membranes 
is also subject to much variation, and depends upon the age of 
the individual and the condition of the blood. In infants it 
is comparatively more abundant than in adults, and in the 
latter less than in old persons. A large amount of watery 
effusion may have caused no symptom during life, if it depend 
upon general dropsy; if, however, it have occurred in the course 
of some acute general disease, it will have given rise to strik- 
ing symptoms. When there is but a small quantity of water 
present, the arachnoid is not raised by it in its passage over 
the spaces between the convolutions; a large quantity will 
render it tense, and in cases of abundant effusion the space 
between the membranes is filled everywhere with it, and they 
become thickened and tumid. But the amount of effusion 
does not warrant, by itself, without the presence of other 
symptoms, any conclusion. 
§ 1013. The brain in newly-born children is of a gelatinous 
consistence, and throughout of a gray or reddish-gray color. 
Some of its inferior portions—as, for example, the medulla ob- 
longata—are white and firm. The lateral ventricles contain a 
few drops of clear, slightly yellowish fluid. It undergoes 
putrefaction very rapidly. The consistence of the adult brain 
is much greater; it can be broken up in the direction of its 
fibres, and there is a marked difference in color between the 
medullary and cortical portions. When a section is made 
through the substance of the brain, the blood contained in it 
appears upon the surface in red, watery points ; more than this 
is generally indicative of disease. The normal amount of 
liquid in the ventricles varies from one-half of a drachm to 
four drachms, according to the greater or less consistence of 
the brain. It is clear and colorless, contains no albumen, and 
the lining membrane of the ventricles is generally not dis- 
solved by it until the lapse of several days. In most cases 
where a softening of the cerebral substance around both ven- 
901 § 1015] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book v. 
trie!es is found, it may be regarded as a cadaveric change. In 
old persons the volume of the brain is somewhat diminished, 
hence the dura mater will often be found in folds. The sub- 
stance of the brain is tough and elastic, and the medullary 
portion has a yellowish-white color. The ventricles are dilated, 
and contain sometimes as much as an ounce and a half of 
clear, colorless, slightly albuminous liquid. There is but little 
blood in the brain, and the arteries at its base contain fibrinous 
clots. 
§ 1014. In newly-born children the cartilages of the larynx 
are thin and elastic, its mucous membrane pale, smooth, and 
covered with a puriform epithelial coating, which is found in 
the most normal conditions, and particularly in the ventricles 
of Morgagni. The antero-posterior diameter of the larynx 
and trachea is less than the transverse. The bronchia are mem- 
branous and their mucous coat pale; they contain a whitish 
mucus, a circumstance which should not be supposed, as is too 
often done, to indicate catarrhal inflammation. After the age 
of puberty the air-passages acquire an increased volume and 
altered form, the antero-posterior diameter exceeds the trans- 
verse in length, the cartilages become firmer, the tracheal 
glands become prominent, and the posterior wall of the trachea 
often appears injected. Ho fluid is to be found except in the 
ventricles of Morgagni, which contain a thick whitish mucus 
consisting of the effete epithelium. The bronchial mucous 
membrane is wrinkled, of a pale gray color or reddish, the 
finer bronchia have a perfectly colorless and transparent wall, 
and contain only a small quantity of a colorless, watery fluid. 
In old persons the cartilages of the larynx, trachea, and the 
larger bronchia are often found ossified; this is not the case 
in women, however, except sometimes the thyroid cartilage. 
The mucous membrane appears almost dry. The air-passages 
are more capacious than in adult life. Their contents are not 
always the result of the secretion from the mucous membrane 
itself, but from the deeper part of the lungs. 
§ 1015. The Ivngs in children who have not breathed, are 
found in the posterior part of the-thorax, the rest of this cavity 
being filled with a yellowish, glutinous, watery fluid. The 
edges of the lungs are rounded, and. their length greater than 
902 BOOK V.] 
[§ 1015 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
their breadth. They are dense, and resemble, in their granular 
structure and reddish-brown color, the liver. They are spe- 
cifically heavier than water. To distinguish from hepatiza- 
tion those parts which, not having been dilated by the air, 
present this appearance, the inflation of the lungs will suffice, 
as it will not cause the first to disappear, but will do so with 
the latter. Again, to discover whether the fluid contained in 
the chest is a pleuritic exudation which may have so com- 
pressed the lungs as to cause them to resemble their foetal con- 
dition, we must be guided by the quantity of albumen and 
spontaneously coagulable constituents, and the form also of the 
lungs, which in pleuritic exudation are pressed flat against the 
vertebral column, and are not empty of blood, but rather, on 
the contrary, gorged with it. 
The lungs of children who have breathed occupy the greater 
part of the thorax ; their edges are sharp and slightly curved ; 
here and there tongue-like processes project caused by a partial 
increased force of inflation; the surface retains the impression 
of the finger, and by strong pressure the air is all expelled and 
the lung falls together like a ribbon. The tissue is elastic, and 
if not containing much water or blood, tough. The vesicular 
structure is not visible to the naked eye on the incised surface, 
but, through the pleura, numerous very small air bubbles may 
be seen, corresponding to the pulmonary vesicles. The color 
is grayish-white at the edges, in the front and outer parts a 
spotted rosy-red, in the under and posterior parts an intense 
purple. The same differences are observable upon incision. 
Eut little blood exudes upon incision, and that chiefly in the 
posterior portions. The pleura is thin, colorless, and transpa- 
rent, and but a few drops of watery fluid are found in its 
cavity. 
The lungs of adults sink upon opening the thorax an inch or 
two from its anterior wall; their borders are somewhat inflated, 
pale, dry, containing but little blood, and the pulmonary vesi- 
cles are visible through the pleura; the middle part of the 
upper lobes is of an ashen or reddish-gray color, variegated 
with patches of white and blue, in some spots bright red, the 
parenchyma is tough, and frothy serum exudes upon pressure. 
Eloody serum is not found, but sometimes streaks of blood 
903 § 1016J 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book v. 
from the larger vessels mix with the frothy serum which is 
pressed out. The lower part of the upper lobes, as well as of 
the under, with the exception of the borders of the latter, are 
more easily lacerated, denser, elastic, and have a purple hue on 
the surface, and when cut a brownish-red color; bloody serum 
mixed with bubbles of air exudes spontaneously upon the cut 
surface. Coagula are often found, but chiefly in the large ves- 
sels, but fibrous coagula only when the agony has been long, 
and in inflammations of the lung. The parenchyma is more 
lacerable and denser in proportion to its contents of blood or 
serum, and the greater the quantity of air contained in it the 
longer it retains the impression of the finger; its color depends 
in its varieties upon the amount and character of the fluids it 
contains. The pigment spots are a normal appearance, they 
are rarely found earlier than the tenth or twelfth year, but are 
constantly found in adults. The amount of blood contained 
in the lungs is proportional to that in the heart. The pleura 
is at this period clear, colorless, shining, and transparent. The 
normal amount of fluid in this sac varies within the normal 
condition between one and six ounces. 
The lungs in very old persons, when the chest is opened, oc- 
cupy only the posterior part of the thorax, so that their ante- 
rior portion is distant about a hand’s breadth from the front 
of the chest. They have a peculiar feel, retain the impression 
of the finger, are tough, and easily deprived of the air con- 
tained in them by pressure, falling together into a thin, mem- 
branous, wrinkled form. The color is a dark gray, owing to 
the quantity of pigment, intermingled with bright red patches; 
the lower portions are of a dirty brownish-red color. The 
tissue is mostly dry, the posterior part alone moderately moist, 
with a pale, brownish fluid ; in the pulmonary bloodvessels, a 
very small quantity of fluid blood is found. Any increase in 
the quantity of air, blood, or water, is at this age of more im- 
portance than in younger persons. The pleura is somewhat 
thicker and less transparent, and numerous deposits of pig- 
ment are found underneath it. The products of past diseases 
are frequently to he observed. 
§ 1016. The heart in children is firm and of a darker color 
than the other muscles. The relative thickness of the right side 
904 [§ 1018 
BOOK V.] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
is greater than in adults, as also that of the auricles relatively 
to the ventricles. The endocardium is thin and transparent; 
the free edge of the ventricular valves soon becomes fringed 
in consequence of early commencing maceration. Both sides 
contain nearly the same amount of blood with a few coagula. 
The pericardium is transparent and more closely attached 
to the heart than in adults, containing from a few drops to a 
scruple of liquid of a yellow color, albuminous, dissolving soon 
the epithelium of the pericardium, and thus acquiring a turbid 
appearance, and rendering it possible to mistake it for an in- 
flammatory exudation. The heart has a pyramidal shape in 
adults, but is more four-sided in old people. The endocardium 
in the former has a tendinous appearance ; in the latter, par- 
ticularly in the auricles, it is thick, wrinkled, opaque, and 
yellowish in appearance, and in spots marked with the so-called 
atheroma. The free edge of the valves is in them, also, invo- 
luted, thickened, almost cartilaginous, and there is but a small 
amount of blood found in the cavities, while in adults, and 
chiefly in the right ventricle, coagula of blood and fibrin are 
found (almost) constantly. The pericardium becomes opaque 
in adult life, and contains from one to two ounces of a yel- 
lowish serum. The pulmonary artery and aorta are of nearly 
equal calibre; in children the former being somewhat the 
largest, but in old persons the latter. 
In young persons there is relatively a large amount of blood 
contained in the veins, and chiefly in those of a medium size; 
the longitudinal sinus of the dura mater contains in children 
a large amount of blood, but in adults generally only coagu- 
lated fibrin. 
§ 1017. The peritoneum is characterized by the same differ- 
ences in the three periods of life as have been mentioned of the 
pleura. A few ounces of serous fluid in the peritoneum are 
not pathological; on the other hand, the dryness of this mem- 
brane is doubtless a morbid symptom, as are also deposits of 
granular pigment in old age. 
§ 1018. The liver in young children is relatively larger than 
in adults ; the upper surface more convex, the under more con- 
cave ; the parenchyma thick and tough, and indistinctly granu- 
lar ; its color is very dark, and it contains a large amount of 
905 § 1020] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS.. 
[book v. 
dark viscid blood. In anaemia the color is of a light yellow, 
the edges translucent, and the parenchyma contains a reddish 
serum. In adults, the structure is inelastic, distinctly granular, 
and in anaemia retains the impression of the finger. In old 
people the volume of the organ is diminished, the borders 
become sharper, the capsule becomes wrinkled, the tissue firmer, 
tougher, and drier, of a brownish or greenish-yellow, or soft 
and putty-like, containing a dirty reddish fluid, and an in- 
creased quantity of fat. In advanced age numerous vessels 
become obliterated, and the portion to which they belong 
atrophied. 
The bile is, in new-born children, viscid, clear, or of a sap- 
green color; in adults thinner, and of a bright yellow, or 
viscid and reddish-brown, and in aged persons, scanty, but 
very thick and dark, and leaving a thick sediment. 
§ 1019. The spleen, in the early years of life, is dense, granu- 
lar, and of the consistence of liver, dark red in color, and 
when incised yields no fluid blood. But in adults it presents 
within the normal limits some important varieties. Its size is 
variable, depending upon the general amount of blood. It is 
easily lacerable, and its substance is thick, and in color grayish- 
red. In the increase of its volume depending upon augmen- 
tation in the amount of blood, it is softer in its substance, but 
harder under the opposite condition. In old persons, this 
organ is small, its surface wrinkled, it retains the impression 
of the finger, is broken down by pressure, and is of a clear 
reddish-brown color. The pancreas and other analogous glands 
are of a grayish-yellow color, firm, not easily lacerable, and 
granular in structure. Upon pressure a small quantity of a 
glutinous fluid exudes. 
§ 1020. The digestive canal presents important differences at 
the different periods of life. Its mucous membrane is, in early 
life, delicate, transparent, without redness or injection, except 
that of the mouth, which is of a pale grayish-red; of the 
stomach, which is red in points, and of the ileum which is 
injected around the aggregated follicles. The stomach is with- 
out rugae, and those of the small intestine are few and im- 
perfect. The isolated follicles of the small intestine are nu- 
merous and well developed ; also in the duodenum and stomach, 
906 BOOK V.] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[§ 1021 
but fewer in number. The internal surface of the duodenum 
has a finely granular feel. The mucous membrane of the large 
intestine is smooth and white, its follicles prominent, opaque, 
and more numerous at its lower extremity. In the cavity of 
the mouth is found a scanty fluid secretion, and a little also in 
the oesophagus. The stomach contains a small quantity of a 
stringy, clear fluid, in the small intestine (after the meconium 
is passed) a bright yellow, flocculent muciform substance. In 
the large intestine, a greenish-yellow or brownish pasty fecal 
matter. Besides this the intestine always contains gas. 
In adults the mucous membrane of the stomach is sometimes 
rugose, and covered with a thick, tough, pale-gray mucus, but 
at other times is quite smooth, and contains only a small 
quantity of thin mucus. The color is generally of a pale gray, 
but if there be present any ingesta, it will be red in points, or 
if irritating substances, such as pepper, tartrate of antimony, 
etc., there will be vascular injection. The mucous membrane 
of the fundus is often softened in a degree corresponding to 
the quantity of fluids contained in the stomach ; but this soft- 
ening does not penetrate into the deeper strata of the sub- 
mucous cellular tissue. The lining membrane of the duode- 
num has a somewhat granular surface, owing to the projecting 
glands, it contains a thick and turbid liquid, tinged with bile. 
This membrane, through the whole of the small intestine, has 
a velvety appearance under water, is very thin, and cannot be 
stripped off in pieces of any size. The solitary and agminated 
glands may be seen with the unassisted eye in the ileum. 
The mucous membrane of the large intestine is white and 
polished, and covered with a layer of thick transparent mucus, 
which is very adherent. The transverse colon usually con- 
tains much gas, the rest of the large intestine is contracted. 
When fecal matter has been a long time in contact with the 
mucous membrane, it assumes a bluish-gray appearance, or 
sometimes is red and injected. The glands of the rectum may 
be prominent and opaque without necessarily being morbid. 
In old people the deposit of pigmentary matter in many parts 
of the intestine must be regarded as a normal appearance. 
§ 1021. The kidneys of newly-born children are compara- 
tively thick, their surface nearly uniform, and adherent to the 
907 § 1022] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[book V. 
capsules; the color is of a dark grayish-brown, and the tubular 
only distinguished from the cortical substance by the direction 
of its fibres. In the tubuli uriniferi may be remarked some- 
times a reddish sediment, and out of the papillae may be ex- 
pressed a turbid reddish urine. The mucous membrane of the 
pelvis of the kidney and the ureter is smooth and white. The 
bladder is generally contracted, its lining membrane of a rosy 
white, with here and there vascular injection. In adults, the 
kidney can be easily turned out of its capsule, the tissue is in- 
elastic, the cortical substance is of a lighter color than the 
tubular. Vessels disposed in a stellated manner are seen upon 
the surface, and when cut, reddish points. The pelvis of the 
kidney is enveloped in a dark granular fat, the mucous mem- 
brane of this, the ureter, and urethra is smooth and polished. 
In old persons the kidneys are usually diminished in size, and 
surrounded with fat and a thick capsule, the surface is granu- 
lar and uneven, the substance firm and tough, the color of 
the cortical substance is a pale reddish-brown or grayish-red. 
There are but few Malpighian bodies to be seen, but, on the 
other hand, minute vesicles filled with fluid. The tubular 
substance does not differ from the cortical in its color; hyperse- 
mia and ansemia of the kidneys commence in the former, dimi- 
nution of consistence in the latter. 
§ 1022. VI. Reports.—It has been already stated, that care- 
ful notes should be taken during the progress of the autopsy. 
These should be preserved, and, as soon as possible afterwards, 
a report drawn up embracing all the medical facts resulting 
from the inspection. The utmost precision is requisite in 
these reports, and the avoidance as far as possible of technical 
terms is desirable. The report of the chemical analysis should 
be appended to the general report; and at the conclusion, the 
opinion as to the cause of death may be given, together with 
the general inferences resulting from the facts observed at the 
examination. Where written reports are not required, it is 
nevertheless advisable that the physician should prepare one 
for his own use, since by this means he cannot fail to gain a 
more intelligent view of the whole case. 
The reader will find in the following remarks, selected from 
“Suggestions for the Medico-Legal Examination of Dead 
908 BOOK V.] 
[§ 1022 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
Bodies, by Professors Traill, Christison, and Syme (with 
additions by A. Watson, M.D.,)” more minute directions 
upon some points than we have thought necessary to give 
above:— 
“ It is desirable that the Medical Inspectors shall have an opportunity of 
viewing the body before it is undressed or moved from the spot where it was 
first found. If the body had been previously removed or meddled with, 
they ought to inform themselves accurately as to its original position. In 
many cases it is material that they personally visit the place where it was 
first seen ; and they should inquire minutely into all the particulars con- 
nected with the removal of it. 
“ 5. In cases where the body has been buried, and disinterment becomes 
necessary, it ought not to be removed from the coffin, except in presence of 
the inspectors. 
“6. Where a considerable period has elapsed between death and disin- 
terment, the inspection must in all cases be proceeded with, although the 
body be found in a state of decay, unless the inspectors can positively say 
that the progress of decay is such as to render the examination nugatory in 
relation to its special objects. The degree of decay which will justify such 
an opinion will differ with a variety of circumstances which cannot be pro- 
perly specified here. It may be observed, however, that where the injuries 
of the bones are to be looked for, or the traces of certain poisons, it is scarcely 
possible to assign the limit at which an inspection must of necessity be fruit- 
less. It is of moment to remember that the internal organs are often in a 
great measure entire, although the external parts are much decayed. The 
inspection, where the body is much decayed, will be rendered greatly less 
annoying to those present by frequently washing the parts successively ex- 
posed with a solution of chloride of lime, of the strength of one part in forty; 
but this must be carefully kept clear of any parts which may afterwards re- 
quire to be examined for poison. 
“ 7. No one should be allowed to be present at the examination out of 
mere curiosity. But especially every individual, not of the medical profes- 
sion, ought to be excluded, who is likely to be a witness either in the pre- 
cognition or trial; and consequently any one who attends to give informa- 
tion, if likely to be a witness, should remain in an adjoining room. The 
reason for this rule is, that the medical inspection often furnishes good tests 
of the value of otherwise doubtful evidence of a general nature ; and it is 
therefore necessary that the general witnesses should not have an opportunity 
of knowing what is observed in the dissection of the body. 
“ 8. The examination and dissection of the body should not be undertaken, 
if possible, except with sufficient daylight in prospect to allow the whole in- 
spection to be made without artificial light. 
“ 9. While the one inspector conducts the practical details of the examina- 
tion, the other should take notes of its successive steps, indicating all the 
points inquired into, with the observations made and appearances presented, 
negative as well as positive, and stating simple facts only, without either 
909 § 1022] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[BOOK V. 
generalizations or opinions. These notes should be looked over by both in- 
spectors before the body is sewed up, that omissions in the notes or in the in- 
spection itself may then be supplied ; and the notes, properly signed, dated, 
and sealed, must be lodged with the law authorities, a copy being preserved, 
if thought advisable by the inspectors. 
“ 10. The inspectors must deliver to the same authorities, and within two 
days, where no further examination is required, a distinct report containing 
their opinion on the case, with the reasons succinctly and clearly stated. 
They must understand that they cannot found their opinions on any facts 
represented to have been ascertained by themselves during the inspection, 
which are not specified in their notes. 
“ 11. Great attention must be paid not to express any premature opinion of 
the nature of the case from appearances presented on a partial examination, 
because the real cause of death often turns out very different from what it 
seems in the first instance to have been. In cases of injuries, or apparent 
drowning, hanging, strangling, burning, and the like, it should always be 
remembered that the appearances of such death may have been accidentally 
induced or purposely contrived after death, while the actual cause of death 
is different, and only to be detected by a careful aud thorough inspection of 
the whole body. 
“ 12. It is a good rule that all injured or diseased parts should be removed 
and preserved, wherever this is practicable. Soft parts, except what are to 
become the subject of analysis in the search for poison, are best preserved in 
a concentrated or strong solution of common salt. 
“ 13. When any portions of the body, or any substances found in or near 
it, are to be preserved for further examination, they ought never to be put 
out of the custody of the inspectors, or of a special law-officer. They must 
be locked up in the absence of the person wrlio keeps them. When they are 
to be transmitted to a distance, they should be labelled, and the labels signed 
by the inspectors; and, after being properly secured and sealed, they should 
be delivered by the inspectors themselves, or the special law-officer, at the 
coach-office by which they are to be forwarded.” 
SECTION II.—Necessary Implements. 
“14. Besides the ordinary instruments used in common dissections, the 
inspectors should be provided with a foot-rule, and an ounce-measure gradu- 
ated to drachms, for measuring distances and the quantities of fluids; a few 
clean bladders for carrying away any parts of the body which it may be 
necessary to preserve for future examination; and, in cases of possible 
poisoning, three or four bottles, of 8, 12, and 16 ounces, with glass stoppers 
or clean corks, for preserving fluids to be analyzed. [It is also necessary to 
be provided with paper, pens, ink, and sealing-wrax.] 
“15. All distances, lengths, surfaces, and the like, whose extent may re- 
quire to be described, ought to be actually measured ; and the same rule 
ought to be followed in ascertaining the volume of fluids. "Where large 
quantities of fluids are to be measured, any convenient vessel may be used 
whose capacity is previously ascertained by the ounce measure. Conjectural 
910 BOOK V.] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[§ 1022 
estimates and comparisons, however common in medico-legal inspections, are 
quitd'inadmissible. , 
“16. The importance of the external examination, and the particulars of 
it to be chiefly attended to, will vary in different cases with the probable 
cause of death. It comprehends : 1. An examination of the position of the 
body when found. 2. Of the vicinity of the body, with a view to discover 
the objects on which it rested [might have fallen upon, or been suspended 
from], marks of a struggle, signs of the presence of a second party about 
the time of death, or after it, weapons or other objects the property or not the 
property of the deceased, the remains of poisons, marks of vomiting; and, 
where marks of blood are of importance, and doubts may arise as to their 
really being blood, the articles presenting them must be preserved for exami- 
nation. 3. Of the dress; its nature and condition, stains on it of mud, sand, 
or the like, of blood, of vomiting, of acids, or other corrosive substances, in 
the case of suspected poisoning ; marks of injuries, such as rents and inci- 
sions ; and where injuries have been inflicted upon the body, care should be 
taken to compare the relative position of those on the body and those on the 
clothes ; and where stains apparently from poison are seen, the stained parts 
are to be preserved for analysis. 4. Ligatures, their material and kind, as 
throwing light on the trade of the person who applied them, the possibility 
or impossibility of the deceased having applied them himself, their sufficiency 
for accomplishing their apparent purpose, etc.” 
SECTION Y.—Examination in cases of Wounds and Contusions. 
“ 33. The most approved mode of examining injuries is, if they be not 
situated over the great cavities, to expose the successive layers of muscles in 
the manner of an ordinary dissection, observing carefully what injuries have 
been sustained by the parts successively exposed before they are divided. 
No advantage will be derived from previous injection of the bloodvessels, 
even supposing this were always attainable. Careful dissection, with a 
knowledge of the structure and relation of the parts, is a safer guide. 
“34. The seat of wTounds must be described by actual measurement from 
known points, their figure and nature also carefully noted, and their direction 
ascertained with exactness. 
“ 35. Before altering by incisions the external appearance of injuries, care 
must be taken to consider what weapon might have produced them ; and, if 
a particular weapon be suspected, it should be compared with them. 
“ 36. Apparent contusions must be examined by making incisions through 
them; and the inspectors will note whether there be swelling or puckering 
of the skin, whether the substance of the true skin be black through a part 
or the whole of its thickness, whether there be extravasation below the skin, 
and whether the blood be fluid or coagulated, generally or partially ; whether 
the soft parts below be lacerated or subjacent bones injured, and whether 
there be blood in contact with the lacerated surfaces. By these means the 
question may be settled "whether the contusions were inflicted before or after 
death. 
“ 37. In the case of wounds, too, the signs of vital action must be attended 
911 § 1022] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[BOOK V. 
to, especially the adhesion of blood to their surfaces, or the injection of 
blood into the cellular tissue around, or the presence of the signs or sequelae 
of inflammation. 
“38. Where large arteries or veins are found divided, care must be taken 
to corroborate the presumption thus arising by ascertaining, in the subsequent 
dissection, whether the great vessels and membranous viscera be unusually 
free of blood. 
“ 39. In the course of the dissection of the wounds, a careful search must 
be made for foreign bodies in them. Where firearms have occasioned them, 
the examination should not be ended before discovering the bullet, wadding, 
or other article lodged ; and whatever is found must be preserved. Where 
the article discharged from firearms, or indeed any other weapon, has passed 
through and through a part of the body, the entrance wound and exit wound 
must be carefully distinguished by their respective characters. 
“40. When wounds are situated over one of the great cavities, they ought 
not to be particularly examined until the cavity is laid open ; and in laying 
open the cavity, the external incisions should be kept clear of the wounds. 
“41. The organs in the abdomen furnish the best source for information 
as to the sign of bloodlessness in presumed death by hemorrhage. [The 
state of the brain is also a good criterion.]” 
SECTION YI.—Examination in cases of Poisoning. 
“ 42. In examining a body in a case of suspected poisoning, the inspectors 
should begin with the alimentary canal, first tying a ligature round the cardiac 
end of the stomach, and two round its pyloric end ; then removing the stomach 
and whole intestines; next, dissecting out the parts in the mouth, throat, 
neck, and chest, in one mass ; and, finally, dissecting the gullet, with the 
parts about the throat, from the other organs of the chest. The several por- 
tions of the alimentary canal may then be examined in succession. 
‘ ‘ 43. In all their operations they ought to make sure that the instruments, 
vessels, and bladders used are quite clean. 
“44. In cases of supposed poisoning, a minute inquiry must, in the first 
instance, be made into the symptoms during life—their nature, their precise 
date, especially in relation to meals or the taking of any suspicious articles, 
their progressive development, and the treatment pursued. It is impossible 
to be too cautious in collecting suclv information ; and, in particular, great 
care must be taken to fix the precise date of the first invasion of the symptoms 
and of the previous meals. The same care is required in tracing the early 
history of the case, where the inspector happens to visit the individual before 
death ; and if suspicion should not arise till his attendance has been going on 
for some time, he ought, subsequently to such suspicious, to review and 
correct the information gathered at first, especially as to dates. All facts 
thus obtained should be immediately committed to writing, and ought to form 
part of the narrative of the inspection to be delivered to the law authorities. 
—(See § 9, 10.) 
“ 45. Before inspecting the bodies, the inspectors, after ascertaining the 
history of the case, should proceed, if they see cause, to search, in company 
with the proper law officer, for suspicious articles in the house of the deceased. 
912 BOOK V.] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[§ 1022 
These are suspected articles of food, drink, or medicine ; the vessels in which 
they had been prepared or afterwards contained, the family stores, or the 
articles with which suspected food, etc., appears to have been made. All 
such articles must be secured, according to rules in § 13, for preserving their 
identity. In this examination, the body, clothes, bedclothes, floor, and hearth 
should not be neglected, as they may present traces of vomited matter, acids 
spirted out or spilled, and the like. 
“ 46. When a medical man is called to a case, during life, where poison is 
suspected, he ought as soon as possible to follow the instructions 4&id down 
for securing articles in which poison may have been administered. 
“47. In the same circumstances, it is his duty to observe the conduct of 
any suspected individuals, were it for no other reason than to prevent the re- 
mains of poisoned articles from being put out of the wray, and to protect his 
patient from further attempts. 
“ 48. The whole organs of the abdomen must be surveyed, but particularly 
the stomach and whole track of the intestines, the liver, spleen, kidneys, and 
the bladder ; and, in the female, the uterus and its appendages. The intestines 
should in general be slit up throughout their whole length ; and it should be 
remembered that the most frequent seat of disease of the mucous membrane 
is in the neighborhood of the ileo-csecal valve. 
“ 49. In cases where the possibility of poisoning must be kept in view, the 
contents of the stomach should be preserved ; also, sometimes, those of the 
great and small intestines, and occasionally even those of the gullet. 
“ 50. It is generally necessary to ascertain whether any spirituous fluid 
[or opium] be contained in the stomach. This may sometimes be done by 
the odor of its contents, but oftener not; so that, where the point is one of 
evident consequence, it may be necessary to search for alcohol by distilling 
the contents [if any], and examining the distilled liquid as directed in works 
on poisons. 
“ 51. The intestines may be examined at once by laying open their whole 
course. The parts, where appearances are most frequently found in poison- 
ing, are the duodenum, upper part of the jejunum, lower part of the ileum, 
and rectum. Care should be taken to preserve their contents in a bottle, and 
the intestines themselves in a bladder, if they present any unusual appear- 
ance which will keep. The stomach should be taken out entire, and its con- 
tents emptied into a bottle. The smell proceeding from its contents should 
be observed when it is first laid open, as this often alters speedily. If the 
stomach present any remarkable appearance, its examination may be re- 
served, if convenient, till a future opportunity ; but in every circumstance 
it must be preserved and carried away. The throat and gullet may be 
examined at once, and preserved with their contents, which, if abundant, may 
be kept apart in a bottle. 
“52. No person ought to undertake an analysis in a case of suspected 
poisoning, unless he be either familiar with chemical researches, or have pre- 
viously analyzed with success a mixture of organic substances, containing a 
small proportion of the poison suspected. 
“53. The inspectors will learn from the law authorities, whether, in the 
event of the discovery of poisoning by them, it is probable that the opinion 
vol. ii.—58 
913 § 1022] 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
[BOOK V. 
of some other person practised in toxicological researches may be required ; 
and, in that case, they will take to use only one-lialf of the several articles 
preserved for analysis. They will remember that the stomach itself is one of 
the articles for analysis, because poison may be found there, though not 
present in the contents. The identity of the subjects of analysis must be 
secured by the rules of § 13.” 
“ 54. In cases of suspected drowning, the inspectors will observe particu- 
larly whether grass, mud, or other objects are clutched by the hands, or con- 
tained under the nails ; whether the tongue be protruded or not between the 
teeth ; whether any fluid, froth, or foreign substances be contained in the 
mouth or nostrils, in the trachea or bronchial ramifications? whether the 
stomach contain much water ; whether the blood in the great vessels be fluid. 
When water, with particles of vegetable matter or mud, is found within the 
body, these must be compared with what may exist in the water in which the 
body was discovered. Marks of injuries must be compared diligently with 
the objects both in the water and the. banks near it. 
“ 55. In cases of suspected death by hanging, strangling, or smothering, it 
is important to attend particularly to the state of the face as to lividity, com- 
pared with the rest of the body ; the state of the conjunctiva of the eyes, as 
to vascularity ; of the tongue, as to position ; of the throat, chin, and lips, as 
to marks of nail scratches, ruffling of the scarf-skin, or small contusions; the 
state of the blood, as to fluidity ; the state of the membranous organs in the 
abdomen and of the lungs, as to congestion. The mark of a cord or other 
ligature round the neck, must be attentively examined ; and here it requires 
to be mentioned, that the mark is often not distinct until seven or eight hours 
after death, and that it is seldom a dark livid mark, as is very commonly sup- 
posed, but a pale, greenish-brown streak, if made with a rope, representing 
in general no ecchymosis, but the thinnest possible line of bright redness at 
either edge, where it is conterminous with the sound skin. Nevertheless, 
effusions of blood and lacerations should be looked for under and around the 
mark, in the skin, cellular tissue, muscles, cartilages, and lining membrane 
of the larynx and trachea. Accessory injuries in other parts of the body, 
more especially on the chest, back, and arms, must be looked for; as likewise 
the appearance of coagulated blood having flowed from the nostrils or ears, 
and discharge of feces, urine, or semen.” 
SECTION VII.—Examination in cases of Suffocation. 
SECTION VIII.—Examination in cases of Burning. 
“ 56. In supposed death from burning, the skin at the edge of the burns 
should be carefully examined for redness, or the appearance of vesicles con- 
taining fluid.” 
SECTION IX.—Examination in cases of Infanticide. 
“57. In cases of suspected infanticide, certain peculiarities must be borne 
in mind. The cavity of the head should be laid open with a pair of scissors. 
In opening the abdomen the incision may be carried through the whole 
914 BOOK V.] 
MEDIOO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
L§ 1022 
parietes at once ; and the navel should be avoided, so that the state of the 
vessels of the navel-string may be examined correctly. 
“ 58. The inquiry in cases of infanticide should be conducted with a dis- 
tinct reference to the following questions : 1. The probable degree of matu- 
rity of the child. 2. How long it has been dead ? 3. Whether it died before, 
during, or after delivery, and how long after ? 4. Whether death arose from 
natural causes, neglect, or violence ? 5. Whether the suspected female is the 
mother of the child ? 
“ 59. The points to be attended to for ascertaining the probable degree of 
maturity of the child are the state of the skin, its secretions, and its ap- 
pendages, the hair and nails ; the presence or absence of the pupillary mem- 
brane ; the length and weight of the whole body ; the relative length of the 
body and its members; and the point on the abdomen corresponding with the 
middle of the length of the body ; the relative size of the lungs and heart; 
the relative size of the liver, indicated by the position' of its margin ; the 
situation of the meconium in the intestines ; the position of the testicles in 
the case of males. 
“ 60. The points of chief importance, in reference to the period which has 
elapsed after death, are those specified in the last clause of section 17. 
“61. The circumstances which indicate whether the child died before or 
during parturition, and how long after it, are the signs of putrefaction within 
the womb ; the marks of the crown, feet, buttocks, shoulders, etc., indicating 
presumptively the kind of labor; the state of the lungs, heart, and great 
vessels, showing whether or not it had breathed ; the nature of the contents 
of the stomach, and of the intestines; the presence or absence of urine in 
the bladder ; the presence of foreign matters in the windpipe ; the state of 
the umbilical cord, or of the navel itself, if the cord be detached. 
“ 62. In order to examine properly the state of the lungs, heart, and great 
vessels, with a view to determine whether or not the child had breathed, the 
inspection should be made in the following order : Attend first to the situa- 
tion of the lungs, how far they rise along the sides of the heart—to their 
color and texture—and whether they crepitate or not. Examine next, but 
without displacing them, the condition of the ductus venosus and umbilical 
vessels. Then secure a ligature round the great vessels at the root of the 
neck, keeping clear of the ductus arteriosus, and another round the vena 
cava above the diaphragm. Cut both sets of vessels beyond the ligatures, 
and remove the heart and lungs in one mass ; which must be weighed and 
put in water to ascertain whether the lungs, with the heart attached, sink or 
swim. In the next place, put a ligature round the pulmonary vessels, close 
to the lungs, and cut away the heart by an incision between it and the liga- 
ture. Compare now the relation of the diameter of the ductus arteriosus to 
that of the pulmonary trunk and of the pulmonary branches, and look for 
any indication of partial contraction in the duct towards its aortal end. 
Lastly, ascertain the weight of the lungs ; their relative weight to that of the 
whole body ; whether they crepitate when handled; whether they sink or 
swim in water ; whether blood issues freely or sparingly when they are cut 
into; whether any fragments swim in the instances where the entire lungs 
915 § 1022J 
[BOOK V. 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS. 
sink ; and, in every instance of buoyancy, whether fragments of them con- 
tinue to swim when well squeezed in a cloth. 
“63. The points to he considered in relation to the cause of death, are the 
signs of natural death before parturition, and of natural, accidental, and 
violent death during parturition as well as after delivery. The most frequent 
forms of violent death during labor, are, puncture of the fontanelles, orbits, 
or nucha ; twisting of the neck after delivery of the head ; compression of the 
head; detruncation of the head; strangling and smothering. The chief 
varieties of violent death after delivery are : smothering by overlaying or 
otherwise ; hemorrhage from the umbilical cord ; simple exposure ; starva- 
tion ; injuries of the head from falls, blows, or compression ; wounds of the 
throat; puncture of the fontanelles, nucha, orbits, cribriform plate, spine, 
ears, or heart; laceration of the great gut, or of the internal parts of the 
throat, by instruments thrust in the anus or mouth ; drowning ; poisoning ; 
burning; strangling with the hand or a ligature ; choking by foreign bodies 
thrust into the back of the throat, or by dividing the fraenum linguae and 
doubling back the tongue. 
“ 64. The circumstances noticed in §§ 59, 61, 62, compared with the signs 
of recent delivery in the female, will lead to the decision of the question, 
whether the suspected female be the mother of the child. These are the 
signs of the degree of maturity of the child; the signs on the body of the 
kind of labor ; the' signs which indicate the date of its death, and the interval 
which elapsed both between its birth and death, and between its death and 
the inspection.”—Watson on Homicide. 
916 BOOK VI. 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
§ 1024. Recent statutes have greatly reduced the cases in 
which questions of survivorship can come before the courts. 
In Prussia, for instance, it is provided, that, when two or more 
persons lose their lives in a common calamity, in such a way 
that it cannot be ascertained which has survived, then it is to 
be assumed that neither has survived the others.(a) So 
effective has this been in Germany in quieting litigation of 
this character, that Liman (1871) tells us that cases where the 
courts are called upon to adjudicate as to survivorship now 
very rarely arise. Casper was called upon for an opinion in 
but a single case; Liman in but two. We usually assume, 
continues Liman, in showing the unsatisfactory character of 
the merely scientific tests that are invoked, that we can re- 
solve questions of doubt by appealing to the distinctive indi- 
vidualities of the persons found dead; to their respective ages, 
sexes, and constitution; to the position in which they were 
found; to the degree of progress of decomposition. But all 
these tests are fluctuating; and the only general conclusion 
which we can reach is that each case is to be judged by its 
peculiar circumstances. Three nien, for instance, to adopt the 
illustration given afterwards by Casper, are killed in a riot; 
A, by a sword wound on his head; B, by a bayonet thrust in 
his heart; and C, by a gunshot that has severed a jugular vein. 
Here we cannot hesitate to conclude that B died the first; 
that C may have resisted death a little longer before final 
exhaustion; and that A for a still longer period withstood the 
fatal effect of his wound. .But who can decide who survived 
among several persons who by the same casualty encountered 
(a) Pr. Allg. Landrecht, Th. i. tit. I. § 39. 
917 § 1025] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
death by drowning? When, by the burning of a house, a 
whole family, consisting of a father, mother, and three children, 
were destroyed, would it have been possible for us to deter- 
mine who died first? It is, therefore, with great wisdom, 
continues Liman, that the Roman law, followed in this respect 
by subsequent European legislation, has concluded that in 
cases of this kind, in which absolute scientific conclusion by 
experts may be impossible, no positive judicial conclusion carl 
be reached.(i) In this opinion now coincides the Anglo- 
American law, with certain qualifications, however, which 
may make an examination of the comparative strength of the 
parties of occasional importance. Suggestions as to such an 
examination will now be given. 
I. As TO THE PARTIES, § 1025. 
1st. Sex, § 1025. 
2d. Age, § 1027. 
3d. Size and temperament, § 1028. 
4th. Health, § 1030. 
II. As TO MODE OF DEATH, § 1031. 
1st. Drowning, § 1031. 
2d. Asphyxia, § 1046. 
3d. Heat, § 1047. 
4th. Cold, § 1048. 
5tli. Starving, § 1049. 
6tli. Poison, § 1052. 
7tli. Crushing or burying alive, § 1053. 
8th. Childbirth, § 1054. 
9tli. Wounds, § 1056. 
III. Tests where bodies are found dead, § 1057. 
§ 1025. I. As to the parties. 1st. Sex.—Generally the male 
is supposed to survive the female, though in cases of suf- 
focation Zacchias assumes the survivorship to be with the 
woman, on account of a less liability to asthma. This is 
verified by one or two cases. A girl and a young man were 
exposed in the same apartment to coal-gas. He was dead, 
but she, though she had been exposed ten hours, recovered.(c) 
A very interesting narrative to the same effect is quoted by 
(b) 2 Liman’s Casper, 1871, 17. 
(c) Henke’s Zeitsclisclirift, 1 Heft. B. 75, s. 99. 
918 BOOK VI.] 
[§ 1027 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
Dr. Ivriigelstein. In the Catacombs near Maestricht there is 
a labyrinth from which, when the way is lost in the dark, it 
is almost impossible to escape. Among the mummies which 
are found in the passage is one of a Leipsig student, whose 
name is not recorded. This much, however, is told of him. 
lie was a man of much beauty and accomplishments, and was 
preparing for a professorship. An attachment sprang up 
between himself and the daughter of a rich merchant from 
Leipsig. The father refused his consent, and the young couple 
eloped and hid themselves in Maestricht. They were followed 
there, and finally took refuge in the Catacombs, thinking that 
they could readily conceal themselves there for a few days. 
Their track, however, was followed, and at the end of the 
third day they were discovered in a remote hole. The husband 
was dead, and his body is the mummy just mentioned. The 
wife was resuscitated, and lived to an extreme old age. 
§ 1026. According to Dr. Guy, in cases where one of each 
sex perishes by the same accident, the probability is that the 
male, being stronger, is the survivor. This view has received 
a most melancholy confirmation in the wreck of the Atlantic, 
in April, 1873, in which, out of three hundred survivors from 
a steamer crowded with emigrants, there was not a single 
woman or child. This rule applies only where strength and 
courage are the best means of safety. In those cases, how- 
ever, where the danger of death is increased by struggles and 
resistance, the probability of survivorship is said by Guy to 
be with the female, from the incapacity of action which would 
result from her greater liability to weakness and fainting.(d) 
§ 1027. 2d. Age.—The body is in the possession of its maxi- 
mum strength and vigor between the ages of 27 and 50. In 
cases, therefore, where adults between these ages perish by the 
same means and where strength and power of endurance only- 
are concerned, no presumption of survivorship can be enter- 
tained between them. Before and after these ages the power 
of endurance is probably less, but still between the ages of 15 
and 60 not enough difference can exist to establish any general 
rule. Where a middle aged person perishes with one under 
(d) Guy’s Medical Jurisprudence, 400. 
919 § 1029] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
puberty or above 60, tlie probability of survivorship is in favor 
of the adult. Where one under 15 and one over 60 perish 
together, according to the French law, the former is the sur- 
vivor. The civil law assumes that in case the parent and 
child die by a common death, the child survives the parent if he 
is above puberty, and dies first if he is below that age.(e) The 
particular rule in shipwreck will be hereafter given.fe1) 
§ 1028. 3d. Size and temperament.—Hippocrates is quoted as 
saying qui natura sunt valde crassi, subito moriuntur quam 
graciles. The fat, in other words, die quicker than the slender. 
The older commentators on this passage make a still further 
distinction between those who are naturally stout, and those 
whose fat is the result of high living, the latter of whom they 
declare to be the more shortlived.(e2) 
§ 1029. Temperament.—Persons who are sanguine and cho- 
leric outlive those who are melancholy and phlegmatic. 
Celui qui est doue d’un temperament pituiteux meurt le premier, 
vient ensuit le melancholique, puis le sanguin et le bilieux.(f) 
The timid die much more quickly than the courageous. 
Dr. Gray says: “ It is necessary, however, to understand 
that mere muscular strength and power of endurance are two 
very different things, and do not often meet in the same 
person. Muscular strength is often greatest in the so-called 
lymphatic temperament; power of endurance in the bilious.”(y) 
(<?) The duration of human life is very different in different cases, but 
seldom exceeds 100 years. The average duration in Russia is 21.3, in Prussia 
29.6, in Switzerland 34.6, in France 35.5, in Belgium 36.5, in England 38.5 
years. The probable duration of life has latterly increased. The average 
length of life is greater with married persons than with those who remain 
single ; this difference is more remarkable in the case of females than in that 
of males, but the former are more subject to fatal attacks during the period' 
of child-bearing. Extreme old age is oftener reached by men than by women. 
The average duration of life is different in different professions. Among 
theologians it is 65.1, among merchants 62.4, among government officials 
61.7, among farmers and foresters 61.5, among soldiers 59.6, among lawyers 
58.9, among teachers 59.9, among physicians 56.8 years. (See Bocker's 
Gericht. Med., ed. 1857, § 129.) 
(ri) Post, §§ 1031, 1039. 
(e2). See Pauli Zachise Question Med. Leg., lib. v. tit. iii. Qusest. 12. 
(/) Orfila, Lemons de Medecine Legale, Paris, 1825, tom. ii. p. 271. 
(g) Guy's Med. Jur., 400. 
920 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[§ 1033 
§ 1030. 4th. Health.—Disease, all other things being equal, 
supposes an earlier death. 
§ 1031. II. As to mode of death. 1st. Drowning.—Many 
cases of great difficulty have arisen from doubt as to the pri- 
ority of death, where persons have perished from drowning. 
Where shipwreck occurs, men are more apt to be saved than 
women. They are stronger, can endure more, and are more 
apt to know how to swim than women, and generally they are 
more apt to be upon the deck, and in favorable places to 
secure their safety, than are women. 
When the comparison is between those of the same age and 
sex, it is to be considered which of them was the more exposed 
to cold from having his body only partly immersed. Investi- 
gation should also be made as to whether any injuries may 
have occurred to prevent a swimmer from using his strength. 
§ 1032. When there, is an explosion, those persons, accord- 
ing to Orfila, who are the lightest and weakest, will be pre- 
sumed to have been the last who were precipitated into the 
water. When the water is reached, however, and in all cases 
of ordinary shipwreck, the presumption of survivorship is 
with those who have the greatest presence of mind andstrength, 
and with those best acquainted with swimming. Desides this, 
the following considerations are to be noticed:— 
§ 1033. Dress very much affects the power of keeping above 
water. Boots soon fill with water and interfere with swimming. 
A woman’s clothes, as lighter, and often exposing a greater 
resistance to the water than those of a man, may act as floats 
to keep the body a few moments longer on the surface. 
A power to hold in respiration, or a condition of the body 
that permits this, presumes a longer struggle. 
It should be inquired, also, whether the death was by apo- 
plexy or suffocation. Persons of apoplectic tendencies are 
very apt to be struck with the disease when suddenly precipi- 
tated into the water, and when this is the case, death is pre- 
sumed to have been earlier than in the ordinary cases of 
suffocation.(A) 
(h) According to Bocker, the stronger person will live longer—the mature 
man longer than the child or old man. In cases of poison, the person who 
921 § 1035] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
§ 1034. Iii 1766 General Stanwix and his daughter set sail 
from Ireland for England, and during the voyage both perished 
from shipwreck. Opposing claims were set up for the personal 
estate by the nephew of Gen. Stanwix and the maternal uncle 
of the daughter. It was argued, in favor of the general’s sur- 
vivorship, that he, being a soldier and man of courage, would 
be apt during tempestuous weather to be upon deck, while the 
daughter would probably be below, and hence it was supposed 
that the father would struggle much longer for his life than 
the daughter. It was contended, on the other hand, that the 
general was old and feeble, while the daughter was young and 
healthy, and hence able to resist such an attack longer than 
the father. 
A second wife of the general perished at the same time, and 
her representatives put in a claim to the property. The diffi- 
culties were such that the judges were unable to decide, and 
advised a compromise, which was accordingly effiected.(z) 
§ 1035. In 1838 occurred the explosion, near Charleston, 
So'uth Carolina, of the steamer Pulaski, from which two re- 
markable cases arose. In the first (j) it appeared that Hugh 
is found to have taken the largest dose probably died soonest. In cases of 
suffocation, the person who has strong lungs has probably survived one with 
weaker, as a young child. In cases of drowning, a good swimmer has prob- 
ably retained life longest. Persons upon whom traces of reactions are 
found have survived those upon whose bodies such marks are wanting. In 
cases of injuries the more important the organ affected, the sooner death 
follows. A sick person will die sooner than one in good health. Women 
bear loss of blood longer than men. If the fatal instrument must have 
reached the different persons at intervals, the one first reached has probably 
died first. Where one of the persons has died by the hands of another, and 
the other by his own hands, the latter has probably survived the former. In 
cases of starvation or of freezing, young, weak, lean person's perish sooner 
than others. Hunger and thirst combined produce death sooner than hunger 
or thirst alone. If a mother and a newly-born infant are found dead, it is 
probable that the infant, where it was evidently born alive, lived the longer. 
Some physicians hold the opinion that the birth of a child may be con- 
summated after the death of the mother. The person whose body is most 
advanced in decomposition died first. 
In some cases the circumstances will enable one to decide with a high 
degree of probability as to priority of death. 
(*) R. v. Hay, 1 W. Bl. 640. 
(j) Pell v. Ball ; 1 Clieves’s Ch. Cases. 
922 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[§ 1035 
Swinton Ball, with his wife and adopted daughter, were lost 
on board the steamer Pulaski, in June 14, 1838. By will he 
left certain portions of his estate to his wife in case she sur- 
vived him. The facts are thus stated by Chancellor Johnson : 
“The Pulaski left Savannah on the 13th of June, 1838, and 
arrived at Charleston that evening. The next morning Mr. 
and Mrs. Ball, their adopted daughter, and a servant went on 
board, and she departed north on her course, until about 11 
o’clock of that night, when, most of the passengers haviug 
retired to their berths, the starboard boiler exploded. By the 
explosion an extensive breach was made on the starboard side 
of the vessel. Her main deck was blown off, thus destroying 
the communication between the forward and after part of the 
steamer. The forward part of the upper deck (called the hur- 
ricane deck, in contradistinction to the after part, which is 
called the promenade deck) was blown off, carrying with it 
the wheel-house, in which the commander of the boat, Capt. 
Dubois, was sleeping at the time ; the gentlemen’s forward 
cabin "was much torn, its floor ripped up, and its bulkhead 
driven in, and Major Twiggs, whose berth was there, gives us 
reason to suppose that many p>erished in that part of the vessel 
by the explosion. The gentlemen’s after cabin (which wTas 
under the main deck and immediately beneath the ladies’ 
cabin, which wTas on that deck) was also injured. Some part 
of the floor was ripped up, the bulkhead partly driven in, and 
the stairs communicating with the deck more or less shattered. 
The vessel was careened to the larboard, and as she dipped 
began to fill with water. In a very short time the hold was 
filled, and the water gained to the level of the floor of the 
gentlemen’s cabin. It rose higher with great rapidity, the 
vessel settled to the centre, where the breach was, and all hope 
that she could hold together was abandoned. She parted 
amidships, and the forward and after parts pitched into the 
water toward the centre, at an angle of nearly thirty degrees. 
The gentlemen’s after cabin was now entirely filled, and the 
forward cabin was certainly in as bad a condition. There were 
some persons on the forward part of the vessel, nearly all of 
whom speedily perished, but the greater number were in the 
after part, including one or two who had passed by swimming 
923 § 1035] 
SURVIVORSHIP. • 
[book vr. 
from the forward to the after part. Of those on the after part, 
as many as could climbed to the promenade deck; but there 
were many, mostly ladies, among whom was Mrs. Ball, who 
remained on the main deck. These, as that deck sank deeper 
and deeper, retreated along the gangways, by the ladies’ cabin, 
toward the stern. The promenade deck, by the action of the 
waves, was burst from the top of the boat and was submerged 
with all that were on it. Whether the stern of the boat was 
submerged at or after this time, is uncertain. Some of the 
witnesses think it was, even before the promenade deck, others, 
that it was not submerged at all. All these events had taken 
place, according to most of the witnesses, in about from forty 
to fifty minutes ; according to others, in less time. 
“Some few escaped in the boats, others on parts of the 
wreck, and others on rafts constructed by them as they could. 
Of Mrs. Ball, nothing is known, after the submerging of the 
promenade deck, nor for some time before. Before that event, 
her cries were heard by one witness, who had gained the pro- 
menade deck, as they proceeded from the place she still occu- 
pied on the deck below. E"o witness speaks of her afterwards. 
“ Within a few minutes after the explosion, according to 
one witness who knew her, she came out of the ladies’ cabin 
and began to call upon her husband. The scene was one of 
terror, as may be supposed ; and, although a crowd was in- 
stantly gathered at that part of the vessel, there was not much 
noise. The surrounding horrors seem to have subdued the 
sufferers, and in mute astonishment they contemplated the fate 
that awTaited them. Even the wheels had stopped. Nothing 
but the sound of the waters, which were somewhat disturbed, 
and the hasty exclamations of friends, as they sought each 
other out, and the noise occasioned by such preparations as 
the more active and prudent felt themselves called upon to 
make for themselves and others under their charge, were heard. 
But the voice of Mrs. Ball was heard above all others, calling 
upon her husband. She ran forward to the chasm caused by 
the explosion, retraced her steps, and continued to traverse the 
starboard gangway in search of him, uttering his name in 
tones so elevated by her agony, that they reached most parts 
of the vessel, and seem to have made an indelible impression 
924 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[§ 1037 
upon all who heard them. Her cry, according to one witness, 
was a cry of bitter despair and anxious inquiry, and, according 
to all, it was lifted in shrill tones, carrying an irresistible ap- 
peal to all hearts. 
§ 1036. “ Mr. Ball was neither seen nor heard. Mrs. Ball 
was heard and seen by many, but no response was heard to her 
cries, nor was any one seen to approach her for her protection 
or consolation. Two witnesses, who knew Mr. Ball, saw her, 
but did not see him. One of them passed and repassed her, in 
a hurried manner to be sure, but did not discover him. He 
was neither seen nor heard after the explosion, unless he was 
the person referred to by two witnesses, who stated the follow- 
ing circumstances: Very shortly after the explosion, a boat 
was let down on the starboard side of the steamer, into which 
some persons descended. As the boat was lying below, a gen- 
tleman came to that side of the deck, and throwing a coat into 
the boat, called to those in it to hold fast a moment, and 
instantly disappeared. He never reappeared, but the next day 
the coat was found to he a black dress-coat of large size (such 
was the size of Mr. Ball), and in one of the pockets was dis- 
covered a shirt collar, on which was written the name of Ball 
with some initials, which the witnesses have forgotten. 
“ Now these are the circumstances of the case. It is not 
the case of an unknown calamity, nor of one withdrawn from 
observation, nor is it a case where the calamity was of instan- 
taneous operation. It is a case for testimony, and to be de- 
cided on testimony.” 
§ 1037. Chancellor Johnston proceeds to say, that, as the 
right on the part of Mrs. Ball was derivative, the burden 
on the plaintiffs to prove that she was the survivor. But 
although bound to prove this, it does not follow that they are 
to prove it to demonstration. We must take the best evidence 
that the case affords. 
Although unwilling to rest on the fact that Mrs. Ball was 
the last person seen, yet he inclines to the opinion, that in 
cases of persons lost by a common accident, this should be the 
ground of decision. He prefers, in the present instance, “ to 
put the case upon the ground of probability arising from the 
evidence, upon a belief engendered by a combination of cir- 
925 § 1038] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
cumstances, and upon the superiority of positive proof over 
conjecture, or even probability. 
“ The explosion produced its most fatal effects in the gen- 
tlemen’s forward cabin, and that was the first part of the vessel 
which sank. The after cabin was also much injured. From 
the forward cabin many persons never escaped. From the 
after cabin, so far as we know from the evidence, all did escape 
except Judge Cameron, an infirm old man. But from the. 
description given of its condition, it is possible that some others 
may have been detained, either from being hurt or otherwise, 
until the cabin filled. 
§ 1038. “ It is certain that Mrs. Ball escaped the explosion. 
Is it certain Mr. Ball did ? Mr. Ball engaged a berth in the 
after cabin. The probability is that he got it, but this is far 
from certain. The boat came with many persons from Savan- 
nah, which may have occasioned Mr. Ball to be displaced and 
transferred forward. I think, however, it is not probable he 
was so transferred, because, by an arrangement between the 
agents in Savannah and at Charleston, they were entitled to 
let berths, in alternate order, throughout the boat, and we 
know that some of the passengers who came from Savannah 
had not the advantage of pre-occupying the after cabin, and 
that some of the Charleston passengers were let into the cabin; 
Mr. Ball, therefore, was probably in that cabin. But there is 
a probability that he was in the forward cabin, and if so, in 
the greatest danger from the explosion. Mrs. Ball was cleared 
from that danger certainly, Mr. Ball only probably. Supposing 
that he was in the after cabin, still there are chances of his 
destruction there, from which, we know, Mrs. Ball was totally 
free on the deck. We know Mrs. Ball was there. That is 
certain. Is it certain that Mr. Ball had hitherto escaped, and 
was the person who threw the coat into the boat ? It may be 
that he was the man. I think it hardly probable. I should 
have thought that he was the man if he had been seen at any 
time near his wife, or had answered to her heart-rending calls. 
But it is more probable that some one else in the hurry of the 
moment may have mistaken Mr. Ball’s coat for his own, and 
thrown it into the boat, than that an affectionate husband and 
brave man, as Mr. Ball is proved to have been, should have 
926 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[§ 1040 
heard such appeals as were made to him by his wife, and 
should at such a time have failed in his duty to her. 
“We have indubitable evidence that she had so far escaped; 
the same evidence, with a moral force which cannot be re- 
sisted, convinces us that he must have already perished, or he 
would have been at her side. I have from all these considera- 
tions, formed the opinion that Mrs. Ball survived her hus- 
band.” On appeal (February, 1840), the above decision was 
confirmed. 
§ 1039. In 1844, in Massachusetts, a question of survivor- 
ship arose as to a father, seventy years old, and a daughter, 
thirty-three years old, who also perished in the Pulaski, there 
being no evidence as to the time or mode of their particular 
deaths. It was held by the Supreme Court that there was no 
legal presumption that either survived the Yet the 
court did not go so far as to declare that there could be in no 
circumstances any decisive presumptions arising from dis- 
parity of age. “ To a certain extent,” said Dewey, J., “ we 
might well go, in applying the principle as to disparity of age. 
Thus it would be proper and reasonable to hold that one of 
middle age, and in full vigor of life, would ordinarily survive 
an infant or child of very tender years; and the same would 
be alike true as to such person and the man well stricken in 
years.” 
§ 1040. In 1846, the same points were mooted in Yew York 
under the following circumstances: A married woman pro- 
cured a policy of insurance on the life of her husband, for her 
own use, unless she died before him, and in that case to the 
use of her child. She sailed with her husband and child from 
Yew York, in 1841, in the steamer President, which was lost 
at sea, no intelligence being received as to the circumstances of 
the disaster. Upon the question of survivorship, Chancellor 
Walworth said: “The insurance money in this case, by the 
terms of the policy, was made payable to the children of the 
assured, in case she died before her husband. If her daughter 
survived her, therefore, it would have been necessary, perhaps, 
to inquire whether there is any legal presumption that the 
(k) Coye v. Leach, 8 Mete. 371. 
927 § 1040] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
husband survived his wife, when they have both perished by 
the same disaster, and when there is no extrinsic evidence to 
guide the judgment of the court upon this matter of fact. In 
the cases of Taylor v. Diplock (2 Phill. Rep. 267), Colvin v. 
King’s Proctor (1 Hagg. Ecc. Rep. 92), and in Selwyn’s case 
(3 Idem, 748), it appears to have been supposed, in the absence 
of any evidence to justify a different conclusion, that the 
court would be bound to presume a survivorship of the hus- 
band, when the husband and the wife perish together at sea: 
upon the ground, I presume, that the greater strength of the 
male would probably enable him to sustain life the longest in 
such a calamity. But as there is no presumption of the sur- 
vivorship of the daughter, in this case, after the death of her 
mother, and the probability is that they both perished at the 
same moment, it becomes immaterial to inquire whether it 
must be presumed that the husband survived his wife. It is 
sufficient for this case that there is no legal presumption that 
she survived him.”(£) 
As to these observations two remarks are to be made. 
First. They are mere dicta, so far as concerns the presumption 
of the husband’s survivorship, the point not coming up in 
this case. Secondly. They are made on the basis of English 
cases, either misunderstood by Chancellor Walworth, or sub- 
sequently overruled. “ Notwithstanding,” says Mr. Best, in 
1870,(m) “ some questionable dicta, the true conclusion from 
the authorities seems to be that it (the English law) recognizes 
no artificial presumption in cases of this nature; but leaves the 
real or supposed strength of one of the persons perishing by a 
common calamity, to its natural weight, i. e., as a circumstance 
proper to be taken into consideration by a judicial tribunal, 
but which standing alone is insufficient to shift the burden of 
proof. Where, therefore, a party on whom the onus lies of 
proving the survivorship of one individual over another has 
no evidence beyond the assumption that from age or sex the 
individual must be taken to have struggled longer against 
death than his companion, he cannot succeed.” 
(?) Mochring v. Mitchell, 1 Barb. Cli. Rep. 2C9. 
(to) Best on Evidence, 5tli ed., §• 410. 
928 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[§ 1041 
§ 1041. In 1854-55, in England, arose the following case :(n) 
A testator, by his will, gave all his real and personal estate to 
W., in trust for his wife absolutely, “ and in case my said wife 
shall die in my lifetime, then in trust for such of them, my 
three children, C., F., and A., as shall attain the age of 21, 
etc., and in case all of them shall die under the age of 21, etc.,” 
then he gave and bequeathed all his property to W. The tes- 
tator and his wife, and two of the children, F. and A., were 
drowned at sea, in a shipwreck, having been washed oft' from 
the side of the vessel by the same wave. The other child, C., 
was also drowned, but had been seen alive, after the others 
were drowned. W., as executor, proved the will. A bill was 
tiled by the administrator of C., as next of kin of the wife, 
under an asserted intestacy, against IV. There was no direct 
evidence on the question of survivorship as between the hus- 
band and wife, but there was considerable medical evidence of 
a conflicting nature, with reference to the presumptions of the 
case. The case came up on an appeal from the Master of the 
Rolls, and was heard before Cranworth, Lord Chancellor, 
assisted by Wightman, J., and Martin, B. Wightman, J., 
in the course of his judgment, said: “The question of sur- 
vivorship is the subject of evidence to be produced before the 
tribunal which is to decide upon it, and which is to determine 
it, as it determines any other fact. If there be satisfactory 
evidence to show that the one survived the other, the tribunal 
ought so to decide ; and if there be no evidence, the case is 
the same as a great variety of other cases, more frequent 
formerly than at present, where no evidence exists, and con- 
sequently no judgment can be formed. On this point, we 
concur with the Master of the Rolls; we think there is no 
evidence to show whether the husband or the wife was the 
survivor. There may be surmise, and speculation, and guess, 
but we think there is no evidence. We have no doubt that 
the scientific gentlemen who were examined were perfectly 
sincere in their opinions, but it is obvious that their opinions 
were given, having reference to the case of two persons quietly 
(n) Underwood v. WiDg, 1 Jur., N. S., 169 ; 4 De G. M. & G. 633 ; 31 
Eng. Law and Eq. 293. 
vol. ii.—59 
929 § 1042] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
submerged in water, and remaining there until drowned ; or 
in the case of two persons, one being a swimmer, and the other 
not, and both thrown suddenly into the water, unincumbered, 
and acting on certain instinct. The present case is that of 
two persons clasped together, two boys clinging to one of 
them, and standing pretty high out of the water on the ship’s 
side, swept off together by an overwhelming wave into a 
raging sea, and one or other, or both of them, may have been 
stunned by the violence of the blow from a wave, or they may 
have struck against a timber of the ship, and may, in fact, 
have been dead before he or she reached the water at all. How 
is it possible, under such circumstances, for any tribunal, sit- 
ting judicially, to say which of these two individuals died 
first? We may guess, or imagine, or fancy ; but the law of 
England requires evidence, and we are of opinion that there is 
no evidence upon which we can give a judicial opinion that 
either survived the other. The Master of the Rolls is reported, 
in the report of his judgment, to have said: ‘There is, there- 
fore, no evidence to show who was the survivor, and the con- 
clusion of law is that both died at the same moment.’ Accord- 
ing to our view this is not correct; we think there is no con- 
clusion of law on the subject. In fact, we think it unlikely 
that both did die at the same moment of time, but there is 
no evidence to show who was the survivor. Our opinion, 
therefore, on the questions, with respect to which it was re- 
quested, is in favor of the plaintiff.” 
§ 1042. Lord Chancellor Cranworth, after adopting the 
views of Wightman, J., added:— 
“ Then we come to the question of fact. I entirely concur 
in what was said by the learned judges on that subject, that 
there is no evidence whatever which will justify anybody in 
coming to any such conclusion; because I take it in this case, 
as in all others where it is said that a person must show such 
and such a state of things to have arisen, that it is not suffi- 
cient to show a variety of circumstances on which it is very 
difficult to form your mind; that, if you had to lay a wager, 
you would rather lay a wager one way than the other. That 
is not what is necessary. The heir at law is not to be dispos- 
sessed unless the devisee or person claiming can show such 
930 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
931 
circumstances as displace him—not show that there is a con- 
fusion and an ignorance as to what happened, and that it may 
have so happened, that the greater probability may be that it 
has so happened, as to entitle him; but there must be evidence 
as to who was the survivor. I think it impossible to carry 
this evidence to anything like proof as to which was the sur- 
vivor. I give the medical gentlemen most entire credit for 
speaking scientifically and, as we believe, quite accurately. I 
do not think that they themselves even are very confident. In- 
deed, it is idle, when you are calculating and reasoning & -priori 
in this way, as to which of two people may have breathed a 
few seconds the longest at the bottom of the sea; for that is 
all it comes to. To think that one can take that as establish- 
ing the fact seems to me to be quite misunderstanding the 
nature of human testimony. The medical men may be quite 
right in the observations they have made of persons dying 
from asphyxia; that such and such results follow; that there 
is a small interval, of perhaps half a minute, after sensation 
has ceased, in which life still continues; and I think they say 
that that is, as far as their observation goes, uniform in all 
states of health and in all states of strength. I dare say that 
may be very learned and probably accurate, as far as science 
enables us to form such an opinion; but, happily, the instances 
of such events cannot have been sufficiently numerous to have 
enabled anybody to have formed at all an accurate and certain 
conclusion on such a difficult subject; and I confess that I 
rose from the perusal of their evidence utterly unconvinced 
that those gentlemen can tell us which of these two persons 
died first; that is to say, which of them died first if they had 
both been taken and quietly submerged to the bottom of the 
sea. But when you add to that, that they are all violently 
thrown by one blast from the side of the ship, and may have 
fallen against some spars (for from what we know that may have 
been so), and then in the whirlpool and confusion of the moment 
to pretend that you can come to any conclusion on which you 
can act, that these medical gentlemen are right in supposing 
the wife did die a few seconds before the husband, seems to 
me to be confusing and confounding the province of human tes- 
timony. I must say that I come to a conclusion upon the as- 
931 932 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
sumption that we cannot tell which of these two persons died 
first. That is the conclusion at which the Master of the Rolls 
arrived. In the report certain words are attributed to the 
Master of the Rolls. I do not mean to say that reporters are 
not accurate in taking down judges’ words. It may be that 
judges use inaccurate words, or that the words are not distinctly 
understood as used; but I have, from personal communication, 
ascertained what he meant to say. He is represented in one 
passage to have said, he must assume they both died together. 
All he meant was—and I know he was not aware he ever 
used such an expression, but, if he did, all he meant was— 
that the property must be distributed just as it would have to 
be distributed if they had both died at the same time, punctual 
temporis; that there was not a practical difference between 
them, not that any person may assume it to be proved or pro- 
bable or possible. That two human beings should cease to 
breathe at the same moment of time is hardly within the range 
of imagination. I suppose that time, like space, is infinitely 
divisible; and if we are to speculate on such a subject, one 
can hardly suppose that the one did not breathe a millionth 
part of a second longer than the other. Therefore, to adjudi- 
cate on a principle that they did actually cease to breathe at 
the same moment would, I think, be proceeding on false data. 
The real ground to proceed on is, that it cannot be proved 
which died first; they both probably died within a few seconds 
of each other, but which died first it is impossible to saj\ 
That being so, what is the result ? "Why, here is a will made 
in which in one state of circumstances, namely, that if the 
wife died in the husband’s lifetime, the property is given away. 
It is not proved that that state of circumstances existed, and 
in no other state of circumstances is it given away. Then it 
is not given away at all. Therefore, it is to be taken as upon 
an intestacy, and must be distributed amongst the next of kin.” 
§ 1043. In 1857 the Supreme Court of Florida accepted the 
doctrine of Underwood v. Wing, and declared, that, “as we 
understand the doctrine of the common law, it is this, that, 
when several individuals perish by a common calamity, and 
there is no circumstance other than that of age, sex, etc., from 
which it may be rationally inferred who was the longest liver, 
932 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[§ 1044 
no presumption arises upon which a conclusion can be pre- 
But it was added, very properly, that, when there 
are a series of shocks, separated in point of time, age and 
capacity of endurance might be taken into consideration. The 
case was decided, however, on the ground that a daughter 
was shown to have been alive at a point of time subsequent 
to that at which her father must have perished. 
§ 1044. In 1860, in a case where the evidence was that the 
husband and wife perished by a common calamity at sea, 
Underwood v. Wing was affirmed by the English House of 
Lords, Lord Campbell, Lord Cranworth, Lord Wensleydele, 
Lord Chelmsford, and Lord Brougham concurring. “ The 
evidence,” said Lord AVensleydele, “leaves it in total uncer- 
tainty whether the husband died before the wife, or whether 
they both died at the same instant. Whoever has to maintain 
any one of these propositions must certainly fail.”(p) Still more 
emphatic are the comments of Lord Chelmsford. “With 
respect to the question upon the fact of survivorship when 
two persons are swept away by a calamity like that which 
happened in this case, it is possible that there may be evidence 
to prove distinctly which was the survivor, as where one of them 
has been seen struggling with the waves after the other has sunk, 
and never again appeared above the surface, or as in this very 
case, where there can be no doubt that there is evidence to 
establish satisfactorily that Catharine, the eldest daughter, 
survived her parents for some short time, though she afterwards 
perished in the same shipwreck. But where two persons are at 
one and the same instant washed.into the sea and disappear to- 
gether, and are never seen any more, it is not possible for any 
tribunal, called upon judicially to determine the question of survi- 
vorship, to form any judgment upon the subject which can be 
founded, upon anything but mere conjecture derived from the age, 
sex, constitution, or strength of body or mind of each individual, 
and as our law has not established any rules of presumption for 
these rare and extraordinary occasions, the uncertainty in which 
they are involved leaves no greater weight on one side or the other 
to incline the balance of evidence either way.”(q) 
(o) Smith v. Croom, 7 Florida 144. 
(p) Wing v. Angrave, 8 H. of L. Cases 213. (<?) Ibid. p. 220. 
933 934 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
§ 1045. Summary of cases.—The conclusions we may accept, 
after a scrutiny of the above cases, are as follows:— 
(1) When persons ranging between infancy and extreme old 
age perish by a common shipwreck, and when there is no in- 
formation as to either of them subsequent to the shock, no 
such presumption can be drawn from differences of age or sex 
as will enable a court to give judgment for a plaintiff seeking 
to recover on the claim of survivorship. 
(2) When, however, one of the parties is in extreme infancy, 
or in very advanced and decrepid old age, we may assume, as 
a presumption of fact, that such person died before another 
not so disabled. 
(3) The law only refuses to draw a presumption where there 
is no evidence at all as to the parties subsequent to the shock. 
If there is any evidence, no matter how slight, leading to the 
conclusion that one of the parties was seen alive subsequent 
to a period when the other was probably drowned, this is 
ground on which a jury can find survivorship. And in aid 
of such evidence, proof of the distinctions of age, health, and 
sex is admissible. 
§ 1046. 2d. Asphyxia.—Where the parties are in the same 
circumstances, the female is presumed to have survived the 
male, from the fact that women consume less oxygen than 
men, and hence can exist longer on the same amount of air. 
In poisoning by carbonic acid gas, the chances of survivorship 
are with the female. In 19 out of 360 cases of asphyxia by 
carbonic acid, which took place in Paris during 1834 and 1835, 
a man and woman were asphyxiated together; of these, three 
only were saved; and these three were females. 
§ 1047. 3d. Heat.—The young and old bear heat better than 
those in the prime of life. The difference between the sexes 
in the capacity to endure heat is not well ascertained. Foddr6 
relates a case where an Englishman and his daughter of seven 
years of age crossed the desert of Syria to the Persian Gulf, 
each being in precisely the same circumstances; the father 
perished, but the child reached her journey’s end in safety, (r) 
§ 1048. 4th. Gold.—Middle aged men endure cold much 
(r) Guy’s Med. Jur. 401. 
934 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
935 
better than young children or old persons. Men bear cold 
better than women. The amount of clothing and state of 
health of the parties is to be taken into consideration. Where 
spirituous liquors are taken in excess, they make the cold more 
intolerable; but if taken in moderation, they help to resist its 
effects. 
§ 1049. 5th. Starving.—The aged require less nourishment 
than adults, and adults less than children, so that the proba- 
bility of survivorship is in favor of the more aged of different 
persons, where death is from starving. Corpulent persons also 
are apt to live longer than those of emaciated frames. Where 
one person has had access to water, this is presumed to have 
prolonged his life. Active exertion to escape from the perils of 
their situation hastens the hour of death, so that those who pos- 
sess the most passive endurance are supposed to live the longest. 
§ 1050. On Friday the 13th of April, 1856, the mines known 
as the Blue Rock Coal Mines, situated on the west bank of 
the Muskingum River, in Harrison township, Muskingum Co., 
Ohio, fell in. At the time of the catastrophe some twenty 
persons were at work, of whom all but four succeeded in mak- 
ing their escape. The names of the four who were imprisoned 
in the mine were William Edgell, James Pearson, James Gat- 
wood, and Edward Savage. Edgell was twenty years old, 
Pearson thirty-three, Gatwood twenty-two, and Savage sixteen. 
They were working at the time in a well-defended portion of 
the mine, and consequently escaped any immediate injury. 
After satisfying themselves that there was no prospect of an 
early escape from their confinement, they established them- 
selves in one of the compartments scarcely large enough to 
contain them all, and made preparations to die together, after 
their means for sustaining life should be exhausted. The only 
food they had with them were the dinners for two persons that 
had been left by some of the other hands. This was shared 
between them, and made two scanty meals. They were all 
thinly clothed, none of them having more than a shirt and 
pair of trowsers, and the sleeves of their shirts had been torn 
off, as is customary with miners, to prevent them from inter- 
fering with their work. Two of the men, however, succeeded 
in finding jackets that afforded some warmth to the upper 
935 936 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
[book vi. 
part of their bodies. They were well supplied with oil, hut 
after their lamps had been replenished some nine or ten times, 
they ceased to burn, and the miners were left in total dark- 
ness. In this condition of things the men, huddled together 
upon a bed of dirt, forced to take turns in occupying the 
middle position as the only place of comfort, suffering intense 
anguish from hunger and cold, looked forward to death as 
their only escape. The water which they had with them soon 
gave out, when very fortunately they found not far off a reser- 
voir of water strongly impregnated with copperas. The sup- 
plies of this, which they kept constantly by them, seemed to 
afford considerable nourishment, and were undoubtedly the 
means of preserving their lives. The intense pains of hunger 
which affected them the first two or three days afterwards in 
a great measure disappeared, attributable, as the men thought, 
to their liberal use of the copperas-water. They were all of 
them delirious at different times, experiencing the dreams and 
visions of tempting food that so often accompany starvation. 
The oil which they had with them was used on two occasions 
for nourishment, but proved so nauseating that it was not 
again tried. They remained in this condition, gradually grow- 
ing weaker, but still all of them able to stir about, until after 
two weeks had elapsed, when they were rescued by their fellow 
workmen and neighbors, having been entombed in their prison 
fourteen days and thirteen hours. 
§ 1051. As indicating one of the effects of the copperas 
water, and as one of the elements in this remarkable prolonga- 
tion of life, it may be observed that the sufferers were “ con- 
stipated during the entire time of their imprisonment. After 
their rescue a healthful action was restored by means of clysters, 
and with no great difficulty.” 
“ Considering all things,” is a statement made in a pamphlet 
report of the condition of the parties when brought out, 
“Edged looks remarkably well; being a fleshy young man; 
he is not much emaciated. Pearson, and the boy Savage, are 
somewhat reduced; Gatwood very much so and very weak.” 
§ 1052. 6th. Poison.—Dissection alone gives here veiy little 
aid. The marks on the body are often the most unequivocal 
in cases where the suffering was the longest protracted. Cases 
936 BOOK VI.] 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
937 
are well known in which one person gave another poison, and 
afterwards took it himself, and in which the giver survived. 
§ 1053. 7th. Crushing or burying alive.—Here again we fall 
back on the general consideration of the age, the corporeal 
energy, the sex, and the position of the corpse. Younger per- 
sons, in this kind of death, survive the older. After the Ca- 
labrian earthquake, the children who were buried alive were 
found to have survived their parents. Where the question is 
of continued respiration, the presumption of survivorship is 
with children, with whom loss of breath can be longest borne. 
So also when the lungs are sound, in which case a longer living 
will be presumed than where the lungs are weak, so as to have 
difficulty in obtaining the necessary air. Men are supposed, 
from this reason, in such cases to survive women, though this 
has been much controverted.($) 
Signs of struggling at extrication indicate a longer continu- 
ance in life than where the deceased appears to have at once 
succumbed. 
§ 1054. 8th. Childbirth.—Where the mother and child have 
both perished in childbed, the presumption is that the mother 
survived, for there is prima facie evidence of stillbirth, and a 
still stronger probability that the mother was unable to render 
the child any assistance towards its preservation, and hence 
the child would die first. A case is mentioned (t) where the 
succession to a large landed estate was thus involved. The 
mother and child both died during delivery. If the latter 
survived, the father was entitled to the property, but if the 
former, her relatives were entitled to it. It was proved, on 
trial, that the child was born alive, when the question was 
decided, that the child was the survivor. 
When a mother died of a nervous attack, during, but before 
the birth, and when the child was in a good position, and 
there was no mechanical hindrance to the birth, the survivor- 
ship was ascribed to the child.(u) 
That an unborn child can survive its mother, and even live 
when cut from her body after her death, is proved by many 
(s) See Henke’s Zeitschrift, B. 75, s. 117. 
(<) Beck’s Med. Jur., 11th ed., p. 638. 
(«) Henke’s Zeitschrift, B. 75, s. 109. 
937 938 
[book vi. 
SURVIVORSHIP. 
cases.(v) Cases even remain on record in which, after the execu- 
tion, by hanging or otherwise, of pregnant women, children, 
at the distance of one day, were taken alive from their bodies. 
§ 1055. Children dying in childbirth.—Dr. Liman (w) men- 
tions a question of survivorship between two newly bora twins, 
which was decided by the fact that one child remained, at the 
time of injury, attached to the mother by the umbilical cord, 
while the other had been severed. 
§ 1056. 9th. Wounds.—Questions under this head very 
rarely arise. As an illustration, we may give the following:— 
Dr. Casper, and after him Dr. Liman,{pc) supposes the follow- 
ing case. A. is killed by the thrust of a sabre on the head, 
B. by that of a bayonet in the heart, and C. by a shot which 
has torn open the jugular vein. Here the presumption would 
be that B. died first; that C. bore the loss of blood a little 
longer; and that A. resisted the deadly influence of the blow 
the longest of the three. 
§ 1057. III. Tests where bodies are found dead.—Where the 
wounds, in case of violence, are the severest, there the earlier 
death is presumed. 
Stiffness, coldness, discoloration, degree of putrefaction, are 
all to be taken into account. 
As to stiffness, there are many minor distinctions to be 
observed. The process of stiffening is greatly affected by the 
age of the deceased, and by the prior state of his body. Was 
he strong and muscular, or meagre and feeble ? With persons 
of powerful muscles, this stiffness is far more rigid than with 
those of weaker frame. The stiffness gives way after very 
varied intervals to that suppleness and softness which is the 
preliminary of putrefaction. Generally, it is not observable 
after corruption is begun, which is mostly earlier in cases of 
poisoning, and death by drowning and lightning. 
The process is hastened by lethal causes which act on the 
brain, and delayed by those which are accompanied by the 
loss of blood. 
Where corruption has proceeded furthest, there the death 
can be presumed to have been earliest. 
(®) Ibid. (w) 2 Liman’s Casper (1871), 17. (x) Ante, § 1024. 
938 BOOK VII. 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
CIVIL LAW PRACTICE, § 1058. 
CHAPTER I. 
CHAPTER II. 
COMMON LAW PRACTICE. 
I. In criminal prosecutions, § 1062. 
II. In actions for torts, § 1086. 
CHAPTER I. 
CIVIL LAW PRACTICE. 
§ 1058. According to the civilians, where the practice of 
the attending physician is called in question the prosecution 
must show, 1st, that the injury to the health or body resulted 
from had treatment of the case by the physician or surgeon 
in attendance; and 2d, that this evil result might have been 
certainly foreseen and avoided by a competent practitioner. 
The answer to this latter question will be affected by the posi- 
tion of medical science at the time, and often by the peculiar 
circumstances of the case.(y) 
§ 1059. Malpractice can only be affirmed where the physi- 
cian has set aside established principles, and neglected to 
employ means which are universally held to be necessary in 
the given case. But before the physician can be reckoned 
guilty of malpractice on account of such deviation, it must be 
established—• 
1. That the following of the rules prescribed by medical 
science for the cure of the disease never proves detrimental. 
(y) Bocker, Gericht. Med., § 58, etc. 
939 940 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book VII. 
2. That there is, at least, the greatest probability that the 
following of the rules would accomplish the desired end. 
3. That the great majority of medical authorities approve 
the rules. 
§ 1060. In the treatment of internal diseases, the physician, 
according to both Casper and Bcicker, can never be held guilty 
of criminal carelessness for failing to use any particular 
remedy, since there is never any remedy upon which all 
authorities are agreed, and since it is always possible that the 
patient may recover without the use of such remedy. This 
uncertainty of remedies extends even to the antidotes recom- 
mended for various poisons. Even where the antidote pro- 
duces a favorable effect, it can never be certainly determined 
how much of this effect is due simply to the action of the 
antidote. Besides, many antidotes have been recommended 
merely upon theoretical grounds, some of which are known to 
be actually injurious. But when it can be proven that there 
is great probability that the injurious effects of a poison might 
have been prevented by the use of a certain antidote, the phy- 
sician is guilty of criminal carelessness when not employing it. 
§ 1061. It is asserted by Casper that a physician “ should 
be liable to punishment if in a given case he departs entirely 
from the treatment which the great majority of physicians of 
his time adopt in such cases, and which the great majority of 
medical authorities recommend for such cases.” Great diffi- 
culty might arise from this test. It would be impossible, for 
instance, for a physician to stop to inquire, in any given case, 
what is the practice of the majority of his contemporaries; 
and if he should, he has often no means of answering the 
question. 
This principle would also render all homoeopathists liable to 
punishment. Besides, it would be impossible to collect the 
views of the great majority of authors upon the given case. 
Many may not have noticed the particular case in point, and 
much difference of opinion will be found among those who 
have. Hence the position now generally accepted is that a 
physician is not responsible for damages, if he acts in accord- 
ance with the of his particular school, his patient em- 
ploying him as belonging to such school. 
940 BOOK VII.] 
COMMON LAW PRACTICE. 
[§ 1062 
CHAPTER II. 
COMMON LAW PRACTICE. 
§ 1062. The accountability of medical men has been a fruit- 
ful source of lego-medical discussion, and in early times was 
the subject of much variety of judicial, as it is still of popular, 
sentiment. At one time, so great was the rigor with which 
the courts were disposed to treat irregular practitioners, that 
it was held, that, while if a potion or plaster administered 
bond fide by a licensed physician or surgeon unexpectedly 
killed the patient, this was but misadventure, yet if the de- 
fendant was not a regular physician or surgeon he was guilty 
of manslaughter.(2) Thus, where an old woman, who some- 
times dealt in medicines, gave to a party asking for an emetic 
a solution of white vitriol which caused his death, Bayley, J., 
said: “I take it quite clear, that, if a person not of medical 
education, in a case where professional aid might be obtained, 
undertakes to administer medicine which may have a danger- 
ous effect, and thereby occasions death, such person is guilty 
of manslaughter. He may have no evil intention, and may 
have a good one; but he has no right to hazard the conse- 
quence in a case where medical assistance may be obtained ; 
if he does so, it is at his peril.” The prisoner was convicted.(a) 
But even as far back as Lord Hale, the distinction between 
regular and irregular practitioners began to be doubted, and 
that learned but quaint judge did not hesitate to ascribe to 
the doubt greater antiquity than the doctrine, since, as he said, 
it was clear that physic and salves were in use beforeiphysicians 
and surgeons.(6) And now, in England and in this country, 
the great weight of authority is that no such distinction 
exists. 
I. In Criminal Prosecutions. 
(s) Brit. C. 5; 4 Inst. 351 ; Wilcock’s L. Med. Prof. Append. 337. 
(a) R. v. Simpson, 4 C. & P. 407. (5) 1 Hale 439. 
941 § 1064] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book VII. 
§ 1063. From the leading cases, which will be presently 
given in full, the following propositions may be extracted:— 
1. If the defendant acted honestly, and used his best skill 
to cure, and it does not appear that he thrust himself in the 
place of a competent person, it makes no difference whether 
he was at the time a regular physician or surgeon or not. 
2. To constitute guilt, gross ignorance or negligence must 
be proved. 
3. A defendant who, with competent knowledge, makes a 
mistake in a remedy, is not answerable; but it is otherwise 
when a violent remedy, shown to have occasioned death, is 
administered by a person grossly ignorant, but with average 
capacity, in which case malice is presumed in the same way 
that it is presumed when a man compos mentis lets loose a mad 
bull into a thoroughfare, or casts down a log of wood on a 
crowd. 
4. Where competent medical aid can be had, the application 
of violent remedies, by an ignorant person, though with the 
best motives, involves him in criminal responsibility. 
5. Express malice, or an intent to commit a personal or 
social wrong, makes the practitioner criminally responsible in 
all cases of mischief. 
§ 1064. In 1807, before Lord Ellenborough, Chief Justice of 
the King’s Bench, John Williamson, a man midwife, seventy- 
five years of age, who was shown to have been in the habit of 
acting as such among the lower classes of people, though not 
a regularly educated accoucheur, was tried for the murder of 
Ann Delacroix, of Westminster. From the evidence of the 
female nurse, it appeared that the deceased had been delivered 
by the prisoner on Friday, September 17th, of a male child, 
and on the following Sunday was attacked with a prolapsus 
uteri. This was mistaken by the prisoner for a remaining 
part of the placenta, which had not been brought away at the 
time of delivery; and upon attempting to tear away the pro- 
lapsed uterus by force, he lacerated the uterus and caused the 
death of the patient. It was proved on the one hand, by a 
number of medical witnesses, that there must have been great 
want of skill in the prisoner, and on the other, by several 
women whom he had delivered, that he always acted with 
942 BOOK VII.] 
COMMON LAW PRACTICE. 
[§ 1065 
kindness and attention, and, as far as they could judge, with 
skill. The prisoner, in his defence, said that he had acted 
according to the best of his judgment. Lord Ellenborough 
took from the jury the question of murder, and, in submitting 
to them that of manslaughter, said: “ To substantiate that 
charge, the prisoner must have been guilty of criminal mis- 
conduct, arising either from the grossest ignorance or the most 
criminal inattention. One or other of these is necessary to 
make him guilty of that criminal negligence and misconduct 
which are essential to make out a case of manslaughter. It 
does not appear that in this case there was any want of atten- 
tion on his part; and from the evidence of the witnesses on 
his behalf, it appears that he had delivered many women at 
different places, and from this he must have had some degree 
of skill.(c) It would seem that, having placed himself in a 
dangerous situation, he became shocked and confounded. I 
think that he could not possibly have committed such mis- 
takes in the exercise of his unclouded faculties; and I own 
that it appears to me, that if you find the prisoner guilty of 
manslaughter, it will tend to encompass a most important and 
anxious profession with such dangers as would deter reflecting 
men from entering into it.” The result was an acquittal.(d) ’ 
§ 1065. In 1829 an unlicensed practitioner, named Van 
Butchell, was indicted for manslaughter, by thrusting “ a 
round piece of ivory into and up the fundament and against 
the rectum of the deceased, William Archer, thereby making 
one perforation, laceration, and wound, of the length, etc., in 
and through the rectum of the said William Archer.” It was 
proved by Mr. Lloyd, an eminent surgeon, that he opened the 
body of the deceased, and found a portion of the ileum adhe- 
rent to the rectum, and that on separating this adhesion, he 
discovered a small hole perforated through the rectum. Upon 
cross-examination he said that operations must sometimes fail, 
notwithstanding they might be skilfully performed ; and he 
(c) In a subsequent reference to this same case it is stated that he had at- 
tended the deceased in seven previous confinements with success, and that 
he attended in this instance at her request. 4 Car. & P. 398. 
(d) R. v. Williamson, 3 C. & P. 635, note. See Lynch v. Davis, 12 How. 
Pr. 323. 
943 944 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
added that he himself had operated in extracting an encysted 
tumor from the breast of a woman at a time when she was 
pregnant, and who soon afterwards died; and he and many 
other surgeons thought that correct practice, though he ad- 
mitted that the propriety of the operation was doubted by 
others. The counsel for the defence offered to prove that the 
defendant had a regular medical education, when liullock, B., 
said that this was not material, and in summing up said: 
“ This is an indictment for manslaughter, and I am really afraid 
to let the case go on, lest an idea should he entertained that a 
man’s practice is to he questioned whenever an operation fails. 
In this case there is no evidence of the mode in which this 
operation was performed; and even assuming for the moment 
that it caused the death of the deceased, I am not aware of 
any law which says that this party can be found guilty of 
manslaughter. It is my opinion that it makes no difference 
whether the party be a regular or an irregular surgeon. In- 
deed, in remote parts of the country many persons would be 
left to die, if irregular surgeons were not permitted to practise. 
There is no doubt that there may be cases where both regular 
and irregular surgeons might be liable to an indictment, as 
there might be cases when, from the manner of the operation, 
malice might be inferred. All that the law books have said 
has been read to you, but they do not state any decisions, and 
their silence in this respect goes to show what the uniform 
opinion of the lawyer has been upon this subject. As to what 
is said by my Lord Coke, he merely details an authority, a 
very old one, without expressing either approbation or disap- 
probation ; however, we find that Lord Male has laid down 
what is the law upon this subject. This is copied by Mr. 
Justice Blackstone, and no book in the law goes any further. 
It may be that a person not legally qualified to practise as a 
surgeon may be liable to penalties, but surely he cannot be 
liable to an indictment for felony. It is quite clear you may 
recover damages against a medical man for want of skill; but, 
as my Lord Hale says, ‘ God forbid that any mischance of this 
kind should make a person guilty of murder or manslaughter.’ 
Such is the opinion of one of the greatest judges that ever 
adorned the bench of this country, and his proposition amounts 
944 BOOK VII.] 
COMMON LAW PKACTICE. 
[§ 1066 
to this, that, if a person, bona fide and honestly exercising his 
best skill to cure a patient, performs an operation which causes 
the patient’s death, he is not guilty of manslaughter. In the 
present case no evidence has been given respecting the opera- 
tion itself. It might have been performed with the most 
proper instrument, and in the most proper manner, and yet 
might have failed. Mr. Lloyd has himself told us that he 
performed an operation the propriety of which seemed to have 
been a sort of vexata questio among the medical profession; 
but still it would be most dangerous for it to get abroad, that, 
if an operation performed by either a licensed or unlicensed 
surgeon should fail, that surgeon would be liable to be prose- 
cuted for manslaughter. I think that in point of law this 
prosecution cannot be sustained ; and I feel bound to say, that 
no imputation whatever ought to be cast upon the gentleman 
who is now at the bar in consequence of anything that has 
occurred.” The prisoner was acquitted.(e) 
§ 1066. In 1830 and 1831, John St. John Long, who had 
acquired great popular celebrity as a practitioner in cases of 
consumption, even among the more aristocratic and educated 
portions in London society, was tried on two successive indict- 
ments for manslaughter. In the first case the indictment 
charged him with sponging the back of Catharine Cashin with 
an inflammatory and dangerous liquid, which produced inflam- 
mation and consequently death. 
It appeared from the evidence of Mr. Sweetman, a surgeon, 
that two of the family of Mrs. Cashin had died of consump- 
tion; but that Miss Cashin, who was twenty-four years of age, 
had enjoyed good health; and that Mr. Long told him that 
he (Mr. L.) had informed a young lady that unless Miss Cashin 
put herself under his care she would die of consumption in 
two or three months; and that, on this being communicated 
to Mrs. Cashin, she placed her daughter under Mr. Long’s 
course of treatment, hoping to prevent her having consump- 
tion. Mr. Sweetman also stated, that Mr. Long told him that 
he rubbed a mixture on different parts of the bodies of his 
patients, and that this had been applied to Miss Cashin. It 
(e) R. *. Van Butchell, 3 C. & P. 629. 
vol. ii.—60 
945 § 1067] 
[book vir. 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
was proved by Mrs. Roddis, who was also a witness for the 
prosecution, that she, on Friday, the 13th of August, went 
with Miss Cashin to Mr. Long’s respecting a wound on her 
back, and that Miss Cashin then inhaled; and that on the next 
day Mr. Long examined Miss Cashin’s back, and said it was in 
a beautiful state, and that he would give one hundred guineas 
if he could produce a similar wound on the persons of some of 
his patients. Mrs. Roddis stated that she directed Mr. Long’s 
attention to a part of the wound which was of a darker appear- 
ance, and that he stated that this proceeded from the inhaling; 
and that, unless those consequences were produced, he could 
expect no beneficial result. The wound, at this time, was about 
five or six inches square. Mrs. Roddis further states, that Miss 
Cashin was suffering much from sickness, and that she men- 
tioned this to Mr. Long, who said that it was of no conse- 
quence, but, on the contrary, a benefit; and that those symp- 
toms, combined with the wound, were a proof that his system 
was taking due effect; and that on Sunday, the 15tli, Miss 
Cashin having got worse, Mr. Long said that in two or three 
days she would be in better health than she had ever been in 
her life, and spoke very confidently that the result of his 
system would be to prolong her life; and that no person could 
be doing better than Miss Cashin was. At this interview 
Mrs. Roddis showed Mr. Long the wound on Miss Cashin’s 
back, which had extended. Mrs. Roddis also stated that Mr. 
Long, on Sunday, the 15th, was desired to do something to 
stop the sickness of Miss Cashin, but that he said he had a 
remedy in his pocket which he would not apply, as he knew 
that the sickness had been beneficial; and he also stated on 
that day, and on Monday, the 16th, that Miss Cashin was 
doing uncommonly well. On Tuesday, the 17th, she died. 
§ 1067. It was proved by Mr. Brodie, the surgeon, that he 
saw Miss Cashin on Monday, the 16th, and that her back was 
extensively inflamed, as large as a plate; and that, in the 
centre, was a spot as large as the palm of his hand, black 
and dead, which was in a sloughing or mortified state. Mr. 
Brodie stated that he did not consider Miss Cashin to be in 
any immediate danger, and that he thought that some very 
946 BOOK VII.] 
COMMON LAW PRACTICE. 
947 
powerfully stimulating liniment had been applied to her back. 
In his cross-examination, he said that it was very common to 
produce a counter-irritation, and that the things used to make 
that produce different effects on different constitutions; but, 
in re-examination, he stated that applying a lotion of a 
strength capable of causing the appearances he saw, to a per- 
son of the age and constitution of the deceased, if in perfect 
health, was likely to damage the constitution and produce 
disease and danger. Mr. Brodie also stated, that the appear- 
ances on Miss Cashin’s back were quite sufficient to account 
for her death. Several medical men who had examined the 
body of the deceased stated that, on the most careful exami- 
nation, they could not discover any latent disease, or seeds of 
disease. A servant of Mr. Long, named Ann Dyke, proved 
that, on the 3d of August, she, by the direction of Mr. Long, 
rubbed Miss Cashin’s back with a liquid, but that she did not 
know what the liquid was. In her cross-examination, she 
stated that Mr. Long had a great many patients, many of them 
persons of rank, and that she rubbed Miss Cashin with the 
same liquid that was used for the other patients. The witness 
stated that the Marchioness of Ormond and Lady Harriet 
Butler were at Mr. Long’s at the same time as Miss Cashin, 
and that the same lotion was applied to them, and also to 
Mrs. Ottley, and many others. 
§ 1068. For the defence, twenty-nine witnesses were called, 
including the Marchioness of Ormond and Mrs. Ottley, who 
stated that they had been patients of Mr. Long, and that 
they were satisfied with his skill and diligence. One of the 
witnesses said, that he should never cease to pray for Mr. 
Long as long as he lived. Another (a lady) said, that she 
could never be sufficiently thankful to him for what he had 
done for her family. And another was a surgeon, who had 
lived in Jamaica for thirty-six years, and he expressed himself 
perfectly satisfied with Mr. Long’s treatment and conduct. 
§ 1069. Mr. Justice Park, in summing up, said: “The 
learned counsel for the prosecution truly stated, in the outset, 
that whether the party be licensed or unlicensed is of no con- 
sequence, except in this respect, that he may be subject to 
pecuniary penalties for acting contrary to charters or acts of 
947 948 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[BOOK VII. 
Parliament.. Blit it cannot affect him here. For this I have 
the authority of that great and eminent person, Lord Chief 
Justice Hale, who has expressly said, that, though physicians 
and surgeons, if they are not licensed, may he subject to 
penalties, yet they are not answerable criminally on that 
account. Ilis phrase is, ‘God forbid that any mischance of 
this kind should make a person guilty of murder or man- 
slaughter.’ And, therefore, licensed or unlicensed, certainly 
does not signify. I agree with my learned brother, that what 
is called malapraxis in a medical person is a misdemeanor; 
but that depends upon whether the practice he has used is so 
bad that everybody will see that it is malapraxis. The case 
at Lancaster differs from this case. I have communicated 
with Lord Chief Justice Tindal, who tried that case, and 
he informed me that the man was a blacksmith, and was 
drunk, and was so completely ignorant of the proper steps, 
that he totally neglected what was absolutely necessary after 
the birth of the child. That certainly was one of the most 
outrageous cases that ever came into a court of justice. I 
would rather use the words of my Lord Ellenborough, in the 
case of Bex v. Williamson. He says, that ‘a medical man 
is not to be charged with manslaughter unless he has been 
guilty of criminal misconduct, arising either from the grossest 
ignorance, or the most criminal inattention.’ And this is im- 
portant here; for, though he be not licensed, yet experience 
may teach a man sufficient; and the question for you will, by 
and by, be, whether the experience this individual acquired 
does not negative the supposition of any gross ignorance or 
criminal inattention. The case quoted from the institutes of 
Lord Coke, who lived upwards of two hundred years ago, oc- 
curred at a time when there were very few cases of the kind, 
and was deemed to be a case of manslaughter. But I do not 
derogate from his high and illustrious character, when, as far 
as criminal law is concerned, I set against it the authority of 
my Lord Chief Justice Hale, on whom, when authority is 
quoted, reliance is always placed. lie says: ‘If a physician 
gives a person a potion without any intent of doing him any 
bodily hurt, but with the intent to cure or prevent a disease, 
and, contrary to the expectation of the physician, it kills him, 
948 BOOK VII.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
949 
this is no homicide; and the like of a cliirurgeonand he 
quotes the Year Book, 3 Edw. III. And he goes on to say: 
‘ And I hold their opinion to be erroneous’ (evidently alluding 
to my Lord Coke), ‘ who thinks if he be no licensed cliirurgeon 
or physician that occasioneth this mischance, that then it is 
felony; for physic and salves were before licensed physicians 
and chirurgeons.’ And he proceeds further, and says: ‘These 
opinions may serve to caution ignorant people not to be too 
busy in this kind with tampering with physic, but are no safe 
rules for a judge or jury to go by.’ I say the same, that the 
public weal is deeply interested in preventing ignorant persons 
from tampering with these subjects. It is true his next reason, 
about the want of surgeons in the country, does not apply 
here, because, in London, all persons can obtain the assistance 
of the best men, however poor they are. The question is, 
whether there was gross ignorance in this gentleman, or scan- 
dalous inattention in his treatment of this lady. The opinion 
of Lord Chief Justice Hale is recorded and adopted in Sir 
Edward East’s Pleas of the Crown, and in Mr. Justice Black- 
stone’s Commentaries. I come now to the case of Van But- 
ch ell, decided here only twelve months ago by Mr. Baron 
Hullock, of whom it may be said that a sounder lawyer or a 
stronger headed man never was known in the profession. I 
quote this case rather to show you what that learned person’s 
strong opinion was upon the general question, on the danger, 
not of punishing the man found guilty of gross negligence, 
but whether his practice can be questioned whenever an ope- 
ration happens to fail. lie says: ‘It is my opinion, that it 
makes no difference whether the party be a regular or an 
irregular surgeon.’ And also: ‘There is no doubt that there 
may be cases where both regular and irregular surgeons might 
be liable to an indictment, as there might be cases where, 
from the manner of the operation, even malice might be in- 
ferred.’ I agree with him that there may be such cases as 
those he has first mentioned; and you will have to decide, by 
and by, whether this case is one of them or not. I wish also 
to state to you what Lord Ellenborough said in the case of 
the King v. Williamson, which was the case of a man who 
acted as a man midwife. (His lordship here read the case as 
949 § 1069] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vir. 
reported in 3 C. & P. 635 (a), and observed): Lord Ellenborough 
there says, that, from the evidence, it appeared that the pris- 
oner had delivered many women at different times, and, from 
this, he must have had some degree of skill. lie goes along 
with me in thinking that skill may be acquired by practice. 
That is my opinion here, and there are twenty-nine witnesses 
all speaking to the prisoner’s skill in their cases. (His lord- 
ship read the evidence, and then observed): There is clear 
proof that the prisoner did the act which shortened Miss 
Cashin’s life. But that does not prove the case, unless you 
think that there was gross ignorance, or inattention to human 
life to be inferred from it. It is evident he had some informa- 
tion; whether he drew improper conclusions from it, is not 
for you or me to say. It seems, from Mr. Sweetman’s evidence, 
that the disorder had been in the family; that a son was dead, 
and a daughter was likely to die. The prisoner always said 
that his remedy would cure consumption; and, if the disease 
had not been in the family, they would not have sent to him 
at all. The prisoner’s counsel could not by law ask the de- 
fendant’s witnesses any questions as to their respective dis- 
orders, and the mode of cure, as my brother and I were of 
opinion that it was not evidence. All that was evidence was, 
that he has displayed so much skill in other cases as to show 
that he was not that grossly ignorant or inattentive person 
who could be guilty of manslaughter according to my Lord 
Ellenborough’s opinion in the case before mentioned. The 
refusal by the prisoner to apply the medicine in order to stop 
the sickness, although he had it with him, would, in my 
opinion, if wickedly done, amount to murder; but he men- 
tioned a case in which sickness had been beneficial. Undoubt- 
edly, the result proves a very erroneous opinion on his part; 
and it seems singular that the restlessness and other circum- 
stances did not awaken apprehension and call for further 
measures. But the question again recurs, whether this was 
au erroneous judgment of a person who was of general com- 
petency, though he unfortunately failed in the particular in- 
stance. It appears that he said, on examining the wound on 
Miss Cashin’s back, that he would give 100 guineas if he 
could produce a similar wound in some of his patients. This 
950 BOOK VII.] 
[§ 1069 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
seems to show his confidence in his proceedings. And there 
is this observation to be made of him throughout, that he 
seems to have been living in a fashionable part of the metro- 
polis, and attended by right honorable persons; and it would 
be against his interest to act ignorantly and carelessly. It 
appears, with respect to Miss Cashin, that he did not go to 
seek her, and this will be for you to take into your considera- 
tion. With respect to the application of the mixture, if he 
commanded the woman to use it, it is the same as if he used 
it himself. Perhaps, from the evidence, you will think that 
the act caused the death; but still the question recurs, as to 
whether it was done either from gross ignorance or criminal 
inattention. ISTo one doubts Mr. Brodie’s skill, but that is not 
quite the question; it is not whether the act done is a thing 
that a person of Mr. Brodie’s great skill would do, but whether 
it shows such total and gross ignorance in the person who did 
it, as must necessarily produce such a result. On the one 
hand, we must be careful and most anxious to prevent people 
from tampering in physic, so as to trifie with the life of man; 
and, on the other hand, we must take care not to charge 
criminally a person who is of general skill, because he has been 
unfortunate in a particular case. It is God that gives, man 
only administers medicine, and the medicine that the most 
skilful may administer may not be productive of the expected 
effect; but it would be a dreadful thing if a man were to be 
called in question criminally whenever he happened to mis- 
carry in his practice. These are things for your consideration 
when you are considering whether a man is acting wickedly ; 
for I call it acting wickedly when a man is grossly ignorant, 
and yet affects to cure people, or when he is grossly inatten- 
tive to their safety. With respect to the evidence on the part 
of the prisoner, all the witnesses that he has called have spoken 
of him as being perfectly satisfied with his skill, attention, 
and behavior in every respect. It is observable of several of 
them, that, after their families had been attended, they put 
themselves under his care, so satisfied were they with his 
conduct. One of them says, that he shall pray for him as long 
as he lives, and another, a lady, says, she can never sufficiently 
thank him for what he has done for her family. It is also to 
951 § 1071] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
be remarked, that one of these witnesses is himself a surgeon, 
who lived for thirty-six years in a hot climate, and he ex- 
presses himself perfectly satisfied. You will take the whole 
case into your consideration, and if you think there was gross 
ignorance or scandalous inattention in the conduct of the 
prisoner, then you will find him guilty; and if you do not 
think so, then your verdict will be otherwise.” 
The jury, after some deliberation, found the prisoner guilty, 
and he wTas subsequently sentenced to pay a fine of £250 to 
the king.(/) 
§ 1070. Very shortly afterwards, Long was tried before 
Bayley, B., Bolland, B., and Bosanquet, J., for manslaughter 
in causing the death of Colin Campbell Lloyd, wife of Ed- 
ward Lloyd, by causing her to inhale certain noxious and in- 
jurious vapors, and sponging her breast and chest with a cor- 
rosive and inflammatory liquid, which produced a gangrenous 
sore. The witnesses called on the part of the prosecution were 
Captain Lloyd, the husband of the deceased ; Mrs. Campbell, 
a relation, at whose house she was staying; Mr. Campbell, 
Mr. Vance, Mr. Brodie, and Mr. Franklin, surgeons. 
§ 1071. The examination of Captain Lloyd, as stated in the 
report, was as follows: The deceased had been for several 
years troubled occasionally, when she caught cold or anything 
excited her, with a choking sensation in the throat, for which 
she had about three years before her death consulted a medi- 
cal man, and for which she was in the habit of applying a 
blister to the throat, and afterwards of healing the wound 
with a simple dressing of spermaceti ointment. A son of the 
deceased was under the care of Mr. Long ; and on various 
occasions, wThen the deceased attended with her son, she men- 
tioned, in conversation with Mr. Long, the complaint she had 
in her throat; and the conversations eventually led to her 
putting herself under his care on the 6tli of October, 1830, at 
which time she was in very good general health. On the 3d 
of October she had applied a small blister to her throat, but 
the wound occasioned by it was nearly well on the 6th ; on 
the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, she went to Mr. Long’s, and on 
(/) R. v. Long, 4 C. & P. 398. 
952 BOOK VII.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
[§ 1071 
the evening of the 10th, complained to her husband of a vio- 
lent burning across her chest, in consequence of which he 
looked at it, and found a great redness across her bosom, darker 
in the centre than at other parts; she also complained of great 
chilliness, and shivered with cold, and passed a very restless 
and uncomfortable night. On the 11th she was very unwell 
all day, and complained of great thirst, the redness was more 
vivid, and the spot in the centre darker, round the edges 
white and puffed up, and there was a dirty white discharge 
from the centre. Cabbage leaves had been applied, and when 
they were removed, they appeared slimy from the discharge ; 
the night of the lltli was passed very uncomfortably. On the 
morning of the 12th, the redness on the breast and chest was, 
if anything, greater, and the spot in the centre more puffed 
up and darker; the redness was more spread round the edges, 
and, where it stopped, there were blisters in the skin, apparently 
from the discharge; the inner 'part of the arms also was very 
red where the discharge had run down on each side. On the 
12th, she was very feverish and restless, and had no appetite, 
and in consequence of these symptoms, Capt. Lloyd went to 
Mr. Long about the middle of the day; Mr. Long asked why 
Mrs. Lloyd had not come to inhale, and go on with the rub- 
bing ; Capt. Lloyd replied, it was impossible, she was so very 
ill; that she had been constantly unwell since the night of 
the 10th, and was suffering a great deal of pain and sickness; 
Mr. Long said he dare say it would soon go off, it was gene- 
rally the case. He was told of the shivering and chilliness, and 
that some hot wine and water had been given to relieve her ; 
he said hot brandy and water would have been a better thing, 
and to put her under the bedclothes. He was told that the 
breast and chest looked very bad and very red ; he said that 
was generally the case in the first instance, but it would go off 
as she got better, and that Capt. L. need not be uneasy about 
it, as there was no fear or danger; Capt. Lloyd requested him 
to call in the evening, and then told him where Mrs. Lloyd 
was, which it appeared he did not know before; in the even- 
ing he came and saw her; in the course of the day the cab- 
bage leaves had been removed, and a dressing of spermaceti 
ointment put on the chest instead. He said he was very sorry 
953 § 1073] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
to see her so unwell, that she ought to have endeavored to 
get up and come to him, and he would have relieved her; she 
said it was impossible, she was in such pain and.suffering, and 
with her breast open in that way it might be dangerous. 
§ 1072. He desired to look at it, and, observing the dressing, 
said, those greasy plasters had no business there, and she ought 
to have continued the cabbage leaves. She said she could not 
hear the pain of keeping them on. lie then took off' his 
great coat, and said he would rub it out; he turned up the 
cuff* of his coat as if for the purpose of doing so. She ex- 
claimed very much with fright, and expressed her wonder 
that he should think of rubbing in the state her breast was in. 
She asked if there was no way of keeping the leaf on without 
touching the breast; and he asked her what she wished. She 
replied, “ To be healed.” He said it would never heal with 
those greasy plasters, that was not the way in which he healed 
sores. He then asked for a towel, and began dabbing it on 
the breast, particularly in the centre, where the discharge 
came from. He said that old linen was the best thing to heal 
a wound of that kind. She said her skin and flesh were very 
healthy, and always healed immediately with the simple dress- 
ing she had used. He said old linen was better, but she might 
use the dressing if she liked, he saw no objection, and when 
it skimmed over he would rub it again. She said .no, she 
thought she could never submit to rubbing again, from what 
she was then suffering. lie then went away. On the evening 
of the following day (the 13tli), he called again, but Mrs. 
Lloyd would not see him, and begged her husband not to 
allow him to come up; and he never saw her afterwards. She 
died on the 8th of November, just a month and a day after 
she put herself under Mr. Long’s care. 
§ 1073. On the cross-examination of Capt. Lloyd he said, 
that his son continued to attend Mr. Long for several days 
after the commencement of the deceased’s illness, and on one 
occasion was desired to tell Mr. Long that he need not come 
to see her, as she was better. He also added that a person 
describing himself as a medical man, and saying that he was 
sent by Mr. Long, applied to see Mrs. Lloyd, and was not 
allowed. He also admitted that he had told Mr. Long that 
954 BOOK VII.] 
[§ 1074 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
lie could not pay fees for his son until after Christmas, and 
that Mr. Long said that would not make any difference, he 
might send him and he would attend to him. Mrs. Campbell 
stated that Mrs. Lloyd was in a very good state of health, 
except that her throat was sometimes troublesome, that she 
complained of a stoppage in swallowing; that on the 10th of 
October, when the shivering came on, the bed was warmed 
and Mrs. Lloyd put in, and bottles of hot water were applied 
to her feet; and that when Mr. Long went away, after having 
seen her, he did not give any directions as to diet, or order her 
any internal medicine. It also appeared from her evidence 
that, previous to Mrs. Lloyd’s putting herself under the care 
of Mr. Long, she had attended three days at the inquest held 
on the body of Mrs. Cashin. 
§ 1074. From the examination-in-chief of Mr. Campbell, the 
surgeon, it appeared that lie was the son of Mrs. Campbell, at 
whose house the deceased was on a visit, and that he first saw 
the deceased about four o’clock in the afternoon of the 12th of 
October, at his mother’s desire ; at which time he found a very 
extensive wound covering the whole anterior part of the chest, 
which in his opinion might be produced by any strong acid; 
that the skin was destroyed, and lay in folds on the chest, 
entirely separated; that the cellular tissue was partly destroyed, 
and there was a considerable discharge generally; that the 
wound extended nearly from one armpit to the other, and 
from the throat down to the pit of the stomach ; that the skin 
was off both breasts, and the centre of the wound was darker 
and in a higher -state of inflammation than other parts; that 
he removed the cabbage-leaves and applied the dressing of 
spermaceti ointment; that he saw the deceased on the 13th 
and afterwards daily, several times a day, till her death ; that 
he considered the wound very dangerous to life when he first 
saw it, but only continued to apply the spermaceti dressing 
until the 21st of October, when he called in the assistance of 
Mr. Yance, who continued at first to apply the same dressing, 
only adding to it a little calamine powder; that on the second 
or third day of his attendance Mr. Yance applied a bread and 
water poultice; that he (Mr. Campbell) at first gave Mrs. 
Lloyd some saline aperient medicine, and when the centre spot 
955 § 1075] 
[book vii. 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
and upper part of the chest became gangrenous, which they 
did in about a week, in order to support nature she had bark, 
mineral acid and quinine. The witness added that in his 
opinion Mrs. Lloyd died of the wound which he at first saw; 
that according to his judgment it was not necessary or proper 
to produce such a wound to prevent any difficulty in swallow- 
ing ; and that he did not know of any disease in which the 
production of such a wound would be necessary or proper. 
He further stated, that he informed Mr. Vance of the course 
he had pursued, and that nothing which he and Mr. Vance 
applied could possibly increase the danger of the patient. On 
his cross-examination he said that he had been in practice six 
or seven years; that in the course of his practice he had known 
a common blister often produce very injurious effects which 
the person who prescribed it never contemplated, and that a 
medical man must regulate his treatment as well by the state- 
ments of the patient as by external appearances ; that he did 
not wish for any additional assistance till gangrene commenced, 
though he feared it would take place from the first; and that 
he stated the danger he apprehended, very soon after he was 
called in, to his mother and Capt. Lloyd and a sister of the 
deceased, but that twice they had some hopes of her eventual 
recovery. On his re-examination he said that lie did not con- 
sider it a case of difficulty in the treatment; that he was 
present at the post-mortem examination ; and that the wound 
did not present the appearances which he had ever seen pro- 
duced by a common blister. In answer to questions from the 
judge he said, that he thought rubbing, on the 12th of October, 
when he first saw the wound, would have increased the in- 
flammation, and could not have been in any respect beneficial. 
§ 1075. Mr. Vance’s evidence agreed in substance with the 
account of the appearances of the wound, as given by other 
witnesses. He stated also that he approved of the treatment 
pursued by Mr. Campbell. He added that he had attended 
Mrs. Lloyd about three years before her death for an affection 
of the throat, which he at first thought a case of narrow 
oesophagus, but afterwards ascertained to be globus hystericus, 
which he described as an inverted motion of the muscular 
fibres of the canal, very common among women in early life, 
956 BOOK VII.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
[§ 1076 
and of which he had seen many thousand cases, but never knew 
it produce death. He described the appearance of the body 
after death, and said it was internally and externally in per- 
fect health, with the exception of a partial disease of the 
thyroid gland, and an inflammatory affection of the lining of 
the windpipe (occasioned by their contiguity to the ulcer), and 
a little narrowness at the entrance of the oesophagus, which he 
believed to be congenital, as there was no thickening of the 
part. He attributed the death of Mrs. Lloyd to the extent of 
the mortification caused by high inflammation, produced by 
some powerful application. On his cross-examination he said, 
that at one time he had hope, because he found the healthy 
gnd unhealthy parts were separating. In answer to questions 
from the judge he said, that the state of the wound, as de- 
scribed, on the 12th of October, might produce the result 
stated; that he thought a man of common prudence or skill 
would not have applied a liquid which in two days would 
produce such extensive inflammation; though all irritating 
external applications sometimes exceeded the expectations of 
the medical attendant; but he should say that such conduct 
was a great proof of rashness and ignorance. In answer to a 
question from a juror he stated that it was very difficult to say 
whether, if he had been called in on the 12th, he could have 
prevented the death; but, if he were to make a positive reply, 
he should say that it was not likely that he could, as it seemed 
to be a case of great peril from the beginning. 
§ 1076. Mr. Brodie stated that he saw the deceased at the 
request of Mr. Vance on the 29th of October, and saw a large 
sloughing ulcer, which he believed might have been produced 
by rubbing a corrosive liniment into the parts on the 10th of 
October; that he did not know of any disease which should 
lead a person to apply a liniment with the intention of pro- 
ducing such an effect. On his cross-examination, he said: 
“ It is and always has been the practice to produce counter- 
irritation, and the same application may be beneficial to one 
person and injurious to another, according to the habit and 
constitution. The effect of a liniment or blister, or any other 
external irritant, as we call them, sometimes goes beyond the 
effect we intend, and the most scientific practitioner may often 
957 § 1077] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
be deceived in his expectations; he cannot always calculate to 
a nicety. I do not recollect at this moment any instance in 
which death has ensued from a blister properly applied, but I 
suppose it may happen. I suppose over-exercise would pro- 
duce over-irritation where a blister had been applied. In 
treating a wound, I should judge from the appearances and 
state of the patient; I think it would be desirable, under such 
circumstances, to know the nature of the application, but I do 
not think it would lead to any great difference in the treat- 
ment. In cases of poison, we do not apply the same remedy, 
especially when it has been taken into the stomach. As to 
external applications, I do not think a surgeon would judge 
so much from what had been applied, as from the appearances. 
Circumstances may occur in which, when a particular course 
is intended, a stranger’s coming in and pursuing another and 
different course would produce mischief.” 
On his re-examination, he said: “In the case of such a 
wound as has been described and I saw, I should not have 
thought it necessary to resort to the person who had produced 
it; and I doubt whether, in this case, it would have led to any 
useful knowledge.” 
§ 1077. In answer to questions from the judge, he said: 
“ Though I do not think it absolutely necessary, I should have 
got at the matter if I could. I should think that the sperma- 
ceti ointment would not certainly increase the danger of such 
a wound as that described on the 12th of October. I never 
saw such an effect produced by an ordinary medical application. 
There are some constitutions in which very slight remedies 
will produce dangerous consequences. I have seen one person 
die of the bite of a leech, and another by the sting of a bee. 
I had no means of knowing anything of this lady’s constitu- 
tion. I should believe, from the evidence I have heard of the 
way in which the inflammation made progress, that it pro- 
ceeded rather from the nature of the application than from 
the constitution of the party; but it may have depended on 
both. It is usual to try to ascertain the nature of the con- 
stitution. We cannot always do it, but in using potent reme- 
dies we use great precaution. I cannot form a positive opinion 
whether the liniment was rashly used or not, but the impres- 
958 BOOK VII.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
[§ 1078 
sion on my mind is, that it was used without sufficient caution, 
and, therefore, either rashly or ignorantly. I have seen many 
instances of inflammation from external application, but I 
never saw so extensive effect produced as in this instance.” 
Mr. Frankum then proved that he saw Mrs. Lloyd about 
before her death, and was present at the post-mortem exami- 
nation. His opinion was that she was very healthy, and there 
was not, as far as he could judge, any peculiarity of constitu- 
tion which would account for the violent effects produced. 
§ 1078. It was very ably argued by the counsel for the 
defendant, that, as the motive was to do good, and as there 
was no personal advantage to be gained, there was no respon- 
sibility, and the older cases were cited to show that the court 
should at this stage take the case from the jury, and direct an 
acquittal. But Bay ley, B., said: “ There are, in my mind, con- 
tradictory authorities, and I propose, with the assent of my 
learned brothers, to reserve the point for you, if the prisoner 
is convicted. I agree with my Lord Hale, and do not think 
there is any difference between a licensed and an unlicensed 
surgeon. It does not follow, that, in the case of either, an act 
done may not amount to manslaughter. There may be cases 
in which a regular medical man may be guilty ; and that is 
all Lord Hale lays down. And that may be laid out of the 
question at this time. But the manner in which the act is 
done, and the use of due caution, seem to me to be material. 
Mr. Justice Foster, in his Criminal Law, p. 263, speaking of a 
person who happens to kill another by driving a cart or other 
carriage, says: “ If he might have seen the danger, and did 
not look before him, it will be manslaughter for want of due 
circumspection.’ But all that I mean to say now is, that, there 
being conflicting authorities, and the impression of our minds 
not being in your favor, I propose to reserve the point. As to 
the indictment not being supported by the evidence, one of the 
allegations is that the prisoner feloniously applied a noxious 
and injurious matter. And there is no doubt, if the jury 
should be of opinion against the prisoner, that the facts proved 
will be sufficient to warrant their finding that the prisoner felo- 
niously did the act. For if a man, either with gross ignorance 
or gross rashness, administer medicine, and death ensue, it will 
959 § 1080J 
[BOOK VII. 
be felony.” Upon the defendant’s counsel urging "that to make 
out the felony a trespass must have been affirmatively proved, 
and that here there was no evidence of trespass at all, Bayley, 
B., said: “ I think that if the jury shall find a given fact in the 
way in which I shall submit it to them, it will constitute the 
crime of feloniously administering, so as to make it man- 
slaughter. As, for instance, if I have the toothache, and a 
person undertakes to cure it by administering laudanum, and 
says: ‘ I have no notion how much ought to be taken,’ and 
gives me a cupful, which immediately kills me ; or, if a per- 
son presenting James’ powder, says, ‘ I have no notion how 
much ought to be taken,’ and yet gives me a tablespoonful, 
which had the same effect; such persons, acting with rashness, 
will, in my opinion, be guilty of manslaughter. With respect 
to what has been said about a willing mind in the patient it 
must be remembered, that a prosecution is for the public bene- 
fit, and the willingness of the patient cannot take away the 
offence against the public.” 
§ 1079. The defendant, being put upon his defence, said that 
the prosecution was in reality that of the medical gentlemen, 
who did not prosecute other medical men, but attacked him 
because his patients were the incurables of the faculty, and 
because he cured consumptions, which they were never able to 
do. He contended that it was not just to hold him responsible 
where the death occurred while Mrs. Lloyd was under the care 
of others, and neither he nor his medical friend was able to 
do anything for her. lie also charged Mr. Campbell with un- 
skilfulness in his treatment of the case, and argued that if the 
mixture had been of the injurious kind suggested, it must 
have produced mortification at a much earlier period than that 
in which, according to the evidence, it did. He also offered 
to prove that he had studied anatomy, and was acquainted 
with the constitution of the human frame. Of his skill and 
acceptableness as a practitioner very strong testimony was 
given, to the same effect as on the former trial. 
§ 1080. Bayley, B., in summing up to the jury, said: “It 
matters not whether a man has received a medical education 
or not; the thing to look at is, whether, in reference to the 
remedy he has used, and the conduct he has displayed, he has 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
960 BOOK VII.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
[§ 1081 
acted with a due degree of caution, or, on the contrary, has acted 
with gross and improper rashness and want of caution. I 
have no hesitation in saying, for your guidance, that, if a man 
be guilty of gross negligence in attending to his patient after 
he has applied a remedy, or of gross rashness in the application 
of it, and death ensues in consequence, he will be liable to a con- 
viction for manslaughter. There is no pretence in the present case 
for saying that there was any degree of negligence after the ap- 
plication of the liquid, because it seems that the prisoner did 
not know where Mrs. Lloyd lived; and, when he was sent for, 
on the 12th, he went, but was almost immediately dismissed, 
and was not allowed to see her afterwards. If you shall be ot 
opinion that the prisoner made the application with a gross 
and culpable degree of rashness, and that it was the cause of 
Mrs. Lloyd’s death, then, heavy as the charge against him is, 
he will be answerable on this indictment for the offence of 
manslaughter. There was a considerable interval between 
the application of the liquid and the death of the patient; yet, 
if you think that the infliction of the wound on the 10th of 
October was the cause of the death, then it is no answer to say 
that a different course of treatment by Mr. Campbell might 
have prevented it. You will consider these two points: first, 
of what did Mrs. Lloyd die ? You must be satisfied that she 
died of the wound which was the result of the application 
made on the 10th of October; and then, secondly, if you are 
satisfied of this, whether the application was a felonious ap- 
plication. This will depend upon whether you think it was 
gross and culpable rashness in the prisoner to apply a remedy 
which might produce such effects, in such a manner that it 
did actually produce them. If you think so, then he will 
be answerable to the full extent.” The defendant was ac- 
quitted.^) 
§ 1081. Several subsequent cases occur in the English books, 
in which, down to a recent day, the doctrine was repeated that 
death resulting from grossly incautious or grossly unskilful 
conduct on the part of a medical practitioner, whether licensed 
or unlicensed, is manslaughter. In one case the prisoner, who 
(g) R. v. Long, 4 C. & P. 423. 
VOL. II.—61 
961 § 1081] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[BOOK VII. 
for nearly thirty years had carried on the business of an 
apothecary and man-midwife, with a very considerable practice 
—having, amongst others, attended the deceased on the birth 
of all her children—was tried for manslaughter, in having 
made use of a metal instrument, known as a vectis or lever, in 
such a way as to cause death; and it was proved by medical 
men, first, that the weapon was a dangerous one, and improper 
to be used at that stage ; and, secondly, that it must have been 
used in a very improper way, and in an entirely wrong direc- 
tion. Coleridge, J., told the jury that it was for them to say 
whether the instrument was the Cause of death, and whether 
it had been used by the prisoner with due and proper skill 
and caution, or with gross skill or gross want of attention. 
“ No man,” he said, “was justified in making use of an in- 
strument, in itself a dangerous one, unless he did so with a 
proper degree of skill and caution.”(A) In another case, where 
a child died in consequence of a corrosive plaster placed im- 
properly on its head, Bolland, B., advanced a step further, 
saying: “ If any person, whether he be a regular or licensed 
medical man or not, professes to deal with the life or health 
of his majesty’s subjects, he is bound to have competent skill 
to perform the task that he holds himself out to perform, and 
he is bound to treat his patient with care, attention, and as- 
And again, where the defendant, who was the 
agent of Morrison’s pills, administered a large quantity of 
them to the deceased, Lord Lyndhurst, C. B., after reiterating 
the position that in such cases there was no difference between 
the licensed and the unlicensed practitioner, said: “In either 
case, if a party having a competent degree of skill or knowledge 
makes an accidental mistake in his treatment of a patient, 
through which mistake death ensues, he is not thereby guilty 
of manslaughter; but if, when proper medical assistance can 
be had, a person totally ignorant of the science of medicine 
takes on himself to administer a violent and dangerous remedy 
to one laboring under disease, and death ensues in consequence 
R. v. Spilling, 2 M. & Rob. 107 ; S. P. Ferguson’s Cases, 1 Lew. 181. 
(*') R. v. Spiller, 5 C. & P. 333. 
962 BOOK VII.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
[§ 1083 
of that dangerous remedy having been administered, then he 
is guilty of manslaughter.”^') 
§ 1081a. These same views have been subsequently frequently 
applied. Thus, where a person professing himself to be an 
herbalist administered arsenical ointment to a woman having 
a tumor, of which she died, but gave her no caution or direc- 
tions as to the use of it; the judge directed the jury, that, if 
he administered the arsenic without knowing or taking the 
pains to find out what its effects would be; or if, knowing 
this, he gave it to the deceased to be used by her without 
giving her adequate directions as to its use, he would be guilty 
of culpable negligence, and, therefore, of manslaughter.^) 
§ 1082. It has also been ruled, that a mistake on the part 
of a chemist in putting a poisonous liniment into a medicine 
bottle, instead of a liniment bottle, in consequence of which 
the liniment was taken by his customer internally, with fatal 
results, the mistake being made under circumstances of sudden 
confusion, which threw the prisoner off his guard, does not 
amount to such a criminal negligence as will warrant a con- 
viction for manslaughter.^) 
And it is said that on an indictment for manslaughter 
against a medical man, for administering poison by mistake 
for some other drug, the prosecution is bound to show that the 
poison got into the mixture in consequence of his gross negli- 
gence, and it is not sufficient to show merely that the prisoner, 
who dispensed his own drugs, supplied a mixture which con- 
tained a large quantity of poison. The jury must be satisfied 
that there was such gross and culpable negligence as would 
show an evil mind. And these facts must affirmatively appear 
in the prosecution’s case.(m) 
§ 1083. Varying in no essential degree from the English 
doctrine on the main point, is that determined by the Supreme 
Court of Massachusetts in the trial of Samuel Thomson, the 
(j) R. v. Webb, 1 M. & Robb. 405. 
(*) R. v. Chamberlain, 10 Cox C. C. 486. See also R. v. Markuss, 4 F.'& 
F. 356. 
(i) R. v. Noakes, 4 F. & F. 920. See Thomas v. Winchester, 6 Comstock, 
397; McDonald v. Snelling, 14 Allen, 290. 
(m) R. v. Spencer, 10 Cox C. C. 525 ; R. v. Markuss, 4 F. & F.. 356. 
963 § 1083] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
founder of the Thomsonian system. The report states that 
on the trial it had been proven that the prisoner, some time in 
the preceding December, came into Beverly, where the deceased 
then lived; announced himself as. a physician, and professed 
an ability to cure all fevers, whether black, gray, green, or 
yellow; declaring that the country was much imposed upon 
by physicians, who were all wrong, if he was right. lie pos- 
sessed several drugs which he used as medicines, and to which 
he gave singular names. One he called coffee, another well- 
my-gristle, and a third ram-cats. He had several patients in 
Beverly and in Salem, previous to Monday, the 2d of January, 
when the deceased, having been for several days confined to 
his house by a cold, requested that the prisoner might be sent 
for as a physician. He accordingly came, and ordered a large 
fire to he kindled to heat the room. He then placed the feet 
of the deceased, with his shoes oft', on a stove of hot coals, and 
wrapped him in a thick blanket, covering his head. In this 
situation he gave him a powder in water, which immediately 
puked him. Three minutes after, he repeated the dose, which 
in about two minutes operated violently. He again repeated the 
dose, which in a short time operated with more violence.. These 
doses were all given within the space of half an hour, the patient 
in the mean time drinking copiously of a warm decoction, called 
by the prisoner his coffee. The deceased, after puking, in which 
he brought up phlegm, but no food, was ordered to a warm 
bed, where he lay in a profuse sweat all night. On Tuesday 
morning the deceased left his bed, and appeared to be com- 
fortable, complaining only of debility; and in the afternoon 
he was visited by the prisoner, who administered two more of 
his emetic powders in succession, which puked the deceased, 
who, during the operation, drank of the prisoner’s coffee, and 
complained of much distress. On Wednesday morning the 
prisoner came, and, after causing the face and hands of the 
deceased to be washed with rum, ordered him to walk in the 
air, which he did for about fifteen minutes. In the afternoon 
the prisoner gave him two more of his emetic powders, with 
draughts of his coffee. On Thursday the deceased appeared to 
be comfortable, but complained of great debility. In the after- 
noon the prisoner caused him to be again sweated, by placing 
964 BOOK VII.] 
[§ 1083 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
him, with another patient, over an iron pan with vinegar 
heated by hot stones put into the vinegar, covering them at 
the same time with blankets. On Friday and Saturday the 
prisoner did not visit the deceased, who appeared to be com- 
fortable, although complaining of increased debility. On Sun- 
day morning, the debility increasing, the prisoner was sent 
for, and came in the afternoon, when he administered another 
of his emetic powders, and in about twenty minutes repeated 
the dose. This last dose did not operate. The prisoner then 
administered pearl ash mixed with water, and afterwards re- 
peated his emetic potions. The deceased appeared to be in 
great distress, and said he was dying. The prisoner then asked 
him how far the medicine had got down. The deceased, laying 
his hand on his breast, answered here: on which the prisoner 
observed that the medicine would soon get down and unscrew 
his navel; meaning, as was supposed by the hearers, that it 
would operate as a cathartic. Between nine and ten o’clock 
in the evening, the deceased lost his reason, and was seized 
with convulsive- fits, two men being required to hold him in 
.bed. After he was thus seized with convulsions, the prisoner 
got down his throat one or two doses more of his emetic 
powders, and remarked to the father of the deceased, that his 
son had got the hyps like the devil, but that his medicines 
would fetch him down; meaning, as the witness understood, 
would compose him. The next morning the regular physicians 
of the town were sent for, but the patient was so completely 
exhausted that no relief could be given. The convulsions and 
the loss of reasdn continued, with some intervals, until Tues- 
day evening, when the deceased expired. From the evidence 
it appeared that the coffee administered was a decoction of 
marsh-rosemary, mixed with the bark of bayberry bush, which 
wTas not supposed to have injured the deceased. But the 
powder, which the prisoner said he chiefly relied upon in his 
practice, and which was the emetic so often administered by 
him to the deceased, was the pulverized plant commonly called 
Indian tobacco. A Dr. French, of Salisbury, testified that this 
plant, with this name, was well known in his part of the 
country, where it was indigenous, for its emetic qualities ; and 
that it was gathered and preserved by some families, to be 
965 § 1083] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
used as an emetic, for which the roots, as well as the stalks 
and leaves, were administered ; and that four grains of the 
powder was a powerful puke. But a more minute description 
of this plant was given by the Rev. Dr. Cutler. He testified 
that it was the lobelia inflata of Linnaeus ;(n) that many years 
ago, on a botanical ramble, he discovered it growing in a field 
not far from his house in Hamilton; that, not having Linnaeus 
then in his possession, he supposed it to be a nondescript 
species of the lobelia; that, by chewing a leaf of it, he was 
puked two or three times; that he afterwards repeated the 
experiment with the same effect; that he inquired of his 
neighbor, on whose ground the plant was found, for its trivial 
name. He did not know of any, but was apprised of its 
emetic quality, and informed the doctor that the chewing of 
one of the capsules operated as an emetic, and that the chew- 
ing more would prove cathartic. In a paper soon after com- 
municated by the doctor to the American Academy, he men- 
tioned the plant, with the name of the lobelia medica..(p) He 
did not know of its being applied to any medical use until the 
last September, when, being severely afflicted with asthma, 
Dr. Drury, of Marblehead, informed him that a tincture of it 
had been found beneficial in asthmatic complaints. Dr. Cutler 
then made for himself a tincture, by filling a common porter 
bottle with the plant, pouring upon it as much spirit as the 
bottle would hold, and keeping the bottle in a sand heat for 
three or four days. Of this tincture he took a tablespoonful, 
which produced no nausea, and had a slight pungent taste. In 
ten minutes after he repeated the potion, which produced some 
nausea, and appeared to stimulate the whole internal surface 
of the stomach. In ten minutes he again repeated the potion, 
which puked him two or three times, and excited in his ex- 
tremities a strong sensation like irritation; but he was relieved 
from a paroxysm of the asthma, which had not since returned. 
He had since mentioned this tincture to some physicians, and 
(n) Lobelia. Class Pentandria. Order Monogynia. Capsule 2 or 3- 
celled, corol. irregular, cloven; antherse united; stigma simple ; species in- 
flata; stem erect; leaves ovate, slightly serrate, longer than the peduncle; 
capsules inflated.—Turt. Lin. vol. iv. pp. 259, 330. 
(o) Ibid. 
966 BOOK Vlt.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
[§ 1084 
has understood from them that some patients have been vio- 
lently puked by a teaspoonful of it; but whether this differ- 
ence of effect arose from the state of the patients, or from the 
manner of preparing the tincture, he did not know. The 
solicitor-general also stated, that, before the deceased had ap- 
plied to the prisoner, the latter had administered the like 
medicines with those given to the deceased to several of his 
patients, who had died under his hands; and to prove this 
statement he called several witnesses, of whom but one ap- 
peared. He, on the contrary, testified that he had been the 
prisoner’s patient for an oppression at his stomach ; that he 
took his emetic powders several times in three or four days, 
and was relieved from his complaint, which had not since 
returned. And there was no evidence in the cause that the 
prisoner, in the course of his very novel practice, had expe- 
rienced any fatal accident among his patients. The defence 
stated by the prisoner’s counsel was, that he had for several 
years, and in different places, pursued his practice with much 
success, and that the death of the deceased was unexpected, 
and could not be imputed to him as a crime. But, as the court 
were satisfied that the evidence produced on the part of the 
commonwealth did not support the indictment, the prisoner 
was not put on his defence. 
§ 1084. The chief justice charged the jury: and the sub- 
stance of his direction, and of several observations which fell 
from the court during the trial, is condensed by the reporter 
as follows:— 
“ As the testimony of the witnesses was not contradicted, 
nor their credit impeached, that testimony might be considered 
as containing the necessary facts, on which the issue must be 
found. That the deceased lost his life by the unskilful treat- 
ment of the prisoner, did not seem to admit of any reasonable 
doubt: but of this point the jury were to judge. Before the 
Monday evening preceding the death of Lovett, he had by 
profuse sweats, and by often repeated doses of the emetic 
powder, been reduced very low. In this state, on that 
other doses of this Indian tobacco were administered. When 
the second potion did not operate, probably because the tone 
of his stomach was destroyed, the repetition of them, that 
967 § 1084] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
they might operate as a cathartic, was followed by convulsion 
fits, loss of reason, and death. But whether this treatment, 
by which the deceased lost his life, is or is not felonious homi- 
cide, was the great question before the jury. To constitute 
the crime of murder, with which the prisoner is charged, the 
killing must have been with malice, either expressed or im- 
plied. There was no evidence to induce a belief that the 
prisoner, by this treatment, intended to kill, or to injure the 
deceased; and the ground of express malice must fail. It has 
been said that implied malice may be inferred from the rash 
and presumptuous conduct of the prisoner, in administering 
such violent medicines. Before implied malice can be inferred, 
the jury must be satisfied that the prisoner, by his treatment 
of his patient, was wilfully regardless of his social duty, being 
determined on mischief. But there is no part of the evidence, 
which proves that the prisoner intended by his practice any 
harm to the deceased. On the contrary, it appears that his 
intention was to cure him. The jury would consider whether 
the charge of murder was, on these principles, satisfactorily 
supported. But, though innocent of the crime of murder, the 
prisoner may, on this indictment, be convicted of manslaughter, 
if the evidence be sufficient. And the solicitor general strongly 
urged that the prisoner was guilty of manslaughter, because 
he rashly and presumptuously administered to the deceased a 
deleterious medicine, which, in his hands, by reason of his 
gross ignorance, became a deadly poison. The prisoner’s 
ignorance is in this case very apparent. On any other ground 
consistent with his innocence, it is not easy to conceive, that, 
on the Monday evening before the death, when the second 
dose of his very powerful emetic had failed to operate, through 
the extreme weakness of the deceased, he could expect a repe- 
tition of these fatal poisons would prove a cathartic, and 
relieve the patient; or that he could mistake convulsion fits, 
symptomatic of approaching death, for an hypochondriac affec- 
tion. But, on considering this point, the court were all of 
opinion, notwithstanding this ignorance, that, if the prisoner 
acted with an honest intention and expectation of curing the 
deceased by this treatment, although death, unexpected by 
him, was the consequence, he. was not guilty of manslaughter. 
968 BOOK VII.] 
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS. 
[§ 1084 
To constitute manslaughter, the killing must have been the 
consequence of Some unlawful act. Now, there is no law which 
prohibits any man from prescribing for a sick person with his 
consent, if he honestly intends to cure him by his prescription. 
And it is not felony, if, through his ignorance of the quality 
of the medicine prescribed, or of the nature of the disease, or 
of both, the patient contrary to his expectation should die. 
The death of a man, killed by voluntarily following a medical 
prescription, cannot be adjudged felony in the party prescrib- 
ing, unless he, however ignorant of medical science in general, 
had so much knowledge, or probable information of the fatal 
tendency of the prescription, that it may be reasonably pre- 
sumed by the jury to be the effect of obstinate wilful rashness 
at the least, and not of an honest intention and expectation to 
cure. In the present case there is no evidence that the pri- 
soner, either from his own experience or from the information 
of others, had any knowledge of the fatal effects of the Indian 
tobacco, when injudiciously administered: but the only testi- 
mony produced on this point proved that the patient found a 
cure from the medicine. The law, thus stated, was conform- 
able, not only to the general principles which governed in 
charges of felonious homicide, but also to the opinion of the 
learned and excellent Lord Chief Justice Hale. He expressly 
states, that, if a physician, whether licensed or not, gives a per- 
son a potion, without any intent of doing him any bodily hurt, 
but with intent to cure or prevent a disease, and, contrary to 
the expectation of the physician, it kills him, he is not guilty 
of murder or manslaughter. If in this case it had appeared in 
evidence, as was stated by the solicitor-general, that the pri- 
soner had previously, by administering this Indian tobacco, 
experienced its injurious effects, in the death or bodily hurt of 
his patients, and that he afterwards administered it in the 
same form to the deceased, and he was killed by it, the court 
would have left it to the serious consideration of the jury, 
whether they would presume that the prisoner administered 
it from an honest intention to cure, or from obstinate rashness 
and fool-hardy presumption, although he might not have in- 
tended any bodily harm to his patient. If the jury should 
have been of this latter opinion, it would have been reasonable 
969 § 1087] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vii. 
to convict the prisoner of manslaughter at least. For it would 
not have been lawful for him again to administer a medicine 
of which he had such fatal experience. It is to be exceedingly 
lamented, that people are so easily persuaded to put confidence 
in these itinerant quacks, and to trust their lives to strangers 
without knowledge or experience. If this astonishing infatua- 
tion should continue, and men are found to yield to the im- 
prudent pretensions of ignorant empiricism, there seems to be 
no adequate remedy by a criminal prosecution, without the 
interference of the legislature, if the quack, however weak and 
presumptuous, should prescribe with honest intentions and 
expectations of relieving his patients.” The prisoner was 
acquitted.(p) 
§ 1085. The more recent American cases follow the views 
of Chief Justice Parsons, in Thomson’s case.^) 
II. In Actions for Tarts. 
§ 1086. Where a medical man is sued in a civil court for 
damages for malpractice, the law as held by the English and 
American courts may be stated as follows:— 
§ 1087. a. A physician or surgeon is only responsible for 
ordinary care and skill, and for the exercise of his best judg- 
ment in matters of doubt. He is not accountable for a want 
of the highest degree of skill,(r) or for an erroneous though 
honest conclusion according to his best lights.(s) And in de- 
termining whether the practitioner possesses ordinary skill, 
regard must be had to the advanced state of the profession at 
the time.(£) lie is bound to consult the attainable literature 
on the subject, and to use due diligence to gather in, in every 
case he undertakes to treat, the experience of his profession.(ii) 
Where the physician’s general skill is at issue, he may ad- 
(p) Com. v. Thomson, 6 Mass. 134 ; and see also Fairlee v. People, 11 111. 1. 
(?) See Rice v. State, 8 Mo. 561 ; Fairlee v. People, 11 111. 1 ; Holmes v. 
State, 23 Alab. 17; Wh. C. L. § 1015. 
(r) Leighton v. Sargent, 7 Fost. 460; Simonds v. Henry, 39 Maine 155 ; 
Hancke ®. Hooper, 7 C. and P. 81 ; McCandless v. McWha, 22 Penn. St. 
261 ; Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barbour 488. 
(s) Heath v. Glison, 3 Oregon 64. 
(t) Slater v. Baker, 2 Wils. 359 ; McCandless v. McWha, 22 Penn. St. 261. 
(u) Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barbour 488, post, § 1092, note (h). 
970 BOOK VII.] 
ACTIONS FOR TORTS. 
[§ 1090 
duce evidence to prove the existence of such general skill, 
irrespective of the particular case.(t;) “ That a physician or 
surgeon possesses skill, may be shown by those of the same 
profession, who can speak from personal knowledge of his 
practice. ”(ic>) 
§ 1088. b. A volvnteer is held to much more strict respon- 
sibility. Thus, when medicine was administered to a slave 
without the owner’s consent, the practitioner was held respon- 
sible for all the evil consequences which resulted.(a;) And 
this rule is still more strictly applied when the volunteer ex- 
cludes a competent practitioner, otherwise attainable.(y) But, 
when the services are gratuitous, they are to be viewed as a 
mere benevolence, and the attendant is held to a less strict 
accountability than when they are based on an implied con- 
tract. In the latter case there is an agreement to apply ordi- 
nary professional skill and care; in the former case no such 
agreement can be If extraordinary skill were re- 
quired, no medical man could dare to act, unless he had that 
high degree of skill which can be secured only by large city 
and hospital practice; and the great body of cases would have 
to be left without treatment.^1) 
§ 1089. c. Where the law prescribes no absolute system, a 
physician is expected to practise according to the system he 
professes and avows .(a) It was accordingly held admissible 
for a defendant, in an action for malpractice, to prove that his 
treatment of the case was according to the botanic system of 
practice, which he professed, and was known to follow.(6) 
And so as to homoeopathic treatment.(c) 
§ 1090. d. Only nominal damages should be awarded when 
(v) Mertz v. Detweiler, 8 W. and Serg. 376; Seare v. Prentice, 8 East 
348 ; Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barbour 488. 
(w) Mullin, P. J., in Carpenter®. Blake, 60 Barb. 518. 
(x) Hood v. Grimes, 13 B. Monr. 188. 
(y) See Ruddock v. Lowe, 4 F. and F. 519 ; R. v. Simpson, 4 C. and P. 
407, note. 
(s) Shearman and Redfield on Negligence, 2d ed. 1870, § 432. 
(s') Shearman and Redfield on Negligence, 2d ed. 1870, § 436. 
(«) Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barbour 488. 
(5) Bournan v. Woods, 1 Iowa 441. 
(c) Corsi v. Maretzek, 4 E. D. Smith 1. 
971 § 1092] 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[book vir. 
it appears the plaintiff refused to co-operate with the practi- 
tioner, and conform to his prescriptions,^1) even though it ap- 
pear that the latter’s treatment was objectionable; and, if the 
injury was due to the plaintiff’s fractiousness and disregard of 
the defendant’s orders, the latter being judicious, no action at 
all lies. But the court will not permit this question to go to 
the jury unless there is evidence of such misconduct by the 
plaintiff.(cZ) 
§ 1091. e. The defendant is not liable unless damages ensue. 
The implied liability of a surgeon, retained to treat a case 
professionally, extends no further, in the absence of a special 
agreement, than that he will indemnify his patient against any 
injurious consequence resulting from his want of the proper 
degree of skill, care, or diligence in the execution of his em- 
ployment. The plaintiff, in an action for malpractice, will 
only recover nominal damages if he shows no injury resulting 
from the surgeon’s negligence or want of due care.(e) 
There is an Implied obligation, on a man holding himself out 
to the community as a surgeon or physician and practising 
his profession, that he should possess the ordinary skill re- 
quisite for reasonable success, and that he should attend the 
case with due care ;(/) and the practitioner is liable where the 
patient suffers from such want of skill, although the careless- 
ness of those nursing the patient may have aggravated the 
case and rendered the ultimate condition of the patient worse 
than it otherwise would have been. This latter fact would go 
in mitigation of damages, but not to bar the action.(y) 
Similar rules apply in the case of druggists.(A) 
§ 1092. /. The question whether the defendant possessed 
adequate skill, and exercised adequate care, is for the jury. 
(c1) Leigliton v. Sargent, 7 Fost. 460; McCandless v. McWha, 22 Penn. 
St. 261. 
id) Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barbour 488. 
ie) Craig v. Chambers & Wife, 17 Ohio St. 253. 
(/) Wilmot v. Howard, 32 Yt. 447 ; Long v. Morrison, 14 Ind. 595; Wood 
v. Clapp, 4 Sneed 65; Patten ®. Wiggin, 15 Maine 594; Howard v. Grover, 
28 Maine 97; Simonds v. Henry, 3 Maine 155; Bellinger v. Craigue, 31 
Barb. 534 ; Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barb. 480. 
ig) Wilmot v. Howard, 39 Yt. 447. 
(A) See authorities cited, ante, § 1082. 
972 BOOK VII.] 
ACTIONS FOR TORTS. 
[§ 1092 
Thus, in an action against a physician and surgeon, to recover 
damages for negligence and malpractice in the setting and 
treatment of a dislocated limb, it was held by the Supreme 
Court of Yew York, that it is for the jury to say whether, 
upon the evidence, it is established to their satisfaction that 
the defendant did not use the means which experience has 
shown to be proper and necessary in order to justify a surgeon 
in assuming that he has restored the bones to their places.(z) 
(i) Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barbour 488. In this case the following addi- 
tional points were ruled :— 
Where the surgeon setting a dislocated limb did not use a sling after the 
operation, and medical witnesses differed as to the necessity of a sling in 
such a case, it was held, that it wTas for the jury, after weighing the reasons 
assigned for and against the use of it, to say whether it was negligence in the 
surgeon to omit the sling, or not. 
If writers on the treatment of dislocations, or if, in the absence of such au- 
thority, practical surgeons, prescribe a mode of reducing them, and of treat- 
ing the joint after the bones are replaced, it is incumbent on surgeons called 
to treat such an injury to conform to the system of treatment thus established ; 
and if they depart from it they do it at their peril. 
If, in case of dislocation of the elbow-joint, it is enough for the physician 
to replace the bones and to put the arm on a pillow, with the part below the 
joint at a right angle with that above it, and directing the application of cold 
water, it would seem proper, if not -necessary, that the attending surgeon 
should inform the patient, or those in charge, of the necessity of maintaining 
that position ; and, if there is a tendency in the limb to become straight, or if 
there is great pain, rendering the patient nervous and restless, the danger 
should be disclosed, to the end that all proper precaution may be taken to 
prevent it. An omission to give the warning, in such a case, is culpable 
negligence. 
Although it is the right of a surgeon to give up the care of a dislocated limb at 
any time, especially with the patient’s assent, yet, if he insists upon that as- 
sent as a shield from liability for any negligence of which he may bave been 
guilty, or for any malpractice committed, it is competent for the plaintiff to 
show, if she can, that her consent was obtained by representations that were 
false, and, if shown to be false, the consent is no protection to the defendant 
against liability for damages that had occurred before the consent was 
given. 
In an action against a surgeon for malpractice, it would be error to instruct 
the jury that it is not material whether the defendant was or was not skilful 
in his profession. 
One holding himself out as a surgeon is liable as well for want of skill as 
for negligence; and the injured party may bring his action to recover for 
damages resulting from both, and recover on proving damages resulting from 
either. 
973 974 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. 
[BOOK VII. 
Where the judge charged the jury, in an action for malpractice, that it was 
immaterial to the inquiry before them whether the defendant, at the time, was 
or was not reputed to be, or was or was not, a skilful surgeon ; that the ques- 
tion was, did he bring to the treatment of the particular case that reasonable 
degree of skill ordinarily possessed by the members of the profession to which 
he belonged—the average skill of his profession ; it was ruled by the Supreme 
Court, that by this language the judge must be understood to mean, that, if a 
surgeon does not bring to the treatment of an injury, or of a disease, the or- 
dinary amount of skill possessed by those in the same profession, it is imma- 
terial how high his standing may be ; that, if he has the skill and does not 
apply it, he is guilty of neglect; that, if he does not have it, then he is liable 
for want of it ; and that whether a surgeon possesses ordinary skill may be 
material in an action for malpractice, but not whether he possesses a higher 
degree of skill; and that, so construed, there was no objection to the charge. 
It would have been otherwise, however, had the plaintiff sought to recover 
on the ground that the defendant did not possess ordinary skill. 
In such a case, the questions to be decided are: 1st, whether the defendant 
possessed the ordinary skill of persons acting as surgeons ; and, 2d, if he 
did, whether he was chargeable with negligence in not applying it in his 
treatment of the plaintiff. Whether he possessed greater skill, or had been 
successful in the treatment of other patients, is wholly immaterial. 
Where the judge charged the jury that it was impossible to show that a 
surgeon possessed the skill required, except by showing what skill he applied 
in the treatment of the particular case ; it was held, that, if this part of the 
charge was construed by itself, without reference to other parts of it, the 
proposition could not be supported; but that, if construed (as the context 
warranted) as an instruction that the defendant was required to have an or- 
dinary degree of skill, and wThether he had any more was wholly immaterial, 
it wTas correct. 
When the point in issue is, whether skill was applied in a given case, the 
possession of skill, without proof that it was applied, would be no defence to 
an action for malpractice. 
When it is proved that the surgeon has omitted altogether the established 
mode of treatment, and has adopted one which has proved to be injurious, 
evidence of skill, or of reputation for skill, is wholly immaterial, except to 
show (what the law presumes) that he possesses the ordinary degree of skill 
of persons engaged in the same profession. In such a case it is of no conse- 
quence how much skill he may have ; he has demonstrated a want of it in 
the treatment of the particular case. 
The failure to use skill, if the surgeon has it, may be negligence ; but, when 
the treatment adopted is not in accordance with the established practice, but 
is positively injurious, the case is not one of negligence, but of want of skill. 
Where the judge charged the jury that a surgeon “ contracts that he will 
bring to the case that ordinary and reasonable degree of skill which is pos- 
sessed by the average of his profession that “he undertakes to bring to 
the case the exercise of that reasonable degree of skill ordinarily possessed 
by the members of the profession,”—adding the remark—“I think it is the 
reasonable rule that he is required to exercise the average skill of his pro- 
974 BOOK VII.] 
ACTIONS FOR TORTS. 
[§ 1092 
fession it was held by the Supreme Court, that, the judge having first laid 
down the rule correctly, a change of phraseology, in the latter part of the 
instruction, did not change the rule ; it being obvious that in the last sentence 
he did not intend to modify or vary the rule previously stated. 
If the case is a new one, the patient must trust to the skill and experience 
of the surgeon he calls. So must he if the injury or disease is attended with 
injury to other parts, or other diseases have developed themselves for which 
there is no established mode of treatment. But, when the case is one as to 
which a system of treatment has been followed for a long time, there should 
be no departure from it, unless the surgeon who does it is prepared to take 
the risk of establishing, by his success, the propriety and safety of his 
experiment. 
Per Mullin, P. J. Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barbour 488-90! 
975 BOOK VIII. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE, 
FfETICIDE, AND INFANTICIDE. 
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS. 
A. ELEMENTARY DEFINITIONS, § 1093. 
I. Murder, § 1095. 
General definition of, § 1095. 
Malice the essential ingredient, § 109(5. 
Malice either express or implied, § 1096. 
When malice to be presumed, § 1096. 
1st. Murder from general malice, § 1096. 
When homicide is committed from general malevolence it is 
murder, § 1096. 
But when from wantonness, but manslaughter, § 1096. 
2d. Murder from individual malice, § 1097. 
(1) In reference to the party killed, § 1097. 
How such malice to be proved, § 1097. 
In what it consists by the civil and common law, § 1097. 
(а) Intent to kill, § 1099. 
In this case the offence is always murder, § 1099. 
How such intent may be proved, § 1099. 
Declarations and acts of defendant admissible 
for this purpose, §§ 1099, 1161. 
(б) Intent to do bodily harm, § 1100. 
In this country such homicide generally is 
murder in the second degree, § 1100. 
The grade therefore depends on the intent, 
§ 1100. 
(2) In reference to the party killed, when the blow falls on 
the deceased by mistake, § 1101. 
When in an attempt to produce abortion, the mother 
is unintentionally killed, § 1101. 
3d. From collateral malice, § 1102. 
This includes those cases where the malice is directed to an 
object other than that of human life or limb, § 1102. 
976 BOOK VIII.] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
II. Manslaughter, § 1103. 
General definition of, § 1103. 
Involuntary manslaughter, § 1104. 
III. Excusable Homicide, § 1105. 
1st. Where a man doing a lawful act, without any intention of hurt, 
by accident kills another, § 1105. 
2d. Where a man kills another in self-defence, § 1105. 
The distinction between excusable and justifiable homicide, is 
• in this country merely theoretical, § 1106. 
IY. Justifiable Homicide, § 1107. 
1st. When committed by unavoidable necessity, § 1107. 
2d. When committed in advancement of public justice, § 1107. 
Y. Murder in the second degree, § 1108. 
Object of distinction is the restriction of capital punishment to these 
cases only in which there is an intent to take life, §§ 1108-0. 
The distinguishing feature between the two degrees is a specific 
intent to take life, §§ 1108-9-10. 
Homicide by poisoning not necessarily murder in the first degree, 
§ 1110. 
Homicide collateral to rape, robbery, etc., is necessarily murder 
in the first degree, § 1111. 
Homicide of A., when the intent was to kill B., is murder in the 
second degree, § 1112. 
Specific intent to take life to be inferred from circumstantial evi- 
dence, and from declarations, etc., § 1113. 
B. CORPUS DELICTI. 
I. That a death took place, § 1114. 
Universal rule of civil and common law, that the fact of death 
should be proved, § 1114. 
Cases of conviction of innocent parties, from neglect of this precau- 
tion, §§ 1114-6. 
Exceptions to the rule, § 1117. 
1st. Possession of body is unnecessary when deceased is proved 
by eye-witnesses, § 1117. 
2d. And so where it is proved that the body was destroyed by 
chemical or mechanical agents, § 1118. 
II. That the death was from violence. 
1st. Poisoning. 
(a) Measures to be taken by the prosecution when 
poisoning is suspected, § 1119. 
(&) Chemical proof of poison in stomach not essen- 
tial, § 1127. 
Importance of chemical examination of stomach 
and its contents, § 1128. 
When, however, this is prevented by the accused, 
he cannot set up the want of it, § 1128. 
vol. ii.—62 
977 [BOOK VIII. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
On the other hand, neglect by the prosecution to 
procure it, if in its power, is a powerful pre- 
sumption in favor of the accused, § 1128. 
(c) Facts on which a verdict of guilty can be supported, 
§ 1130. 
(d) Duties of counsel for prosecution and defence, § 
1135. 
2d. Wounds and blows, § 1137. 
a. Legal definition of wounds, § 1137. • 
b. Under what circumstances wounds imply criminal 
agency, § 1140. 
a1. Character of the wounds themselves, § 1140. 
a2. Adaptation to a particular instrument, § 1140. 
b2. Shape and direction, § 1143. 
c2. Particular class, § 1144. 
a3. Gunshot, § 1144. 
b3. Punctured, § 1145. 4 
c3. Incised, § 1146. 
d3. Contused, § 1147. 
d2. Number, § 1148. 
e2. Situation, § 1150. 
bl. Expression of countenance, § 1151. 
c}. Inferences from surrounding objects, § 1152. 
a2. Clothing, § 1152. 
b2. Agent commensurate to the effect, § 1153. 
c2. Place where found, § 1154. 
<?’. Position and appearance of the body, § 1155. 
a2. Attitude, § 1155. 
b2. Marks of blood, § 1156. 
c2. Bruises, § 1157. 
el. Probability of infliction of injury before death, § 
1159. 
Connection of the wound with the death, § 1160. 
C. INTENT AND DESIGN, FROM WHAT TO BE INFERRED, § 1161. 
I. Prior attempts, preparations, and threats, § 1161. 
Evidence of such admissible, §§ 1161-2. 
II. Marks of violence, § 1166. 
Presumptions to be drawn from such, § 1167. 
It must appear that the alleged violence wras the cause of death, 
either in part or in whole, § 1167. 
III. Instrument of death, § 1169. 
The use of a lethal instrument leads to the presumption that death 
was intended, § 1169. 
Suicide may be inferred from the position of the weapon, § 1170. 
Other presumptions to be drawn from instrument of death, §§ 722, 
1171-2. 
978 BOOK VIII.] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
IY. Liability op deceased to attack, § 1174. 
1st. Possession of money, § 1174. 
Avarice and ambition, § 1175. 
2d. Old grudge, § 1178. 
3d. Jealousy, 1179. 
Y. Position op deceased, §§ 717, 722, 1151, 1180. 
Presumption to be drawn from this as to suicide, §§ 717, 722. 
In cases of hanging, § 1180. 
In cases of drowning, § 1180. 
In cases of poisoning, § 1180. 
VI. Materials appropriate to be converted into instruments 
op crime, § 1182. 
Importance of indicatory evidence in this respect, § 1182. 
Purchase of poison and powder ; preparation of other materials, § 
1182. 
VII. Detached circumjacent bodies, § 1183. 
Dress of deceased. Footprints. Presumptions to be drawn from 
the latter, §§ 1183-5-7. 
Detached articles of clothing, § 1186. 
Wadding of gun, etc., § 1186. 
Cases illustrative of the importance of this species of evidence, § 
1190, etc. 
VIII. Possession op fruits op offence, § 1198. 
Illustration of the general value of indicatory evidence, § 1199. 
D. INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE, § 1200. (See, for the Medical view 
of this subject, §§ 108-178.) 
I. How PAR FCETICIDE IS AFFECTED BY THE DEGREE TO WHICH 
GESTATION HAS PROCEEDED, § 1200. 
At common law destruction of an unborn infant is a misdemeanor. 
Late differences of opinion as to whether there must be a quick- 
ening. Better opinion is, that all attempts of this character are 
misdemeanors, no matter what be the stage of gestation, § 1200-2. 
II. How FAR THE OFFENCE IS AFFECTED BY THE FACT OF BIRTH, § 
1207. 
When a child dies after birth, from a wound inflicted before, the 
offence is murder; when the death takes place before birth it is at 
common law but a misdemeanor, §§ 1207-8. 
III. Tests of viability recognized by the courts, § 1209. 
Viability medically considered, §§ 41-61-7, 128. 
Difference of opinion as to actual degree of birth which is requisite 
to constitute the legal offence, § 1210. 
General propositions of law bearing on this topic :— 
(1) Where there is a malicious wound inflicted on an infant, with 
intent to produce death, and death ensues after birth, the 
offence is murder, § 1210. 
979 980 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[BOOK VIII. 
(2) Where there is a malicious exposure of an infant, with intent 
to produce death, and death ensues after birth, it is murder, 
§ 1210. 
(3) Where there is a wanton exposure of an infant, without the 
intent to procure death, but with the expectation of shifting 
the support of the infant upon some third person, and death 
ensues after birth, it is manslaughter, § 1210. 
(4) Where there is an exposure resulting from necessity, ignor- 
ance, or insanity, and death ensues after birth, the offence 
is excusable homicide, in which, in accordance with Amer- 
ican practice, the defendant is entitled to an acquittal, §§ 
1210-13. 
IV. Corpus delicti in infanticide, § 1213. 
Difficulties arising in this respect from— 
(1) The uncertainty of the fact of pregnancy, § 1213. (See §§ 
18, 1115.) 
(2) The uncertainty of the time of death, § 1213. 
(3) Uncertainty of presumptions, § 1213. 
(4) Casualties of gestation and delivery, § 1213. (See this subject 
medically considered, §§ 37-128.) 
A. ELEMENTARY DEFINITIONS. 
§ 1093. The learning of the law of homicide has been 
elsewhere abundantly set forth,(a) and neither the object nor 
the compass of the present treatise requires its exhibition in 
anything more than outline. Homicide may, in this light, be 
considered as follows:— 
I. Murder: 
II. Manslaughter: 
III. Excusable Homicide : 
IY. Justifiable Homicide: 
Y. Murder in the Second Degree. 
§ 1094. The distinction between excusable and justifiable 
homicide, as will presently be seen, is one which, however well 
marked in theory, is, in this country, obliterated in practice, 
since here the uniform course is to acquit wherever either an 
adequate excuse or a justification is proved. 
I. Murder. 
§ 1095. Murder is where a person of sound memory and dis- 
cretion unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being, in 
(a) See Wharton on Homicide, and Wharton’s Criminal Law, § 884 et seq. 
980 BOOK VIII.] 
MURDER. 
[§ 1095 
the peace of the commonwealth, with malice prepense or 
aforethought, either express or implied. The distinguishing 
feature in this definition, as will at once be seen, is that of 
malice. By this term, at common law, is meant to include not 
only special malevolence to the individual slain, but a gene- 
rally wicked, depraved, and malignant spirit—a heart regard- 
less of social duty, and deliberately bent on mischief. And, 
in general, says Sir ¥m. Russell, any formed design of doing 
mischief may be called malice; and, therefore, not such killing 
only as proceeds from premeditated hatred or revenge against 
the person killed, but also, in many other cases, such killing 
as is accompanied with circumstances that show the heart to 
be perversely wicked, is adjudged to be of malice prepense, and 
consequently murder. Malice is express or implied. When 
one person kills another with a sedate, deliberate mind, and 
formed design, it is said to be express. Of this the usual evi- 
dence is circumstantial; such, for instance, as lying in wait, 
antecedent menaces, former grudges and concerted schemes to 
do the party some bodily harm, and, in general, any deliberate, 
cruel act committed by one person against another, however 
sudden; as where a man kills another suddenly, without any 
or without a considerable provocation, and where a man wil- 
fully poisons another. And where one is killed in consequence 
of such a wilful act as shows the person by whom it is com- 
mitted to be an enemy to all mankind, the law will infer a 
general malice-from such a depraved inclination to mischief. 
Where the act is committed deliberately, and is likely to be 
attended with dangerous consequences, the malice requisite to 
murder will be presumed; for the law infers that the natural 
or probable effect of an act deliberately done is intended by its 
actor. The killing proved, even though nothing else be shown, 
it has been repeatedly held in Massachusetts that the offence 
is murder; the burden of extenuation being then thrown on 
the defendant—and such is undoubtedly the general rule. In 
Ohio, the presumption of killing alone is that of murder in the 
second degree, and so also is held to be the law in Virginia. In 
the latter State, however, it is said that where the mortal wound 
is given with a deadly weapon in the slayer’s previous posses- 
981 § 109(3] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
sion, there being no evidence of provocation, the case is prima 
facie murder in the first degree: and so also is the rule in 
Pennsylvania. Malice once ascertained is presumed to con- 
tinue down to the fatal act. Thus, where it appeared that the 
deceased had threatened the prisoner about three weeks before 
that he would kill him, that they met in the street on a star- 
light night, when they could see each other, that the deceased 
pressed for a fight, but the prisoner retreated a short distance, 
that when the deceased overtook him the prisoner stabbed him 
with some sharp instrument which caused his death, and that at 
the time of this meeting the deceased had no deadly weapon ; 
it was held, that, in such a case, to mitigate the offence from 
murder, it must appear, from the previous threats and the 
circumstances attending the rencontre, that the killing was in 
self-defence—the presumption being that the killing was mali- 
cious. Malice may be exerted against a party in his absence: 
as where A. lays poison for B. in his victuals, which B. after- 
wards takes, and dies. So where A. procures an idiot or lunatic 
to kill B., which he does. In both instances, A. is guilty of the 
murder as principal. 
There may be a class of cases, to use the words of Chief 
Justice Shaw, “when, if reasonable doubt arises as to the 
matter of malice, the court will properly instruct the jury to 
find manslaughter; as where a mother exposed her infant 
child in a garden, and it was devoured by a kite, or where the 
death of a pauper was produced by constant shifting, on the 
part of the overseers of the poor, from parish to parish.”(6) 
§ 1096. Malice is either general, individual, or collateral, and 
will be considered successively in each relation. 
1st. General.—When an action, unlawful in itself, is done 
with deliberation, and with intention of mischief or great 
bodily harm to particulars, or of mischief indiscriminately, 
fall where it may, and death ensue against or beside the 
original intention of the party, it will be murder. But if 
such an original intention does not appear, which is a matter 
of fact, and to be collected from circumstances given in 
evidence, and the fact was done heedlessly and incautiously, 
(5) See Wharton on Homicide, 35, and cases cited. 
982 BOOK VIII.] 
MURDER. 
[§ 1096 
it will be manslaughter, not accidental death ; because the 
act upon which death ensued was unlawful. Thus, if a person 
breaking in an unruly horse, wilfully ride him among a crowd 
of persons, the probable danger being great and apparent, and 
death ensue from the viciousness of the animal, it is murder. 
For how can it be supposed that a person wilfully doing an 
act so manifestly attended with danger, especially if he showed 
any consciousness of such danger himself, should intend any 
other than mischief to those who might be encountered by 
him? So, if a man mischievously throw from a roof in a 
crowded street, where passengers are constantly passing and 
repassing, a heavy piece of timber, calculated to produce death 
on such as it might fall, and death ensue, the offence is mur- 
der, at common law. And upon the same principles, if a man, 
knowing that people are passing along the street, throws a 
stone likely to do injury, or shoot over a house or wall with 
intent to do hurt to people, and one is thereby slain, it is mur- 
der on account of previous malice, though not directed against 
any particular individual: it is no excuse that the party was 
bent upon mischief generally. The line of this species of 
homicide is very important to preserve intact; for as has been 
lately pointedly observed, “ particular malice has the limited 
bounds of the person who is the object of it, and who may be 
on his guard against it: but general malice has a wider scope, 
and falls on the unsuspecting. Is a man who fires a pistol at 
an individual against whom he has ill-will, less criminal than 
one who fires a pistol at a crowd of an hundred people, against 
whom he has ill-will as a body, or as a part of the community? 
The absence of the personal animosity really aggravates the 
crime. In cases of particular malice, the sophistry of the pas- 
sions often gives the act the character of a wild retribution, 
and the assassin persuades himself that he is getting rid of a 
monster who is a curse to society. This reasoning is perverse 
and dangerous; but is the state of mind less detestable in 
which no wrongs, real, exaggerated, or imaginary, inflame the 
passions against the individual, but in which the knife is 
driven home to his heart simply because he wears the form of 
a brother man ? Which would argue the higher degree of 
depravity, the resolution—“ I will kill A. and B., who have 
983 § 1097] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[BOOK VIII. 
insulted or injured me,” or “ I will kill the first man I meet, 
be he who he may ?” 
§ 1097. 2d. Individual, which may he considered (1) in 
reference to the party killed, and (2) to a third party when 
the blow falls on the deceased by mistake. 
(1) In reference to the party killed. 
So far as concerns the individual killed, malice is either ex- 
press or implied. Express malice is defined to be, where one 
person kills another with a sedate, deliberate mind, and formed 
design. Such formed design may be evinced by external cir- 
cumstances, discovering the inward intention: as lying in wait, 
antecedent menaces, former grudges, and concerted schemes to 
do the party some bodily harm. And malice is implied by law 
from any deliberate cruel act committed by one person against 
another, however sudden : thus, where a man kills another 
suddenly without any or without a considerable provocation, 
the law implies malice; for no person, unless of abandoned 
heart, would be guilty of such an act upon a slight or no ap- 
parent cause. And, as will be seen presently, wThere one is 
killed in consequence of such a wilful act as shows the person 
by whom it is committed to be an enemy to all mankind, the 
law will infer a general malice from such a depraved inclina- 
tion to mischief. It may be indeed treated as a general rule, 
that all homicide is presumed to be malicious where an instru- 
ment, likely to cause death, is used.(c) It should not be for- 
gotten in this connection, that the legal meaning of the term 
malitia, or malice, is different from its popular meaning, which 
makes it synonymous with spite. Thus, Lord Ilolt says: 
“ Some have been led into mistakes by not well considering 
what the passion of malice is ; they have construed it to be 
rancor of mind, lodged in the person killing for some consider- 
able time before the commission of the fact: which is a mis- 
take, arising from the not well distinguishing between hatred 
and malice. Envy, hatred, and malice are three distinct pas- 
sions of mind.”(<7) Amongst the Romans, and in the civil law, 
malitia appears to have imported a mixture of fraud, and of 
that which is opposite to simplicity and honesty. Cicero 
(c) Wli. C. L. §§ 930-950. 
(d) Kel. 127. 
984 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1097 
MURDER. 
speaks of it as,(<?) “ versuta et fallax nocendi ratioand in 
another work (/) he says: “ Mihi quidem etiam verce hcereditates 
non honestce videntur si sint malitiosis (or, as sometimes read, 
a malo animo profectis), blanditiis qfficiorum; non varetate sed 
simulatione qucesitce.” And in the Pandects,(y) in speaking of 
a banker or cashier giving his accounts, it is said: uUbi 
exigitur argentarius rationes edere tunc punitur cum dolo malo non 
exhibit. Dolo malo autem non edit, et qui malitiose edidit et qui 
in totum non edit.” At common law, malice is a term of law 
importing directly wickedness, and excluding a just cause or 
excuse. Thus, Lord Coke, in his comment on the words per 
malitiam, says : “ If one be appealed of murder, and is found 
by verdict that he killed the party se defendendo, this shall not 
be said to be per malitiam, because he had a just cause.”(h) And, 
where the statute speaks of a prisoner on his arraignment 
standing mute of malice, the word clearly cannot be understood 
in its common acceptation of anger or desire of revenge 
against another. Thus, where the 25 Hen. VIII. c. 3, says, 
that persons arraigned of petit treason, etc., standing “ mute 
of malice or froward mind,” or challenging, etc., shall be ex- 
cluded from clergy, the word malice, explained by the accom- 
panying words, seems to signify a wickedness or frowardness of 
mind, in refusing to submit to the course of justice: in oppo- 
sition to cases where some just cause may be assigned for the 
silence, as that it proceeds from madness, or some other disability 
or distemper. And in the Statute 21 Edw. I., De malefactori- 
bus in parcis, trespassers are mentioned who shall not yield 
themselves to the foresters, etc., but who, “ malitiam suam pro- 
sequendo et continuando,” shall fly or stand upon their defence. 
And, where the question of malice has arisen in cases of homi- 
cide, the matter of consideration has been, whether the act 
was done with or without just cause or excuse: so that it has 
been suggested, that what is usually called malice implied by 
law would, perhaps, be expressed more intelligibly and fami- 
liarly to the understanding, if it were called malice in a legal 
(e) De Nat. Deor. Lib. 3, s. 30. (/) De Offic. Lib. 3, s. 18. 
(,g) Dig. Lib. 2, Tit. 13, Lex. 8. (h) 2 Inst. 384. 
985 § 1099] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
sense. Malice, in its legal sense, denotes a wrongful act, done 
intentionally, or without just cause or excuse. 
§ 1098. Malice in this intent may be considered under the 
following heads:— 
(а) Intent to kill. 
(б) Intent to do bodily harm.(z') 
(a) Intent to Kill. 
§ 1099. This head admits of no question in its primary- 
sense. Of course, where there is a deliberate intent to kill, 
unless it be in the discharge of a duty imposed by public au- 
thorities, the offence must be murder at common law.Q') And 
it should be observed that an intermediate provocation, imme- 
diately after the happening of which the offence occurred, 
forms no defence.(&) The reason of this is obvious, for, if all 
that is necessary for a man to do to relieve himself from the 
guilt of murder is such provocation, there would surely not 
be a case of homicide without it. 
In a leading case on this point, the prisoner, with the de- 
ceased and another brother, and some neighbors, were drinking 
in a friendly manner at a public house, till, growing warm in 
liquor, but not intoxicated, the prisoner and deceased began in 
idle sport to pull and push each other about the room. They 
then wrestled—one fell; and soon afterwards they played at 
cudgel by agreement. All this time no token of anger ap- 
peared on either side, till the prisoner, in the cudgel play, gave 
the deceased a smart blow on the temple. The deceased there- 
upon grew angry, and, throwing away his cudgel, closed in 
with the prisoner, and they fought a short space in good 
earnest; but, the company interposing, they were soon parted. 
The prisoner then quitted the room in anger, and when he got 
into the street was heard to say, “ Damnation seize me if I do 
not fetch something and stick him and, being reproved for 
using such expressions, he answered, “ I’ll be damned to all 
eternity if I do not fetch something and run him through the 
body.” The deceased and the rest of the company continued 
(*) See Wharton on Horn. 39. (j) Wh. C. L. § 944. 
(A) Ibid.; Russell on Crimes 515. 
986 BOOK VIII.] 
MURDER. 
[§ 1099 
in the room where the affray happened ; and in about half an 
hour the prisoner returned, having put off a thin, slight coat 
he had on when he quitted the room, and put on one of coarse, 
thick cloth. The door of the room being open into the street, 
the prisoner stood leaning against the door-post, his left hand 
in his bosom, and a cudgel in his right, looking in upon the 
company, but not speaking a word. The deceased, seeing him 
in that posture, invited him in to the company; hut the 
prisoner answered, “I will not come in.” “Why will you 
not ?” said the deceased. The prisoner replied, “ Perhaps you 
will fall on me and beat me.” The deceased, assured him he 
would not; and added, “ Besides, you think yourself as good 
a man as me at cudgel; perhaps you will play at cudgels with 
me.” “ I am not afraid to do so, if you will keep off' your 
lists.” Upon these words the deceased got up and went 
towards the prisoner, who dropped the cudgel as the deceased 
was coming up to him. The deceased took the cudgel, and 
wTith it gave the prisoner two blows on the shoulder. The 
prisoner immediately put his right hand in his bosom, and 
drew out the blade of a tuck sword, crying, “ Damn you, stand 
off', or I’ll stab you ;” and immediately, without giving the 
deceased time to step back, made a pass at him with the sword, 
but missed him. The deceased thereupon gave back a little, 
and the prisoner, shortening the sword in his hand, leaped 
forward towards the deceased, and stabbed him to the heart, 
and he instantly died. The judges unanimously agreed that 
there were in this case so many circumstances of deliberate 
malice and deep revenge on the defendant’s part, that his 
offence could not be less than wilful murder. He owned that 
he would fetch something and stick him—to run him through 
the body. Whom did he mean by him ? Every circumstance 
in the case showed that he meant his brother. Tie returned 
to the company, provided, to appearance, with an ordinary 
cudgel, as if he intended to try skill and manhood a second 
time with that weapon; but the deadly weapon was all the 
while carefully concealed under his coat, which, most probably, 
he had changed for the purpose of concealing the weapon. He 
stood at the door, refusing to come nearer, but artfully drew 
on the discourse of the past quarrel; and, as soon as he saw his 
987 § 1099] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[BOOK VIII. 
brother disposed to engage a second time at cudgels, he drop- 
ped his cudgel, and betook him to the deadly weapon, which, 
till that moment, he had concealed. He did, indeed, bid his 
brother to stand off, but he gave him no opportunity of doing 
so before the first pass was made. Ilis brother retreated before 
the second ; but he advanced as fast, and took the revenge he 
had vowed. The circumstance of the blows before the sword 
was produced, which probably occasioned the death, did not 
alter the case, nor did the preceding quarrel, because, all cir- 
cumstances considered, he appeared to have returned with 
a deliberate resolution to take a deadly revenge for what had 
passed.(f) 
Malice can never or rarely be directly proved, and, the evi- 
dence of it therefore being circumstantial, any facts which go 
to afford an inference of its existence are admissible. But it 
would seem that the malice proved must be directed to the 
particular act for which the prisoner is tried, as otherwise the 
issue might become much encumbered. Thus it was held in 
Tennessee that, on a trial of an indictment for murder, evidence 
that the prisoner, a short time before the murder, had set fire 
to the house of the deceased in the night-time, was inadmissible 
for the purpose of proving that the prisoner had committed 
the murder; where, hmvever, there is established a settled 
purpose of revenge on the part of the prisoner, such evidence 
would seem to be admissible if it appeared to indicate a 
manifestation of such spirit. Evidence that the prisoner had 
beaten his wife, and forced her to abandon the house and seek 
refuge under the protection of the deceased, has been held 
proper proof of malice prepense on the part of the prisoner. 
Malice of this kind, it is well stated by Mr. Greenleaf, may 
be shown from the circumstances attending the act—such as 
the deliberate selection and use of a lethal weapon, knowing it 
to be such ; a preconcerted hostile meeting, whether in a reg- 
ular duel with seconds, or in a street fight mutually agreed 
upon, or notified or threatened by the prisoner; privily lying 
in wait; a previous quarrel or grudge ; the preparation of 
poison, or other means of doing great bodily harm or the 
(?) Wharton on Homicide, p. 40, 
988 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1100 
MURDER. 
like.(w) The giving to another poison, sufficient to produce 
death, knowing it to have this effect, is from the same reason- 
ing proof of malice.(n) 
(b) Intent to do Bodily Harm. 
§ 1100. At common law the intent to do bodily harm, fol- 
lowed up by homicide, constitutes murder; though such an 
offence falls in this country, in those States where the distinc- 
tion exists, under the head of murder in the second degree. 
Homicides of this kind are numerous, and it is easy to suppose 
of homicide in a duel that may be so ranked, e.g. where the 
intention is to maim, and not to kill. The distinction in a 
case of this kind is undoubtedly very delicate; and, where a 
positive line must be drawn, it would perhaps be wiser to 
say, that, when the damage intended was such as would prob- 
ably result in death, it is murder in the first degree, even 
though death may have been but incidental to the offender’s 
purpose. Although A. intends only to beat B. in anger, from 
preconceived malice, and happens to kill him, it will be no 
excuse that he did not intend all the mischief that followed ; 
for what he did was malum in se, and he must be answerable 
for its consequences. He beat B. with an intention of doing 
him some bodily harm, and is therefore answerable for all the 
harm he did. So if a large stone be thrown at one with a 
deliberate intent to hurt, though not to kill him, and by acci- 
dent it kill him, or any other, it is murder. But the nature 
of the instrument, and the manner of using'it as calculated to 
produce great bodily harm or not, will vary the offence in all 
such cases. In a more recent case it appeared that the de- 
ceased, being in liquor, had gone at night into a glass-house, 
and laid himself down upon a chest, and that while he was 
there asleep the prisoners covered and surrounded him with 
straw, and threw a shovel of hot cinders upon his belly, the 
consequence of which was that the straw ignited, and he was 
burnt to death. There was no evidence of express malice, but 
the conduct of the prisoners indicated an entire recklessness of 
(w) Wharton on Homicide,- p. 41. 
(n) State v. Leak, Phillips L. (N. C.) 450. 
989 § 1101] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
consequences, hardly consistent with anything short of design. 
Patteson, J., adverted to the fact of there being no evidence 
of express malice, but told the jury, that, if they believed the 
prisoners really intended to do any serious injury to the de- 
ceased, although not to kill him, it was murder; but, if they 
believed their intention to have been only to frighten him in 
sport, it was manslaughter.(o) 
§ 1101. (2) In reference to a third party when the blow falls on 
the deceased by mistake.—Where an injury, intended for one 
person, mortally affects another, as where a blow aimed at one 
person alights upon another, and kills him, the inquiry will 
be whether, if the blow had killed the person against whom 
it was aimed, the offence would have been murder or man- 
slaughter. For, if a blow intended against A. and lighting 
upon B. arose from a sudden transport of passion, which in 
case A. had died by it would have reduced the offence to man- 
slaughter, the fact will admit of the same alleviation if it shall 
have caused the death of B.(p) And, on the same principle, 
A., having malice against B., strikes at and misses him, but 
kills C.; this is murder in A.: and, if it had been without 
malice under such circumstances that, if B. had died, it would 
have been manslaughter, the killing of C. also would have been 
but Again, A., having malice against B., 
assaults him and kills C., the servant of B., who had come in 
aid of his master; this is murder in A.; for C. was justified in 
attacking A. in defence of his master who was thus assaulted. 
So, where A. gave a poisoned apple tp B., intending to poison 
her, and B., ignorant of it, gave it to a child, who took it and 
died, this was held murder in A. but no offence in B.; and 
this, though A., who was present at the time, endeavored to 
dissuade B. from giving it to the child.(r) So where Plummer 
and seven others opposed the king’s officers in the act of seiz- 
ing wool. One of those persons shot off a fusee and killed one 
(o) See Wharton on Homicide, p. 42. (p) Fost. 262. 
(g) 1 Hale, 379, 439, 466; Dyer, 128; Bd. Ill, 112, 117; Pult de Pace, 
1246; Foot, 261; 1 Hawk. C. 31, 542 ; State v. Cooper, 1 Green, N. J. R. ; 
State v. Benton, 2 Dev. and Bat. 196 ; and other cases cited Wh. C. L. §965. 
(r) 1 Hale, 230 ; 2 Plowden’s Com. 474 ; State v. Fulkerson, 1 Phillips, L. 
(N. C.) 233. 
990 BOOK VIII.] 
MURDER. 
[§ 1101 
of his own party. The court held, in giving judgment upon a 
special verdict, that, as the prisoner was upon an unlawful 
design, if he had in pursuance thereof discharged the fusee 
against any of the king’s officers that came to resist him in 
the prosecution of that design, and by accident had killed one 
of his own accomplices, it would have been murder in him. 
As if a man, out of malice to A., shoot at him, but miss him 
and kill B., it is no less a murder than if he had killed the 
person intended. And, again, where the prisoner had fired a 
loaded pistol at a person on horseback, and declared that he 
did so only with the intention to cause the horse to throw him, 
and the ball hit another person and killed him, it was held 
that the crime was murder. If a man have a sudden quarrel 
and fight with A., by which his passions are strongly excited, 
and, while his passions are thus excited, he, without any real 
or supposed provocation, kill B., who is an utter stranger to 
the whole affair, and has not interfered in the quarrel nor been 
in any way connected therewith, even in the party’s own sup- 
positions, it will be murder. So, where the prisoner, having 
had a quarrel with his wife, aimed a blow at her with an axe, 
which fell on the head of his infant son then in her arms, by 
which it was instantly killed, it being shown that the pri- 
soner was ignorant of his child’s position, and was at the time 
in the heat of blood, seeking to avenge himself on his wife for 
a supposed injury, it was held, that, as the case was to be con- 
sidered as if the wife had been the victim, the same grade of 
homicide would attach to the killing of the child as it would 
have done to that of the wife, had she been killed. But in 
this, as in cases of malice prepense and express, if the blow in- 
tended for one would in law have amounted to manslaughter, 
it will still be the same, though by mistake or accident it kill 
another. Thus, in an old case, a quarrel arising between some 
soldiers and a number of keelmen at Sandgate, a violent affray 
ensued, and one of the soldiers was very much beaten. The 
prisoner, a soldier who had before driven a part of the mob 
down the street, with his sword in his scabbard, on his return, 
seeing his comrade thus used, drew his sword and bid the 
mob stand clear, saying he would sweep the street; and on 
their pressing on him he struck at them with the flat side, and 
991 § 1101] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
us they fled pursued them. The other soldier in the mean 
time had got away, and when the prisoner returned he asked 
whether they had murdered his comrade ; and, being several 
times again assaulted by the mob, he brandished his sword 
and bid them keep off. At this time, the deceased, who from 
his dress might be mistaken for a keelman, was going along 
about five yards from the prisoner ; but, before he passed, the 
prisoner went up to him and struck him on the head with his 
sword, of which he presently died. This was holden man- 
slaughter: it was not murder, because there was previous pro- 
vocation, and the blood was heated in the contest; nor was 
it self-defence, because there was no inevitable necessity to 
excuse the killing in this manner.(r) 
A widow, finding that one of her sons had not prepared her 
dinner as she had directed him to do, began to scold him, upon 
which he made her some very impertinent answers, which put 
her in a passion, and she took up a small piece of iron used as 
a poker, intending to frighten him, and, seeing she was very 
angry, he ran towards the door of the room, when she threw 
the poker at him, and it happened that the deceased was just 
coming in at the moment, and the iron struck him on the 
head and caused his death. Parkes, J. A. J., said to the jury, 
“No doubt this poor woman had no more intention of injuring 
this particular child than I have, but that makes no difference 
in the law. If a blow be aimed at an individual unlawfully— 
and this was undoubtedly unlawful, as an improper mode of 
correction—and strikes another and kills him, it is man- 
slaughter ; and there is no doubt, if the child at whom the 
blow was aimed had been struck and died, it would have been 
manslaughter; and so it is under the present circumstances. ”(s) 
Under this head may be classed the cases where medicine is 
administered or an operation performed with an intent to pro- 
duce an abortion, and where the mother dies Under the process. 
At common law this has been held to be If there 
is mixed up in the offence an intent to do bodily harm to the 
(r ) Wharton on Horn. 43. 
(s) II. v. Couner, 1 C. & P. 438. 
(t) 1 Hale 90 ; Com. v. Ckauncy, 2 Askmead 227 ; Smith v. State, 3 Red- 
ding 48 ; State v. Moore, 25 Iowa 728. 
992 BOOK VIII.] 
MURDER. 
[§ 1102 
mother, the same result follows.(w) In a case in Maine it has 
been said, that, as the general principle of law is that homicide 
with an intent to commit a misdemeanor is but manslaughter, 
so in this case, if the destruction of the foetus be but a mis- 
demeanor, the offence is only manslaughter, (v) This, how- 
ever, is not the received doctrine,(w) by which the offence is 
treated as murder, the destruction of an infant en ventre sa 
mere being, even at common law, in some aspects felonious, 
and the act in its nature malicious and deliberate, and neces- 
sarily attended with great danger to the person on whom it is 
practised. 
§ 1102. 3d. From collateral malice.—Malice may be said to 
be collateral when it is directed to an object other than that 
of human life or limb; as, for instance, when the object is to 
commit a felony or a misdemeanor, in the pursuit of which 
human life is incidentally taken. At common law, when a 
party in the attempt to perpetrate a felony takes life, he is 
guilty of murder, though the taking of life was the result of 
mere accident—e. g., where he shoots a tame fowl with the in- 
tention of killing it, and the ball aimed at the fowl strikes a 
child and kills it. By statutes which obtain in most of the 
States this principle, so far as concerns the higher grade of 
felonies, has been definitely established, it having been enacted 
that all murders committed in the perpetration of, or the 
attempt to perpetrate, any burglary, rape, robbery, or arson, 
shall be murder in the first degree. Where, at common law 
as well as under these statutes, the unlawful act to which 
death is incidental is a mere misdemeanor, the homicide is 
but manslaughter. Thus, if the attempt is to poach on another 
man’s premises for the purpose of shooting wild game, and a 
stranger is accidentally killed, this is hut manslaughter ; and 
so if death ensue in the prosecution of an unlawful game. 
(w) Ibid. (») Smith v. State, 3 Redding 48. 
(w) Wh. C. L. § 965 ; 1 Hale 90; Com. v. Chauncy, 1 Ashmead 237. 
YOL. II.—63 
993 § 1104] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOxMICIDE. 
II. Manslaughter 
§ 1103. Is the unlawful and felonious killing of another, 
without any malice either express or implied.{pc) Manslaughter 
differs from murder in this, that, though the act which occa- 
sions the death he unlawful, or likely to be attended with 
bodily mischief, yet the malice either express or implied, which 
is the very essence of murder, is presumed to be wanting, the 
act being imputed to the infirmity of human nature; and the 
punishment is proportionately lenient.(y) It is no defence to 
an indictment for manslaughter that the homicide therein 
alleged appears by the evidence to have been committed with 
malice aforethought, and was therefore murder ; but the de- 
fendant in such a case may notwithstanding be properly con- 
victed of the offence of manslaughter.^) 
Manslaughter at common law is of two kinds: 1st. Vol- 
untary manslaughter, which is the unlawful killing of another 
without malice, on sudden quarrel or in heat of passion. 
Where, upon sudden quarrel, two persons fight, and one of 
them kills the other, this is voluntary manslaughter, and so if 
they, upon such occasion, go out to fight in a field ; for this is 
one continued act of passion. So, also, if a man be greatly 
provoked by any gross indignity, and immediately kills his 
aggressor, it is voluntary manslaughter, and not excusable 
homicide, not being se defendendo; neither is it murder, for 
there is no previous malice. In these and such like cases, the 
law, kindly appreciating the infirmities of human nature, ex- 
tenuates the offence committed, and mercifully hesitates to 
put on the same footing of guilt, the cool deliberate act and 
the result of hasty passion. 
§ 1104. 2d. Involuntary manslaughter, where a man doing 
(*) Wli. C. L. § 931; 1 Hale 499 ; 1 Hawk. c. 30, s. 3; Parker, J. Self- 
ridge’s Trial 158 ; State v. Norris, 1 Hay. 429. 
(y) Wh. C. L. §§ 931-2; King v. Com., 2 Ma. Cas. 78 ; Com. v. Bob, 4 
Dali. 125 ; State v. Lorkey, 2 Kell. 8 C. Dig. 104; Penn v. Levin, Addison 
279 ; State v. Travers, 2 Wheel. C. C. 506 ; Com. v. Mitchell, 1 Ya. Cas. 716 ; 
Parker, J., Selfridge’s Trial 158 ; 1 Hale 449, 450, 466 ; 3 Inst. 55 ; 1 Hawk, 
c. 30, s. 2, vide R. v. Mawgridge, Kel. 124; Fost. 290, vide Lord Cornwallis’ 
case, Dom. Proc. 1678; 2 St. Tr. 730. 
(z) Com. v. McPike, 3 Cush. 18. 
994 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1105 
EXCUSABLE HOMICIDE. 
an unlawful act, not amounting to felony, by accident kills 
another. It differs from homicide excusable by misadventure, 
in this: that misadventure always happens in the prosecution 
of a lawful act, but this species of manslaughter in the 
prosecution of an unlawful one. Where a person does an act 
lawful in itself, but in an unlawful manner, this excepts the 
killing from homicide excusable per infortunium and makes it 
involuntary manslaughter. In general where an involuntary 
killing happens in consequence of an unlawful act, it will be 
either murder, or manslaughter, according to the nature of the 
act which occasioned it: if it be in prosecution of a felonious 
intent, or in its consequences naturally tended to bloodshed, it 
will be murder; but if no more was intended than a mere 
civil trespass, it is manslaughter.(a) 
§ 1105. III. Excusable homicide is of two kinds: 1st. 
Where a man doing a lawful act, without any intention to 
hurt, by accident kills another; as, for instance, wdiere a man 
is hunting in a park, and unintentionally kills a person con- 
cealed. This is called homicide per infortunium, or by misad- 
venture. 2d. Se d.efendendo, or in self-defence, which exists (to 
adopt the definition of Mr. Greenleaf)(6) where one is assaulted 
upon a sudden affray, and in the defence of his person, where 
certain and immediate suffering would be the consequence of 
waiting for the assistance of the law, and where in such case, 
there being no other means of escape, he kills the assailant. 
To reduce homicide in self-defence to this degree, it must be 
shown that the slayer was closely pressed by the other party, 
and retreated as far as he conveniently or safely could, in good 
faith, with the honest intent to avoid the violence of the as- 
sault. The jury, as will be presently seen more fully, must be 
satisfied that, unless he had killed the assailant, he was in 
imminent and manifest danger of either losing his own life, 
or of suffering enormous bodily harm.(c) Ey the older text- 
(a) 4 Bl. Com. 191. (5) 3 Greenleaf Ev. § 116. 
(c) Bl. Com. 182; 1 Buss, on Crimes 666, 661; Wbart. Am. Crim. Law, 
§ 1019, etc. Qui cum, aliter tueri se non possunt, damni culpam diderint, 
innoxii sunt. Yim enim yi defendere omnes leges omniaque jura, permittant. 
—Dig. lib. 9, tit. 2, 1. 45, § 4. Is, qui aggressorem vel quemcunque alterum 
995 § 1106] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
writers, this species of homicide is sometimes called chance 
medley, or chaud medly, words of nearly the same import; and 
closely borders upon manslaughter. In this case, as well as 
that of manslaughter, the theory is, that passion has kindled 
on each side, and that blows have passed. The distinction, 
however, is, that in manslaughter it must appear, either that 
the parties were actually in mutual combat when the mortal 
stroke was given, or that the slayer was not at that time in 
imminent danger of death ; but that in homicide excusable in 
self-defence it must appear, either that the slayer had not 
begun the fight, or that, having begun, he endeavored to de- 
cline any further struggle, and afterward, being closely pressed 
by his antagonist, he killed him to avoid his own destruc- 
The same right of self-defence is extended to the re- 
lations of master and servant, parent and child, and husband 
and wife; and to those cases where homicide is unavoidably 
committed in the defence of the possession of one’s dwelling- 
house, against a trespasser, who, having entered, cannot be 
put out otherwise than by force; and where no force is used, 
and where no instrument or mode is employed other than is 
necessary and proper for that purpose. Under the same gene- 
ral head of excusable homicide may also be enumerated that 
class of cases, where two persons are reduced to the alterna- 
tive, that one or the other or both must certainly perish, as, 
where two shipwrecked persons are on one plank which will 
not hold them both, and one thrust the other from it, so that 
he is drowned, the survivor is excused. 
§ 1106. The distinction, in result, between justifiable and 
excusable homicide is now practically exploded. In former 
times, in the latter case, as the law presumed that the slayer 
was not wholly free from blame, he was punished, at least by 
forfeiture of goods. But in this country, this rule is not 
known ever to have been recognized; it having been the uni- 
form practice here, as it now is in England, where the grade 
in dubio vitae discrimine constitutus occiderit, nullam ob id factum calumniam 
meruere debet.—Cod. lib. 9, tit. 16, 1. 2. 
(d) 4 Bl. Com. 184 ; 1 Russ, on Crimes 661 ; State v. Hill, 4 Dev. & Batt. 
491. 
996 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1107 
JUSTIFIABLE homicide. 
does not reach manslaughter, for the jury, under the direction 
of the court, to acquit. 
§ 1107. IV. Justifiable homicide(e) is that which is com- 
mitted either, 1st. By unavoidable necessity, without any 
will, intention, or desire, or any inadvertence or negligence in 
the party killing, and, therefore, without blame; such as, by 
an officer, executing a criminal pursuant to the death-warrant, 
and in strict conformity to the law in every particular; or, 
2dly. For the advancement of public justice; as, where an 
officer, in due execution of his office, kills a person who assaults 
and resists him; or where a private person or officer attempts 
to arrest a man charged with felony and is resisted, and in 
the endeavor to take him kills him; or if a felon flee from 
justice, and in the pursuit he be killed, where he cannot other- 
wise be taken; or, if there be a riot, or a rebellious assembly, 
and the officers or their assistants, in dispersing the mob, kill 
some of them, where the riot cannot be otherwise suppressed ; 
or if prisoners in jail, or going to jail, assault or resist the 
officers, or their aids, and they, in repelling force by force, kill 
the party resisting; or, 3dly. For the prevention of any atro- 
cious crime, attempted to be committed by force; such as 
murder, robbery, house-breaking in the night time, rape, may- 
hem, or any other act of felony against the person.(/) But 
in such cases, the attempt must not be merely suspected, but 
apparent, and the danger must be imminent, and the opposing 
force or resistance necessary to avert the danger or to defeat the 
attempt, (y) 
(e) United States v. Wiltberger, 8 Washburn 515. And see State v. Ruther- 
ford, 1 Hawks. 457; State ». Roane, 2 Dev. 58. 
(/) 4 Bl. Com. 182 ; 1 Russ, on Crimes 657-660. Wh. C. L. § 1030. 
Cg) The above definition is taken from Mr. Greenleaf (3 Greenl. on Evid. 
315), who refers to 4 Bl. Com. 178-180 ; 1 Russ, on Crimes 660 ; Whart. Am. 
Crim. Law, § 1026, etc. The Roman law recognizes the same principles. 
Qui latronem (insidiatorem) occederit, non tenetur, utique si aliter periculum 
effugere non protest.—Inst. lib. 4, tit. 3, § 2. Furem nocturnum, si quis 
occiderit, ita demum impune feret, si parcere ei sine periculo suo non potuit. 
—Dig. lib. 48, tit 8, 1. 9. Qui stuprum sibi vel suis per vim inferentem occi- 
dit, dimmittendum.—Dig. lib. 48, tit 8, 1. 1, § 4. Si quis percussorem ad se 
venientem gladio repulerit, non ut homicida tenetur ; quia defensor proprise- 
salutis in nullo pecasse videtur.—Cod. lib. 9, tit 16, 1. 3. In the cases men- 
tioned in the text, if the homicide is committed with undue precipitancy, or 
997 § 1109] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
V. Murder in the Second Degree. 
§ 1108. As already observed, statutes exist in most of the 
United States, dividing murder as it stood at common law 
into two degrees, to the first of which is attached the penalty 
of death, and to the second imprisonment. The origin of this 
distinction was the reluctance felt to attach death to any other 
offences than those in which death was intended. The Lex 
Talionis, as well as the necessities of human society, would 
require, it was thought, a continuance of capital punishment 
in cases of deliberate homicide; but it seemed hard, as well 
as unnecessary, to take the life of the offender where the 
offence for which he was tried was one which he had never 
premeditated. To obviate these difficulties the statutes were 
passed, which, while they differ among themselves in phraseo- 
logy, unite in the general principle that where murder is in- 
tentional, or where it is committed in the perpetration or the 
attempt to perpetrate any burglary, arson, rape, or robbery, 
or where it is by poison, it is murder in the first degree; when 
not falling under either of these heads, murder in the second 
degree. 
§ 1109. By judicial interpretation the following proposi- 
tions may be considered as established:— 
1st. A specific intent to take life is the distinguishing test by 
which murder in the first degree, under the Pennsylvania and 
cognate codes, may be determined. Where it exists the 
capital offence is consummated. Where it is wanting, no 
matter how long may have been the premeditation, how de- 
cided the wilfulness, or how pointed the malice, it is but 
murder in the second degree. Thus, if a man designedly beat 
another to a jelly, from which death results, this is but murder 
in the second degree, if it appear that the intent was merely 
to inflict bodily harm. And so if in a riot, in the wildness 
of collision, firearms are discharged with intent merely to 
maim an antagonist, or to do some public wrong, and life is 
taken, it is but murder in the second degree.(A) 
tlie unjustifiable use of a deadly weapon, the slayer will be culpable.—See 
Alison’s Crim. Law of Scotland, p. 100 ; Id. 132-139. 
(A) Wharton on Horn. 386 ; Wh. C. L. § 1084. 
998 BOOK VIII.] 
MURDER IN THE SECOND DEGREE. 
[§ 1113 
Deliberation is the requisite under the statute of New York 
and statutes similarly constructed. Under these statutes, some 
degree of deliberation must be proved or inferred. 
§ 1110. 2d. Homicide by poison is not necessarily murder 
in the first degree. The statutes, it should be recollected, use 
the term, all “murder” (not all “homicide”), by poison, etc., is 
murder in the first degree. Hence, if the poisoning would 
have been manslaughter or misadventure at common law, it 
will not be raised to murder in the first degree by the mere 
force of the statute. Thus, if poison be laid for the purpose 
of unlawfully killing game, or for the purpose of effecting 
any other misdemeanor, or if a poisonous drug be negligently 
administered by a quack, and death result, this would be man- 
slaughter at common law; and, not being “murder,” is not 
affected by the statute, which applies to “murder” alone.(f) 
Hence, a verdict of murder in the second degree will not be 
disturbed, even though it appear that the case was one of de- 
liberate poisoning.(J) 
§ 1111. 3d. When the murder is collateral to any arson, 
rape, robbery, or burglary—and in Tennessee, larceny—it is 
necessarily murder in the first degree. 
§ 1112. 4th. When in the pursuit of the life of A., B. is 
unintentionally killed, the general opinion is, this is murder 
in the second degree, though as to this there has been some 
doubt.(A') 
§ 1113. 5th. The specific intent to take life, which is the 
distinguishing feature of murder in the first degree, may be 
inferred from the same circumstances from which design in 
other cases is presumed. If one man shoot another through 
the head with a musket or pistol ball—if he stab him in a 
vital part with a sword or dagger—if he cleave his skull with 
an axe or the like—it is almost impossible for a reflecting and 
intelligent mind to come to any other conclusion than that 
the perpetrator of any such acts of deadly violence intended 
to kill. Where the defendant deliberately procured a butcher’s 
knife, and sharpened it for the avowed purpose of killing the 
(i) Wharton on Homicide, 359. (j) Ibid., 359, 360. 
(*) Ibid., 362, 463. 
999 § 1114] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
deceased; where he concealed a dirk in his breast, stating 
shortly before the attack that he knew where the seat of life 
was; where he thrust a handspike deeply into the forehead of 
the deceased; the presumption was held to exist that the 
killing was wilful. But it is not necessary, to warrant a con- 
viction of murder in the first degree, that the instrument 
should be such as would necessarily produce death. Thus, 
where the weapon of death was a club, not so thick as an axe- 
handle, the jury, under the charge of the court, rendered a 
verdict of murder in the first degree, it appearing that the 
blow was induced by a deliberate intention to take life. The 
same presumption of intention is drawn with still greater 
strength from the declared purpose of the defendant, which is 
always admissible in evidence for such a purpose. Thus, 
where the prisoner, a negro, said he intended “to lay for the 
deceased, if he froze, the next Saturday night,” and where 
the homicide took place that night; where it was said: “I 
am determined to kill the man who injured me;” where the 
prisoner declared, the day before the murder, that he would 
certainly shoot the deceased; where, in another case, the lan- 
guage was: “I will split down any fellow that is saucy;” 
where the prisoner rushed rapidly to the deceased, and aimed 
at a vital part; where a grave had been prepared a short time 
before the homicide, though the deceased was not ultimately 
placed in it, the whole plan of action being changed; in each 
of these cases it was held murder in the first degree.(7) 
§ 1114. I. That a death took place. 
“ I would never,” said Lord Hale, “ convict any person of 
murder or manslaughter unless the fact were proved to he 
done, or at least the body found dead.”(?t) The civilians are 
no less emphatic. “Diligenter cavendum est judici, ne suppli- 
cium prtecipitet, antequam de crimine consteterit.”(o) “De 
B. CORPUS DELICTI, (w) 
0) See Wh. C. L. § 1084. 
(m) See as to identification of Dead Body, ante, § 287, etc. 
(n) 2 Hale, P. C. 290, and see Tyner v. State, 5 Humph. 383. 
(o) Matth. de Crim. in Dig. lib. 48, tit. 16, ch. 1. 
1000 BOOK VIII.] 
PRODUCTION OF BODY OF DECEASED. 
r§ ms 
corpore interfecti necesse est ut constet.”(p) Numerous cases 
attest the necessity of this checkup1) Thus we are told of a 
Frenchman who was convicted on his own confession of the 
murder of a widow, who two years afterwards returned to 
her home, and had never received any injury whatever. And 
as Bunyan tells us: “Since you are entered upon stories, I also 
will tell you one, the which, though I heard not with my own 
ears, yet my author I dare believe. It is concerning one old 
Tod that wras hanged about twenty years ago, or more, at 
Hartford, for being a thief. The story is this: At a summer 
Assize, holden at Hartford, while the judge was sitting upon 
the bench, comes this old Tod into the court, clothed in a 
green suit, with his leathern girdle in his hand, his bosom 
open, and all in a dung sweat, as if he had run for his life ; 
and being come in he spake aloud as follows: My Lord, said 
he, here is the very est rogue that breathes upon the face of the earth; 
I have been a thief from a child; when I was but a little one, 1 
gave myself to rob orchards, and to do other such like vncked things, 
and I have continued a thief ever since. My Lord, there has not 
been a robbery committed this many years, within so many miles of 
this place, but I have either been at it or privy to it. The judge 
thought the fellow was mad; but, after some conference with 
some of the justices, they agreed to indict him, and so they 
did, of several felonious actions; to all of which he heartily 
confessed guilty, and so was hanged with his wife at the same 
time.” And yet, in this case, the guilt, if not imaginary in 
fact, was so in law, so far as concerned all the purposes of the 
trial, (q) 
§ 1115. A case occurred at Ratisbon, in 1849,(r) of which 
the following is a brief abstract: A girl 20 years of age was 
arrested on the supposition that she had committed infanticide. 
Being brought before the examining magistrate, a few days 
after the alleged commission of the crime, she made the fol- 
lowing statement: “I was a domestic in the house of the 
(p) Matth. Probat., ch. 1, n. 4, p. 9. 
(p1) See yoI. i., § 200 6, §§ 782-799. 
(?) See for other cases, Wh. C. L. § 683. 
(r) Henke’s Zeitschrift, E. H. 41. 
1001 § 1115] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
brewer L., but was dismissed from bis service on account of 
being far gone in pregnancy, and near my confinement. After 
returning to my borne in the country, I came back to the 
town to get my clothes. But on the way, as I came near the 
bridge, I felt severe pains, and soon became sure that labor 
had commenced. My situation was distressing; I was entirely 
alone and helpless. Meanwhile it became dark, the pains be- 
came more and more severe, and about midnight I was deliver- 
ed of a boy. The child was living when it came into the 
world, for it cried, and when I put my finger in its mouth it 
sucked; in truth, at first, I had great joy over the child; soon, 
however, I could not bear to look at it; the fear of shame and 
exposure, and the thought that perhaps I would never be able 
again to obtain a situation, got the better of me; I ran with- 
out further hesitation to the bridge, with the child in my 
arms, and threw it over into the deepest part of the river, 
where it soon disappeared.” She afterwards gave still more 
minute details, relative to her pregnancy and the birth of the 
child, all of which were perfectly consistent and natural. 
Upon the physical examination (which is directed by the Ba- 
varian penal code), it was discovered that she had not been 
pregnant. She was taken to the hospital and leeches freely 
applied to her head, under which treatment she soon recovered 
her reason and her usual bodily health. Very probably the 
delusion might have become a fixed one, had this rational 
treatment not been adopted at the proper time.(s) 
(s) See ante, § 18, post, § 1214. I am indebted to Mr. Wm. B. Reed for 
the following note: In the case of Margaret Slireves, tried for infanticide in 
the Oyer and Terminer of Philadelphia, in October, 1855, there -was a strik- 
ing illustration of the rule as to the corpus delicti, and of the necessity of 
accurate observation on the part of the coroner on the inspection of doubtful 
remains. The daughter of the prisoner was delivered of a female illegitimate 
child on 7th June, at 10 A. M. The infant was handed to the grandmother 
(the prisoner) on its birth. It was neither washed nor dressed. At 6 P. M., 
the prisoner was seen in the street at some distance from her home with the 
infant, still undressed, wrapped in a shawl. It was raining heavily. The 
child was blue, and moaned, making a noise as if in a spasm. The prisoner 
said laudanum had been given, which was proved to be false. At a late hour 
the prisoner was again seen -with the child alive but moaning. She tried to 
leave it at the Foster Home, but was refused. The child was never again 
seen alive. Two weeks afterwards, the conduct of the prisoner being in the 
1002 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1116 
PRODUCTION OF BODY OF DECEASED. 
§ 1116. An equally singular case in this country is that of two 
brothers, named. Boorn, who, on being charged with the mur- 
der of another, were convicted and sentenced to death, chiefly 
on their admissions, but were fortunately relieved from execu- 
tion by the reappearance of their alleged victim. To the same 
effect is a case in Illinois, in 1841, where three brothers, named 
Trailor, were arrested on the charge of murdering a man 
named Fisher, who, when last seen, had been in their com- 
pany. Strong circumstantial evidence was produced, showing 
the traces of a death struggle, where the homicide was alleged 
to have been committed; and the case was fortified by expres- 
sions alleged to have been subsequently used by one of the 
brothers as to his having become legatee of the deceased’s pro- 
perty. The examination had scarcely finished before one of 
the three defendants made a confession, detailing circumstan- 
tially the whole transaction, showing the previous combination, 
and ending with a direct statement, under oath, of the homi- 
cide. To the amazement of the whole country, however, the 
deceased made his appearance in just time enough to intercept 
a conviction ; the only way of accounting for the confession 
which had been produced was, that the party who made it, in 
the desperation of impending conviction, took this method of 
cutting short suspense.(0 
mean time very mysterious, and she being detected in many falsehoods, on 
the 14th, the body of a female new-horn infant wTas found in the prisoner’s 
privy, very much decomposed. The identity of the remains was in question. 
The attending physician testified he had at the delivery tied the cord with 
common sewing thread. The string around the cord of the infant found in 
the privy was said to resemble thick twine rather than thread, but there was 
difference of opinion about it. It may have swelled and altered by the action 
of liquid. The production of the string would have determined this, but this 
the coroner failed to preserve. The court (Thompson, P. J.) held it necessary 
to establish—1. The identity of the remains beyond doubt. 2. That the in- 
fant had not died accidentally, possibly by neglect, and was not merely con- 
cealed in the privy. The jury properly acquitted the prisoner. Here no 
element of proof as to the corpus delicti was clear. 
(t) See vol. i. § 793, for an interesting letter of Mr. Lincoln on this case. 
In the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin for July 4, 1860, appeared the fol- 
lowing communication :— 
Messrs. Editors : An article in your issue of the second inst., from the 
Cleveland Plaindealer, entitled, “False Personation at a Critical Moment,” 
1003 § 1117] 
LEOAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
§ 1117. To the general rule, however, two qualifications may 
be recognized. In the first place, when the decease is proved 
attracted my attention. It purports to be a confession of a notorious coun- 
terfeiter, by the name of Boorn, that he killed a man by the name of Cobley, 
forty years ago, in Vermont, and escaped by producing a man from New 
Jersey so much resembling Cobley as to induce the belief that he was the 
very man, and so cleared him from the gallows, and let him and his brother 
go free. 
Perhaps I can cast some light upon this most singular transaction. More 
than forty years since, a deranged man came to my father’s house, near 
Tuckerton, New Jersey, hungry, ragged, and dirty. He was cared for 
during the night. He said that he had been murdered in Vermont, and never 
would return there again. It was winter, and extremely cold. He walked 
across the bay on the ice, and lounged about the neighborhood for weeks ; 
said his name was Russell Colvin, and his people lived in Vermont. He 
travelled up shore a few miles above Toms River, to the house of a Mr. Pol- 
hamus. The family so pitied him as to give him a home with them during 
the balance of his life. I have been there several times, and always have 
seen him attending to pigs and poultry about the farm. A number of years 
after he came there—say some fifteen years or less, I can’t recollect—two 
men were tried, I think it was in Burlington, Vermont, for the murder of 
this same man. One was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and 
sentenced to be hanged ; the other was sentenced to imprisonment for life. 
A lawyer, connected with the trial, deemed the case a most singular one, 
and inserted a notice in the paper inquiring if any one knew the said Russell 
Colvin, giving withal a description of the man. This caught the eye of a 
brother of Mr. Polhamus, at whose house the man Colvin was living. He 
forthwith wrote to said lawyer, detailing the above facts. Polhamus and the 
lawyer were soon on the way to New Jersey to see the murdered man. 
They found him there, and Colvin knew the lawyer, and called him by name 
at first sight. After some persuasion, his reluctance to go to Vermont was 
overcome, and all three started north. When they arrived in Burlington, 
the court-house was soon filled with an excited community, all anxious to see 
the dead man. Officers were soon collected, the prisoners were brought in, 
and they, as well as the community, recognized Colvin at once. The prisoners 
were discharged of course. Colvin’s wife and two sons came to see him, and 
used every endeavor to induce him to go home and remain with them All 
entreaty proved useless and vain ; return to New Jersey he would and did, 
and lived many years after at the house of Mr. Polhamus. 
A pamphlet was published of the trial and all the facts therein stated, which 
I was reading one evening at the house of Mr. Polhamus, and in the presence 
of Mr. Colvin. He muttered all the time I was reading, until I had to lay it 
aside, as he was getting angry at the sight of it. Mrs. Polhamus said the 
sight of the book always enraged him. 
A Newspaper Account of the Affair.—Mr. Barna Boorn, ancf liis aged 
partner, were respectable inhabitants of Manchester, in the State of Ver- 
1004 BOOK VIII.] 
PRODUCTION OF BODY OF DECEASED. 
[§ 1117 
by eye-witnesses, inspection of the body is unnecessary. Thus, 
in a case in England, the prisoner, a seaman on board of the 
mont. They were the parents of a son and two daughters, besides the 
unhappy Stephen and Jesse, who figure in the story we are about to 
narrate. 
Sally, one of the daughters, became the mother of several children, all of 
whom were dispersed among their relatives, owing to the mental derange- 
ment of their father, which rendered him incapable of attending to his family 
concerns, and of providing for them a necessary support. 
Mr. Colvin was in the habit of frequently absenting himself, without giving 
any previous information, and rambling in various parts of the country. At 
one time he was absent as long as nine or ten months, after which he was 
found in the State of Rhode Island. 
About eleven years after his marriage to Miss Boom, he was again missing; 
which at the time caused little or no alarm, as it was expected that he would 
return as on former occasions. But after a lapse of several years, nothing 
having been heard of him, surmises were circulated that he had been mur- 
dered ; and suspicion rested upon his brothers-in-law, Stephen and Jesse 
Boorn, as his murderers. This suspicion was created by a reference to the 
frequent altercations that had taken place between Colvin and the Booms 
previous to the disappearance of the former, and to some unguarded expres- 
sion of the latter afterwards intimating that Colvin was dead, and by their 
occasionally showing some signs of compunction. 
A Mr. Boorn, uncle to Stephen and Jesse, a gentleman of respectability 
and unimpeachable character, dreamed that Russell Colvin came to his bed- 
side and told him that he had been murdered, and he must follow him and he 
would lead him to the spot where he was buried. This was repeated three 
times. The deposit was a place talked of previous to the dream, which 
was where a house had formerly stood, and under it was a hole about four 
feet square, which was made for the purpose of burying potatoes, and then 
filled up. This pit was opened, and nothing discovered but a large knife, a 
penknife, and a button. Mrs Colvin, anterior to their being presented to 
her, described them accurately, and, on seeing them, said they belonged to 
her husband, excepting the small knife. 
A lad walking from Mr. Barna Boom’s, a small distance, with his dog, a 
hollow stump standing near the path engaged the notice of the spaniel, 
which ran to the place and back again several times, lifting up his feet on the 
boy, with whining notes, as though to draw the attention of his little master 
to the place, wThich had the effect. A cluster of bones wex*e drawn from the 
roots of the stump by the dog’s paws. Further examination was made, and 
in the cavity of the stump were found two toe-nails, to appearance belonging 
to a human foot; others were discovered in a crumbled state, which to ap- 
pearance had passed through the fire. It was now concluded by many that 
some fragments of the body of Russell Colvin were found. The cluster of 
bones was brought before the Court of Inquiry. They were examined by a 
number of physicians, who thought them ro be human ; one of the profession, 
1005 1006 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
ship Eolus, was charged with the murder of his captain. 
The first count of the indictment alleged the murder to 
however, thought otherwise. A Mr. Salisbury, about forty years previous, 
had his leg amputated, which was buried at the distance of four or five miles. 
The limb was dug up, and, by comparing, it was universally determined that 
the bones were not human. However, it was clear that the nails were human, 
and so appeared to all beholders. The bones were in a degree pulverized, 
but some pieces were in a tolerable state of preservation. Suspicions were 
excited that the body was burnt, and some part not consumed cast into the 
stump, and other bones put among them for deception. Some time after the 
departure of Colvin, a barn belonging to Mr. Barna Boorn was consumed by 
fire, accidentally ; it was conjectured that the body was taken up and con- 
cealed under the barn, and mostly consumed. About that time a log heap 
was burnt by the Booms, near the place where the body was supposed to be 
deposited ; it was thought by some that it was consumed there. 
The subject occupied the attention of almost every mind in the neighbor- 
hood. 
Previous to the general excitement, Stephen Boorn, with his family, moved 
to Denmark, County of Lewis, in the State of New York, about two hundred 
miles from the place of his nativity, where they were comfortably settled ; 
while Jesse remained in Manchester, where he was arrested and frequently 
brought before a Court of Inquiry. He at first boldly asserted his innocence; 
but after several days’ confinement, and after every art made use of to induce 
him to criminate himself and his brother, and being told that a confession 
would probably be the means of obtaining his liberty, as strange and 
unaccountable as it may appear, he did confess that his brother Stephen had 
told him that he (Stephen) had given Colvin a blow, and laid him aside 
where no one could find him. Upon this, the authority issued a warrant to 
apprehend Stephen. Capt. Truman Hill, grand juryman for the town of 
Manchester, Squire Raymond, and Mr. R. Anderson, set out for Denmark, 
and arrived there in three days. They called on Mr. Eleazer Sylvester, inn- 
keeper, who, in the night, together with a Mr. Orange Clark and Mr. Hooper, 
belonging to the town, accompanied them to the house of the supposed cri- 
minal. Mr. Clark went in first, and began some conversation about temporal 
concerns; the others surrounded the house, and he was easily taken. The 
surprise and distress of Mrs. Boorn on this occasion are not easily described ; 
they excited the compassion of those who had come to take away her hus- 
band, and they made her some presents. The prisoner was put in irons and 
brought to Manchester. He peremptorily asserted his innocence, and declared 
that he knew nothing about the murder of hi^brother-in-law. The prisoners 
were kept apart for a time, and assigned to separate cells. Nothing material 
transpired, and they were afterwards confined in one room. 
Stephen denied the evidence brought against him by Jesse, and treated him 
with severity. Both the prisoners were repeatedly admonished to pay the 
strictest regard to truth. Many days were taken up in public examinations 
of the reputed criminals. Circumstantial evidence was brought forward, 
1006 BOOK VIII.] 
PRODUCTION OF BODY OF DECEASED. 
1007 
have been committed by a blow from a large piece of wood, 
and the second by throwing the deceased into the sea. It ap- 
which was much against them, and they were bound over to await their trial 
at the sitting of the Supreme Court, to be held at Manchester on the third 
Tuesday of September, 1819. 
Jesse Boorn, after an interview with his brother, denied that Stephen ever 
told him that he killed Colvin, and that what he reported about him was 
false. For some time they both continued to assert their innocence; but being 
told that they would undoubtedly be convicted upon the testimony already 
against them, and hopes of pardon being held out if they would confess the 
crime, at last Stephen wrote a statement of what he said were facts, in which 
he acknowledged he killed Colvin, deposited him in the place where the knife 
and button were found ; that he took the bones from that place and put them 
under his father’s barn, which was soon after burned, and the body princi- 
pally consumed. 
A person in jail with them for perjury testified to a full confession of the 
murder, made to him by Stephen and Jesse, and it was so artfully framed, so 
corroborated by other facts, that it had great weight with the court and jury, 
though it was wholly false. But he had his ends answered—he got bail by 
this means, and went off. 
During the interval, the prisoners were frequently visited by the Rev. Mr. 
Haynes, in his official capacity, but they did not discover any symptoms of 
compunction, persisting in declaring their innocence, with appeals to Heaven. 
Stephen particularly, at times, appeared absorbed in passion and impatience. 
One day Mr. Haynes introduced the example of Christ under suffering as a 
pattern worthy of imitation. He exclaimed, “I am as innocent as Jesus 
Christ!” for which extravagant expression he was reproved. He replied, “ I 
don’t mean that I am as guiltless as he was ; I know I am a great sinner ; but 
I am as innocent of killing Colvin as he was.” The court sat in September, 
and a judicious and impressive charge was given to the grand jury by his 
honor Judge Doolittle, and a bill of indictment was presented against Ste- 
phen and Jesse Boorn ; but, as it was not a full court, the trial could not 
commence. 
The court was accordingly adjourned to the 26th of October, 1819. It was 
with much difficulty that a jury was obtained. 
The court ruled that Stephen and Jesse Boorn should be jointly tried for 
the murder of Russell Colvin. 
About fifty witnesses were successively examined, but they were only cor- 
roborative of each other, all tending to prove the leading facts, and too volu- 
minous for this brief sketch. 
The jury retired, and within about one hour returned, and, in compliance 
with a request of Mr. Skinner, they were severally inquired of whether they 
had agreed upon a verdict, and each agreed that they had found both 
of the prisoners guilty of the murder charged against them. The verdict 
was then publicly read by the clerk. After a short recess his honor Judge 
Chase pronounced the sentence, that the prisoners be remanded back to prison, 
1007 § 1H7] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
peared in evidence that, while the ship was lying off the coast 
of Africa, where there were several other vessels near, the 
prisoner was seen one night to take the captain up in his arms 
and that, on the 28th day of Jauuary, between the hours of 10 and 2 o’clock, 
they should be hung by the neck until they were dead ! 
Mr. Taber Chadwick, of Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, N. J., brother- 
in-law of Mr. William Polhamus, of Dover, in the same State, where Colvin 
had lived ever since April, 1813, seeing the account of the trial of the 
Booms, at Manchester, wrote that Colvin was still alive, and with his 
brother-in-law, Polhamus, in Dover, about forty miles from Shrewsbury. 
When the letter came to town, every one was struck with consternation. A 
few partly believed, hut the main doubted. 
“It cannot be that Colvin is alive,” was the general cry. Mr. Chadwick’s 
letter was carried to the prison and read to Stephen ; the news was so over- 
whelming, that, to use his own language, “nature could scarcely sustain the 
shock but, as there was some doubt as to the truth of this report, it tended to 
prevent an immediate dissolution. He observed that he “believed, had Colvin 
then made his appearance, it would have caused immediate death ; even now a 
faintness was created that was painful to endure.” Soon a letter was received 
from New York, stating that the man who was supposed to be murdered was 
probably still alive. 
Mr. Wlielply, formerly of Manchester, and who was intimately acquainted 
with Colvin, had actually gone to New Jersey in quest of him. Thus there 
was increasing evidence in confirmation of the letter. As soon as Mr. 
Whelply had returned to New York, he immediately wrote that he “had 
Colvin with him.” A New York paper announced his arrival also, and that 
he would soon set out for Vermont. Notwithstanding all this, many gave no 
credit to the report, but considered it a mere deception. Large bets were made. 
Colvin was unwilling to return to Vermont with Mr. Whelply, who was 
obliged to have recourse to stratagem. A young woman of Colvin’s acquaint- 
ance agreed to accompany him, pretending that she only designed a visit to 
New York. While there she was missing, which excited some uneasiness in 
the mind of the exile. 
While staying a few days at New York, to prevent his returning, Mr. 
Whelply told him there were British men-of-war lying in the harbor, and 
unless he kept within doors he would be kidnapped. This had the desired 
effect. Colvin, when he set out for Manchester, concluded that he was on 
his way home to New Jersey, and never perceived the deception until he 
came to Bennington, where he arrived on the 22d of December, and saw 
many people with whom he had formerly been acquainted, which filled him 
with surprise. 
The county court being then in session, all were filled with astonishment 
and surprise. The court suspended business for some hours, to gaze upon 
one who, in a sense, had been dead and was alive again. 
Stephen related the facts amid great excitement and rejoicing, and Jesse 
was soon at liberty. See this case referred to vol. i. § 793. 
1008 BOOK VIII.] 
PRODUCTION OF BODY OF DECEASED. 
[§ 1118 
and throw him into the sea, after which he was never seen or 
heard of; but near the place on the deck where the captain 
was seen, was found a billet of wood, and the deck and part of 
the prisoner’s dress were stained with blood. On this, it was 
objected to by the prisoner’s counsel that the corpus delicti was 
not proved, as the captain might have been taken up by some 
of the neighboring vessels; but the court, although they ad- 
mitted the general rule of law, left it to the jury to say, upon 
the evidence, whether the deceased was not killed before the 
body was cast into the sea, and, the jury being of that opinion, 
the prisoner was convicted and executed. 
§ 1118. So also when it is shown that the body was destroyed 
by any chemical or mechanical agents, it is, of course, un- 
necessary that the existence of the remains should be proved.(w) 
Mr. Bentham very naturally asked whether Lord Hale’s rule 
would not have necessarily to be relaxed whenever a part of 
the guilty plot was the decomposition of the body in lime, or 
in any of the other known chemical menstrua, or of its being 
submerged in an unfathomable part of the sea. And the trial 
of Dr. Webster furnishes an apposite answer to this inquiry. 
Some portions of the deceased’s body, it is true, were in this 
case recovered, and these enough to secure its identification, 
but had this not been the case, and had there been adequate 
positive evidence of the fact of guilt elsewhere, it is not likely 
that the result would have been different. That an entire 
destruction of the body is practicable was lately illustrated by 
a case but too familiar to the professional mind in this country. 
A gentleman of much respectability was accidentally caught 
under the rafters of a burning building, and when, a few hours 
after, his remains were sought for, nothing could be found that 
afforded the slightest index of identity. And still more com- 
plete would be the obliteration of this species of evidence by 
the method suggested by Mr. Bentham, of submerging in an 
unfathomable part of the sea. Murders on shipboard must 
generally be of this class, and yet the books abound with cases 
where this species of homicide has been punished. And the 
testimony taken in the Webster case, which is elsewhere 
(«) See fully Wh. Cr. L. § 754. 
VOL. II.—64 
1009 § 1118] 
[book viii 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
reported in full, shows that by means of chemical menstrua 
there could be an entire immunity secured to guilt if the pro- 
duction of the remains be insisted on. Thus Dr. Jackson 
said “ that the flesh of a human body, if cut up into small 
pieces and boiled in potash, might be dissolved in two or three 
hours. Next to this the best substance to use in dissolving 
or disposing of a human body would, I think, be nitric acid, 
and the difficulty or danger attendant upon its use, so far as 
the evolution of noxious vapor is concerned, would depend upon 
the degree of heat applied.” Since, therefore, the destruction 
of the body is practicable, and since, if the production of the 
body be necessary to conviction, the worst species of homicide 
would go unpunished, it is obvious that the continued exist- 
ence of the body cannot be considered, as is popularly supposed, 
essential to the judicial establishment of guilt. And, in fact, 
an examination even of Lord Hale’s dictum, which is most 
relied on for the contrary opinion, shows that the “finding of 
the body dead” is only given as an alternative to “ proving” 
that the fact was done. But when the fact of death is not 
positively and indisputably shown, there should be the severest 
scrutiny applied and the most conclusive evidence afforded, in 
order to make a conviction justifiable.(y) 
In a case in North Carolina, in 1861, the defendant was in- 
dicted for the murder of one Peggy Hilton. There was evi- 
dence tending to show that the defendant had criminal inter- 
course with Peggy for a year or two. The deceased left her 
home on the night of the 1st of December, 1859, about ten 
o’clock, and took with her one calico frock, two petticoats, and 
a piece of cloth, all of which were wrapped in her apron. 
She had not since been seen. Several days after her disappear- 
ance, the neighbors commenced to search for her. On the 11th 
of the same month they examined about a creek which flowed 
through the prisoner’s land. About six hundred yards from 
defendant’s house, on a private place near the creek, they dis- 
covered where a “log heap” had been burned. The fire was 
not out, but a few of the logs, or parts of the logs, were still 
(v) For a full report of the Webster case in this relation, see the forth- 
coming (1874) edition of Wharton on Homicide. 
1010 BOOK VIII.] 
POISONING. 
[§ 1119 
burning. A search* was made among the ashes, and a good 
many fragments of bones were found. Some of these were 
shown to the prisoner, but he denied knowing anything about 
them. Most of these bones were found in the centre of the 
log heap. They also found *a substance in the ashes that was 
like tallow. On the 23d of January, 1860, the coroner of the 
county, with many persons, went to the creek, with the pur- 
pose of making a further search and holding an inquest. The 
creek was dragged and they found bones, three hair pins, three 
common pins, one button, one eye of a hook-and-eye, and a 
grain of wheat, also a black substance and fire coals, similar 
to those found in the place of the burnt log pile. Four phy- 
sicians and one dentist were examined, who stated that among 
the bones they recognized part of a human .skull and part of 
the cheek bone of a human being. The dentist deposed to the 
identity of human teeth among the bones exhibited in court. 
It was in evidence that Peggy Hilton was in the habit of wear- 
ing hair pins ; also, that the Monday before she was missing 
(which was on Thursday) she got from the witness fourteen 
common pins, seven of which were large, and the others 
small ones. The court was requested to instruct the jury that 
there was no evidence in the case identifying the bones and 
pins found, as being part of the bones and apparel of the de- 
ceased. The court refused, but told the jury that there was 
evidence that the bones and pins found were a part of the 
body and dress of the deceased. Defendant’s counsel excepted. 
On this and other exceptions the case came up to the Supreme 
Court. On this point of proof of the corpus delicti, Judge 
Battle .considers the authorities at some length, and concludes 
that there was no error in this part nor in any part of the 
charge.(w) 
II. That the death was from violence. 
1st. Poisoning. 
§ 1119. (a) Measures to be taken by the prosecution when poison- 
ing is suspected.—There should be a careful observation of the 
condition of the corpse, and of the peculiar indications upon 
(w) State v. Williams, 7 Jon s, NT. Carolina 446. 
1011 § 1120] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
it. Here it is that the services of an experienced and capable 
physician are needed.(a:) 
Everything in which the poison could have been brought to 
the deceased, or in which it could have been retained, must be 
examined. All parts of the dwelling should be searched, in 
reference to glasses, boxes, or papers, in which poison, or the 
refuse of poison, may have been placed. This search should 
include utensils in which medicines taken by the deceased were 
placed. 
Ho examination should be attempted except after notice to 
the opposing interest, and opportunity given to such interest 
to be present. Examinations held without such notice are ex 
parte, and, except in strong and peculiar cases, their results 
should be excluded by the courts.(y) 
The evacuations of the deceased, whether through vomiting 
or the stool, and particularly his urine, should be carefully 
preserved and tested. Arsenic, as has already been shown, 
frequently passes into the urine, and its presence there is a 
proof that the poison has entered into the system. So, also, 
towels or linen on which these evacuations may have dried, 
should be examined. 
Those parts of the body through which the poison may have 
passed, e. g., the mouth or sexual organs, and those on which 
it may have acted directly or by resorption, e. g., the stomach 
or liver, should be the object of examination. Particular 
poisons should be looked for in the organs which they may 
peculiarly touch, e. g., the bones, into which quicksilver and 
arsenic pass. 
§ 1120. In view of the expected medical and chemical ex- 
amination, it is necessary to carefully separate and preserve all 
parts of the body in which poison may be traced, so that, when 
the chemical analysis takes place, the parts may be kept free 
from foreign admixtures. The stomach, liver, and spleen 
should be separated and kept in distinct vessels. Should this 
(«) See ante, §§ 326, 327, 337-40, 682-3 ; and for a case of alleged poison- 
ing by arsenical injection, People v. McCraney, 6 Parker, C. R. 49. 
(y) See yol. i. § 296, and notes thereto; and also Wh. Cr. Law, §§ 45, 
865, 1462. 
1012 BOOK VIII.] 
POISONING. 
[§ 1121 
precaution not be observed, poison, which may have merely 
touched the mouth, may be imbibed after death by other mem- 
bers, e. g., the liver or spleen, so as to produce the belief that 
the whole system was pervaded by the poison, and from this, 
that a very large quantity had been administered. 
The vessels in which these parts of the body are placed, 
preparatory to examination, should be carefully cleansed, and 
should be closed and sealed, so as to prevent the interference 
of third parties. The orifices should be carefully closed so as 
to prevent evaporation, or the disturbance consequent on the 
intrusion of air. 
It is important that the parts retained for examination 
should be as large as practicable. If only small fragments are 
kept, the materials for a broad analysis are narrowed, and the 
opportunity for a second or third examination prevented.^) 
§ 1121. In respect to the examination several cautions 
should be kept in mind. 
It is desirable, in the choice of experts, by whom the ex- 
amination is to be made, to avoid mere neophytes, and to con- 
fine the selection to those who have kept up with the advance 
of science, who have the proper instruments and materials at 
their command (e. <7., utensils and pure tests which can act as 
reagents), and who possess competent experience and skill. It 
is peculiarly important that the chemical examination should 
be committed to one who has made that department a spe- 
cialty. 
Much embarrassment has arisen from confusing the provinces 
of the physician and the chemist. According to Barse,(a) the 
cases have been frequent where there is an apparent conflict of 
testimony produced by the fact that the chemist, when ex- 
amined on the trial, speaks from one stand-point, and the 
physician from another. The first is to be asked—■ 
(1) Whether the substance given to him to analyze contains 
an agent which belongs to the class of poisons: 
(2) What kind of poison is it: 
(s) See ante, § 682. 
(«) Manuel de la Cour cl’Assizes, p. 224, as quoted by Mittermaier in his 
das Verbrechen der Vergiftung, etc. 
1013 § 1122] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
(3) In what quantity it exists; though it is difficult and 
dangerous to decide in wliat quantity it was originally 
administered: 
(4) How it may have been administered, which chemical 
analysis may sometimes determine, as in the prosecu- 
tion against the priest Maineri, where the question was 
whether the crime could be effected through poisoned 
cigars: 
(5) Whether the poison was administered purely, or in com- 
mon with other agents: 
(6) Whether the substance analyzed could have come into 
the body through natural causes (e. y., as phosphorus 
through food). 
§ 1122. The physician’s province includes more particularly 
the question, whether the poison in the particular case could* 
have produced death. With this are connected the presump- 
tions to be drawn from the discovery of substances in the 
body which are used sometimes for medical purposes, some- 
times for poisoning.(6) 
(b) Each new examination bears out the important conclusion, that a sub- 
stance whose poisonous properties are in themselves active, may, through contact 
with other substances, either entirely, or in great party lose its peculiar proper- 
ties. This may happen in various ways : (1) When, in the case of certain 
sorts of poison, the poisonous substance becomes inactive by uniting with 
substances which either neutralize its strength or form with it insoluble com- 
pounds ; though it is to be observed that some poisons become more intense 
upon uniting with other substances, those, for example, which, by being ex- 
ternally applied, facilitate the entrance of the poison into the body, or which 
increase the excitement of the tissues by which it is diffused through the sys- 
tem. (2) When the poison, after being administered, meets with antidotal 
substances. This may happen when the poisoned person, either a short time 
before or immediately after the administration of the poison, has taken, as is 
often the case in food, substances which may act upon the poison so as to 
render it inactive. All these principles are important, not only in the inves- 
tigation of the fact of poisoning, as whether the poison was the cause of death, 
if it appears that the union of the poison with other substances must have 
rendered it inactive ; but also in the settlement of the question how far crimi- 
nal attempt is supposable in the case. 
We subjoin a marked case which illustrates this point: — 
A girl of fifteen years of age was tried before the Criminal Court of Verona, 
for a malicious attempt to poison her servant-woman with sulphuric acid. 
She mixed the poison in a glass in which some brandy was standing, which 
1014 BOOK VIII.] 
POISONING. 
[§ 1123 
§ 1123. The chemical examination, to be satisfactory, must 
go to show that the reagents employed in the detection of the 
the woman was in the habit of taking before going to bed. Although the altered 
color of the liquid in the glass arrested the woman’s attention, she neverthe- 
less took a swallow of it, but immediately spit it out when she perceived its 
burning taste, as did also another woman who tried the mixture. The girl 
confessed her crime, at first with the declaration that she had intended to kill 
her servant, but afterwards that she had only wished to give her a pain in the 
stomach. It appeared that eighty-three grains of sulphuric acid and two 
hundred and forty-one grains of brandy were in the glass. According to the 
opinion of the experts (two chemists and two physicians), the concentrated 
sulphuric acid, by being mixed with the brandy, had considerably lost its 
strength, being in great measure converted into acidum Halleri, which is 
used as a medicine. The investigation in relation to the matter of fact 
hinged principally upon the inquiry how far, in the mixture of sulphuric 
acid with a much greater proportion of liquor, the poisonous properties of 
the former would be destroyed or weakened through the influence of the 
essential oil of the brandy. On this point there is great difference of opinion, 
but it is to be remarked that never before, perhaps, in the annals of medical 
jurisprudence, have these points been so thoroughly discussed. The effect of 
the time during which the poison was subjected to the action of the diluting 
mixture was also a point of dispute, as also the determination of the condition 
under which the health of the poisoned person might be injured notwith- 
standing that the detection of the poison was so easy, and that she must have 
been warned against the mixture by its offensive taste. We may notice here 
the importance of the individuality of the servant-woman, and especially 
whether her sense of smell was delicate; whether she was in the habit of 
swallowing the liquor at a draught or of drinking it with pauses; also 
whether she took the liquor oftener in the dark, or near a light where its 
changed appearance would put her on her guard. The theory was advanced 
that the attempt was made with absolutely unfit, not to say inadequate means, 
and hence should be classed under the head of criminal attempt in the second 
degree. The Criminal Court, however, laying aside this theory, took the 
matter-of-fact view of the case, and sentenced the accused to five years’ 
severe imprisonment for attempt at murder by poison. The Court of Ap- 
peals of Venice, on the contrary, held that from the circumstances, the pos- 
sibility of death should not be assumed, since, according to the testimony of 
the experts, it could not have followed unless the poisonous drink had been 
taken in greater quantity. In this view the court acquitted the accused of 
attempt at murder, but condemned her to two years’ imprisonment, for an 
attempt to inflict severe bodily harm. It is to be remarked in connection 
with this case, how important it is in a trial for poisoning to attend to the 
circumstance that the original nature of the poison may become changed by 
the medium in which it is administered, and especially that the time during 
which it is subjected to the action of the substance used for the mixture and 
of the atmospheric air, may materially alter its poisonous properties. 
1015 § 1124] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
poison were pure, and contained no elements likely to deposit 
the poison they were employed to discover. Sometimes the 
presence of the poison is produced by the reagent. It is im- 
portant, also, to show that the examination was adapted to the 
particular kind of poison which was sought. Poisons are very 
various in their action, some working the most energetically 
when they come to the stomach, some wliep they touch a place 
where the skin is removed, some at the spot they first reach, 
others only upon the system generally. The local effect also 
greatly varies. Mineral acids so disorganize the part that its 
whole structure is destroyed. Metallic poisons inflame and 
irritate, without immediately destroying the texture. Others 
—e. g.y nicotine—without perceptible changes of structure, 
merely operate upon the sensitive parts of the organs with 
which they come in contact. These points should be kept in 
mind in directing the examination of a chemical witness.(c) 
§ 1124. In the examination of medical witnesses, the points 
are more numerous. The main question is of course whether 
the derangement under consideration was caused by poison. 
This involves the consideration, (1) of the chemical examina- 
tions, (2) of the symptoms of the malady, and (3) the appear- 
ances on the corpse. 
The symptoms of the malady fall within the physician’s 
peculiar province, and have been already discussed.(d) On the 
second of these points, the journal or note-book of the physi- 
cian may be appealed to by him to refresh his memory, though 
it should be remembered that a physician in large business, 
when he makes his notes at the close of a day in which he has 
made many visits, is very apt to fail in a delicate discrimination 
of symptoms, and is at all events, where he suspects no imposi- 
tion, likely to be influenced by the talk of those surrounding 
the patient. 
The testimony of persons attending the patient, though not 
in themselves experts, may be introduced as supplementary to 
that of the physician. It should be observed, however, that 
such witnesses are very easily deceived, and are apt to take 
strong prejudices, sometimes against the hypothesis of poison- 
(c) See ante, § 682. 
(d) See ante, §§ 324-7. 
1016 BOOK VIII.] 
POISONING. 
1017 
ing, either to avoid the disgrace falling on the family, or from 
false sympathy with the accused; sometimes, from passion or 
excitement, or the desire to shift the blame, in favor of that 
hypothesis. 
§ 1125. Other facts should be noticed in this connection, 
such as complaints of the patient as to burning in the intes- 
tines, redness of the face, sweating, which symptoms should 
be always noticed. 
According to Mittermaier, from whose essay on the Crime 
of Poisoning (das Herbrechen der Vergiftung) we have reduced 
some of the above points, inquiries on the following topics 
should be permitted to the medical witnesses:— 
(1) The condition of health of the deceased at the time 
when the poison was administered, involving the absence of 
sickness or of constitutional disease capable of producing death, 
down to this period. 
(2) The conditions preceding the alleged poisoning, as 
whether the patient was in the habit of taking strong drinks, 
whether this occurred on the day when the disease broke out, 
what food he had been taking, and how far the same indica- 
tions would have been produced if he had been overheated or 
caught cold, or had fallen into a violent passion. 
(3) Those peculiar circumstances which from their rarity 
and general association with poisoning are supposed to have 
produced the latter, e. y., the sudden illness after eating or 
drinking of a person previously in good health. It should he 
observed, however, that such attacks often follow meals when 
the food was perfectly healthy, and that on the other hand 
poison in many cases does not work until some time after it 
has been received into the frame. 
(4) The medicines which the patient had taken, and partic- 
ularly the antidotes, must be inquired into, since poisonous 
substances are often introduced through the antidotes them- 
selves. 
(5) Such circumstances as tend to show the possible agency 
of a natural disease, e. y., cholera. 
(6) There should be a jealous scrutiny of any facts tending 
to show that poison may have been induced by means of prior 
external and innocent applications. Madame Lacoste’s case is 
1017 1018 
LEGAL KELATIOXS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
cited by Mitterraaier as an illustration of the importance of 
this caution. In that case the appearance of arsenic was ex- 
plained by the fact that the deceased had been for some time 
in the habit of using externally a salve, through which it is 
possible the poison may have been worked in. 
§ 1126. (7) Appearances at the time of death, and changes 
in the corpse. Those who lay out the dead are often more ob- 
servant and accurate, so far as extraordinary appearances are 
concerned, than casual observers. But it is not enough, to raise 
a rational presumption of poisoning, that the signs heretofore 
mentioned, e.g., blotches, perforations, etc., should be noticed. 
These are the accompaniments of several natural diseases. On 
the other hand, these features should not be neglected, since 
there are many of them which tend to individuate the poison, 
as in the case of strychnine, where there is an extraordinary 
rigidity and long-continued contraction of the muscles. The 
absence of these signs argues the non-administration of the 
particular poison.(e) 
The microscopic methods of discovering poison have been 
already discussed. It is not necessary to do more now than to 
call the practitioner’s attention to them, as an important test. 
§ 1127. (b) Chemical proof of the existence of poison in the 
stomach in sufficient quantities to have caused death, though im- 
portant, is not essential to conviction. If the indictment charges 
poisoning, the administering of poison must be shown, either 
directly or inferentially. It is true that proof of the existence 
of poison in the body is an important item in such proof, but 
independently of the fact that such existence can be proved in 
other ways than by the absolute detection of the ingredient 
itself {e.g. by moribund appearances and peculiar pathological 
symptoms), the fact that poison was administered can be satis- 
factorily shown by proof of the potion being given, though 
there be no post-mortem examination at all. The case may be 
likened to that of a gunshot wound, received by a party on 
board ship, who is knocked overboard by the shock and whose 
body is lost. If the gun is found to have been levelled—if it 
is shown to have been loaded—if upon the discharge the party 
(e) See ante, § 324. 
1018 BOOK VIII.] 
1019 
POISONING. 
falls—it is not necessary to show the ball in his body, or even 
to prove the wound. It is true that the non-production of this 
species of proof can only he excused by necessity: but such 
necessity occasionally exists in death by poisoning, as well as 
death from gunshot wounds. When, therefore, a chemical 
analysis is unattainable, the rule is, that it is not indispensable 
to a conviction when there is satisfactory evidence of guilt 
aliunde.(f) And this rule peculiarly applies where those 
charged with guilt are the agents by whom the prevention of 
a post-mortem was effected. Ilitzig gives us a pregnant illus- 
tration of this in the case of a woman in Brussels, who, in 
order to cause the symptoms of the projected poison to create 
as little surprise as possible, gave out from time to time, before- 
hand, that her imbecile husband, who was the intended victim, 
was subject to “ fits,” of very much the same nature as those 
which she expected the poison to produce. Her object, as it 
afterwards appeared, was to produce in his family, who saw 
him but rarely, the impression that this case, when it occurred, 
was merely a repetition of former attacks: and she followed 
this up by the attempt to prevent a post-mortem. Of course, 
such eflorts as these, instead of protecting the criminal, expose 
him to a new and more formidable class of suspicions; for 
there is no item in indicatory evidence in cases of poisoning so 
strong as that which arises from an attempt to obliterate the 
indicia of guilt. 
§ 1128. On the other hand, if it is in the power of the pro- 
secution to produce before the court the opinion of experts as 
to the contents of the deceased’s stomach, an omission to do 
this is a culpable neglect, which becomes the more mischievous 
from the fact that it is a general rule of law, that secondary 
evidence is inadmissible when primary can be obtained. And 
even if this strict rule does not apply to cases where, instead 
of an examination of the stomach, which could have been had, 
less positive tests are offered—and the tendency of authority 
is, that as a technical bar it does not—yet the defendant, who 
has been excluded from this opportunity by the exclusive con- 
(/) See as to nature and character of post-mortem, ante, §§ 369, 449, 479, 
482, 526, 530, 548, 564, 590, 682. 
1019 § 1130] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
trol of the law, can with great force ask the jury to infer that 
had this final test been referred to, it would have demonstrated 
his innocence. 
§ 1129. “ The moral evidence from the conduct of the ac- 
cused,” says Mr. Wills,(y) “ his antipathies and other motives 
—his possession of the means of death, especially if unex- 
plained by any circumstance to account for it upon an iuno- 
cent hypothesis—his declarations—his falsehoods, subterfuges, 
and evasions to prevent examination of the body, or to induce 
premature interment, and many other suspicious circumstances, 
constitute very material parts of the res gestce, and furnish a 
clue to the explanation of facts which would otherwise be 
inexplicable. It is perfectly clear that by the law of England 
all such facts afford a competent and relevant evidence, from 
which can be inferred the criminal administration of poison.” 
§ 1130. (c) Facts on which a verdict of guilty can he supported.— 
Under this head we propose to touch merely the technical re- 
lations of this topic. Those bearing on medicine and surgery 
have been already fully discussed. 
According to Mittermaier, in his monograph on the legal 
bearings of poisoning, two points must be established to sus- 
tain a conviction:— 
a}. That poison was administered to the person whose homi- 
cide is the subject of inquiry. 
hx. That death was the consequence of the poisoning. 
Under the first of these heads it may be observed:— 
a2. The drug administered must be legally considered a 
poison. 
b2. It must be of such a character that after being taken it 
acts on the system as a poison. It should be observed that 
the term poison is relative, and that it is qualified by the 
means which the defendant used to administer it; by the part 
of the body within which it is introduced; by the method of 
administration; by the quantity administered ; by the cir- 
cumstances of the administration in reference to the time in 
which it is brought into the system ; and by the mixture of 
the poison with other drugs. 
(,g) Circumstantial Evidence, 187. 
1020 BOOK VIII.] 
POISONING. 
1021 
§ 1131. The proof of the administration of the poison falls 
under the following heads:— 
a1. Report of the chemical examination. 
bl. Symptoms of the sickness. 
cl. Appearances at death and on the corpse. 
dl. Physical observations. 
e1. Presumptions of the particular case. 
a1. Report of the chemical examination.—Formerly, chemical 
proof of the existence of poison was considered essential to 
conviction. But this, as has just been seen,(A) is based on two 
erroneous suppositions: 1st. That in all cases of poisoning, the 
poison may be discovered within the deceased, or in his evacu- 
ations ; and, 2d. That the results of chemical analysis exclude 
all doubt. It is true that, wThen mineral poisons, e. g. arsenic, 
are administered, they could be detected chemically. But the 
inadequacy of the presumption drawn from the non-discovery 
of poison is shown from the following points:— 
a2. Many poisons, particularly alkaloids, can only with great 
difficulty, and under the most favorable circumstances, be che- 
mically detected when internally applied. 
b2. In other cases, where the poison is capable of chemical 
detection, the veracity of the rendering is destroyed by the 
rapid evacuations, e. g., vomitings, that the poison induces; by 
the evaporation of the poison from the body after death in the 
shape of gas; by a protracted sickness after administering it, 
which produces absorption of the poison ; by long delay after 
death, which destroys its traces; and by the eradication of 
counter agents. 
§ 1132. b1. The symptoms of sickness.—The disturbing influ- 
ence of poison on the human frame produces certain signs, 
which are the peculiar accompaniments of this action. Great 
prudence, however, is requisite in the use of this kind of evi- 
dence, on account of the difficulty in securing certainty in the 
witnesses; of the fact that other sicknesses may have produced 
these symptoms; of the difficulty in getting at the prior health 
of the patient; and of the inability of the physician to form 
(7t) See ante, § 1127. See particularly the notes on this point in the pre- 
ceding discussion of Poisons. 
1021 § 1134] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
an opinion without a survey of all the facts, which in many 
cases is impossible.(i) 
§ 1133. c\ The appearances at death and on the corpse.—In 
the great majority of poisons there is a danger of deception 
arising from the fact that many changes in the corpse are 
misunderstood, while other signs, such as inflammation in the 
stomach, are the consequences of other diseases. The difficulty 
in such cases is aggravated by delay in dissection, by which 
the organs become putrid. 
dl. Among physical peculiarities may be mentioned a par- 
ticular color of the affected parts ; or a specific odor or taste; 
the finding in the stomach seeds of berries, which were taken 
as poison; the illumination of poisoned food, as in the case of 
phosphorus, or the smell of bitter almonds, as in the case of 
prussic acid. 
e1. The combination of facts showing preparation or motive. 
Thus in a preliminary inquiry we may look for the offender 
among those who obtained the materials appropriate for the 
commission of the offence, or who would be benefited by the 
death of the deceased. 
§ 1134. The guilt of the defendant may be considered es- 
tablished notwithstanding— 
1. That if proper means had been used death might have 
been averted.(j) 
2. That a peculiar constitutional susceptibility increased 
the liability to death.(fc) 
3. Mismanagement on the part of medical attendants, by 
which the symptoms were aggravated, if, in point of fact, the 
poison was lethal. 
On the other hand, as is correctly stated by Mittermaier, the 
offence will not be complete when the poison is administered 
in such a small quantity, or in such admixtures, as to destroy 
its deadly qualities, or when the death is to be traced to an 
entirely independent cause. In the latter case, however, the 
crime is consummated if it appear that the death was accele- 
rated by the poison.(^) 
(t) See ante, §§ 326-42. (j) Whart. C. L. § 941 
(k) Ibid. (ij Ibid. 
1022 BOOK VIII.] 
POISONING. 
L§ H36 
§ 1135. (d) Duties of counsel for 'prosecution and defence.—In 
America and England, the counsel for the prosecution is 
limited, in his opening, to a statement (1) of the facts showing 
the corpus delicti, and the defendants connection with it; and 
(2) of the law of the land bearing on the particular issue. It 
is not only illegal, but highly unbecoming, to refer to the de- 
fendant’s character and antecedents as acting on the issue in 
any other way than as affording a presumption of innocence.(ra) 
At the same time, if the defendant sets up accident and igno- 
rance in the use of poison as a defence, the prosecution may 
rebut this by showing prior attempts at poisoning by the same 
methods.(rc) 
In collecting and developing the evidence of the medical 
and scientific witnesses, however, the prosecuting officer’s task 
is far more difficult. He must first take care that the wit- 
nesses so called by him should be of unquestioned skill and 
standing in their respective branches of study. In the prelimi- 
nary bearings it is best for him to give full scope to the inves- 
tigation, calling even such experts as may be suggested by the 
defence, so as to produce greater fairness, to form a wider base 
for induction, and to avoid surprise on trial. It is peculiarly 
important for him to familiarize himself not merely with the 
law in reference to the crime, but with that portion of the 
science of medicine with which the particular case comes in 
contact. Hot merely does he have to address the jury on these 
topics, but he must so master them as to be able to direct his 
own witnesses, and sift those called on the opposite side. 
§ 1136. The counsel for the defence, in preparing his case, 
will first turn his attention to collecting information as to the 
prior state of the deceased’s health, so as to explain on natural 
grounds, if possible, the symptoms of the alleged poisoning. 
He will particularly examine the medical testimony at the 
preliminary hearing, seeking to contradict it when in error, 
and at all events, by bringing out all legitimate conflicting 
opinions, enable the question to be thoroughly canvassed. 
On the trial, in addition to those duties in the examination 
and cross-examination of witnesses, which he shares with the 
(77i) Wh. C. L. § 3001-3. 
(to) Wh. C. L. § 631-9. 
1023 § 1138] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
prosecuting officer, it lies upon him to require that public jus- 
tice, as well as justice to his client, should be furthered by 
satisfactory proof on the following points:— 
The integrity, impartiality, experience, and skill of the ex- 
perts, on whose testimony the case of the prosecution hangs. 
The careful preservation of the parts or substances which 
were the subject of chemical or other analysis, and the adop- 
tion of due precautions to prevent an erroneous result. 
The connection of the fatal disease with the poisoning. 
The practicability of the method of poisoning alleged. 
The connection of the defendant with the administration of 
the poison. 
2d. W OUNDS AND BLOWS. 
§ 1137. a. Legal definition of wounds.—The medical definition 
has been already given. Under the English statutes making 
“wounding” indictable, a breaking of the continuity of the 
skin is essential to the legal offence. Thus it has been decided 
that it is not enough “ to show a separation of the cuticle 
only,” and hence, where a medical man said that there was a 
slight abrasion of the'skin, from which blood would issue, but 
in a different manner if the whole skin were cut, the King’s 
Bench held that there was no wound.(o) So a scratch, even 
though death ensue through inflammation, is no 
"Where, however, there is an internal breaking of the skin, as 
where the lower jaw was broken in two places, and there was 
an internal bleeding, this was held a wound.(^) 
§ 1138. The mere breaking of bones, however,(r), or their 
is not wounding under the statutes assigning 
specific penalties to “ woundings.” 
The wound must be effected by an instrument, and hence, 
biting a nose or a finger is not wounding ;(£) and it is clear 
(o) R. v. McLaughlin, 8 C. & P. 635. 
(p) R. v. Beckett, 1 M. & Rob. 526 ; Moriarty v. Brooks, 6 C. & P. 684. 
(q) R. v. Smith, 8 C. & P. 173. 
(r) R. v. Wood, 1 R. & M., C. C. R. 381. 
(s) Anonymous, cited Elwell on Malpractice, 316. 
(0 R. ®. Stevens, R. & M., C. C. R. 409; R. v. Harris, 7 C. & P. 456. 
1024 BOOK VIII.] 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
1025 
that throwing sulphuric acid on the face is not.(w) It is other- 
wise, however, with a blow from, or kick with, a shoe.(?;) 
§ 1139. It should be observed that questions of this kind 
cannot arise in indictments for homicide, unless it be in cases 
wrhere the indictment is so inartificially drawn as to present 
but the single alternative of “wound.” And even then it is 
not clear but that the term would be sufficiently comprehensive, 
in the way that it is ordinarily used (“giving unto the deceased 
one mortal wound,” etc.), to cover cases of biting.(w;) In other 
cases, where there is no breaking of the skin, the word “bruise” 
should be used. But even this would seem not to be now 
necessary. In an English case tried before Mr. Baron Alderson 
in 1846, the indictment charged that the defendant “ with a 
certain instrument called a swingle, made of wood, iron, and 
leather, * * * did then and there give unto her the said 
E. W. one mortal wound of the length of one inch, and the 
depth of half an inch, of which said mortal wound the said 
E. W. then and there instantly died.” The surgeon who took the 
post-mortem stated on his examination as follows: “I found, on 
examining the head, no external breach of the skin. I found 
a collection of blood on the back part of the head. The 
deceased died from extravasation of blood, which pressed on 
the brain. On examining and cutting the scalp, I found a 
collection of blood between the scalp and the cranium, just 
above the spot where, within the cranium, I found the pres- 
sure on the brain. I called that a contused wound, with effu- 
sion of blood; that is the same thing as a bruise. The internal 
part of the skin was broken. Medically we call the breaking 
of the skin, whether externally or internally, a wound.” The 
defendant was convicted;, the learned baron holding it was 
unimportant whether the injuries were external or internal, 
and the conviction was sustained by the fifteen judges.(;r) 
b. Under what circumstances wounds imply criminal agency. 
§ 1140. ax. Character of the wounds themselves.—a2. Adaptation 
to a particidar instrument.^—In Cunningham’s case, the effort 
(u) R. v. Murrow, R. & M., C. R. 450 ; Henshelrs case, 2 Lewin C. C. 135, 
(v) R. v. Briggs, M. C. C. 318. 
(w) See Wh. Prec. 114. 
(x) R. v. Warman, 2 C. & R. 195; see Wh. Cr. L. § 1869. 
vol. ii.—65 
1025 1026 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
was to show the similarity of a bruise on the deceased’s person 
with a blunt instrument iu the defendant’s possession ; in 
Webster’s (though erroneously, as it turned out), to connect 
the mortal blow with a sledge-hammer; in Boyntonrs, to estab- 
lish a connection between the orifice of the wound and the 
bore of the defendant’s pistol. So convictions have been had 
from the peculiar jagged character of the wound indjcating a 
saw, from the delicacy of a puncture indicating a needle, from 
the heaviness and breadth of a bruise, the flat side of a spade. 
When the weapon is found bloody or covered with hair, this 
strengthens the chain. 
The character of the wound may indicate that the charge 
was by gunpowder alone, fired at a very short distance,(y) or 
by very small shot,(z) or by rifle shot.(a) So also the distance 
of the murderer may be thus inferred.(6) 
(y) See ante, § 714. (g) See ante, § 707-10. (a) See ante, § 709-10-13. 
(b) Ibid. Among the many questions which arise under this head are:— 
1. Could the injury have been really produced bjr the tveapon which is sup- 
posed to have been used ? 
The following facts will be of service in answering this question :— 
a. Blunt instruments produce their effect partly by pressure, and occasion 
crushing, tearing, and breaking of the parts struck, according to the greater 
or less force of the blow and of the resistance offered. A smooth and blunt 
instrument may be recognized by the sugillation and swelling which will 
follow upon the blow. Cornered, rough, blunt instruments produce, besides 
the crushing, holes, and often torn and cracked places. Blunt instruments 
w-ith smooth broad sides often produce deep-seated internal injuries of which 
no trace is seen upon the surface of the body. 
Wounds caused by these instruments have, generally, broken, irregular 
edges, bleed comparatively little, and fester in healing. 
b. Sharp instruments. Where the wound was produced by stabbing, its 
size and depth must be compared with that of the instrument. Where the 
wound is by a blow or cut, its edges will often mutilations answering 
to gaps or defects in the instrument. A round and conical instrument pro- 
duces w ounds similar to those which a table-knife would occasion. The form 
of the instrument may often be recognized from the shape of the wound. 
c. Shootmg instruments. If the weapon be heavily loaded with powder, 
which is confined with a paper-w'ad, and be fired at the distance of one or 
two inches from the body, it will bore a hole similar to that produced by a 
ball, and leave no traces of paper in the opening. If the weapon be heavily 
loaded with small shot and fired at a distance of from one to twelve inches, it 
w ill produce one single wound at the surface, while the shot will afterwards 
separate and take different directions within the body. At a distance of one 
1026 BOOK VIII.] 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
1027 
The general presumptions to be drawn from the instrument 
of death will be hereafter noticed.(c) 
and a half foot there will be separate wounds on the surface. At a distance 
of three feet the shot will all enter separately, but may be included within a 
diameter of three or four inches. This diameter increases in proportion to 
the distance, so that at fifteen steps the load will scatter over the whole back. 
If a weapon loaded merely with powder be fired at a distance of five or six 
inches from the body, the paper-wad, together with grains of powder, may 
form a wound very similar to that produced by small shot when fired in close 
contact with the body. If the weapon is fired at a less distance, but owing 
to the small charge the contents do not penetrate the skin, the surface from 
one and a half to two inches in circumference will be uniformly burned, while 
small black specks, produced by single grains of powder, will be found at 
further intervals. Where the weapon is fired at a distance of four feet, this 
burned place will not be seen, and the grains of powder will scatter over a 
surface of six inches in diameter. Balls often pursue a very inexplicable course 
in the body. When the ball is found and its shape has not been injured, it 
should be compared with the weapon used ; if the shape has been destroyed, 
its weight may be compared with that of a similar ball which has not been 
injured. 
The wound made by the egress of a ball from the body is either similar to 
that made at the entrance, or smaller. In the majority of cases no contents 
of the body will be forced out at this opening, but the skin will be torn and 
exhibit a wmund of different shapes, sometimes like a split, sometimes three 
cornered, etc. 
Pure shot-wounds.—These resemble a wound made by a round cutting in- 
strument, and are alike at the ingress and egress of the ball. Such wounds 
will only be found where the weapon has been fired at a distance of from ten 
to sixty or eighty steps from the body. Nearer than this shreds of paper and 
grains of powder will accompany the shot. But not all shots made within 
this distance produce such wounds ; there may be some defect in the weapon, 
or some peculiar condition of the tissues through which the ball must pene- 
trate, or its force may be diminished by striking against a bone, and so the 
wound resemble ordinary shot-wounds. 
If the ball splinters a bone and carries pieces out with it, or if it enters the 
body obliquely, the wound made by its egress may, in such cases, be abso- 
lutely larger than that made by its entrance into the body. 
For how long a time are the marks given above for distinguishing between 
the wound made by the entrance and that made by the egress of the ball visi- 
ble ? The edges of the skin, standing out in the one case, and pressing in in 
the other, lose this peculiarity after a few hours. In other respects the con- 
dition of the woundjremains unchanged until festering begins to take place. 
The scar left in healing often indicates the direction of the ball as surely 
as the fresh wound. The scar formed at the place where the ball entered is 
(c) Post, § 1169. 
1027 § 1141] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
§ 1141. The physician, as Dr. Casper reminds us,(d) is often 
called to answer the question whether the injuries found upon 
the body could have been inflicted with some specified instru- 
ment. This is generally easy to answer, as, for instance, where 
circular and concave ; the skin is drawn in creases from the circumference 
to the centre ; and the scar is white and hard. The scar which forms over 
the wound made by the egress of the body is, generally, smaller, and of 
irregular shapes, and often scarcely visible, while the other scar remains 
distinctly marked. 
Contusion, with ecchymosis and extravasation about the wound, are indi- 
cations of a nearly spent ball. The less the force of the ball the greater 
injuries of this sort will it produce. The following is an average of the dis- 
tances within which the several varieties of shot-wounds may be found :— 
(1) Pure shot-wounds at a distance of from ten to eighty steps. 
(2) Ordinary shot-wounds at a distance of from fifty to five hundred steps. 
(3) Contusion and extravasation at a distance of from fifty to five hundred 
steps and more. 
The, hole made by the ball answers to its circumference. 
In pure shot-wounds this hole is just the size of the ball. 
In ordinary shot-wounds the diameter of the hole is never greater, and 
seldom any less than the circumference of the projectile. In case the outer 
skin is torn away, the wound at the entrance and egress of the ball may be 
somewhat larger than the ball would seem to require. 
Where the ball strikes obliquely, the opening made is not round, but oval, 
and gives no data for determining the size of the ball. 
2. Can any conclusion be drawn from the extent and position of the wound 
as to the bodily strength of the person who inflicted it ? 
The instrument used as well as the injury must be looked to in answering 
this question. It requires, generally, only sufficient strength to wield a 
heavy blunt instrument in order to produce with it serious injuries, while 
greater strength is necessary to effect the same with lighter instruments. 
Sharp instruments require less strength in proportion to the keenness of their 
edge. 
3. The question whether any conclusion can be drawn from the position 
and extent of the wound as to the manner in which it was inflicted, can only 
be answered in special cases. 
The easiest way of testing whether a given instrument produced the in- 
jury is to place it in the wound, but this is commonly to be avoided as apt to 
change the original appearance and size of the wound. 
The question whether a given instrument is a dangerous one or not belongs 
not to the province of the physician, and depends altogether upon circum- 
stances. # 
See Bocker’s Med. Jur., 1857, from which the above is translated and re- 
duced, and see fully ante, § 707 et seq. 
(d) Gericht. Med., ed. 1857, § 40 et seq. 
1028 BOOK VIII.] 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
[§ 1142 
the skull is broken, it might have been done with almost any 
heavy weapon. The farther question, whether the injury was 
probably inflicted with the specific instrument, cannot, com- 
monly, be so positively answered. The most that can be said 
ordinarily is, that the wound might have been inflicted with 
the instrument in question, and that either it or some similar 
one was probably employed. A more positive answer in the 
negative can generally be given, as the cases where the wound 
could not have been caused by the specified instrument admit 
of little doubt. Much often depends upon this answer in 
questions of guilt and innocence. 
A more difficult question is, whether any conclusion can be 
drawn from the position and extent of the injury as to the 
manner in which it was inflicted—whether the victim was 
lying, standing, etc., and as to the bodily strength employed 
in producing it. A close inspection of the position of the 
wounds, their depth, breadth, number, and correspondence 
with the specified instrument, will often furnish strong evi- 
dence against the evasive statements of the accused. 
§ 1142. b2. Shape and direction.—Whether the wound was 
skilfully inflicted, or done roughly and brutally, may indicate, 
(1) the skill, and (2) the temper of the supposed assassin. A 
rough and ignorant assassin will multiply wounds, so as to 
make sure of his victim; a man acquainted with surgery will 
economize them, and direct them to the most fatal part. 
Whether the defendant acted coolly, from the mere determi- 
nation to take life, or passionately, from the purpose to inflict 
injury, and to satisfy revenge and hatred, may be thus gathered. 
In this wray premeditation, and a specific intent to take life, 
may be inferred, and a test given by which the juries may dis- 
tinguish between the several degrees of murder.^1) 
So, too, by the shape and direction of wounds, the presump- 
tion of suicide may be made or refuted.(d2) The direction of 
the wound may show, (1) whether a shot was fired from within 
or without a house ; (2) what was the position and distance of 
the assailant; and (3) sometimes, what was the force used.(e) 
(d') See ante, §§ 708-4, post, § 1178. (d2) See ante, § 717. 
(e) See ante, §§ 717-32. 
1029 § 1143] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
Thus, where a farmer was found dead on the high-road, with 
his throat cut, “ the wound was found to have been made, not, 
as is usual in suicides, by carrying the cutting instrument from 
before backwards, but as the throats of sheep are cut when 
slaughtered hy a butcher. The knife had been passed in 
deeply under and behind the ear, and had been brought out 
by a semicircular sweep in front; all the great vessels of the 
neck, with the oesophagus and trachea, having been divided 
from behind forwards.” The prisoner, who was proved to have 
been a butcher, was subsequently tried and executed for the 
crime.(/) Similar questions, arising from a hemorrhage from 
the pudenda, have been already noticed.(y) 
§ 1143. Was the injury found upon a dead body the real cause 
of death, or of the changes which the body had undergone ?—In 
answering these questions we must look to the reactions which 
have taken place.(A) Where the following evidences of reac- 
tion are manifest, it may be concluded with great probability 
that the injury was inflicted during life :— 
a. Inflammation and its attendants, festering, traces of heal- 
ing, recent granulation and scars. 
b. A filling of the small bloodvessels around the wound 
with blood, so as to produce red stripes about the edges of the 
wound. This appearance, however, may also be observed in 
cases where the injury was produced after death. 
c. Changes of color, red, brown, blue, greenish, yellow, pro- 
duced by extravasation. These will not be observed until 
some time after the injury has been inflicted. 
d. Exudation of curdled blood from broken bloodvessels. 
That the blood is curdled is no evidence that it must have 
exuded after death. 
e. Vesications from burning, the appearance of a red in- 
flamed ring around the burnt place. Blisters, although they 
may expose, when laid open, a red skin, yet indicate nothing 
as to whether the burning occurred before or after death, since 
the same appearances may be produced by intense heat in this 
case as are observed upon a living body. Scalding never pro- 
(/) Taylor’s Med. Jur. 191. (y) See ante, § 705. 
(h) See ante, § 691. 
1030 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1144 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
daces vesication upon a dead body, but causes the epidermis 
to fall off in shreds. Flame applied to the skull-bone of a 
dead body will cause it to crack open, and the lamellae to fall 
oft' in layers. 
/. A cracking open of the edges of the swollen wound. 
The wound made by a shot when it enters a living body is 
at the surface swollen, blackened, and cracked open around 
the edges; the passage made by the ball is narrow, and filled 
with clotted blood, while infiltration of blood will be observed 
in the surrounding parts. In the case of dead bodies the ball 
draws the skin into a funnel shape. 
It is possible that all the above marks may be wanting, and 
yet the injury have been inflicted during life, especially in 
cases where death follows immediately upon the injury; but 
such cases are only exceptional. 
"Whether the changes which the body has undergone are to 
be ascribed to the injuries inflicted upon it, or to some previous 
cause, as disease, can only be decided by a careful examination 
of all the circumstances bearing on the case in hand. The 
constitution of the person, his predisposition to disease, the 
locality in which he found his death, the species of injury and 
its extent, together with other circumstances, must be con- 
sidered in weighing the probabilities of the case. 
§ 1144. c2. Particular class of weapon.—a?. Gunshot.—As has 
been shown, “ near” wounds are shown from the blackening 
and burning of the skin, and the width and laceration of the 
wound. From this the presumption of self-infliction may be 
drawn, though homicidal wounds, in a close conflict, may 
have the same characteristics.^1) 
In wounds produced by a shot, it is sometimes the case, as 
is stated by Dr. Casper,(i) that different organs are bored 
through, and death caused by bleeding; while in others the 
organ is utterly torn to pieces, and death produced in this way. 
The instrument used in any given case is rarely a subject of 
examination on the part of the physician. When this is the 
case, the question occurs, whether the instrument has been 
discharged ; and if so, when. Boutigny has answered this 
(A1) See ante, § 707 et seq. 
(*) Qericlit. Med., ed. 1859, p. 146. 
1031 § 1146] 
[book vnr. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
question by describing minutely the changes which take place, 
within given periods, upon the powder which remains in the 
piece after it is discharged. Much weight, however, should 
not be allowed to these results, given by a man unknown to 
science, especially in cases where the life of an accused person 
may he depending. Besides the correctness of the results 
deserves to be questioned, from the fact that no allowance is 
made for different qualities of powder, different states of the 
atmosphere, etc. In questions of this kind, gunsmiths, hunts- 
men, etc., are generally much better qualified to answer than 
the physician, and their testimony should be preferred. 
In reference to the effect produced by the shot upon the 
body, the condition of the parts where the ball entered and 
where it emerged, the course which it followed, the resistances 
with which it met, etc., must be noted. 
§ 1145. b3. Punctured wounds.—The inferences to be drawn 
from this species of wound have been already noticed.^') 
§ 1146. c3. Incised wounds.—Here the question may arise 
between accidental injuries, through the falling upon or strik- 
ing against glass or crockery, and voluntary, when the wound 
is intentionally inflicted. It is also to be observed that in sui- 
cide an incised wound on the throat is often preferred, though 
it is sometimes inflicted by an assassin, in which case it may 
have been inflicted in order the better to conceal the crime.(A:) 
These points have been considered under prior heads.(^) 
"Wounds inflicted by a blow with sharp instruments, such as 
a razor, knife, dagger, sword, bayonet, scythe, etc.—we here 
translate from Dr. Casper(m)—may be either shallow or deep. 
Where the instrument used was sharp, the outer edge of the 
wound will, of course, be smooth, but the surface somewhat 
flattened. The appearances resulting from reaction differ ac- 
cording to the portion of the body on which the injury is made, 
and the length of time intervening between the infliction of 
the wound and the examination of the same. If the instru- 
ment presses to the bone, it will either break this into pieces 
or else divide it; this latter is more apt to occur with the 
(j) See ante, § 703. (&) Taylor’s Med. Jur. 192. 
(0 See ante, §§ 703-707, 717. (m) Gericlit. Med. 1857, p. 139. 
1032 BOOK VIII.] 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
[§ 1146 
bones of the fingers or arm. Both effects are often seen where 
the blow falls upon the skull. The size of the instrument by 
which such a wound was inflicted cannot be determined from 
the appearance of the wound. Where the muscles are cut 
crosswise, they contract and leave a gaping wound, which by 
no means answers to the instrument with which it was 
inflicted. 
(a) Where the wound is produced by a cut with a sharp 
instrument, the sides are smooth and not flattened, and con- 
verge to a sharp angle at either end. The same appearances 
from reaction will be seen as in the case of wounds produced 
by a blow. Cuts which do not penetrate much beneath the 
skin may yet open large bloodvessels, and cause the person to 
bleed to death. In such cases it will often be impossible to 
determine which is the beginning and which the end of the 
wound. Surrounding circumstances, such as blood upon one 
hand and not upon the other, the rent made in the clothing, 
etc., will sometimes throw light upon this point. When the 
wound is made upon a neck where the skin is very much 
wrinkled, the appearance will be that of several 
cuts. 
Wounds made by a thrust with a sharp instrument produce 
little bleeding externally, except where they pierce some large 
bloodvessel lying near the surface of the skin ; and, where the 
instrument is small, they exhibit scarcely any appearances of 
reaction. If, however, the instrument penetrates to the in- 
ternal organs, gushes of blood, or urine, or food in process of 
digestion, will follow. It deserves to be mentioned in this 
connection that it is often very unjust to blame the examining 
physician for not tracing out the original source of the bleed- 
ing, or the very bloodvessel penetrated by the instrument. 
Such an examination would in many cases prove very tedious 
and laborious, and throw no additional light upon the cause 
of death.(n) 
Wounds produced by cutting afford no means of determin- 
ing the size of the instrument. 
(») See ante, § 703. 
1033 § 1148] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
(ib) Dull instruments, as is noticed by Dr. Casper,(o) produce 
very difterent results, according to the strength with which 
the blow is given, and the part of the body struck. Some- 
times instant death is produced by the crushing of some organ ; 
or death, more or less speedy, may result from rupture of a 
bloodvessel, owing to concussion. Bones may be injured in 
various degrees, from a slight fracture to entire crushing. 
Organs may be torn apart in such a way that the wound will 
not at all correspond with the instrument by which it was 
made. The appearance of the person may be entirely changed 
by the breaking of certain bones in the face, by the swelling 
of the lips and eyelids, etc. Several of these effects may be 
combined, either by the use of several different instruments, 
or by the use of one which has several different sides, adapted 
to difterent purposes. 
Rupture of the internal organs frequently results from the 
use of such instruments. Spontaneous rupture never occurs 
with sound organs ; and whenever the basis cranii, the liver, 
the lungs, etc., are ruptured, it may safely be supposed the 
effect of considerable violence. 
* 
§ 1147. d3. Contused wounds.—This involves the inquiry 
whether the wound came from a fall from a height, or against 
a hard surface, or from a blow from a heavy body falling upon 
the deceased, or by voluntary or involuntary shocks against a 
hard substance when in rapid motion, or by a blunt weapon 
in the hand of an assailant, or, in rare cases, of the deceased 
liimself.(p) These points have already been noticed.(q) In 
Stirling’s case (Cleveland, Ohio, 1860), where the deceased was 
found at the bottom of a flight of stairs, with a contused 
wound on his head, which shortly caused his death, the verdict 
of the jury followed the weight of medical evidence, that the 
death was from a fall. 
§ 1148. d?. Number of wounds.—In suicides a legal presump- 
tion of self-agency has been strengthened from the wound 
being single,(r) though such presumption can be but weak, 
since an assassin may often dispatch his victim with a single 
(o) Gericht. Med. p. 143. (p) Ante, § 717. 
(g) Ante, § 704 et seq. (r) Burrill, Circum. Ev. 695. 
1034 BOOK VIII.] 
1035 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
blow, and, on the other hand, suicides have struck themselves 
repeatedly before the blow took effect.(s) Recent wounds on 
the back of the hands, and wounds the result of a struggle, 
give a strong homicidal presumption.(t) 
§ 1149. (a) Injuries by violence.—In cases where there are no 
external marks of violence whatever upon the body, it is by 
no means to be concluded simply from that reason that death 
was not produced by violent means. So far is this from being 
the case, no external traces of violence, as we are reminded by 
Dr. Casper,(w) are to be expected in such injuries as are fol- 
lowed by immediate or very speedy death ; as, for instance, in 
ruptures of the organs, etc. The following remarkable case is 
cited by him in this connection:— 
A driver who, upon a cold winter night, was descending the 
hill from Spandau with a heavily-loaded wagon, and had dis- 
mounted in order to relieve his horses, was overtaken by the 
wagon and thrown with violence against a tree by the road- 
side, where he was found next morning lying dead. The only 
external marks of violence were a slight abrasure of the skin 
upon the left shoulder and on the right jaw. There was 
nothing remarkable about the appearance of the head except 
that the sinus transversus seemed more full of blood than usual. 
On opening the spine at the neck about a quart of dark blood 
ran out. The muscles of the back were suggillated through 
the whole length of the spine, but the marrow was uninjured. 
Thirty ounces of dark blood were found in the left breast. 
The heart had been torn from its proper position, was entirely 
separated from the large bloodvessels, and was lying almost 
loose in the cavity of the breast. The pericardium had been 
torn throughout its entire diameter. The ends of large blood- 
vessels, as of the pulmonary artery and of the aorta, were dis- 
tinctly traceable in the cavity of the breast. The skin of the 
heart was sound and firm, and the heart still contained much 
dark, clotted blood. The left lung also was torn throughout 
its middle segment, and a wound two inches long and a half 
(a) See ante, §§ 703, 717-22, etc. 
(2) Mwte, §§ 717-22 ; Taylor’s Med. Jur. 201. 
(w) Handb. Gericlit. Med. 1857, p. 122. 
1035 § 1152] 
LEGAL RELATIONS. OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
incli deep was found on the liver. Yet there was nothing re- 
markable in the external appearance of the body ! 
§ 1150. e2. Situation of wounds.—The presumptions falling 
under this head have been already noticed.(t;) 
§ 1151. bl. Expression of countenance.—“In cases of suicide,” 
says M. Burrill,(w) “death being desired and determined on, 
there is no expression of fear on the countenance, though it 
may be haggard from the influence of other passions; the eyes 
being usually closed and sunken. In cases of assassination, on 
the contrary, where death is struggled against and shrunk from, 
there is always a degree of fear, amounting sometimes to the 
extremity of terror, imprinted on the visage, the eyes open 
or staring. The countenance in these cases is also usually pale, 
although sometimes there may be the opposite appearance 6f 
redness or suffusion. The latter circumstance is considered 
important, as it may indicate the use of violence in order to 
stop the cries of the subject of the crime.” 
In suicides produced by despair, however, it has been ob- 
served that the expression of the countenance is often more 
agonizing than that produced in any other kind of death.(.r) 
§1152. c1. Inferences from surrounding objects.—a2. Clothing. 
—This, in reference to the kindred presumption of premedi- 
tation, will be considered under a subsequent head. In Cour- 
voisier’s case, it was held that a cutting through a cravat or 
portion of a dress was indicative of homicide, since it was not 
likely that a suicide would strike the blow without first re- 
moving such obstacles. 
The effect of blood on clothing has been already examined.(y) 
(v) Ante, § 717 etseq. (w) Circumstantial Evidence 686. 
(*) Posi, § 1155. * 
(y) Aw-te, §§ 724-753. The following is from the N. Y. Observer, of Aug. 
8, 1860 : “ In 1825, a youth resided in a small town in Loudon Co., Va., who 
was a barkeeper of a tavern ; he became a confirmed gambler. He set off 
one day on horseback on a travelling tour, with a person whom he knew to 
have in his possession a large sum of money, and before he started armed 
himself secretly with a pistol, at the muzzle of which was a small dagger at- 
tached. On Saturday night they arrived at Centreville, in Fairfax County. 
After supper they left the house, and in a short time the young man returned 
without his companion. When the landlord asked for him, the answer was, 
‘ Am I his keeper ?’—the ominous reply of the first murderer ! About day- 
1036 BOOK VIII.] 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
1037 
Rifling of the pockets, tearing of the dress, or marks of its 
having been put on in a manner unusual for the deceased, in- 
cisions or perforations, dirt clinging to the texture, all afford 
grounds for a presumption of homicide.(^) 
In rape, the condition of the clothing forms one of the main 
points from which a presumption of violence may he drawn. 
§ 1153. b2. Agent commensurate to the effect.—If no weapon 
be found by which the offence could have been committed, the 
presumption of homicide, as distinguished from suicide, is 
very strong.(a) “ If a weapon be found near the body,” says 
Mr. Burrill,(6) “ or within a short distance from it, its nature 
and the degree of its sharpness, as corresponding with the 
appearance of the wound, are important considerations. Its 
appearance, also, and relative position of the body (that is, as 
light next morning he was seen crossing a field where the corpse was found 
perhaps a day or two afterwards. He returned to his residence on Sunday, 
and I conversed with him within thirty hours after his hands were reeking 
with blood ; he seemed gay and cheerful as ever. He was arrested on sus- 
picion, and in his trunk was found the pistol, which, to the naked eye, dis- 
played no marks of blood. When, however, the microscope was applied, it 
was clearly discoverable, and also a very small portion of one of the hairs of 
the dead man’s whisker, which was of red color. He was taken off, accom- 
panied by a lawyer, who was unsurpassed in physical and moral courage by 
any other man I ever knew. When they arrived at Centreville the excite- 
ment was tremendous. All were clear that he was guilty ; some said that if 
the accused would touch the corpse it would bleed. On hearing this prog- 
nostication his counsel compelled him to come up stairs and touch the cold 
body, in order to do away the suspicion. He now appealed to the crowd in 
eloquent terms that his client was innocent, because no blood issued from 
either of eighteen wounds. Long after this his trial came on at the county 
town of Fairfax, before Judge Dade and an impartial jury of his own selec- 
tion. The testimony was entirely circumstantial and indirect. But, when 
the different links of the chain were put together, it pointed with fatal certainty 
to the prisoner. The microscope helped greatly in tightening the rope around 
his neck. That little fraction of a hair, mixed with blood, connected with 
some of the identified money of the deceased, and other circumstances not 
now recollected, brought the guilty youth to the gallows. Afterwards it ap- 
peared that the murdered man lay on the ground through the whole night 
mortally wounded, but was able to implore and beg his pursuer on Sunday 
morning to spare his life ; but, acting on the principle ‘ that the dead tell no 
tales,’ he stabbed him seventeen times, until death closed the scene.” 
(2) See 1 Taylor’s Med. Jur. 188. 
(a) See ante, § 717 et seq. (6) Circumstantial Evidence 690. 
1037 § 1155] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
lying on the right or left side of it), require it to be most 
accurately examined and considered, as the appearances of 
suicide are sometimes attempted to be given to murder, by the 
perpetrator, in order to escape suspicion and discovery. The 
instrument with which a suicidal wound of the throat is most 
commonly made is a razor, and it is frequently found either 
grasped in the hand or lying by the side of the deceased. 
Where the wound must have produced almost instant death, 
if the razor is found closed, there is fair ground to suspect 
the interference of another person; although the circumstance 
also has happened in cases of suicide. If the instrument be 
found still firmly grasped in the hand of the deceased, no 
better circumstantial evidence of suicide can perhaps be offered, 
it being impossible that any murderer could imitate such a 
state and position. But where the razor is held loosely in the 
hand, or with no compression of the fingers upon it, there is 
room for the supposition of homicide, which may become 
strongly presumptive, especially if no blood appear upon the 
hand.” 
§ 1154. c2. Place where found.—Was the ground marked by 
struggling, and does it show that a body was dragged over it? 
These indications, particularly the latter, are much relied on 
by the courts as showing violence.(e) So of the prints of feet, 
though here there is great danger that, by a change of shoes, 
a crafty assassin may throw a false suspicion on an innocent 
person. So as to blood; but here, also, there is great danger 
of fraud. The cases have not been unfrequent, where adroit 
assassins, by smearing blood on weapons belonging to others, 
or by making false tracks, have baffled inquiry. 
§ 1155. dx. Position and appearance of the body.—a2. Attitude. 
—Where the body stiffens in an attitude of resistance or im- 
precation—where, as in Cunningham’s case, it is mutilated— 
where, as in Webster’s case, it is cut to pieces in order to be 
burned or otherwise disposed of—where it is crumpled or 
doubled up so as to be packed away in a box—where it is 
sunk in a pond loaded with stones—where an attempt has 
been made to disguise the features—here homicide will be 
(c) State v. McCann, 13 Smedes & Marshall 478. 
1038 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1156 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
presumed.(d) So, as has already been noticed,(e) a presumption 
of violence is lent by the fact that a weapon is found in a 
stiffened hand, lying on it in such a way as to be supported 
by the hand as it was stretched after death, and not grasped 
by it as it would be in case of suicide. So, on the other hand, 
the firm grasping of a pistol or weapon indicates suicide. 
Where the weapon lies close to the body on the ground, no 
inference either way can be drawn. 
In a New York case a medical expert had testified as to the 
form, nature, extent, depth, length, width, and direction of 
the wound, and its precise location on the head. The question 
was then put, “In what position do you judge the body to 
have been when it received the blow on the side of the head ?” 
also questions as to the position of the body when other 
wounds were received. The court admitted them; but the 
Court of Appeals, Woodruff', J., giving the opinion of the 
court, decided that the questions were incompetent; that 
medical men are not presumed to be experts in the matter of 
giving and receiving such blows, and that the jury are equally 
capable of drawing the proper inferences from the facts proved 
if material.(/) 
The posture, in case of a sudden and surprised death, is 
lying on the back, and in such case, unless natural causes of 
sudden death be found, the presumption is homicide.(y) Then, 
again, the disposition of the limbs is significant. Sentimental 
suicides compose themselves gracefully for the spectacle. But, 
when despair is the controlling cause, the countenance at least 
may display misery even more intense than that of a death 
struggle with an assassin.(A) 
§ 1156. b2. Marks of blood.—This topic has been already 
discussed, (f) 
In a case before the New York Court of Appeals, in 1868, 
it appeared, that, when the prisoner was on trial for murder, 
the State’s attorney introduced as a witness the officer who 
made the arrest, and who testified, under objections, that 
(d) See Burrill’s Circumst. Ev., p. 684. (e) Ante, § 717 et seq. 
(/) Kennedy v. People, 39 New York 245. 
(g) See ante, § 717 et seq. (h) See ante, § 1151. 
(ij Ante, § 724 et seq. 
1039 § 1157] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
he found blood on the prisoner’s clothes found in his room. 
The judge allowed the clothes and stains (of blood) to be 
shown to the jury. On exceptions to this decision the case 
finally came up before the Court of Appeals. That court said: 
“ $ tains of blood found upon the person or clothing of the 
party accused have always been recognized among the ordinary 
indicia of homicide. The practice of identifying them by cir- 
cumstantial evidence, and by the inspection of witnesses and 
jurors, has the sanction of immemorial usage in all criminal 
tribunals. The testimony of a chemist who has analyzed 
blood, and that of the observer who has merely recognized it, 
belong to the same legal grade of evidence.”(2) 
§ 1157. c2. Bruises.—Here, in connection with the points 
already mentioned,(a) we may call attention to the legal pre- 
sumptions to be drawn from the appearances called ecchymosis 
and suggillation. These appearances, in proportion as they 
increase in number and extent, evolve the presumption of 
homicide. 
Where death has been produced by violence, certain sus- 
picious spots, are often found upon the body. These are com- 
monly roundish in shape, from one-quarter to three-fourths of 
an inch in diameter, of a red, or reddish-brown, or a dirty 
yellowish-brown color, rather hard and tough, and when cut 
into exhibit no real suggillation. These spots may puzzle the 
examining physician, and, where the manner of death is un- 
known and is attended with suspicious circumstances, they 
require the most minute attention, as they may possibly indi- 
cate a struggle in which the person was engaged at the time 
that death occurred. In the majority of cases, however, these 
spots are produced by the person’s striking against some hard 
substance at the moment of death, and have nothing to do 
with the manner of death. The same appearances may also 
be produced after death by rough handling of the body, etc. 
Even some days after death pseudo-suggillations may be pro- 
duced, by excoriating some part of the body with a stiff brush, 
(z) People v. Gonzalez, 35 N. Y. 49. 
(a) Ante, §§ 691, 701. 
1040 BOOK VIII.] 
WOUNDS AND BLOWS. 
1041 
etc., which might easily be mistaken for reactions that occurred 
during life^a1) 
§ 1158. Have the injuries which appear upon a dead body been 
injiicted before or after death ?—Generally, as is stated by Dr. 
Casper,(a2) injuries inflicted during life may be easily dis- 
tinguished from those inflicted upon the dead body by the fact 
that in the latter case there will be no appearance of reaction, 
such as inflammation, bleeding, festering, swelling, granula- 
tion, or drying up of the edges of the wound. But it is im- 
portant to observe that in the case of fat bodies, injuries 
inflicted after death—as, for instance, a cut with a knife— 
often assume an appearance, when the body begins to swell, 
which it is very difficult to distinguish from reactions that 
have taken place during life. This may occur where bodies 
have lain undiscovered in water until the process of decompo- 
sition has begun. It will also be difficult, often impossible, to 
distinguish the two cases in question where the injured parts 
have been singed or charred by fire. But, while it is true that 
injuries inflicted upon a dead body never show any appearance 
of reaction, it is by no means true that reactions always appear 
where the injury has been inflicted during life. Many cases 
occur, some of which have been already noticed, where no 
trace of suggillation, no inflamed places, no festering, etc., can 
be seen upon the body, even though the injury was inflicted 
during life. This is especially the case -where death is very 
suddenly produced by the opening of some large bloodvessel, 
as of the carotis, jugularis, etc. In such case there is not the 
slightest trace of reaction, no suggillation, festering or swell- 
ing ; and, if a wound is made upon the dead body near that 
which caused death, and similar to it, it will be impossible to 
distinguish the two. 
Very frequently the injuries found upon the body are such 
as have been produced lege artis, as by cupping or bleeding, 
amputation, etc.(6) These require nothing more than a gene- 
(a1) Ante, §§ 691, 700. 
(a2) Gericht. Med., p. 128, and see fully ante, §§ 691-700. 
(6) Casper, Gericht. Med., ed. 1857, p. 135. 
vol. ii.—66 
1041 1042 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
ral notice at the hands of the examiner, except in cases where 
the practice of the operating physician is called in question. 
To this head belong also injuries produced upon the body 
where it has served as food for wild animals. 
Where the injuries found upon the body are such as have 
been the immediate cause of death. In this case, of course, 
the examination of the injuries should be very careful and 
thorough. The suggillated places, where they are prominent, 
should be accurately described, the size, diameter, etc.(c) 
§ 1159. el. Probability of the infliction of the injury before 
death.—This topic has already been discussed.(d) 
§ 1160. f1. Connection of the wound with the deathje)—It is 
necessary that the death should be shown to have been pro- 
duced by the particular blow described and charged. Techni- 
cally, as was shown in Peterson’s case, if the wound is charged 
to have come from a knife, when in fact it is from a pistol, the 
variance is fatal. This difficulty, however, has in many cases 
been remedied by statutes.(/) The practical result of the 
common law is well stated in Bird’s case, where all the judges 
concurred in saying that where certain assaults were put in 
evidence, and relied on by the prosecution, as being the cause 
of death, but where the clear surgical testimony was that the 
death was caused by a blow on the head, of which there was 
no evidence whatsoever, the defendants were entitled to an 
aequittal.(<7) 
But, while it is necessary to show that the wound caused the 
death, positive proof that life continued to the moment of the 
blow is not required.(A) 
If it appear that the death was accelerated by the prisoner’s 
violence, it is no defence that the deceased was laboring under 
a disease otherwise fatal.(i) Hor is it a defence that the death 
was the immediate result of a surgical operation, which ope- 
ration, in the opinion of competent surgeons, was rendered 
(e) Casper, Gericlit. Med., ed. 1857, p. 136. See these points considered 
fully, ante, §§ 691, 700. 
(<Z) See ante, §§ 691, 700. 
(e) See ante, §§ 769 et seqas to the medical question. 
(/) See also Wh. Cr. Law, § 594. (g) R. v. Bird, 2 Eng. R. 448. 
(A) Wh. Cr. Law, § 941. (*) Ibid. 
1042 BOOK VIII.] 
INTENT AND DESIGN. 
1043 
necessary to avoid the effects of a wound otherwise mortal.(j) 
!Nor is it a defence, that, had the deceased consented to an 
amputation, or been more skilfully treated, he might have re- 
covered.^) 
C. INTENT AND DESIGN, FROM WHAT TO BE INFERRED. 
§ 1161. Prior attempts of the defendant to assassinate the de- 
ceased can always he received to prove intent, and so of former 
menaces or expressions of vindictive feeling.(6) And on the 
trial of a husband for his wife’s murder, the prosecution may 
put in evidence a long course of ill treatment by the husband of 
the wife.(c) And on a trial for the same crime it has even 
been held that.adultery with another woman could be shown 
for the purpose of explaining the motive.(d) It has been held 
admissible, also, to show that on the same day the deceased 
was killed, and shortly before the killing, the defendant shot 
a third person, the transactions appearing to be one.(e) But 
it is inadmissible to prove that the defendant had been guilty 
of murder or of attempts to murder third parties,(/) or that 
he had a tendency to commit the particular offence, It is 
here, indeed, that is to be perceived the line of demarcation 
between the civil and the common law. By the former it is 
considered competent to show that the defendant was likely, 
from the peculiarities of his moral structure, to have com- 
mitted the particular crime. In the latter, while the physical 
capacity and mechanical concomitants suitable lor the com- 
mission of the offence may, as will be hereafter shown, be 
proved, it is otherwise with regard to the moral or physical 
constitution.(A) 
I. Prior attempts, preparations, threats.(«) 
(j) Ibid. (*) Ibid. 
(«) Post, § 1178. 
(5) See Wh. Cr. L., § 648 et seq.; State v. Rash, 12 Iredell 382 ; State v. 
Watkins, 12 Conn. 47; Johnson v. State, 17 Ala. 618 ; R. v. Yoke, R. & R. 
531. 
(c) State v. Rash, 12 Iredell 382. 
(d) State ®. Watkins, 12 Conn. 47; Johnson v. State, 17 Ala. 618. 
(<2) Heath v. Com., 1 Robinson 735. 
(/) Wharton’s Cr. Law, § 631 et seq. (g) Ibid. 
(A) Wh. Cr. Law, §§ 631, 648. 
1043 § 1163] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. [BOOK VIII. 
§ 1162. Purchasing, collecting, and fashioning instruments 
of mischief; repairing to the spot destined to be the scene of 
it; acts done with the view of giving birth to productive or 
facilitating causes for removing obstructions in the execution 
of the design, or for obviating suspicion, etc., may also be put 
in evidence for the same purpose. 
§ 1163. A remarkable instance is presented in the case of 
Richard Patch, who was convicted and executed in 1806, for 
the murder of his friend and patron, Isaac Blight. The pris- 
oner and the deceased lived in the same house, and the latter 
was one evening shot, while sitting in his parlor, by a pistol 
from an unseen hand. A strong and well connected chain of 
circumstantial evidence fixed Patch as the murderer, in the 
course of which it appeared that a few evenipgs before that 
on which the murder was committed, and while the deceased 
was away from home, a loaded gun or pistol had been dis- 
charged in the same room. This shot the prisoner represented 
at the time as fired at him; but there were strong grounds, 
especially from the course of the ball through the shutter, for 
believing that it must have been done by himself, in order to 
avert suspicion, and induce the deceased and his servants to 
suppose that assassins were prowling about the building. Of 
the same character is the case related by Dr. Iiitzig, of a 
woman who, in order to prepare her friends for an intended 
crime, sent once a week for arsenic to the apothecaries, for the 
alleged purpose of killing rats. Possession of the instruments 
or means of offence, under circumstances of suspicion, are im- 
portant facts in the judicial investigation of imputed crime. 
Where a man had in his possession a large quantity of 
counterfeit coin unaccounted for, and there was no evidence 
that he was the maker, the presumption is, that he had pro- 
cured it with an intent to utter it. Facts of this kind become 
more indicative of guilty purpose, if false reasons are assigned 
to account for them; as, for instance, in the case of procuring 
poison, that it was procured to destroy vermin, which is the 
excuse commonly resorted to in such cases. A female con- 
victed at the Warwick Summer Assizes, August, 1831, of the 
murder of her uncle by poison, alleged that she had bought 
arsenic to poison mice, and pointed to a mouse which she said 
1044 BOOK VIII.] 
INTENT AND DESIGN. 
1045 
had been killed by it, whereas it was proved that the mouse 
had not died from poison.(i) To this class of facts may be 
referred the case of false representations as to the state of 
another person’s health, with the intention of preparing the 
connections for the event of a sudden death, and to diminish 
the surprise and alarm which attended its occurrence,(j) as 
was done by Captain Donnellan respecting Sir Theodosius 
Bough ton.(4) 
§ 1164. It has been remarked that murderers, especially in 
the lower walks of life, are frequently found busy for some 
time previous to the act in throwing out dark hints, spreading 
rumors, or uttering prophecies relative to the impending fate 
of their intended In the case of Susannah Holroyd, 
who was convicted, at the Lancaster Assizes of 1816, for the 
murder of her husband, her son, and the child of another 
person, it appeared that, about a month before committing the 
crime, the prisoner told the mother of the child that she had 
her fortune read, and that within six weeks, three funerals 
would go from her door, namely, that of her husband, her son, 
and the child of the person whom she was then addressing. 
And so, on the trial of Zephon, in Philadelphia, in 1845, it 
was shown that the prisoner, who was a negro, had got an old 
fortune-teller in the neighborhood, of great authority among 
the blacks, to prophesy the death of the deceased. Great 
caution, however, should be used in sifting this kind of proof, 
particularly when the persons against whom the presumption 
is pointed are ignorant and superstitious, since, among such, 
the habit of loose talk of this nature is too prevalent to make 
an instance of it, when standing alone, any just ground for 
suspicion. 
§ 1165. Threats may also be put in evidence for the same 
purpose, when they go to show ill will from the defendant to 
the deceased. Thus, where the prisoner, a negro, said he in- 
tended “to lay for the deceased if he froze the next Saturday 
(i) R. v. Mary Ann Higgins. Loncl. Med. Gazette, vol. ix. p. 896, and 
Annual Register for 1831. 
(j) Wells on Circum. Evi., p. 212. 
(k) See Gourney’s Report of the Trial. 
(l) 1 Stark, on Evi. 465-66 (3d ed.). 
1045 § 1165] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
night,” and where the homicide took place that night; where 
it was said, “I am determined to kill the man who injured 
mewhere the prisoner had declared, the day before the 
murder, that he would certainly shoot the deceased ; and where 
the language of the defendant was, “ I 'will split down any 
fellow that is saucy.” Several considerations, however, have 
already been adverted to, which divert the applications of evi- 
dence of antecedent preparations, and which apply, with equal 
force to this head. In addition to these, it is important to 
observe: 1st. The words supposed to be declaratory of criminal 
intention may have been misunderstood or misremembered. 
2d. It does not necessarily follow, because a man avows an in- 
tention, or threatens to commit a crime, that such intention 
really existed in his mind. The words may have been uttered 
through bravado, or with a view of intimidating, annoying, 
extorting money, or other collateral objects. Thus, a man, 
such as Dr. Parkman, may have frequently been the object of 
threats or curses of this kind from irritated tenants, and yet 
it was from a man who used neither that his death proceeded. 
3d. Another person, really desirous of committing the offence, 
may have profited by the occasion of the threat to avert sus- 
picion from himself. A curious instance of this is given in 
the Causes Cdl&bres. A woman of extremely bad character 
and violent temper, one day, in the open street, threatened a 
man who had done something to displease her, that she would 
“ get his hams cut across for him.” He was found dead a 
short time afterwards with his hams cut across. This was, of 
course, sufficient to excite suspicion against the female, who, 
according to the practice of continental tribunals at that time* 
was put to the torture, confessed the crime, and was executed. 
A person was, however, soon after taken into custody for some 
other offence, who confessed that he was the murderer; that, 
happening to be passing when the threat was uttered, he con- 
ceived the idea of committing the crime, as he knew the 
woman’s bad character would he sure to tell against her. 4th. 
It must be recollected that the tendency of a threat or decla- 
ration of this nature is to frustrate its own accomplishment. 
By threatening a man you put him on his guard, and force him 
to have recourse to such means of protection as the force of 
1046 BOOK VIII.] 
MARKS OF VIOLENCE. 
[§ H67 
the law, or any extra-judicial powers which he may have at 
command, may be capable of affording to him. Still, however, 
such threats, as observed by Mr. Bentham, “ by the testimony 
of experience, are but too often sooner or later realized. So 
to the intention of producing the terror and nothing but the 
terror, succeed, under favor of some special opportunity, or 
under the spur of some fresh provocation, the intention of pro- 
ducing the mischief, and (in pursuance of that intention) the 
mischievous act.” 
II. Marks of violence. 
§ 1166. Marks of violence, in connection with the cause of 
death, have already been considered. At present they are 
only to be noticed in connection with the question of intent. 
It cannot be doubted that when a wound is found to have been 
inflicted in a secret or concealed part, which is inaccessible in 
sudden and passionate conflict, it hears a violent presumption 
of having been the result of design. Thus, the wounds, of 
which the Scotch historian tells as having been inflicted by 
forcing a heated iron into the fundament, could have been ex- 
plained in no other way than on the hypothesis that to death 
was intended to be added concealment. In the same class may 
be enumerated the thrusting of a needle in the navel of an 
infant, running a sharp but slight instrument in the cavity 
behind the ear, dropping corrosive acids into the ear itself, and 
forcing molten lead down the throat through a tube; of each 
of which resorts the books give instances.(w) The principle 
on which the presumption of intent can be drawn from such 
cases is, that a person acting under the impulse of passion is 
much less likely to inflict a skilful wound, than one whose act 
is the result of premeditation.(o) 
§ 1167. Whether the wound was inflicted in self-defence or 
otherwise; whether it was self-inflicted, or inflicted by a 
(n) Mittermaier von Beweise, 402 ; Demme’s Annalen des Criminalreehts, 
vol. iii. p. 215 ; Bauer, Tlieorie des Anzeigenbeweises; Henke, Darstellung, 
sec. 99 ; Blanci de Indiciis, Venet, 1545 ; Bernhardt de eo quod circa reum 
ex Prsesumpt. Convinc. et Cond. Just., etc. Erford, 1732 ; Heinroth in 
Hitzig’s Zeitsclirift, n. 42, p. 257. 
(<?) Presumption from gunshot wound, see ante, §§ 707-717. 
1047 1048 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
stranger; whether the perpetrator of the crime was an expert 
or otherwise—may also be deduced from the wound. And the 
direction of the wound may often be shown for the purpose of 
testing the validity of a defence. Thus, where the defence 
was, that, the ground being rough and slippery, the prisoner 
stumbled, and both barrels of the gun had gone off by accident, 
the defence was confirmed by tracing the direction of the shot, 
which was found to be pointed upwards.(p) The difference 
in appearance between wounds inflicted before and after death 
has been already considered.^) 
§ 1168. If, as has been said, the death was not accelerated 
by violence, the defendant must be acquitted. Thus, in 1847, 
on a trial for manslaughter, the surgeon who had attended 
the deceased stated, that on examining her body he had found 
the mark of an old wound on her head, and a slight bruise on 
one of her thighs; but he further stated, that he made a post- 
mortem examination of the body, and that his opinion was, 
that, the cause of the deceased’s death was confirmed con- 
sumption, her lungs being tuberculous, and that it had not 
been accelerated by violence, but was wholly attributable to 
natural causes. The defendant, under the direction of Murphy, 
Sergeant, who consulted with Lord Chief Baron Pollock, was 
acquitted.(r) But it is no defence that the deceased was labor- 
ing under a mortal disease, if death was accelerated by the 
defendant’s violence ;(s) and this, no matter how remote the 
cause, if the intention was to commit an assault, and death 
resulted.(f) 
III. Instrument of death. 
§ 1169. The use of a lethal instrument, knowing it to be 
such, gives the strongest presumption of design, if the weapon 
appears to have been used contrary to the defendant’s usual 
custom.(w) Whether it was the defendant’s custom to carry 
the particular weapon, becomes, in such case, a material ques- 
(p) Wh. on Homicide, § 240. (g) Ante, §§ 691-701. 
(r) R. v. Conner, 2 C. & K. 518; see also R. v. Crompton, C. and Mars. 
597. 
(«) State v. Morea, 2 Ala. 275. (t) Wli. C. L., § 941. 
(u) See Wh. on Horn. 41, 385. 
1048 BOOK VIII.] 
INSTRUMENT OF DEATH. 
[§ 1170 
tion. Thus, in Selfridge’s case,(v) where the fatal weapon was 
a pistol, the defendant was permitted to prove that he had 
found it necessary to carry such a weapon, in consequence of 
the danger of being waylaid in his passage between his place 
of business and his residence in the country. And in the old 
cases, such as those of Major Oneby and of Mr. Lutterel, it 
having been the uniform custom of those times for gentlemen 
to carry swords, no presumption was drawn from the fact that 
in these instances swords were the instruments of death. But 
when the weapon by ’which the homicide was committed was 
one not usually carried, the presumption is, that it was assumed 
for the special purpose. 
§ 1170. Other inferences are to be adduced from the instru- 
ment of death which it may not be out of place here to notice. 
Suicide may be inferred from the discovery of the weapon near 
the body.(wj) This, however, is by no means a certain test. 
Thus, in July, 1683, the Earl of Essex was found dead in the 
Tower, with his throat cut, and a razor lying near him. His 
throat was smoothly and evenly cut from one side to the other, 
and entirely down to the vertebral column. Notwithstanding 
this, the razor was found to be much notched on the edge. 
This fact those who favored the view of suicide were asked 
to explain. They could do so by no other way than by sup- 
posing that the deceased had notched the razor by drawing 
it backwards and forwards on the neck bone. This he could 
hardly be deemed competent to do after all the great vessels 
of the neck had been divided. If the weapon he found in the 
vicinity of the corpse, the question arises whether it could 
have been placed in its position by the act of the deceased. 
In the case of Courvoisier, who was tried for the murder of 
Lord William Bussell, there were two facts relied upon to 
show that this was not a case of suicide. One was, that a 
napkin was placed over the face of the deceased, and the other 
that the instrument of death did not lie near the body. To 
the same point is the case of Jane Norkott, who was found 
dead in her bed with her throat cut, while a bloody knife 
was found sticking in the floor a good distance from the bed, 
(») Wh. on Horn. 417. 
(w) See ante, §§ 722, 1140. 
1049 § 1172] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
but as it stuck the point was turned towards the bed, and the 
haft from it. This last fact told strongly against the hypothe- 
sis of suicide. 
§ 1171. On the trial of How, for the murder of Church, in 
Alleghany County, H. Y., in 1824, it was a material fact that 
a patch of square home-made linen, which was found near the 
deceased, being apparently a part of the wadding which was 
discharged, together with the ball which was the cause of 
death, was of the make and quality with other patches found 
almost simultaneously in the box of a rifle in the defendant’s 
possession. 
§ 1172. William Richardson was tried at Dumfries, in 1787, 
for the murder of a young female in the Stewarty of Kir- 
cudbright, in the autumn of 1786.(x) It appeared from the 
evidence that the deceased, who lived with her parents in 
rather a remote part of the district, was, the day in question, 
left alone in the cottage, her parents having gone out to their 
harvest-field. On their return home, a little after mid-day, 
they found their daughter murdered, with her throat cut in 
the most shocking manner. The circumstances in which she 
was found, the character of the deceased, and the appearance 
of the wound, all concurred in excluding any presumption of 
suicide; while the surgeons who examined the wound were 
satisfied that it had been inflicted by a sharp instrument, and 
by a person who must have held the instrument in his left hand. 
On opening the body, the deceased appeared to have been some 
months gone with child; and on examining the ground about 
the cottage, there were discovered the footsteps, seemingly, of 
a person who had been running hastily from the cottage, and 
by an indirect road through a quagmire or bog, in which there 
were stepping-stones. It appeared, however, that the person 
had, in his haste and confusion, slipped his foot and stepped 
into the mire, by which he must have been wet nearly to the 
middle of the leg. The prints of the footsteps were accu- 
rately measured, and an exact impression taken of them; and 
it appeared that they were those of a person who must have 
worn shoes, the soles of which had been newly mended, and 
(x) Burnett’s Criminal Law of Scotland, p. 524 et seq. 
1050 BOOK VIII.] 
INSTRUMENT OF DEATH. 
[§ H72 
which, as is usual in that part of the country, had iron knobs 
or nails in them. There were discovered also, along the track 
of the footsteps, and at certain intervals, drops of blood ; and 
on a stile or small gateway near the cottage, and in the line of 
the footsteps, some marks resembling those of a hand which 
had been bloody.(y) A number of persons being present at 
the funeral, the steward depute, with a view of obtaining 
some clue to the murderer, called all the men together, to the 
number of sixty. He then caused the shoes of each of them 
to be taken off and measured ; and, after going nearly through 
the whole number, they came to the shoes of the prisoner, 
which corresponded exactly to the impressions, in dimensions, 
shape of the foot, form of the sole, apparently mended, and 
the number and position of the knobs. (Up to this moment 
no suspicion had fallen on any one in'particular.) The prisoner, 
on being questioned where he was on the day the deceased 
was murdered, answered, seemingly without embarrassment, 
that he had been all that day employed at his master’s work. 
Some other circumstances of suspicion, however, having trans- 
pired, he was, in a few days after, taken into custody. On 
his examination he acknowledged that he was left-handed; 
and, some scratches being observed on his cheek, he said he 
had gotten them when pulling nuts in a wood a few days 
before. He still adhered to what he had said of his having 
been, on the day of the murder, constantly at his master’s 
work, at some distance from the place where the deceased 
resided; but it appeared that he bad been absent from his 
work about half an hour (the time being distinctly ascertained) 
in the course of the forenoon of that day; that he had called 
at a smith’s shop, under pretext of wanting something, which 
it did not appear that he had any occasion for, and that this 
shop was in his way to the cottage of the deceased. A young 
girl, who was some one hundred yards from the cottage, said, 
about the time the murder was committed (and which corre- 
sponded to the time that the prisoner was absent from his 
fellow-servants) she saw a person, exactly with his dress and 
appearance, running hastily towards the cottage, but did not 
(y) As to foot-prints, see post, § 1182. 
1051 § 1173] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
see him return, though he might have gone round by a small 
eminence which would intercept him from her view, and which 
was the very track where the footsteps had been traced. Ilis 
fellow-servants now recollected that on the forenoon of that 
day they were employed with the prisoner in driving their 
master’s carts, and, when passing by a wood, which they named, 
the prisoner said he must run to the smith’s shop, and would 
he back in a short time. He then left his cart under their 
charge, and, they having waited for him about half an hour, 
which one of the servants ascertained by having at the time 
looked at his watch, they remarked on his return that he had 
been longer absent than he said he would, to which he replied 
that he stopped in the woods to gather some nuts. They observed 
at this time one of his stockings wet and soiled, as if he had 
stepped into a puddle, on which they asked him where he had 
been. He said he had stepped into a marsh, the name of which 
he mentioned ; on which one of his fellow-servants remarked 
that he must have been either drunk or mad if he stepped 
into that marsh, as there was a footpath which went along 
the side of it. It then appeared, by comparing the time he 
was absent with the distance of the cottage from the place 
where he had left his fellow-servants, that he might have gone 
there, committed the murder, and returned to them. A search 
was then made for the stockings he had worn that day, and 
a pair were found concealed in the thatch of the apartment 
where he slept, and which appeared to be much soiled, and to 
have some drops of blood on them. The last he accounted 
for, at first, by saying that his nose had* been bleeding some 
days before; but it being observed that he had worn other 
stockings on that day, he next said that he had assisted in 
bleeding a horse when he wore those stockings; but it was 
proved that he had not assisted, but had stood on that occasion 
at such a distance that no blood could have reached him. 
§ 1173. On examining the mud or sand upon the stockings, 
it appeared to correspond precisely with that of the mire or 
puddle adjoining to the cottage, and which was of a peculiar 
kind, none other like it being found in the neighborhood. 
The shoemaker was then discovered who had mended his 
shoes a short time before, and he spoke distinctly to the shoes 
1052 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1174 
LIABILITY TO ATTACK. 
of the prisoner, which were exhibited to him, as having been 
those he had mended. It then came out that the prisoner had 
been acquainted with the deceased, who was considered in the 
country as of weak intellect, and had on one occasion been 
seen with her in a wood under circumstances that led to a 
suspicion that he had criminal connection with her; and, on 
being gibed with having such connection with one in her 
situation, he seemed much ashamed and greatly hurt. It was 
proven further, by the person who sat next to him while the 
shoes were being measured, that he trembled very much, and 
seemed a good deal agitated ; and, in the interval between that 
time and his being apprehended, he had been advised to fly, 
but his answer was, “ Where can I fly to?” In the prisoner’s 
defence, evidence was brought to show that, about the time 
of the murder, a boat’s crew from Ireland had landed on that 
part of the coast, near to the dwelling of the deceased; and it 
was said that some of the crew might have committed the 
murder, though their motives for doing so it was difficult to 
explain, it not being alleged that robbery was their purpose, 
or that anything was missed from the cottages in the neigh- 
borhood. On this evidence the prisoner was convicted and 
executed. Before his death, he confessed that he was the 
murderer, and said that it was to hide his shame that he com- 
mitted the deed, knowing that the girl was with child by him. 
He mentioned also to the clergyman who attended him where 
the knife would be found with which he had perpetrated the 
murder. It was found accordingly in the place he described 
(under a stone in the wall), with marks of blood upon . 
TV. Liability of deceased to attack. 
1st. Possession of Money. 
§ 1174. This opens a wide range of testimony. It is ad- 
missible to prove that the deceased had received a considerable 
sum of ready money just before the fatal moment, and that he 
might be supposed to have the whole or a part of it on his 
person. When the defence is passion or self-defence, evidence 
(s) Best on Presumptions, § 262. 
1053 § 1175] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
of this kind is always proper to prove premeditation, though 
it should have no effect on the jury, unless it be connected 
by presumption or otherwise with the defendant. If he was 
not likely from the circumstances to have any suspicion of the 
fact—if the opportunity of robbing the deceased was not used 
—if the defendant’s means were such as to make the acquisition 
of money in such sums and at such risks out of the range of 
possible temptation—the fact should not be allowed to weigh. 
It will be seen at once that not only the deceased’s condition 
and habits—e. g., those which would show the likelihood of 
his having money on his person at this particular time—but 
those of the defendant, become thus the legitimate subjects of 
inquiry. So far as the deceased is concerned, a very strong 
tone is lent to this species of presumption by the fact of his 
being a peddler or itinerant vender of jewelry. The easy 
exportation of the goods of this class of persons, their usual 
isolation, and the readiness with which they can be enticed 
under business pretexts into places where they can be secretly 
dispatched, contribute to sharpen very much the probability 
that a violent homicide, of which a person of their calling 
was the subject, was committed for the sake of gain. On the 
other hand, the situation of the defendant after the guilty 
act is to be closely scrutinized. Was there any change in his 
circumstances exhibiting greater means of expenditure than 
before ? For this purpose evidence is always admissible, show- 
ing the unexpected extinguishment of pressing debts, or in- 
crease of a bank-balance, or investments or outlay of any kind 
whatever. 
| 1175. History rather than the record of criminal courts 
affords examples of cases where homicide has been committed 
to remove from the assailant’s path a party who stood between 
him and the consummation of his avarice or his ambition. In 
England, however, the poisoning of Sir Theodore Broughton, 
in Paris that of the family of the Marchioness Brinvilliers, 
and in Belgium that of Gustavus Fougnies, are conspicuous 
examples of the judicial punishment of homicide committed 
for the purpose of removing an obstacle in the way of a decent. 
And so frequently in that corrupt state of society which pre- 
ceded the French Revolution was this method of diverting the 
1054 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ HT7 
LIABILITY TO ATTACK. 
channel of inheritance resorted to, that a specific under the 
name of the “Succession Powder” disputed with the “Aqua 
Tophana” the credit of being the most effectual remedy for 
this purpose. The inventress of the last-named agent was said 
to have poisoned six hundred persons, and in Paris at the close 
of the seventeenth century the practice increased to so alarm- 
ing an extent that it was necessary to establish an inquisitorial 
court, called the “ Chambre Ardente,” for the purpose of watch- 
ing and acting upon the use of poisons as a social element. 
By this court two women, named La Vagren and La Voison, 
were sentenced to be burned alive in 1780 ; and the sentence 
was executed. The perfumer of Catharine de Medicis had the 
reputation of being able to convey poisons through a variety 
of vehicles, as a jelly or the smell of a rose. Ancient testi- 
mony to this effect was very emphatic, Plutarch, Theophrastus, 
Livy, Tacitus, and Aulus Gellius uniting in verifying it. That 
the modern belief was not peculiar to France, nor consequent 
upon the revelations of the Chambre Ardente, is proved by 
the fact that it was received in England at the time of Somer- 
set’s trial by both sides of that great politico-judicial struggle. 
Shakspeare thus recognizes the general currency which the 
opinion had obtained:— 
“ Their great guilt, 
Like poisons given to work a great time after, 
Now ’gins to bite the spirits.”—Tempest, Act III. s. 3. 
§ 1176. But, however well-founded may have been the then 
popular belief, it is clear that if the art ever existed it is now 
lost. Dr. Amos, whose authority in this branch of medical 
jurisprudence rests on the most elaborate research, tells us that 
“ it may now be doubted if a medical man could indicate with 
certainty any poisonous preparation of which the effect should 
be fatal, but should nevertheless be suspended for two months 
or even a week. And perhaps good scientific testimony could 
be produced, negativing the quality of being a slow poison to 
any of Franklin’s drugs, unless, indeed, they be repeated in 
slow doses for a considerable period.”(a) 
§ 1177. Neither in England, nor in this country, has there 
(a) Great Oyer, 347. 
1055 § 1178] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viit. 
been any recent instance of a trial for homicide in which the 
motive of succession was supposed to be involved. And in- 
deed it is not likely that in the present popular temper of 
either country such a species of crime could find place. The 
abolition of hereditary office takes patronage out of the line of 
descent; and there is therefore no cortege ready to surround 
an heir-expectant and to dignify with the title of party spirit 
what with us would be at once denounced as an example of 
unnatural crime which is not to be permitted to exhibit itself 
in the sight of man. The system, also, that obtains among 
us, of launching young men at an early age into the world on 
an independent basis of support, relieves them from those 
positions of luxurious and yet impotent dependency in which 
the cadets of noble continental families were formerly nur- 
tured. And, independently of this, which subtracts in the 
great mass of cases the motive for this species of homicide, it 
may not be unsuitable for us to notice a still more fundamental 
reason in the essential distinction between the Saxon and the 
Italian or the Italio-Gallican characters. That subtle and tor- 
tuous ambition which seeks to reach its object by secret ap- 
proaches, conducted under the cover of patient and polite ser- 
vility, is as much an exception with us, as is the more sudden 
and public manifestation of passion with them. 
2d. Old Grudge. 
§ 1178. In point of law the proof of an old grudge supplies 
a violent presumption of deliberation. Ho matter what may 
be the intermediate provocations, if a prior intent to kill exist, 
that intent will be presumed to continue down to the fatal 
blow.(6) If there has been time for cooling, the prior provo- 
cation only goes to prove an old grudge, and to make the 
offence murder. Thus in Major Oneby’s case—which is the 
leading one under this head, and has been already cited—the 
evidence was that the prisoner being in company with the 
deceased and three other persons at a tavern, in a friendly 
manner, after some time, began playing at hazard; when Rich, 
one of the company, asked if any one would set him three 
1056 
(5) Wh. on Horn. 198, ante, §§ 703, 1142. BOOK VIII.] 
LIABILITY TO ATTACK. 
[§ 1178 
half crowns; whereupon the deceased, in a jocular manner, 
laid down three halfpence, telling Rich he had set him three 
pieces; and the prisoner at the same time set Rich three half 
crowns, and lost them to him. Immediately after which, in 
an angry-manner, he turned about to the deceased, and said, it 
was an impertinent thing to set halfpence, and that he was an 
impertinent puppy for so doing, to which the deceased an- 
swered, whoever called him so was a rascal. Thereupon the 
prisoner took up a bottle, and with great force threw it at the 
deceased’s head; hut did not hit him, the bottle only brushing 
some of the powder out of his hair. The deceased in return 
immediately tossed a candlestick or bottle at the prisoner, 
which missed him; upon which they both rose up to fetch 
their swords, which then hung up in the room, and the de- 
ceased drew his sword; but the prisoner was prevented from 
drawing his by the company. The deceased thereupon threw 
away his sword; and the company interposing, they sat down 
again for the space of an hour. At the expiration of that 
time the deceased said to the prisoner, “ We have had hot 
words, but you were the aggressor; but I think we may pass 
it over;” and at the same time offered his hand to the prisoner, 
who made answer, “ Ho, damn you, I will have your blood.” 
After which, the reckoning being paid, all the company, except 
the prisoner, went out of the room to go home; and he called 
to the deceased, saying, “ Young man! come back; I have 
something to say to you;” whereupon the deceased returned 
into the room, and the door was closed, and the rest of the 
company excluded ; but they heard a clashing of swords, and 
the prisoner gave the deceased the mortal wound. It was also 
found, that at the breaking up of the company the prisoner 
had his great coat thrown over his shoulders, and that he re- 
ceived three slight wounds in the fight; and that the deceased, 
being asked upon his death-bed, whether he received his wound 
in a manner among swordsmen called fair, answered, “ I think 
I did.” It was further found that, from the throwing of the 
bottle, there was no reconciliation between the prisoner and 
the deceased. Upon these facts all the judges were of opinion 
that the prisoner was guilty of murder; he having acted upon 
malice and deliberation, and not from sudden passion. It 
vol. ii.—67 
1057 § 1179] 
LEGAL DELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
should probably be taken, upon the facts found in the verdict 
and the argument of the Chief Justice, that, after the door 
had been shut, the parties were upon an equal footing in point 
of preparation before the fight began in which the mortal 
wound was given. The main point then on which the judg- 
ment turned, and so declared to be, was the evidence of express 
malice, after the interposition of the company, and the parties 
had . all sat down again for an hour. Under these circum- 
stances the court' were of opinion that the prisoner had had 
reasonable time for cooling; after which, upon an offer of rec- 
onciliation from the deceased, he had made use of that bitter 
and deliberate expression, that he would have his blood. And 
again, the prisoner remaining in the room after the rest of the 
company retired, and calling back the deceased by the con- 
temptuous appellation of young man, on pretence of having 
something to say to him, altogether showed such strong proof 
of deliberation and coolness as precluded the presumption of 
passion having continued down to the time of the mortal 
stroke. Though even that would not have, availed the prisoner 
under the circumstances; for it must have been implied, ac- 
cording to Mawgridge’s case, that he acted upon malice ; hav- 
ing, in the first instance, before any provocation received, and 
without warning or giving time for preparation on the part of 
Mr. Gower, made a deadly assault upon him. 
When there is difficulty in ascertaining the probable perpe- 
trator of a homicide, it is desirable, therefore, to consider who. 
there is who had an old grief or cause of provocation against 
the deceased. For this purpose evidence of threats and hos- 
tile declarations is always admissible on trial. 
3d. Jealousy. 
| 1179. Upon this head, as well as the last, it is not within 
the province of this work to enter. It is sufficient here to 
remark, that in inquiring for the supposed agent in a homicide, 
motives of this class are always a proper topic of investigation. 
1058 [§ 1180 
BOOK VIII.] 
POSITION OF DECEASED. 
Y. Position of deceased. 
§ 1180. That the deceased was found tied is not always a 
certain ground for assuming that he was the victim of a vio- 
lent homicide, for cases exist where a party intending suicide 
has attempted in this way to relieve his memory from the dis- 
grace of self-murder. This, however, is very difficult to effect, 
and the disguise is readily penetrated. It is far different, 
however, with the converse, where the perpetrator of a violent 
homicide endeavors to so arrange the position of the de- 
ceased, as to give it the appearance of a felo de se. Cases of 
this kind are numerous, and sometimes the artifice has been 
so skilfully contrived as for a while to avert the current of sus- 
picion. Thus, in a ease in Mississippi, the deceased was found 
lying dead with his own pistol in his hand, with which the 
fatal shot had undoubtedly been fired, and wfith his body ar- 
ranged in such a way as to be entirely consistent 'with the 
hypothesis of deliberate self-destruction. No question, indeed, 
as to this being the fact existed, until it was subsequently 
accidentally discovered that the pistol had been wadded with 
a piece of paper which was a fragment of a sheet in the 
defendant’s pocket. So, also, on the trial of a German named- 
Papenberg, in Philadelphia, in 1844, it appeared that the de- 
ceased was found with a hatchet lying by his side, with the 
sharp edge of which his throat had been cut, in a manner which 
made the hypothesis of suicide not improbable. One of the 
most powerful circumstances in dispelling this hypothesis, and 
in pointing to the real offender, was the discovery in the pocket 
of the latter of a handkerchief, in which was marked in blood 
the profile of the precise weapon with which the wmund was 
effected. In the case of Courvoisier, who was tried for the 
murder of Sir Wm. Russell, suicide, as has already been men- 
tioned, was set up as a defence, with much show of evidence ; 
but two facts were successfully relied on by the prosecution to 
rebut it, viz., that a napkin was placed over the deceased’s 
face, and that the instrument of death did not lie near the 
body. And so Mr. Amos tells us of a trial where the defence 
of suicide was defeated by the fact, that, wffiile medical obser- 
vation shows that prussic acid produces instantaneous death, 
1059 § 1182] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
the deceased was found with a corked bottle in her hand, from 
which five drachms o£ that particular poison had been taken, 
and with the bedclothes composed about her person with 
elaborate precision.(c) 
§ 1181. Other points are to be noticed in the same connec- 
tion. Thus, it is important to examine whether there are 
marks of a scuffle about the deceased, and what footsteps are 
noticed leading to or from the locus in quo, together with their 
dimensions and other peculiarities.^/) 
VI. Materials appropriate to be converted into 
INSTRUMENTS OF CRIME. 
§ 1182. It is here that what the civilians call indicatory evi- 
dence comes into great play. No deliberate homicide is com- 
mitted without preparation, and the more malignantly con- 
trived is the act, the more—such are the sanctions of society 
—it exposes itself to detection, by the discovery of the trains 
laid by it for the purpose of effecting the guilty purpose. 
Thus, in poisoning, it is necessary that the poison should have 
been pre-procured, either in its rudimental or its complete 
shape. For this purpose it is admissible to show not only, as 
in Sir Theodore Broughton’s case, the possession of the fatal 
drug, but its purchase, or the purchase of its component ele- 
ments. Inquiries, also, as to the effect of that particular drug 
—-possession of books in which the nature of poison is de- 
scribed— become pertinent, for, unless the defendant is a 
scientific man, he must necessarily fortify himself wTith infor- 
mation before he attempts anything so hazardous as placing 
in the die both the life of another and of himself. When a 
gunshot wound is the cause of death, premeditation as well as 
identity may be determined in the same way. Of course, 
when fire-arms are habitually used, the possession of powder 
is of no moment in this respect. But the use of a particular 
fragment of wadding has often been the means of insuring 
conviction ; and when a party is not in the habit of carrying 
(c) See ante, §§ 717-722, 1151, for discussion of suicidal or homicidal pre- 
sumptions. 
(d) See post, §§ 1186-7. 
1060 BOOK VIII.] 
MATERIALS FOR CRIME. 
[§ 1182 
fire-arms, blit assumes them for a particular occasion, this, as 
has already been noticed, lends a strong presumption of design, 
if it does not form part of a chain of circumstances indicating 
the guilty party. The species of preparation which most often 
leads to the discovery of the offender, in this class of homi- 
cide—particularly among those with whom the carrying of 
‘fire-arms is habitual—is the selection or arrangement of a lair 
or shooting stand, from which the victim can be shot down 
without arresting the suspicion of himself or the observation 
of others. In a late case in South Carolina, the only trace by 
which identity could be pursued was that arising from the 
construction, by the assassin, of a shed or cover made of 
boughs of trees, from which the deceased was shot at. Similar 
to this, was the discovery of a level in a darkened room in a 
private house, upon which an air-gun had been poised for the 
purpose of taking a more secure aim. The more artful and 
skilful is the method of death chosen, the more conclusive is 
the presumption it affords when discovered. Thus, in the tra- 
ditionary homicide of Amy Robsart, the fact which defeated 
the hypothesis of suicide was, that the planks which had been 
taken up from the floor for the purpose of opening a pit-fall, 
were so artfully cut out as to enable them afterwards, had it 
been necessary, to be returned to their former places without 
the appearance of having been disturbed. ITitzig, also, men- 
tions a case where suspicion of a projected homicide, by 
poisoning, was attempted to be warded off by the prior an- 
nouncement of a tendency to symptoms, on the part of the 
intended patient, of the same general character as those which 
the poison was likely to produce. And nothing added such 
point and emphasis to the evidence of design in the Webster 
case, as the presumption existing, that the defendant had 
prepared beforehand the means of disposing of the deceased’s 
body. 
Great care, however, should be exercised in conducting ex- 
aminations for the purpose of testing how under given cir- 
cumstances the particular result could have been produced. 
When the examinations are carelessly and inartificially carried 
on, their results should be rejected by the court. A strict 
rein, also, should be placed on experiments carried on during 
1061 1062 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
the trial for the purpose of testing the adequacy of supposed 
agencies. Unless thus guarded, such experiments are apt both 
to cumber the issue and to mislead the jurors. Take, as illus- 
trating this, the following statement of certain “ experiments” 
made before the jury in a homicide case in Illinois :— 
“ The door was placed against the shutters in the rear of 
the judge’s bench, and the experiment commenced. 
“ 1. A hole was bored in the head and tyle of the door, and 
a two-inch screw screwed in. A. Wheaton, a juryman, hung 
to it, and held. 
“ 2. An inch and a half screw was then used with the same 
effect. 
“ 3. The juryman stepped off the chair, and the screw gave. 
“4. The juryman stepped off the chair, the rope slipped, 
and the screw was pulled nearly out. 
u 5. A hook, size of smaller one found in the room, used, 
and did not give. 
“ 6. Another screw, of same size, used with same effect. 
“ 7. Experiment on last hook; did not give. 
“ 8. Experiment on plain one and a half inch screw ; did 
not give. 
“ 9. Same experiment with same effect. 
“10. Tried by prosecution, on a hook similar to the one used 
in Ho. 5 hook ; the whole broke. 
“ 11. By defence, one of the hooks found in Jumpertz’s 
room ; did not give. 
“ 12. By prosecution, on same hook in a different place; 
hook was bent down. 
“13. With the same hook; juror stepped from the chair, 
and hook pulled out. 
“ 14. A two-ineh screw used and when juror stepped from the 
chair, it was nearly pulled out. 
“ 15. A screw found in the room was then used, and when 
the juror stepped off from the chair, it remained firm.”^1) 
The Supreme Court very properly said they did not “ ap- 
prove” of this “exhibition” and “experiments,” but at the 
(<?') Jumpertz v. People, 21 Illinois 375. 
1062 BOOK VIII.] 
detached circumjacent bodies. 
1063 
same time intimated that in themselves they were not ground 
for a new trial. 
VII. Detached circumjacent bodies. 
§ 1183. Was the deceased’s dress torn, his pockets rifled, or 
were there any traces left by the supposed murderer on the 
spot? The more artful the design, the more emphatic, as has 
already been noticed, is the presumption to be drawn from it. 
Thus, in a case in New Jersey, suspicion was for some time 
averted by the fact that all the horse-tracks led to the spot, 
and none from it. This, however, tended only to clinch the 
fact of the defendant’s guilt, when it was discovered that the 
horse which he had ridden that night bore on its hoofs the 
marks of the shoes having been nailed on backwards. So, also, 
where leaves were used for the purpose of concealing foot- 
tracks to and from flie spot, the presumption against the ac- 
cused party was certainly not weakened by the discovery that 
the leaves were none of them taken from a level above that 
which he could conveniently reach, he being, in fact, much 
below the average height. 
§ 1184. A woman was tried in England, in 1818, before Mr. 
Baron Garrow, for arson. She had been met near the ricks, 
which were the subject of her incendiary attempt, about two 
hours before midnight. On one of the ricks was found a piece 
of woman’s handkerchief, and in a tinder-box near the spot 
were some unburnt cotton rags. On examining the cotton 
taken from the latter with a lens, it was proved to be of the 
same fabric and pattern as a gown and some pieces of cotton- 
print taken from the prisoner’s box at her lodgings. A still 
more conclusive presumption was drawn from the comparison 
of a half-handkerchief taken from a bundle belonging to the 
prisoner with the piece found, in the rick. A critical exami- 
nation by experts of the two, showed that they belonged to 
the same square. It appeared, also, that the hemming in each 
was of the same breadth—the stitching in each was of the 
same degree of evenness—and that each was sewed with black 
sewing-silk, which was the more remarkable from the fact that 
articles of that character were usually sewed in cotton. Now, 
although these circumstances would have been entirely insuffi- 
1063 1064 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
cient to warrant a conviction without proof of guilt aliunde, 
it cannot be denied that they are of much value in relieving 
the court and jury from that anxiety which must always 
arise when there is a doubt whether, if the circumstances in 
question had been explored, they would not have tended to 
negative the defendant’s guilt. And as the burden of proof 
is on the prosecution, if it neglects to examine facts like these, 
the presumption is, that, if they had been examined, they 
would have told against it. In this view, as well as to pro- 
mote public justice generally, their investigation is a matter of 
duty. 
§ 1185. In a trial in Philadelphia, in 1844—already men- 
tioned under another head—a handkerchief found on the de- 
fendant’s person was discovered to be marked with a profile of 
a hatchet with which the fatal wound had been inflicted. The 
hatchet itself was peculiarly notched, and a critical analysis 
showed the marks on the handkerchief to be blood. Other 
circumstances conspired with this to make the presumption 
irresistible that the defendant was the guilty agent. 
§ 1186. The piecing together of the wadding of a pistol with 
papers or other material found in a suspected party’s posses- 
sion, is a well-known method of It should 
be observed, however, that this is a species of identification 
very easily fabricated, as is illustrated by the case of Boynton, 
in Mississippi, where a scrap of paper from which the wadding 
was cut, was purposely put in the defendant’s pocket in order 
to inculpate him. 
§ 1187. In 1836, a Spaniard, named Palayo, was charged 
with attempting the life of an officer in the post-office, by de- 
positing in it packets filled with fulminating powder, one of 
which exploded while in the act of being stamped, causing 
thereby serious personal injury. The letters, which were in 
Spanish, and one of them subscribed with the prisoner’s name, 
were addressed to persons in Havana and Matanzas, who ap- 
peared to have been the object of the writer’s especial malig- 
(«) 1 Starkie’s Law of Ev. 490 ; Bentham’s Jud. Ev., Book v. ch. xv. 
256 ; Wills’ Circum. Ev. 97. 
1064 BOOK VIII.] 
DETACHED CIRCUMJACENT BODIES. 
1065 
nity. Evidence that the defendant was on the spot, mailing 
letters, at the particular time, was held to be materially corrob- 
orated by proof that the impression on the wax with which 
the letters were sealed corresponded with that of a seal worn 
about the defendant’s person.(/) 
Footprints, whether of man or beast, lead often in like man- 
ner to discovery of the guilty agent. In a case already re- 
ferred to, which occurred in New Jersey, in 1820, it appeared 
that the defendant, who was charged with arson, had turned 
his horse’s shoes round, after arriving at the house to be tired, 
so that there should appear to be tioo persons proceeding to and 
none from it. This very artifice, however, was the means of 
his detection, since the reversal of the shoes, as indicated by 
the recent marks of the nails on the horse’s feet, afforded one 
of the most emphatic of the indications by. which the defend- 
ant’s guilt was determined.(y) But proof of similarity of 
footprints alone does not fix identity.(A) 
§ 1188. “ It is of the utmost importance,” saya Mr. Best, 
“ to examine minutely for the traces'of another person at the 
scene of death, for it is by no means an uncommon practice 
with murderers to dispose of the bodies of their victims in 
such a manner as to lead to a supposition of suicide or death 
from natural causes ;(i) while, on the other hand, persons about 
to commit suicide, but solicitous to preserve their reputation 
after death, or their property from forfeiture, sometimes make 
away with themselves in such a manner as to avert suspicion 
of the mode by which they came to their end.(y) In one case, 
where a female was found dead in a room, with her throat cut 
and a large quantity of blood on her person and on the floor, 
the presence of another person in that room was demonstrated 
by the print of a bloody left hand on the left arm of the de- 
Where a man was found dead, with a discharged 
pistol lying beside him, the hypothesis of suicide from that 
pistol was rebutted by showing that the fatal bullet was too 
(/) Wills’ Circum. Ev. 99. (g) See ante, § 1172. 
(7t) R. v. Britton, 1 F. & F. 354. (*’) 1 Stark. Ev. 572. 
(j) Ibid. 577. 
(tc) Case of Mary Norket and others, 14 IIo. St. Tr. 1324. 
1065 1066 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[BOOK VIII. 
large to fit it.(/) The following case strongly illustrates the 
difficulties which sometimes attend investigations of this 
nature. A man, on detecting his wife in the act of adultery, 
fell into a state of distraction, and having at first dashed his 
head several times against the wall, then struck himself vio- 
lently and repeatedly on the forehead with a cleaver, until he 
fell dead from a great number of wounds. All this was done 
in the presence of several witnesses. But suppose it had been 
otherwise, and that the dead body had been found with these 
marks of violence upon it, murder would have at least been 
suspected.(?h.) And even where there is the clearest proof of 
the infliction of wounds, still death may have been the result 
of previous disease, or violence from some other source. Cases 
illustrative of the former of these are numerous,(n) and the 
two following show the necessity of not overlooking the latter 
hypothesis. 
§ 1189. “At an inn in France, in the year 1808, a quarrel 
arose among some drovers, during which one of them was 
wounded with a knife, on the upper part of the chest, as also 
on the face and hand. The wounds were dressed and he left 
to return home, but the next morning he was found dead, 
bathed in blood, with the left lung and pulmonary artery cut. 
Ilis death was at first attributed to the wounds received at 
the inn, but on a more minute examination this appeared un- 
likely, and- it ultimately turned put that he had been robbed 
and murdered on his road home.(o) In another case, a girl 
expired in convulsions while her father was in the act of chas- 
tising her for a theft, and who was believed both by himself 
and the bystanders to have died of the beating. Although 
there were marks of a large number of pretty severe stripes 
on the body, they did not seem to the medical man wTho saw 
it to be quite sufficient to cause death, who therefore made a 
;post-mortem examination, from which, and other circumstances, 
(?) Theory of Presumptive Proof, App. Case, 2d sec. Also, Beck’s Med. 
Juris. 591-2. 
(to) Beck’s Med. Jur. 562. 
(71) Several instances of this will be found in Beck’s Med. Juris., chap. xv. 
(7th edit.) entitled “ Wounds on the Living Body.” 
(0) Beck’s Med. Juris. 558. 
1066 BOOK VIII.] 
DETACHED- CIRCUMJACENT BODIES. 
1067 
it appeared that the girl had taken poison on finding her crime 
detected.”(p) 
■ § 1190. One of the most remarkable cases of conviction on 
this species of evidence, is that of George W. Carawan, a de- 
posed Baptist preacher, who was tried and convicted in Beau- 
fort County, North Carolina, in the fall of 1853, for the murder 
of Clement II. Lassiter. Carawan was a man of great natural 
force of character, as well as of ingenuity and courage, but 
was destitute of any further education than he had picked up 
in mature years ; and was sensual, passionate, and unscrupulous. 
He lived in a section of the country which is peculiarly desti- 
tute of the means of instruction, -either moral or intellectual. 
In one district where he had property, and which he occa- 
sionally made his residence—an island in Beaufort County—he 
acquired such a control over his neighbors as to enable him 
for some time to defy the attempts of the law to secure his 
arrest. He was oyer fifty years of age when the murder for 
which he was tried took place, and had recently married a 
second wife, almost immediately upon the death of the first, 
whose end the subsequent developments showed he had at 
least hastened. Lassiter, the deceased, was a young man of 
mild disposition, who had been for some time engaged in the 
neighborhood as a schoolteacher, and who had been employed 
in the defendant’s house in that capacity. When he was 
residing there the defendant threw out intimations of jealousy 
as to an intimacy between his wife and Lassiter, though, as 
the evidence subsequently showed, without any real ground. 
It appeared that previous to the death of Lassiter the prisoner 
had made threats as to him, and that the deceased entertained 
fears that he would fall a victim to these threats. On Sunday, 
the 14th of November, the deceased stayed all night at the 
house of a man named Dorset Mason, with whom he had been 
boarding, and spoke of his intention to go on the next day 
out on the turnpike road to Mattamuskeet Lake to get a 
school, expressing his fears of the prisoner, and speaking of 
getting some one to go with him. He left Mason’s the next 
morning, with his carpet-bag, and went to the house of Thomas 
(p) Beck’s Med. Juris. 766 ; Best on Presumptive, § 205. 
1067 § 1190] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
Bridgman, a neighbor of Carawan, where he dined. After 
dinner he took his carpet-bag and started on up the road, pass- 
ing Carawan’s house about two o’clock. Carawan was then 
in the yard, and just before Lassiter appeared went into the 
house, which was a short distance only from the road, and 
from which he had an unobstructed view of any and all who 
might be passing. Lassiter stopped at one or two neighbors, 
and then passed on along the road towards the lake, and was 
seen no more alive. Carawan was in his house a short time 
only after the deceased passed; he then left and went direct 
across his held and pasture to the woods on the back of his 
farm, and was soon followed by his wife to the same point, 
with a double-barrelled gun concealed under her apron. The 
wife returned shortly to the house without the gun. Carawan 
disappeared in the woods, and is supposed to have hastened 
through the woods to a place beside the road, where the 
murder was committed. Not a great while after Lassiter had 
gone upon the road a gun was fired in that direction, at quite 
a distance. Carawan returned to his house at sundown, with- 
out his gun. The place was an appropriate one for the perpe- 
tration of such a crime, and one likely to be selected. In a 
few days the non-arrival of Lassiter at his appointment on 
the lake began to awaken attention. It was ascertained that 
he had gone that way on Monday. Suspicion began to be 
excited. His friends became alarmed. It was noised about 
that he had been murdered. Inquiries were set on foot in all 
directions, and on Friday a general search was commenced on 
both sides of the turnpike-road. "While the inquiries were 
going on, the prisoner manifested great interest in the result 
of them, and made efforts to divert these inquiries into a dif- 
ferent channel, suggesting to one of his friends the probability 
that Lassiter had run away, before this friend had heard 
that the deceased was missing. The remarkable fact then was 
developed that Lassiter’s dead body had been carried off a 
long distance from the road, into a dense and almost impene- 
trable thicket, and there, beneath the mossy turf of a low 
bottom, so carefully and adroitly concealed that it seemed im- 
possible that any human search could ever discover its hiding- 
place. 
1068 BOOK VIII.] 
DETACHED CIRCUMJACENT BODIES. 
1069 
§ 1191. Two men, on Saturday afternoon, after a long and 
tedious search, which they were about to abandon as hopeless, 
were led to this place; but how, they could not tell. No 
mound was there, or footprints, and the moss was smooth and 
level all alike. A few lumps of dirt, less than a handful in 
all, and a decaying limb of laurel that had been overturned, 
were the sole circumjacent indications. There these men 
found the body, riddled with shot and bullets, crammed into 
a hole upon its face, the elbows sticking up, and trampled on, 
and covered with turf. Though Carawan took no part in the 
search, yet he betrayed his interest during its progress, in- 
quiring where and how far it had been made, and where next 
they proposed to look. And as soon as the result was an- 
nounced to him, he prepared a budget of clothes and escaped ; 
declaring, as he went, to his nephew and his servant, “ Boys, 
I must go away, or I shall be hung.” He told his nephew, that, 
if he would tell the people that he was home all day Monday, 
he would give him the best negro that he had. Some time 
afterwards he returned to his home by stealth, at night, and 
surrendered himself to the officers of the law only when he 
discovered that it was useless longer to hold out. After his 
arrest, and during his imprisonment, the evidence showed 
that he was uneasy about the witness whom he had tried to 
purchase with a bribe, and making further efforts to hire him 
to leave; in default of this, to get others to get rid of him, 
“ by hook or by crook.” 
§ 1192. The defendant was convicted ; but scarcely had the 
jury returned their verdict, when he drew from his breast a 
single-barrelled pistol, rose from his seat in a half sitting pos- 
ture, leaned forward, and, thrusting his arm between two at- 
tendants, took deliberate aim at Mr. Warren, one of the 
counsel engaged in prosecuting for the State, and tired. The 
ball struck just above the heart, and, passing through the lapel 
of his coat, and cutting the cloth on the breast, struck the 
padding, and fell .to the floor. lie then dropped this pistol, 
and, instantly taking another, applied it to his own forehead. 
One of the officers, observing the movement, seized his arm 
and pulled it down to the railing of the box, but could get it 
no further. During this struggle, the prisoner, with great 
1069 1070 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
coolness, leaned his head against the muzzle of the pistol and 
tired, the ball entering the right side of the skull, considerably 
behind and somewhat above the ear, and traversing the brain 
until it lodged just over the right eye. He then dropped on 
his seat senseless, and died shortly afterwards. 
§ 1193. One other remarkable incident accompanied this 
case. There followed the circumstantial evidence, a supple- 
ment of direct testimony, which, though for judicial purposes 
without value, became interesting for the purpose of showing 
how completely, in this case, presumption was verified by fact. 
A negro slave, by the laws of North Carolina, was an incompe- 
tent witness; and it so happened that there stood behind the 
trial in this case a negro man named Seth, in whom Carawan 
placed great confidence, and who was privy to the whole 
transaction. His statement, as given after conviction, was as 
follows: “On Monday night, just before dark (the day on 
which Lassiter was murdered), whilst Seth was feeding the 
horses in the stable, his master came to him and told him he 
wanted him to take an oath to keep secret what he was going 
to tell him, and made him take the oath. • He then told him 
he had killed Lassiter, and that he must go and help him to 
bury the body ; and to get a pair of leading lines (such as he 
used to guide the horses in ploughing), and go with him down 
on the turnpike. The boy got the lines; but asked, as he was 
about to start, if he was going to leave Carawan Sawyer, and 
a free negro boy who was then living with Carawan, at home 
whilst they were gone. Carawan answered that he was not, 
and then went to the house and sent Sawyer and the free hoy 
to Bell’s, as stated in the trial. They then started, and when 
they got to Yankee field Carawan took a strong rail from a 
fence which inclosed a small garden. When they got to the 
two pines, Carawan led the way a few yards to the bushes, and 
there lay the body of Lassiter. The negro was terribly 
frightened, and thought he heard somebody coming on the 
road, but it was only his heart beating. The coat had been 
taken from the body, and doubled under it. Carawan said he 
had done this to keep the blood from running on the ground. 
He told the negro that he had concealed himself close to the two 
pines, and just as Lassiter had passed he rose up to shoot him. 
1070 BOOK VIII.] 
1071 
DETACHED CIRCUMJACENT BODIES. 
In taking aim he stepped on a dead bush, which broke under 
his foot. The noise attracted Lassiter’s attention ; he turned 
partly around, and saw him. He cried out, ‘ 0 God !’ and fell. 
He rose up straight again,but fell instantly. Carawan sprang 
into the road, seized the body, and threw it into the bushes, 
and then with his hands scraped up the blood in the road, and 
casting it into the ditch, threw some juniper-wood upon it. 
He then went to the body, and dragged it further off from the 
road, took off the coat, doubled it up, and laid the body upon 
it, so that the coat was directly under the wounds. The first 
thing Carawan and the negro did was to put the coat upon the 
body. This was done hurriedly, and then they tied him ‘ hog 
fashion,’Carawan pulling the body about, and jerking the line 
very roughly to tie it; and then they fastened him to the rail. 
They first attempted to take him through the woods and bushes, 
direct from the pines to the spot back of the Yankee field, 
selected by Carawan for the burying place. The negro being 
much shorter than Carawan, and the ground uneven, they 
stumbled and fell, and in the darkness found it impracticable 
to go through that way. 
§ 1194. “Carawan then told the negro they must take the 
road—that if any one should be coming behind or before they 
would hear in time to step aside in the bushes; but that in 
fact no one would be travelling at that time of night, especi- 
ally as it was very cold. They accordingly took the body up 
the turnpike to the east end of the Yankee field, and then 
carried it into the woods. They had much difficulty, and fell 
with the body several times. On such occasions Carawan 
would fly into a passion and kick both the negro and the body, 
sometimes stamping the latter. When they reached the spot 
which Carawan had previously fixed upon, they laid the body 
down, untied it, and prepared to bury it. Carawan first cut 
the turf with a knife, took it oft’ and laid it aside, the negro 
helping as he was wanted. 
§ 1195. “ They then commenced digging the grave with 
sticks, taking the dirt out with their hands and putting it 
into their hats, and then throwing it into the woods. They 
did, this in order not to leave any dirt about the grave. Find- 
ing this process difficult and tedious, Carawan ordered the 
1071 § 1197] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
negro to go to the house and get a hoe. He said he was afraid 
to go. CArawan insisted, and the negro started, concluding in 
his own mind to go to the neighbors and betray him. But 
before he had gone fifty yards, Cara wan called him back. 
They put the body as well as they could into the hole they 
had partially dug, and covering it over temporarily with the 
turf, left it and went home, taking the rail and line with 
them. On Wednesday, which was a rainy day, Carawan went 
out alone with a hoe and completed the work of burial.” 
§ 1196. The negro further stated, “ that, as soon as the body of 
Lassiter was found, Carawan came into the woods where he and 
Sawyer were cutting wood, and told them that Lassiter was 
found, and he was going away, as he would be hung if he staid 
there—that he should send for his family, and wanted Sawyer 
to come with them. lie then took the negro with him to the 
turnpike and told him to go up on the road and see if anybody 
was in sight either way. On Iris reporting there was none, 
Carawan crossed the canal, and the negro saw no more of him 
till he came back from Tennessee. lie was constantly on the 
look-out for his return. lie was afraid if Carawan came back 
and caught him he would kill him. lie saw some one cross 
the yard and go into the house, and as soon as he became 
satisfied it was Carawan, he ran with all his might to one of 
the neighbors and told that his master had come back.” 
§ 1197. Akin to this are the results of recent extraordinary 
exertion on horses used by defendants, a point which is 
worthy of consideration, when it was necessary that some 
distance should have been rapidly travelled in order to enable 
the suspected party to pass from the spot where the crime was 
committed to his place of retirement. This is illustrated in 
the trial of How, who was convicted in Alleghany County, 
H. Y., in 1824, for the murder of Othello The 
prisoner’s house here was some distance from the deceased’s, 
and there were several circumstances (e. g. old grudge, etc.) 
which indicated the defendant as a likely party to have com- 
mitted the murder. Immediately upon, the alarm being given, 
(?) 2 Wheel. C. C. 412. 
1072 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1199 
POSSESSION OF FRUITS OF OFFENCE. 
two of the neighbors took sleighs, the snow being on the 
ground, and proceeded at once to the defendant’s house. The 
defendant was at home, and nothing particular about his ap- 
pearance or dress was discoverable. On proceeding to the 
stable, three horses were found, one dry and blanketed, the 
next very wet, having the appearance of natural sweat, and 
was smoking greatly. On this point considerable evidence was 
taken as to the tendency of horses, when subject to particular 
diseases, to sweat in the night season in the manner described. 
There was other evidence with regard to the instrument of 
death, which left little doubt, and the result was a conviction 
and a subsequent full confession. 
Yin. Possession of fruits of offence. 
§ 1198. When property has been taken from the deceased, 
the possession of it in a third party opens, of course, an im- 
portant avenue of inquiry. It should not be forgotten, how- 
ever, that light articles, such as form suitable earmarks, would 
be much more likely to be secreted by an assassin on the person 
or on the property of another.(r) A distinction here exists 
between articles of great value and trifles, such as may have 
been collateral to the homicidal intent. The possession of the 
first gives an overweening presumption of complicity; that of 
the second, if there has been time for the purpose, is equally 
likely to have been the result of the artifice of another. 
§ 1199. With regard to the general properties of indicatory 
testimony, it is important to keep in mind, that, whatever may 
be the differences as to its value in other respects, it has some 
very decided advantages over the direct testimony of a limited 
number of witnesses, and which are thus clearly stated by Mr. 
Bentham, “First, by including in its composition a portion of 
circumstantial evidence, the aggregate mass on either side is, 
if mendacious, the more exposed to be disproved. Every false 
allegation being liable to be disproved by any such notoriously 
true fact as it is incompatible with, the greater the number 
of such distinct false facts, the more the aggregate mass of 
them is exposed to be disproved; for it is the property of the 
(r) See ante, § 1174. 
1073 
vol. ii.—68 § 1200] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
mass of circumstantial evidence, in 'proportion to the extent of it, to 
bring a more and more extensive assemblage of facts under the 
cognizance of the judge. Secondly, of that additional mass of 
facts, thus apt to be brought upon the carpet by circumstantial 
evidence, parts more or less considerable in number will have 
been brought forward by so many different deposing witnesses. 
But, the greater the number of deposing witnesses, the more 
seldom will it happen that any such concert, and that a suc- 
cessful one, has been produced, as is necessary to give effect to 
a plan of mendacious testimony, in the execution of which, in 
the character of deposing witnesses, divers individuals are 
concerned.”(s) In short, a conclusion of guilt, deduced from 
a process of well-collected reasoning, upon evidence purely 
presumptive, may be quite as convincing, and in some cases 
infinitely more so, than one arising from direct testimony.{t) 
D. INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE.(^) 
I. HOW FAR FOETICIDE IS AFFECTED BY THE DEGREE TO WHICH 
GESTATION HAS PROCEEDED. 
§ 1200. By the common law, as expounded by the earlier 
text writers, the destruction of an infant en ventre sa mere was 
a high misdemeanor, no matter what was the stage of gesta- 
and, if the death occurred at any time subsequent to 
birth, the offence was murder.(v) The law in respect to foeti- 
cide, in England and in most of the United States, it is true, 
has been settled by statutes which will presently be noticed ; 
but, before proceeding to their consideration, it is important to 
observe that on the general question of the amenability to in- 
dictment of the offender in all cases where the life of the foetus 
has been destroyed, there has been a concurrence of judicial 
sentiment wherever the point has arisen. Where such injury 
has been attempted by violence to the mother, there can be, of 
course, no doubt. All assaults are indictable, and the guilty 
(#) 3 Benth. Jud. Ev. 251. (t) Best on Presumption, § 194. 
(£') See this subject medically examined, ante, g§ 84r-107, 108-178. 
(u) 3 Coke’s Inst. 50 ; Bract. I. c. c. 31 ; 1 Hawk. c. 13, s. 16 ; 1 Rus. on 
Cr. 671 ; Wh. C. L. § 942. 
(y) R. v. Senior, 1 Mood. C. C. 346 ; Wh. C. L. g 942. 
1074 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE. 
[§ 1201 
party, upon conviction, is punishable with fine and imprison- 
ment; nor, when the offence takes this shape, is it necessary 
that the aggrieved party should have been even touched. 
Thus, it has been held that throwing a squib,(w) shaking a 
whip, and presenting a gun,(a:) form an assault; and so far has 
this doctrine been pushed, that it has been ruled that a party, 
who enticed a young girl into a private place, and there ex- 
posed his person to her, might be convicted of an assault with 
an intent to commit a rape, though there was no evidence that 
he actually touched her.(y) Nor is it necessary that there 
should be resistance, if there be not complicity. Thus, where 
a medical practitioner had sexual connection with a female 
patient of the age of fourteen years, who had for some time 
been receiving medical treatment from him, upon the jury 
finding that the injured party was ignorant of the nature of 
the defendant’s act, and made no resistance, solely from a bond 
fide belief that the defendant was (as he represented) treating 
her medically with a view to her cure, the fifteen judges of 
England held that the defendant was guilty of an assault. (2) 
Had he intended to consummate the offence by force, it would 
have been rape.(a) 
§ 1201. Where, therefore, there is no statute defining the 
offence and prescribing a special penalty, there is no doubt 
that the attempt to commit foeticide by a third party is un- 
punishable by an assault, provided the mother be not an 
accomplice. Where, however, she consents, this form of pre- 
scribing must be abandoned, and the term “assault,” if inserted 
in the indictment, discharged as surplusage. In such a state 
of facts, an interesting question arises, which was anticipated 
in England by the early enactment of a statute providing for 
the whole subject matter, but which, in the United States, has 
been the subject of much conflicting adjudication. It being 
everywhere conceded, that producing the abortion of a quick 
infant is indictable at common law, the courts of Massachu- 
(to) 2 W. Bl. 892. (x) 1 Hawk. c. 62, 8. 1. 
(y) Hays v. People, 3 Hill 351. (z) R. t). Case, 1 Eug. R. 544. 
(a) Ante, § 273. 
1075 § 1202] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
setts,(b) of New Jersey ,(c) and of Iowa(J) have held, that, 
unless the infant is quick, the offence is not indictable unless 
made so by statute. The contrary opinion has been advanced 
and carried into effect with equal resoluteness by the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania.(e) This conflict of authority has 
been fully considered elsewhere, and it was there maintained, 
after a full examination of authorities, which it is not neces- 
sary now to review, that the protection of the law was cast 
round an unborn child from its first stage of ascertainable 
existence, no matter whether “quickening” had taken place 
or not. Except, however, in those States in which no legisla- 
tion on this branch of criminal law has been had (and they 
are but few), the point has ceased to be of practical importance; 
but in those jurisdictions where the common law still exists 
untouched, and where there has been as yet no judicial settle- 
ment of the immediate question, it may still be contended 
with far the greater show of reason, if not of authority, that 
to make the criminality of the offence depend upon the fact 
of quickening is as repugnant to sound morals as it has 
already been shown to be to just medical judgment. That it 
is inconsistent with the analogies of the law is shown by the 
fact, that an infant, born even at the extreme limit of gesta- 
tion after its father’s death, is capable of taking by descent, 
and being appointed executor. 
In most of the States, however, statutory provisions now 
exist by which foeticide is made the subject of specific penal- 
ties^/) 
§ 1202. Mittermaier proposes the following points of in- 
quiry :— 
1. Whether the pregnant female was aware that the means 
employed were such as, under the circumstances, would be likely 
(5) Com. v. Parker, 7 Met. 263 ; Com. v. Bangs, 9 Mass. 387. See as to 
present law, Com. v. Wood, It Gray 95. 
(e) State v. Cooper, 2 Zabriskie 57. 
(d) Hatfield v. Gano, 15 Iowa 177; Abrams v. Foster, 3 Clarke 274. 
(«) Com. v. Demain, 6 P. L. J. 29; Mills v. Com., 1 Harris 631 ; see State 
v. Howard, 32 Vt. 380. 
(/) Wli. Cr. Law, § 1214, etc. 
1076 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND F(ETICIDE. 
[§ 1205 
to produce abortion, or to effect the death of the child in the 
womb. 
The same author remarks that the question whether the 
means used were means for producing abortion is not pertinent, 
since all such means may also serve other purposes. Every- 
thing depends upon the circumstances under which the means 
were used. As, for instance, grains of ergot, savin, and all 
such so-called means of abortion, if taken in small doses and 
continued only for a short time, will have no such effect. The 
same is also true of the mechanical means employed. 
Where an abortion had been effected by the use of instru- 
ments and the administering of ergot, and the patient had 
died from the effects, the parts of the person upon whom the 
instruments were used for the purpose of procuring an abor- 
tion, which had been preserved, were properly allowed to be 
submitted to the inspection of the jury in connection with the 
testimony of the physician who made the post-mortem exami- 
nation.^) 
§ 1203. 2. Has the accused employed certain supposed means? 
—The physician will seldom be able to answer this question 
positively. There are no means which are attended with such 
peculiar symptoms as to leave no doubt that they were employed. 
The appearances resulting from the use of mechanical means 
may also be produced in many other ways. Hence, in such 
cases, other evidence must be sought in addition to that offered 
by the physician. 
§ 1204. 3. When the result proper to the employment of 
certain means is observed, and when it is established that the 
accused actually employed such means, may the result be attri- 
buted to the use of the means? 
§ 1205. Upon this point Mittermaier very properly remarks 
that it cannot be concluded simply because abortion has fol- 
lowed the use of certain means of abortion, that it actually 
resulted from the use of such means. In some such cases it 
may be shown that the abortion did not result from the means 
employed, but was produced by some other circumstances. In 
(g) Com. v. Brown, 14 Gray 419. 
1077 § 1207] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book VIII. 
each case the physician should be very careful to examine 
whether any such circumstances exist. 
To these questions proposed by Mittermaier, Dr. Bocker(A) 
adds the following :— 
§ 1206. 4. Whether means have been employed which could 
produce abortion. 
Everything here depends upon the manner in which such 
means were used. A pregnant woman may eat, for instance, 
once or twice a day a grain of ergot without detriment, while 
twenty grains taken daily for a week together would certainly 
cause abortion. 
5. Has there been a miscarriage? 
6. Did the foetus in question come from the accused? 
7. What facts are there which lead to the conclusion that 
the abortion was produced intentionally on the part of the 
mother, or of some other person, or that it occurred through 
carelessness or from accident? 
8. To these may be added the question whether the foetus 
was alive at the time of the operation. If dead, and known 
by the operator to be so, the statutory offence is not made out.(z) 
While it is possible to produce abortion by the use of certain 
remedies, and also by mechanical means, yet it will be very 
difficult to prove in any given case that the abortion resulted 
from the use of such means, or that the use of such means 
caused the child to be born dead. 
II. HOW FAR THE OFFENCE IS AFFECTED BY THE FACT OF BIRTH. 
§ 1207. "While, as has been seen, it is a misdemeanor at 
common law to kill a child in its mother’s womb, the offence 
becomes murder if the child dies after birth in consequence of 
violence inflicted before delivery. It was decided, in fact, at a 
very early period, that if a child die after birth in consequence 
of a potion or bruises administered before, the offence is mur- 
And a fortiori, when a blow is inflicted on a child’s 
head during birth, and it is afterwards born alive, and then 
(h) Gericlit. Med., § 115 ; and see fully ante, §§ 1-22, 84-107. 
O') Com. v. Wood, 11 Gray, Mass. 85. 
(j) Wharton on Horn. 03-8; Wharton’s Crim. Law, §§ 942, 1220. 
1078 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND FOETICIDE. 
[§ 1208 
dies, the same result But the fact of actual birth 
must be shown, and mere breathing is not enough for the pur- 
It is no defence that the child died in consequence of 
want' of viability, resulting from premature delivery, if this 
delivery was caused by the defendant’s misconduct in bring- 
ing about a miscarriage for the purpose of destroying the 
child, (m) 
§ 1208. The confidence reposed by courts in former days on 
the hydrostatic test was entire; and several executions took 
place on testimony of viability of this character alone. Such, 
however, is no longer the case. On the trial of a woman in 
1835, at Winchester Spring Assizes, in England, it was proved 
that the lungs were inflated ; but on cross-examination the 
medical witness said that if the child died during birth the 
lungs might have been inflated. As the question of guilt de- 
pended upon the child having been born alive, and as the fact 
of the inflation of the lungs was the only evidence of life that 
was produced, Mr. Baron Gurney stopped the case.(n) A 
single sob during birth is enough to produce inflation.(o) And 
where on an indictment for infanticide it appeared in evi- 
dence that the child’s throat was cut, the wound dividing the 
right jugular vein, and that the lungs floated in water, and 
proved to have been inflated; hut the medical evidence showed 
that this test only proved that the child must have breathed, 
and not that it had been born alive, and that there were 
instances of children being lacerated in the throat in the act 
of delivery—Mr. Baron Park told the jury, that, if they enter- 
tained doubts as to whether the child was born alive, it was 
hardly necessary to go into evidence on behalf of the prisoner. 
The jury, without going further, returned a verdict of 
acquittal.(p) 
(&) R. v. Senior, 1 Mood. C. C. 346. 
(Z) Wharton’s Crim. Law, §§ 942, 1220. 
(to) R. v. West, 2 Car. & Kir. 783 ; Wharton on Horn. 192-94. 
(») R v. Simpson, Cummin on the Proof of Infanticide, p. 40. 
(o) R. v. Davidson, 1 Hume’s Com. 486. 
(j?) R. v. Grounell, Wills on Circum. Ev. 205. 
1079 § 1209] 
[book viii. 
legal relations of homicide. 
ill. Tests of viability recognized by the courts. 
§ 1209. Some fluctuation of sentiment has existed as to how 
far it is necessary for the child to be actually produc6d.(<7) 
While on the one hand, it is not enough for the child to have 
breathed, unless the whole body was brought into the world,(r) 
and while more than one learned judge has expressly ruled 
that there must be an entirely independent on 
the other hand, the fifteen judges have united in holding, 
that to constitute such an independent existence, so as to con- 
stitute murder, it is not necessary that the child should have 
breathed,(t) nor that the umbilical cord should be severed.(u) 
For this conclusion two reasons are given; one rested on legal, 
the other on medical foundation. “ If that” (the reverse) 
“were the law,” said Vaughan, J., “ the child and the after- 
birth might be completely delivered, and yet, because the um- 
bilical cord was not separated, the child might be knocked on 
the head and killed, without the party who did it being guilty 
of murder.”(v) In another case, on the part of the prosecution, 
there was strong evidence to prove that the child had been 
wholly produced alive from the prisoner’s body, and that she 
had strangled it by fastening a handkerchief, or some such 
thing, around its throat; but it was clearly proved by Mr. 
Wood, the surgeon who examined the body of the child, that 
it must have been strangled before it had been separated from 
the mother by the severance of the umbilical cord ; and it was 
further stated by Mr. Wood that a child has, after breathing 
fully, an independent circulation of its own, even while still 
attached to the mother by the umbilical cord; and that, in his 
judgment, the child in question had breathed fully after it had 
been wholly produced, and had, therefore, an independent dr- 
(q) As to viability, see ante, §§ 41, 66-7, 128. 
(r) E. v. Poulton, 5 C. & P. 329 ; R. v. Enoch, 5 C. & P. 539 ; R. v. 
Wright, 9 C. & P. 754. 
(s) Parke, J., R. v. Enoch, 5 C. & P. 539 ; Gurney, B., R. v. Wright, 
9 C. & P. 754. 
(tf) R. v. Brain, 6 C. & P. 349. 
(u) R. v. Trilloe, 1 Car. & Mars. 650 ; 8. C., 2 Mood. C. C. 413. 
(®) R. v. Reeves, 9 C. & P. 25. 
1080 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE. 
[§ 1209 
dilation of its own before and at the time it was strangled, 
and wTas then in a state to carry on a separate existence. “ If 
you are satisfied,” said Erskine, J., to the jury, “that this child 
had been wholly poduced from the body of the prisoner alive, 
and that the prisoner wilfully, and of her malice aforethought, 
strangled the child after it had been so produced and while it 
was alive, and while it had, according to the evidence of the 
surgeon, an independent circulation of its own, I am of opinion 
that the charge is made out, although the child, after it was 
so strangled, still remained attached to the mother by the 
navel string.” The prisoner was convicted, and, upon a case 
reserved, the judge held the conviction right.(ip) 
(w) R. v. Trillor, 1 Car. & Mars. 650; S. C., 2 Mood. C. C. 413. 
The reader is referred on this point to the following able opinion delivered 
in 1865, in the Probate Court of the City and County of San Francisco. In 
the matter of the Petition of Henrietta M. Garwood for Letters of Adminis- 
tration of the estate of Joseph M. Garwood, deceased. 
The petition is in the usual form, and, if its allegations have been sustained 
by the testimony, its prayer should be granted. The application for letters is 
contested upon the alleged ground that the child, named Joseph M. Garwood, 
was not born alive. 
Joseph S. Garwood was a resident of this country, the husband of the 
petitioner, and the son of Joseph Garwood, who is the contestant. Joseph 
8. Garwood died on the 22d day of February last, and administration of his 
estate was granted by this court to his widow, the petitioner. On the 18th 
day of May, A.D. 18G3, the petitioner gave birth to a child, the offspring of 
her marriage with Joseph S. Garwood. If this child was born alive, it had 
an interest in the estate of its father. 
From the testimony on the hearing, the following facts appear : Mrs. Gar- 
wood was confined on the 18th day of May last. Her labor was long and 
severe. The physician found her, at 1 o’clock in the morning, “with strong 
labor-pains upon her,” and she was delivered between 3 and 4 o’clock in the 
afternoon of the same day. Within an hour after the arrival of the physi- 
cian, the head of the child rested at a point from which it was not dislodged 
by the natural process. Medicine was administered, but failed of the purpose 
intended, and the head was delivered about 3 o’clock P.M., by means of for- 
ceps. The delivery of the head was half an hour in advance of the delivery 
of the body. About fifteen minutes after the delivery of its head, the child 
breathed, “ drew four or five breaths,” and struggled violently, which, in the 
opinion of the physician, increased the pains, which subsequently expelled 
it from the body, “in probably not less than ten minutes.” During this 
period the shoulders and chest wrere so compressed that breathing was impos- 
sible. After the delivery of the body, the child did not breathe, but there 
was circulation between the child and mother through the umbilical cord, the 
1081 § 1210] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
§ 1210. The following legal propositions may be considered 
as now undisputed:— 
beating of the child’s heart, and muscular movement of the extremities, the 
hands and feet. The muscular movements continued a very short time, im- 
mediately after the delivery of the body. The umbilical cord was severed 
about fifteen minutes after the delivery of the body, and the heart beat after 
the severance two or three minutes, ceasing gradually, which was the last 
action or movement of any part of the child’s system. 
Efforts were made to resuscitate the child, such as sprinkling it with cold 
water, slapping it with the hand, rolling it, artificial breathing, and all the 
usual methods. This was before the severance of the cord. After the sever- 
ance, little was done, except putting it into warm water, supplying heat, and 
inflating the lungs. “There was no response to the inflation of the lungs.” 
The child never cried. It should be added, that it appeared from the testi- 
mony of the petitioner that her general health and that of her husband was 
good; that she first discovered indications of foetal life in December, 1862, 
namely, motions, slight at first, but which continued at intervals with increased 
power, to the time of delivery. Her own testimony and that of the physician 
showed that the period of gestation was the full term. 
Was this child born alive ? 
Considering it, then, as settled, that, to acquire the right to inherit and 
transmit property, the child must he born alive—that is, must be alive after 
a complete delivery—we might next attempt a definition of life. But is any 
definition necessary ? Is it within the capacity of any man to give us a defi- 
nition which could aid us in our inquiries ? We know life by its manifesta- 
tions, and not otherwise. If a child has just come into the world, and has 
not breathed, cried, or moved, there is naturally an anxious inquiry on the 
part of all present as to its possessing life. No one, whether ignorant or 
learned, stops to inquire what life is, and doubtless the most ignorant and 
the most learned are equally intelligent in regard to it. But the child cries, 
and all know there is life. They do not see life, they do not hear it—the 
sound is not life—but all recognize the crying as a sure sign of life. It is 
not in every instance so easy to determine what are signs of life, but we 
always judge of the fact of life from acts or circumstances which seem to us 
to be indications of it. 
We are then to look at the acts or manifestations of life in the case of the 
child, named Joseph M. Garwood, after its delivery, and determine from 
them, as well as we can, whether it was born alive. 
In cases analogous to this, crying has always been considered the best or 
most satisfactory evidence of live birth, and at an early day in the history of 
our law was deemed an indispensable test. This was the doctrine of Glanvil 
and Bracton. (1 Greenleaf’s Cruise, p. 157, §16.) Littleton, however, seems 
to have doubted whether it was necessary to prove that the child cried. The 
rule, as laid down in Dyer's Reports (Dyer 25), is that it is sufficient, “al- 
though the issue be not heard to cry, so it can be known that it hath life, for 
it may be that the issue is dumb.” In Paine’s case (Paine’s Case, 8 Coke’s 
1082 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND FOETICIDE. 
[§ 1210 
(1) Where there is a malicious wound inflicted on an infant, 
with intent to produce death, and death ensues after birth, the 
offence is murder. 
R. 34), reported by Lord Coke, the rule is stated in nearly the same words as 
in Dyer. 
Blackstone says (2 Black. Com., p 127) : “ The issue must be born alive. 
Some have had a notion that it must be heard to cry ; but this is a mistake. 
Crying, indeed, is the strongest evidence of its being born alive ; but it is not 
the only evidence.” Taylor says, “The visible respiration of a child after 
its birth, or as it may be manifested by its crying, is an undoubted sign of its 
having been born alive.” 
That crying or breathing is sufficient evidence of live birth is unquestion- 
able. But this child never cried, nor, so far as could be discovered, did it 
breathe after its birth. 
According to Coke (1 Institutes, cap. 4, sect. 35), “motion, stirring, and 
#the like” are proof that the child was born alive. Taylor says : “ The pul- 
sation of a child’s heart, or even the spasmodic twitching of any of the mus- 
cles of the body, is regarded as a satisfactory proof of live birth.” Wharton 
and Stille say ([30 <*] their Med. Jur., ed. 1860, § 327): “ Every spontane- 
ous movement is an evidence of life.” The last-named writers do not pro- 
bably mean that every such movement is a sufficient evidence of life, for they 
add : “ To what degree these must be carried to constitute evidence of life 
before a court of law, it is not for us to determine.” 
That motion of any part of a human body ordinarily indicates life will not 
be questioned. That every kind of motion does so seems to be questioned 
by good authority. In Fish Palmer, decided in the Court of Exchequer 
at Westminster Hall, in 1806, the question was whether a certain child was 
born alive. It appeared from the testimony that the attending physician 
(deceased at the time of the trial) had declared an hour before the birth that 
the child was alive ; that it did not cry, nor move, nor show any symptoms 
of life, except that upon being put into warm water, there twice appeared a 
twitching and tremulous motion of the lips. Of the physicians examined as 
witnesses, two agreed that this child was alive after its birth, "while one gave 
it as his opinion that it was not alive. Upon this testimony the jury found 
that the child was born alive. This case can be entitled to but little authority 
as a precedent. So far as we can learn, it has no place in any volume of re- 
ported cases. We do not know what instruction was given the jury by the 
court. All we can infer is that the court considered the testimony competent, 
and that the jury considered it sufficient. The case would seem to be en- 
titled to no more consideration than was given it by the character of the 
witnesses. If the two physicians were correct in their opinions, the verdict 
was right; if the other was correct, the verdict was wrong. 
Of the recent writers on medical jurisprudence, Dr. Taylor approves the 
case of Fish v. Palmer. (Taylor, Med Jur., p. 429.) Referring to it, he 
says: “It cannot be admitted physiologically that any tremulous motion in 
the muscles could ever take place spontaneously in a dead body ; and the 
1083 § 1210] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IIOMICIDE. 
[book viii. 
(2) Where there is a malicious exposure of an infant, with 
intent to produce death, and death ensues after birth, it is 
murder. 
spasmodic motion of the lips differs only in degree from the active motion of 
a leg or an arm.” Again: “ It has been objected to this view of the case, 
that the motion described may have been the mere remains of muscular irri- 
tability, and not a sign of actual life. I am unable to perceive the force of 
this objection. Irritability, as manifested by spontaneous motion, is not a 
property of dead matter, and the remains of irritability must, physiologically 
speaking, be regarded as the remains of life or of a vital power in the mus- 
cles.” Dr. Taylor, however, refers to a case stated by M. Marc, “ somewhat 
similar, but in which the medical opinions were opposed to his views.” I 
find the names of some other writers whose views coincide with those of Dr. 
Taylor, but how far their opinions are entitled to respect, I cannot learn. 
On the contrary, it is said of that case in Beck's Medical Jurisprudence 
(12th edition, vol. i. p. 415): “The proofs of life relied on are equivocal. It 
has been suggested, and I think with truth, that the convulsive motions 
merely show that the muscular fibre has not yet lost its contractility. Still- 
born infants, or those who die instantly on being delivered, are not unfre- 
quently observed to open their mouth, and extend their arms or legs. May 
not these be merely the relaxation of a contracted muscle, or the stimulus of 
the atmospheric air on a body unaccustomed to it ?” And in support of this 
dissenting opinion, the author quotes or refers to the statements of other 
medical writers of the highest authority. 
It seems to me that the weight of authority is adverse to the decision in the 
case of Fish v. Palmer. Indeed, it seems to me that the most common obser- 
vation of the bodies of animals recently killed, must be sufficient to show 
that there is a “ twitching and tremulous motion,” which is not an indication 
of present, though it doubtless is of recent life. 
I think the rule laid down by Wharton and Stille, that “ every spontaneous 
movement is an evidence of life,” is best sustained by such English and 
American authority as we are favored with. I suppose this includes every 
voluntary movement and every natural action of any part of that internal 
organism, self-acting so far as relates to ourselves, by which “ we live, and 
move, and have our being,” every action of any part of the human system 
which is the result of “its own impulse, energy, or natural law, without ex- 
ternal force.” It excludes every muscular movement which comes not 
through the will, or which is not the result of its 0|rn impulse or natural 
law, but is caused by some extraneous force, acting directly and ultimately 
upon the muscular system, whether that force be electricity, or cold, or the 
atmosphere, or any other external agency by which the muscles of the human 
body may be affected. It excludes every movement or action which, from 
any cause, may be manifested in a body from which life has ever so recently, 
and from whatever cause, departed. 
Before testing, by this rule, the facts which appear in this case, it maj' be 
1084 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE. 
[§ 1210 
(8) Where there is a wanton exposure of an infant, without 
the intent to produce death, but with the expectation of shift- 
well to look for a moment at the testimony of the physicians who were ex- 
amined on the hearing. There were two—Dr. Whitney, who attended Mrs. 
Garwood during her confinement, and Dr. Gibbons. Both were of the opinion 
that the child was born alive. Dr. Whitney spoke of the circulation between 
the child and the mother through the umbilical cord, the beating of the child’s 
heart, and the muscular movement of the extremities, as evidences of life, but 
he did not testify as to the force or conclusiveness of any one of these facts, 
by itself considered, nor did Dr. Gibbons. I regret that the testimony is not 
more specific. That it is not, is not, of course, the fault of the witnesses, 
and I am far from saying that it is the fault of any one. I only say that, as 
it was intended to enlighten one almost entirely ignorant of the deductions to 
be drawn from the principal facts, if it had shown these with more particu- 
larity, it would be more satisfactory. 
Tested by the rule before stated, I am of the opinion that the muscular 
movement of the extremities shown in this case does not show that the child 
was born alive. In the absence of any testimony upon this point, I cannot 
infer that this motion was spontaneous, and my opinion is that it was not. 
I am not sufficiently informed to enable me to determine whether the fact 
of the circulation between the mother and child, can be tested by this 
rule. I know the attending physician considered it an evidence of life, but 
evidence is a very indefinite term. I am entirely without knowledge of the 
importance which ought to be attached to this fact. 
The beating of the heart is a fact of another character. That it is ordi- 
narily satisfactory evidence of life, we know, independent of the testimony 
of physicians. The fact of the beating of the heart being once established, it 
would seem incumbent upon those who would deny the inference which natu- 
rally follows, to show that, in the particular case, the action is not spontaneous, 
is not “the result of its own impulse, energy, or natural law.” There was 
no examination for the special purpose of illustrating this point, and though 
a portion of the testimony of Dr. Gibbons, as it appears on my minutes, 
might throw some doubt upon it, I do not suppose, from the general tenor of 
his testimony, that he intended to say that the beating of the heart might go 
on in the absence of life. I am not unaware that cases have occurred in 
which physicians of the highest eminence have considered the beating of the 
heart as no proof of the presence of life, and I am not free from suspicion 
that in the instance in question, the real cause may be something else than 
cotemporaneous vitality ; but a court could hardly declare this, independent 
of testimony. 
In connection with the fact of the beating of the child’s heart, and as 
giving character to it, I think the general testimony of the physicians as to 
the child’s being born alive, the testimony of the petitioner as to her uniform 
good health, and the indications of foetal life continuing from an early period 
to the birth of the child after the full period of gestation, and the testimony of 
the attending physician as to the manifestations of life between the delivery 
1085 § 1210] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
ing the support of the infant upon some third person, and death 
ensues after birth, it is manslaughter. 
of the head and of the body, may well be considered. I do not mean that 
any manifestations of life before a complete delivery can establish the fact of 
live birth, but it would seem that such manifestations might give increased 
significance to any movement in the system subsequent to delivery. 
All the circumstances considered, my conclusion is, that, in the case in 
question, it should be held that the beating of the heart was spontaneous, and 
that the child was born alive. 
I think the conclusion I have announced is in accordance with the intima- 
tions, dicta, and decisions of the English courts, in civil cases, since the 28th 
year of Henry III., the date of the case before cited from Dyer, and also in 
accordance with the views of a majority of English and American writers on 
medical jurisprudence. It must, however, be confessed that there are very 
few cases to guide us. Indeed, it is hardly too much to say that there is not 
a case, English or American, in which it can with certainty be said that the 
questions involved in this case have been considered and determined, nor one 
which can very much aid us by its analogies. The case in Dyer, if case it 
can be called, is the mere announcement of an opinion. There are no names 
or facts given. Doubtless there were both persons and facts connected with 
the case, but we are ignorant of them. Paine’s case, reported by Lord Coke, 
gives what would now be considered mere dicta as to any other evidence 
than crying being sufficient to prove live birth, for in that case, “ to remove 
all scruples, it was found that the child was heard to cry.” Of later cases, I 
have only found two, Fish v. Palmer, before referred to, and Llewellyn v. 
Gardiner et al., decided in 1854; though, doubtless, there are others. In the 
last-named case, the only question was whether the child cried, and it was 
found that it did. As a precedent the case is unimportant. The opinions 
of writers on medical jurisprudence are by no means uniform, and are not 
always satisfactory. Cases of this character seem to have been investigated 
much more frequently, and with much greater research and learning, in 
France and Germany, than in this country or in England. I am satisfied 
that in a French court it would not be held that this child was born alive. I 
did not forget that in France, proof of respiration is required to establish live 
birth, but independent of this, it is believed that the French medical jurists 
would hold that the child in question was not born alive. They manage such 
matters better there than here. Questions of this character are, sometimes at 
least, referred by the courts to their most eminent physicians, and the result 
is as liberal and enlightened as it can be rendered by all the learning of modern 
times. I have, however, in the determination of this case, felt bound by what 
seemed to me the weight of English and American authority. I have not 
endeavored to establish any new rule—I have only desired to find the rule 
already established. If this case should be carried to the Supreme Court, it 
may be determined upon more liberal principles. That tribunal may regard 
it in the light of continental learning. It may re-establish the rule as laid 
down in Glanvil and Bracton, and as it has ever stood in the Scotch law, and 
1086 BOOK VIII.] 
[§ 1210 
INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE. 
(4) Where there is an exposure resulting from necessity, 
ignorance, or insanity, and death ensues after birth, the offence 
make crying the only sufficient test of live birth, a rule recommended by its 
simplicity and certainty, and, as it is said, by sound physiological reasons. 
There is, in the way of the old rule—less than might be supposed—only a 
few centuries, and a few decisions and opinions, all of which, the decisions 
and opinions, are founded on an idea, now known to be false, namely, that a 
child born dumb could not cry. However this may be, I am glad this case 
is of such a character that any error here can be effectually remedied on 
appeal. 
Before closing, I shall briefly refer to a few cases, English and French, 
which seem at variance with my conclusion in this case, and which long 
made me doubt, and which still leave me in some doubt of its correctness. 
In Rex v. Enoch and Pulley (5 Car. & P. 539 ; 9 Ibid. 754; 1 Car. & 
M. 650), in which the defendants were charged with the murder of a child, 
Mr. Justice Parke held that “there must have been an independent circula- 
tion in the child, or the child cannot be considered as alive for this purpose,” 
or, in other words, without an independent circulation it cannot be considered 
so far born alive that it is murder to kill it. The same rule was laid down in 
several subsequent cases of a similar character. Now, I do not know that 
anything more is required to establish live birth in cases of infanticide, than 
in cases of inheritance. If. however, this rule should be applied in this case, I 
could not determine from the testimony that an independent circulation in 
the child had been established. It may have been established, and may be 
clear enough to one capable of making the proper deductions from the facts 
proven, but to no other person. I did not, however, allow the rule as de- 
clared in the cases referred to in this connection, to affect the determination 
of this, because I doubted whether it was a well-settled rule, and because I 
could not find that it had been anywhere recognized as applicable in civil 
cases. 
A case is stated in Beck’s Medical Jurisprudence (vol. i. pp. 419, 420, 421, 
12th ed.), which I shall condense here : “In 1834, a female in France, sup- 
posed to be eight months advanced in pregnancy, was seized with convulsions 
and died. About a quarter of an hour after her death a child was extracted 
by Dr. Carbaret, by the Caesarian operation. This physician swore that he 
saw the chest and ribs move ; that there was pulsation in the umbilical cord, 
and also at its base, after it was cut off, and that on laying his hand on the 
region of the heart, he felt it beating. The body was put into a warm bath, 
and immediately on immersion the right hand was raised toward the head, 
and a slight respiration ensued. This testimony was confirmed by several 
female witnesses. The question was put to several physicians, whether the 
child had lived. Velpeau gave an affirmative answer. Orfila, Dubois, 
Pelletan, and others were of a contrary opinion. The same question, with 
another, was finally referred to Drs. Marjolin, Roux, and Marc. They were 
of the opinion that the motion of the arm was mechanical, owing to the 
stimulus of immersion acting on the remains of foetal life, and so with respect 
1087 § 1211] 
[book viii. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE. 
is excusable homicide, in which, in accordance with an Ameri- 
can practice, the defendant is entitled to an acquittal. The 
leading cases from which these principles are extracted are as 
follows:— 
§ 1211. Ann Walters, the prisoner, who was an unmarried 
woman, had taken a place in a stage-wagon, on the 13th of 
April, 1841, and started in the wagon at about ten o’clock on 
that night, at the Wellington Inn, which is situated on the 
Malvern Hills. The evidence showed that she must have left 
the wagon after that time, as she overtook it at Ledbury. It 
further appeared that she was delivered of a female child at 
the roadside, between the Wellington Inn and Ledbury, and 
that, after the child was born, she had carried it a distance of 
about a mile to the place at which it was found dead, which 
was also at the roadside. It further appeared that this was a 
much frequented road, and that two wagon teams and several 
persons were on it about the time at which the child was left; 
and that a wagoner, named Weaver, who was passing along 
the road, heard the child cry, but, instead of going to tender 
any assistance, he went on, and told some other persons, who 
went to the place where the child lay, and there found it dead 
from cold and exhaustion. The body of the child -was found 
quite naked. It further appeared that the prisoner had ar- 
ranged with a woman named Thomas to be confined in her 
house. It was urged for the prisoner by Mr. Charles Phillips, 
to what Dr. Carbaret considered to he respiration, and, in fine, they found 
that all the indications might be referred to the remains of foetal life.'1'' From 
the similarity between the facts in this French case and the case of the child 
of the petitioner, the conclusion arrived at in the former, by so many phy- 
sicians of the greatest learning and experience, might seem to be entitled to 
control our conclusion in the latter. I will not say that the same conclusion 
might not be proper in our courts, upon the same testimony, but I doubt if a 
court could properly make the same deductions from the same general facts, 
unaided by the testimony of experts. Besides this, the French medical jurists 
seem to make a distinction between uterine and extra-uterine life, which ap- 
pears to have been intimately connected with the result arrived at in the case 
last cited, but which, I think, has never been recognized by the courts of 
this country or England, and not generally by our medical jurists. What- 
ever physiological reasons may exist for this distinction, our law seems to 
regard life, present in the body after birth, as sufficient in this class of cases, 
whether that life is uterine or extra-utei'ine. 
1088 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE. 
[§ 1211 
the eminent criminal barrister, that it was clear that the pris- 
oner had no original intention of destroying the child, as she 
had made arrangements for the taking care of it. He insisted, 
also, that there was equally little doubt that she had got out 
of the wagon when seized with the pains of labor; that she 
had carried the child, after its birth, as long as her strength 
would allow, and that she had then laid it on the roadside, 
hoping that some passer-by would render it assistance. Mr. 
Justice Coltman told the jury—and his charge has since been 
uniformly followed—that, if a party do any act with regard 
to a human being, helpless and unable to protect itself, which 
must necessarily lead to its death, the crime amounts to mur- 
der; but, if the circumstances are not such that the party 
must have been aware that the result would be death, that 
would reduce the offence to the crime of manslaughter—pro- 
vided the death was occasioned by an unlawful act, but not 
such as to imply a malicious mind. There have been cases, he 
said, where it has been held that persons leaving a child ex- 
posed and without any assistance, and under circumstances 
where no assistance was likely to be rendered, and thereby 
causing the death of the child, were guilty of murder. “It 
will be for you,” he continued, addressing the jury, “in the 
present case, to consider whether the prisoner left the child in 
such a situation that, to all reasonable apprehension, she must 
have been aware the child must die, or whether there were 
circumstances that would make it likely that the child would 
be found by some one else, and its life preserved, because then 
the offence of the prisoner would be manslaughter only. It is 
impossible to say that the offence of the prisoner could be less 
than manslaughter. It is for you to consider whether, under 
all the circumstances, the child was left in such a situation 
that there was a reasonable expectation that it would be taken 
up by some one else and preserved. Suppose a person leaves a 
child at the door of a gentleman, where it is likely to be taken 
into the house almost immediately; it would be too much to 
say that, if death ensued, it would be murder; the probability 
there would be so great—almost amounting to a certainty— 
that the child would be found and taken care of. If, on the 
other hand, it were left on an unfrequented place, a barren 
yol. ii.—69 
1089 § 1214] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF HOMICIDE: 
[book viii. 
heath, for instance, what inference could be drawn, but that 
the party left it there in order that it might die? This is a 
sort of intermediate case, because the child is exposed on a 
public road, where persons not only might pass, but were 
passing at the time; and you will, therefore, consider whether 
the prisoner had reasonable ground for believing that the child 
would be found and preserved.” The jury rendered a verdict 
of guilty of manslaughter.^) 
§ 1212. In a case tried in Pennsylvania, in 1846, before Chief 
Justice Gibson, Bridget Harman, a married woman, in very 
destitute circumstances, who had been, it was alleged, deserted 
some time previous by her husband, was indicted for the mur- 
der of a female infant child, at the time nine months old. The 
evidence showed that at 6 A. M. on the 11th of August, 1846, 
she had taken the child away from the house where she then 
lived, and at 9 A. M. she returned, saying she had given it 
away. She was seen shortly after she left, with a shovel, 
going towards a stream in which the remains of the child 
were subsequently found. Ho question existed but that, under 
the circumstances, if the defendant was guilty at all, she was 
guilty of murder in the first degree, of which crime she was 
convicted, though never executed.(y) 
IV. Corpus delicti in infanticide. 
§ 1213. Mr. Wills, in his very interesting work on Circum- 
stantial Evidence, discusses with much ability the difficulties 
attending the proof of the corpus delicti in cases of infanticide. 
These difficulties may be enumerated as follows:— 
§ 1214. (1) The uncertainty as to the fact of pregnancy, (z)—The 
history of the English queens, Mary I. and Mary II., with 
each of whom spurious gravidity was frequently mistaken for 
pregnancy, singularly illustrates this. In a case tried in Lan- 
caster, in 1808, before Mr. Justice Chambre, the suspicion of 
pregnancy arose principally from the bulk of the deceased 
while living, coupled with circumstances of conduct which 
denoted the existence of an improper familiarity between the 
(x) R. v. Walters, 2 Car. & Marsh 170. 
(y) Com. v. Harman, 4 Barr 269. 
(z) See ante, §§ 18, 1115. 
1090 BOOK VIII.] 
INFANTICIDE AND FCETICIDE. 
[§ 1217 
parties, and from the discovery, upon post-mortem examination, 
of what was supposed to be the placental mark. The medi- 
cal testimony was very divided. On the one side it was proved 
that the deceased was subject to obstructions; that the appear- 
ance of the uterus might be accounted for by hydatids, a 
species of dropsy, in that part of the body; and that what 
was thought to be the placental mark might be the pediculi by 
which they were attached to the internal part of the surface 
of the womb. On the other hand, four medical witnesses ex- 
pressed a decided opinion that the deceased had been recently 
delivered of a child nearly come to maturity. The learned 
judge charged the jury that it was a mere matter of conjec- 
ture, first, whether the deceased had been with child; and 
secondly, whether she had been the subject of the alleged abor- 
tion. The defendant was acquitted.(a) 
§ 1215. (2) The uncertainty as to the time of death.—We have 
already noticed the difficulties which arise when it is necessary 
to determine whether the child died before or after birth. The 
law, as has been seen, is that if the death occurs after birth, it 
is murder; if it occurs before birth,it is but a misdemeanor at 
common law. It is not necessary at this point to do more than 
to refer to the views already expressed as to the.physiological 
facts bearing on this point.(6) 
§ 1216. (3) Presumptions which bear with great force in ordi- 
nary cases of homicide apply much more weakly to cases of infanti- 
cide.—“ Concealment of pregnancy and delivery,” says Mr. 
Wills, “ may proceed even from meritorious motives; as where 
a married woman resorted to such concealment in order to 
screen her husband, who was a deserter, from discovery.”(c) 
§ 1217. (4) Gestation and delivery, under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances, are attended with casualties ; and in cases of clandestine 
and illegitimate delivery this must be still more strongly the case.{d) 
(a) R. v. Angus, Burnett’s C. L. of Scotland 575. In a case which has 
been already given, a young girl, under the delusion that she had really been 
confined, made confession of the birth and murder by herself of an illegiti- 
mate child, and might have been convicted, had there not been a medical 
examination showing that no confinement had taken place. Ante, § 1115 ; 
and see generally ante, §§ 18, 37. (5) See ante, §§ 1-128. 
(c) Wills on Circum. Ev. 206. (d) See ante, §§ 1-37. 
1091 BOOK IX. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
A. Of persons living, § 1218. 
1st. By direct evidence, § 1218. 
a. Appearance, § 1218. 
b. Voice, § 1226. 
c. Marks, § 1227. 
d. Daguerreotypes, photographs, and portraits, § 1231. 
2d. By inferential evidence, § 1233. 
a. Presence in the neighborhood, § 1233. 
b. Suspicious circumstances, § 1235. 
B. Of persons dead, § 1236. 
1st. Age, § 1236. 
2d. Teeth, § 1236. 
3d. Sex, § 1236. 
4th. Skeleton, § 1237. 
5th. Clothing, § 1238. 
A. Of Persons Living. 
§ 1218. 1st.’ By direct evidence, a. Appearance.—Identifica- 
tion of the person seen with the person accused is established 
by the testimony of witnesses who have known him long 
enough to have his appearance impressed firmly on their 
memory. Such is the evidence of neighbors, old acquaint- 
ances, and relatives. Numerous instances, however, have 
occurred in which such witnesses have been entirely mistaken. 
Such was the celebrated case of Martin Guerre and Arnaud 
du Tilh, which was tried before the Parliament of Toulouse, 
France, in 1560. Martin Guerre had been absent from home 
some eight years, when a person, afterwards proved to be 
Arnaud du Tilh, appeared and represented himself as the long 
absent man. So great was the resemblance, that his statement 
was accepted by all of Guerre’s family, including his wife, 
four sisters, and two brothers-in-law. He lived with Guerre’s 
1092 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
r§ 1219 
wife three years, and had two children by her. About this 
time some circumstances occurred to cause suspicions in regard 
to the true character of the supposed husband, when he was 
arrested and brought before the criminal judge of Rieux to 
answer to a charge of fraud. Upon his examination, he an- 
swered satisfactorily the most minute inquiries in relation 
to the former life of Martin Guerre. Some one hundred and 
fifty witnesses were examined during the investigation, of 
whom between thirty and forty testified, from a lifelong ac- 
quaintance, that the prisoner was Martin Guerre, while about 
the same number swore positively that he was Arnaud du 
Tilh, whom they well knew; and over sixty, who knew them 
both, declared that they were unable to say which the prisoner 
was. The prisoner, however, was condemned to death, when 
an appeal was taken to the Parliament of Toulouse. Here the 
difficulty continued; a large number of witnesses testifying to 
the identity of Guerre and the prisoner, and an equal number 
denying it. Among the former were the four sisters of Martin 
Guerre. Finally, however, Martin Guerre himself appeared, 
and then the relatives were requested to say which was the 
real Martin, when they were both together. Immediately the 
sisters distinguished and recognized their brother. Ho doubt 
now remaining as to the guilt of the prisoner, he was con- 
demned, and afterwards executed. 
§ 1219. Of the Tichborne case it seems premature to speak 
at this date (April, 1873), as the claimant is yet to be tried for 
perjury, and the verdict against him at Nisi Prius was rather 
in the nature of a non-suit than of a decision on the merits. 
But even on the case as thus imperfectly presented, a more 
remarkable illustration of the uncertainty of testimony as to 
identity cannot be found. A roving impostor—to take the ad- 
verse view—named Orton, alias Castro, alias Doolan, so arranged 
to personate a baronet of the United Kingdom, and the heir to 
a large entailed estate, that he—Orton, alias Castro, alias Doolan 
—was sworn to be Sir Roger Tichborne by eighty-five witnesses, 
comprising Sir Roger’s mother, “the family solicitor, one baro- 
net, six magistrates, one general, three colonels, one major, two 
captains, thirty-two non-commissioned officers and privates in 
the army, four clergymen, seven tenants of the Tichborne 
1093 § 1219] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
estates, and seventeen servants of the family.” The claimant’s 
ease,however, broke down on cross-examination. It was proved 
that he was ignorant of the mother tongue (French) of the 
genuine Sir Roger, and of the town in which the latter passed 
the first sixteen years of his life; that he was ignorant of the 
rudiments of the knowledge which it was shown that Sir Roger 
possessed; and that he exhibited in exuberance traits mental, 
moral, and physical, which it was impossible that Sir Roger 
should have acquired. It was said that it was in the power 
of the defence, had its case been opened, to have proved that 
certain tattoo marks which existed on Sir Roger were wanting 
on the claimant; though this proof would have been by no 
means conclusive, since such tattoo marks, as has been already 
noticed, may vanish with time. On the other hand, the claim- 
ant gave proof of a fish-hook wound on the eye; of a mark of 
bleeding on the ankle; and of a peculiar scar on the head, 
which a hairdresser swore he had seen on Sir Roger’s. It is 
important to keep these in mind as showing how deceptive this 
kind of testimony may be.(a) 
(a) The following, from the Spectator of March 9, 1872, is remarkable for 
the ability with which it touches on the difficulties of this form of testimony : 
In all this gigantic Tichborne case, with its long array of counsel on each 
side, its endless lists of witnesses, and its revelation of modern jurymen, who 
almost justify Mr. Bright’s dictum that we might get a House of Commons 
by taking the first six hundred men who pass under Temple Bar, no single 
figure is so interesting as that of the claimant himself. Take what view we 
like of him, accept any hypothesis we may of his career, and he must be a 
personage nearly unique in the annals either of misfortune or of crime. On 
the former theory, he has lost much more than his position, or estates, or even 
his liberty; he has lost his own identity. There is no hypothesis on which 
it is possible to assume even for a minute that he is Sir Roger Tichborne 
except this—that a man thrown into new circumstances, oppressed by unac- 
customed labor, and debauched by dissolute living, may in twelve years so 
deteriorate in body, mind, and habit of thought as to be virtually a new 
and lower man, may forget utterly three-fourths of all he has ever known, 
including that kind of knowledge which once acquired becomes instinctive} 
such as the knowledge frequently retained by fatuous persons of the moves 
at chess; may become utterly reckless in statement—that does happen to a 
large proportion of opium-eaters—may lose.all those habits, ways, and in- 
stincts of caste w'hich, if once evident in any human being, are supposed to 
be indelible, and which certainly often so enter into the fibre of the nature as 
to be transmitted like physical qualities. There must be possibilities in all 
1094 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
[§ 1220 
§ 1220. On a less conspicuous theatre than the Tichborne 
case, though not unlike it in some prominent characteristics, 
is the following:— 
human beings of lesions of brain coexisting with great mental acuteness, of 
defects of memory side by side with great retentiveness, such as physiologists 
have never recorded among their marvellous tales, of changes, indeed, such 
as are hardly consistent with continuous identity. We do not even yet reject 
that hypothesis as a possibility, though we should have done so had we been 
jurymen, for we do not yet know the limits of the possible, and a speculative 
thinker is free where a juryman is bound, but there is no other on which the 
theory of the suit can even as an intellectual argument be sustained. Sir 
Roger Tichborne, supposing that he appeared in that box and made those 
answers, must be a man as isolated in his mind as his misfortunes, the sub- 
ject of some unknown mental disease, the victim of some form of aphasia 
which affects much more than the memory, which spreads over the whole 
mind, instead of its mechanical instrument the memory, and fearfully injures 
the entire morale. We need scarcely say this is no more our view than it 
was that of the jury or the judge, yet it is difficult absolutely to exclude it— 
impossible not to consider for a moment what the inner Sir Roger—impris- 
oned in that huge form, conscious of an identity he has lost the faculties to 
prove, conscious of unbearable injustice, yet with the untouched shrewd 
side of his mind aware that the injustice is not wilful, but is one of the thou- 
sand results of his misfortune—must now be feeling, or, if feeling has been 
dimmed by some lethargy of spirit, corresponding to the growth of fat upon 
his body, must be feeling as if he felt. 
And if we accept the other hypothesis that the man is no member of the 
Tichborne family, a mere impostor who has gulled the credulous, wasted 
months of legal time, and sworn not to one but to a thousand perjuries, what 
a unique figure he remains, how widely different from the one any foreigner 
would previously have imagined ! The strongest point in his favor is his ex- 
treme unlikeness to the sort of man a clever rogue would have picked out to 
be agent in such a fraud. He if decently competent would have hunted the 
world for a great actor, a wicked Garrick, the precise character which is 
certainly not that of this claimant. He has strong qualities rather than high 
capacity. That he is a determined man is clear from his whole bearing in 
the witness-box under the attorney-general’s fire of denunciation and at the 
time of his arrest; that he is a remorseless one is sufficiently proved by the 
attack on Mrs. Radcliffe—an attack the wickedness of which does not depend 
on his identity; and that he is an able one is the first of Sir J. Coleridge’s 
many points. But what a strange, imperfect, sliot-silk kind of ability it 
must be ! Grant for a moment Sir J. Coleridge’s apparent theory of the 
origin of the affair, that a man named Orton or Castro, bred a butcher, had 
thought or had been persuaded -that if accepted by Lady Tichborne as her 
son he would without trouble be admitted heir to the family estates, and had 
gradually conceived a more elaborate scheme, still the fact remains that he 
must be either the man he claims to be, or have got up his case slowly, piece- 
1095 § 1220] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
“ In 1821, an action was instituted by Mary McCreth against 
William Dickinson, administrator to the estate of Captain 
meal, and amidst enormous difficulties, as acutely as Sir J. Coleridge himself, 
who, indeed, in the earlier part of the long trial, wanted to “change brains 
with him,” and hinted that he was cross-examining his questioner, extract- 
ing safe answers from the very questions themselves. This uncultivated, fat, 
hard-drinking butcher must have had twice the legal though latent capacity 
of the sharp little ferret who created such amusement in the witness-box ; 
must have had a nearly cloudless memory; must have divined whole classes 
of questions to which he would be subjected ; must have had a mind sensitive 
as that of an artist, to enable him to evade so many pitfalls without ever 
showing his fear. And he must have possessed that mind in spite of the 
temperament so rarely found associated with it, a temperament essentially 
lethargic, apathetic, slow of impulse, and habituated to lazy enjoyment. The 
claimant remained for years as cool and impassive as the Emperor Napoleon. 
No doubt he may have been greatly helped, but personation is the most diffi- 
cult of tasks, and he must have picked up and retained many thousands of 
isolated facts and circumstances almost as difficult to learn as isolated words 
in a language you never heard. And, yet, as we said, on the theory of the 
defence, how incomplete his mind wTas, how very little it became educated in 
the five years for which the claim has been maintained ! He could and did 
learn enough to convince a few men of all ranks, positions, and degrees of 
culture, and induce them to lend him money, to take in the majority of the 
populace, and to leave after his examination-in-chief an impression of doubt 
even on experienced counsel; but he never, supposing him not to be a de- 
teriorated Sir Roger, caught the whole of any lesson—never, for instance, 
learned French—an unsolved puzzle, for he had plenty of time, and had 
been able during his lifetime to acquire some Spanish—never learnt how 
English gentlemen write letters, never realized fully to himself as a great 
actor might have done what Roger Tichborne must have been, never to all 
appearance rose to the conception that his life-work was to carry the decep- 
tion through, never even got hold of a clear conception as to the kind of 
knowledge in which he would like to be wanting. His case was no doubt a 
hopeless one, for the grand obstacle to personation, the impossibility of know- 
ing all that the double must have known, existed to a much fuller extent than 
the public at first suspected. Garrick playing the part would have been saved 
by instinctive morale from the frightful artistic blunder about Mrs. RadclifFe, 
but Garrick could not have provided for the tattooing evidence. We have 
only, however, to think of the impression Garrick, or say Mr. Alfred Wigan, 
would have created with his French, and his air, and his readiness in acquir- 
ing knowledge, and with the plaintiff’s materials, to see how greatly this 
claimant fell short in the powers necessary for his part. The result must 
have been the same, but if Mr. Wigan had been the pretender half England 
would have believed in him to his dying day. It undoubtedly wished to be- 
lieve him. Whether the case enlisted the sympathies of the poor against the 
rich, whether this fat, impassive, bad man realized the popular ideal of a 
1096 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
[§ 1220 
Talbot, who, as was alleged by him, was an Englishman. Mrs. 
MeCreth, however, averred that Talbot was her brother, and 
an Irishman, and that, as his only relative, she was entitled to 
his estate. On the part of the claimant, the evidence by 
writing and parol was exceedingly strong. Mrs. Lee, one of 
her witnesses, swore to an acquaintance with the captain for 
fourteen years before his death, during all which time he lived 
in the same house with her. He spoke only of one sister; said 
her name was MeCreth, and she lived in London ; that she 
was so young when he came away, that she would not now 
know him. Tie wished to name Mrs. Lee’s child Mary, after his 
sister. He was in the Liverpool trade; had frequently been 
there, but said he could not leave his ship to go and see his 
sister. He never spoke of any other relative. He had a letter 
in his writing-desk, which he said was from his sister, and re- 
quested it to be read to him while on his death-bed. In ad- 
dition to this, the letter from Mrs. MeCreth was produced, 
stating where she lived, and how long she had there lived. 
And a Mr. Leary was produced to prove her actual residence, 
and identify her person. A letter in answer to this was also 
produced by her from Captain Talbot. In Mrs. MeCreth’s 
letter, she states her poverty; writes by way of Liverpool; 
requests her brother to direct his letters to Ho. 2 Lombard 
Street, London, and further states: ‘You may not be acquainted 
with my marriage, since I was, you know, very young when 
baronet—as we half fancy he did—or whether the story awoke that capacity 
for wonder always so great in uneducated mankind, it is an undoubted fact 
that, until the attorney-general rose, a majority of the lower classes were on 
the claimant’s side, and that the speech, with its long-drawn length, and 
artistic repetitions, and bursts of artificial but effective indignation, did what 
no amount of evidence given piecemeal would have done. Indeed, not the 
least astonishing fact in the character of the claimant, as revealed by him- 
self, and without reference to his identity, is the interest and, so to speak, 
sympathy it excited in men who, nevertheless, were perfectly aware that it 
was, on his own showing, radically bad. Out of his position he would not 
have attracted them, but in it they felt towards him as they would to a horse 
in a race or a dog in a fight, and pardoned the viciousness for the pluck, the 
cleverness, and above all, the temper he displayed. Is it because Englishmen 
are so bad tempered that in any conspicuous person, be it the Emperor Na- 
poleon, or Mr. Disraeli, or the claimant in the Tichborne Case, impassive- 
ness seems to them so marvellous a quality ? 
1097 § 1221] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
you left Newport, county Tipperary, Ireland.’ This letter was 
found among his papers; he declared it to be from his only sister, 
and showed his sincerity by keeping it for ten or twelve years. 
In health, sickness, and insanity, he always spoke of his sister, 
and never of any one else. Upon these facts it appeared to be 
clear that he was an Irishman. 
§ 1221. “On the other side, however, they attempted to 
show that Captain Talbot had always said ‘ that he w\as an 
Englishman ; that he had four or five sisters; that Dickinson 
was the son of one of those sisters.’ A petition by the captain 
for letters of naturalization, in which he states ‘ that he is a 
subject of the King of Great Britain,’ was produced, which, 
however, was a little equivocal in its operation, as Ireland 
might be considered as embraced by the term ‘Great Britain.’ 
But to strengthen the defence, a number of sea-captains tes- 
tified ‘ that Talbot had frequently told them he was born in 
England.’ A portrait was also produced by Mrs. Lee, at whose 
house the captain died, which was said to bear a strong re- 
semblance to the deceased; but even this did not remove the 
difficulty; for while one-half of the witnesses swore that it 
was the very counterpart of the English Captain Talbot, the 
plaintiff’s testimony was just as strong to show that it was an 
admirable likeness of the plaintiff’s brother, whom they pro- 
fessed to know, and that it even bore a strong family resem- 
blance to the sister (the plaintiff). 
“Mr. John K. Kane (the present judge of the District Court 
of the United States), was the counsel for the defendant. He 
enforced the testimony for the defence with great ingenuity 
and ability, and manifested no less skill and power in his 
assaults upon the evidence for the plaintiff. His theory was, 
that loose impressions, derived from thoughtless conversations 
of Captain Talbot, many years ago, had been misunderstood, 
or misrepresented by the plaintiff’s witnesses; that it was ex- 
excedingly improbable that Captain Talbot should sail to 
Liverpool for years, and never visit his only sister, who was 
in London, but about two days’journey; that the letter re- 
ceived by him was supposed by him to be from the mother of 
the defendant, whose name was also Mary, a favorite sister, 
whose husband’s name he probably supposed to be McCreth; 
1098 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
[§ 1221 
that he had written his letter under that impression, and that 
the letter intended for one of these women fell into the hands 
of the other, and produced all this confusion. He dwelt, also, 
upon the want of credibility of some of the plaintiff’s wit- 
nesses, and the bias and interests of others ; he adverted to the 
fact of many years having elapsed without the plaintiff’s as- 
serting her claim; and he planted himself firmly upon the 
petition for naturalization, signed by Captain Talbot, and 
stating himself to be a native of Great Britain. He also 
maintained, that the portrait itself bore strong marks of Eng- 
lish peculiarity of feature; and, lastly, that the defendant, 
being in possession of the property, was not to be deprived of 
it, but by conclusive or, at least, most satisfactory proof on 
the part of the plaintiff, who could not be entitled to recover 
upon a doubtful title. 
“ The answer on the part of the plaintiff, by David Paul 
Brown, was, that it was not more remarkable that Talbot 
should not visit the plaintiff, than that he should not have 
visited the mother of the defendant, whose residence was 
proved to be nearer to London than Liverpool; that if he had 
not been born in Ireland, he never could have recognized the 
truth of the letter found in his possession, ‘ referring to the 
time when he left his sister Mary, in Newport, Tipperary, 
Ireland;’ that if the witnesses were doubtful, the letter was 
unquestionable; that Captain Talbot could not have supposed 
that the letter was from the defendant’s mother, consistently 
with the notion that he was an Englishman; and, if he was 
not an Englishman, there was no defence. The credit of the 
plaintiff’s witnesses was maintained, and that of the defend- 
ant’s impugned; the fact of the mother of the defendant being 
rich, and the plaintiff poor, was referred to as corroborative of 
the relationship of the latter to the deceased, who had said 
‘ that he had but one sister, and that she was poor, though 
respectable;’ this poverty was also relied upon to explain her 
not having earlier instituted legal proceedings. As to the pe- 
tition for naturalization, its apparent inconsistency with the 
plaintiff’s claim was accounted for by its equivocation—by its 
having been loosely filled up, and carelessly signed—and in- 
stances confirmatory of this notion were cited; the matter of 
1099 § 1222] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
place of birth, as indicated by the portrait, was also minutely 
discussed, with very opposite deductions from those drawn by 
Mr. Kane; and, in conclusion, the plaintiff’s counsel main- 
tained that, although he had not established an unquestionable 
claim, his proofs far outweighed those of the defendant, and 
that the principle which obtained in criminal cases, that a 
reasonable doubt should discharge the defendant, did not pre- 
vail in civil suits. The case, nevertheless, resulted in a judg- 
ment for the defendant, and the poor plaintiff passed the re- 
mainder of her days in penury and misery, maintaining to her 
last moment her claims to the Talbot estate. ”(6) 
§ 1222. IIow false evidence of diversity, as distinguished 
from that of identity, can honestly arise, may be illustrated by 
the remarkable case of Lord Aberdeen, settled finally (1872) 
in the English House of Lords. A young nobleman of high 
birth, pure morals, and excellent education, is seized with a 
romantic passion for a sailor’s life. He comes to New Eng- 
land, where, under a feigned name, he throws himself into the 
society of sailors and laboring men; lives in their homes, 
adopts their pursuits, and acquires their habits and their lan- 
guage, so that his new companions begin to look upon him 
simply as a respectable though reserved young man belonging 
to their own social order. He makes long cruises in sloops, in 
which his fellow-sailors regard him as one distinguished from 
themselves only by perhaps a little higher line of early educa- 
tion ; and when one day, in a storm, he is swept overboard and 
is drowned, they have no suspicion that the waves are swal- 
lowing the representative of one of the oldest and noblest of 
British peerages, the successor of an earl, who had only a few 
years before presided over the British ministry ; or that in a 
few months all that wealth, that power can do, at enormous 
cost, to collect evidence of that fact of drowning, will be in- 
voked. Now, the sailors and farmers, who learned to look upon 
the young Earl of Aberdeen simply as a sailor, naturally in- 
vested him with the incidents of a sailor’s history and life. 
And their tenacity in this belief—a belief as natural as it was 
1100 
(6) Brown’s Forum, pp. 508-513. BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
1101 
false—serves to illustrate the vehement antagonisms of evi- 
dence in cases of disputed identity.^1) 
§ 1223. The peculiarities in the appearance of a criminal, 
as observed about the time of the commission of a crime, cor- 
responding to similar circumstances in the appearance of the 
accused, form an important means of identification. Among 
these the following may be mentioned:— 
§ 1224. Size.—Any difference from the ordinary stature or 
size of the body, as where a person is unusually tall or short, 
corpulent or slim, at once strikes our attention, and is remem- 
bered, under impressive circumstances, with more distinctness 
than more minute points. 
§ 1225. Dress.—This is also one of the principal points that 
strike the attention in observing a person under suspicious 
circumstances. In Barbot’s case(c) the peculiar dress of the 
prisoner was the means of identifying him. 
A woman was tried at Warwick Spring Assizes, 1818, before 
Mr. Baron Garrow, for the crime of arson. The prisoner had 
been met near the ricks which were set on fire, about two 
hours after midnight. A tinder-box was found near the spot, 
containing some unburnt cotton rags, and a piece of woman’s 
neckerchief was found in one of the ricks where the fire had 
been extinguished. The piece of cotton in the tinder-box was 
examined with a lens, and the witness deposed that it was of 
the same fabric and pattern as a gown and some pieces of cotton 
print taken from the prisoner’s box at her lodgings. A half 
neckerchief taken from a bundle belonging to the prisoner, and 
found in her lodgings, corresponded with the color, pattern, 
and fabric of the piece found in the rick, and it was deposed 
that they both belonged to the same square ; and, from the 
breadth of the hemming, and the distance of the stitches on 
both pieces, which were hemmed with black sewing-silk of the 
same quality (whereas articles of that description are generally 
sewed with cotton), the witness clearly inferred that they were 
the work of the same person. The prisoner was capitally con- 
victed, but, there being reason to believe that she was of un- 
(61) See Burke’s Rise of Great Families, etc., London, 1873. 
(c) 18 State Trials 1229. 
1101 1102 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
sound mind, she was reprieved. Evidence of this kind must, 
however, be admitted with caution. On the trial of a young 
woman for child murder, it appeared that the body of a newly- 
born female child was found in a pond about a hundred yards 
from her master’s house, dressed in a shirt and cap; and a 
female witness deposed that the stay or tie which was pinned 
to the cap, and made of spotted linen, was made of the same 
stuff as the cap found in the prisoner’s box ; hut a mercer de- 
clared that the two pieces were not only unlike in pattern, but 
different in quality.(d) 
§ 1226. b. Voice.—Peculiarity of voice always makes a 
strong impression on the mind of the observer, and is a 
valuable assistance in identification. In Harrison’s case,(e) a 
witness testified that on the night when the deceased was 
found strangled in a hackney coach in the street, she saw a 
coach stop at a place named, and heard a person in the coach 
tell the coachman to go to a certain house, and when he did 
not go fast enough she heard him swear at him for going so 
slow. Afterwards she saw the coachman return with the de- 
ceased who entered the coach. The witness upon hearing the 
voice of the prisoner declared that it was the same she heard 
swear at the coachman on the night in question, and in this 
way led to an entire identification. 
§ 1227. c. Marks.—Besides the general appearance, dress, 
manner, and voice of a person, peculiar marks upon the body 
are a very important, perhaps much the most reliable, means 
of identification. Scars, burns, cicatrices, fractures, etc., upon 
some portion of the body of the prisoner, distinctly remem- 
bered by those who have seen them, will generally be received 
as evidence of identity. Very often where the scars resemble 
each other they may have been caused by different agencies. 
In such cases the evidence of physicians can be brought to 
testify as to the cause of the wound. Still such evidence is not 
always reliable, for a mark of such a nature may exist from 
exactly the same cause in two different persons. It goes, how- 
ever, a great way in establishing identity, and is generally con- 
clusive, unless rebutted by stronger contradictory evidence. 
yd) Wills, Circumstantial Ev. 96. 
(c) 12 State Trials, 850, 860, 861. 
1102 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
[§ 1230 
§ 1228. According to Bocker, the gender, age, size, stature, 
walk, bearing, color of liair and eyes, shape of eyes and nose, 
appearance of teeth, the condition of the hands, feet, bones, 
and joints, must be observed, together with changes produced 
by pregnancy, birth, miscarriage, disease, etc. Moles leave 
important evidence, which continue throughout life, unless 
cut away, and then a scar remains. Marks of branding and 
of tattooing, if not permanent, at least last for years, though 
it should be observed they may be fabricated. Scars from 
injuries or disease can often be observed for a long time. In 
reference to the hair, it is to be observed that there are various 
means of changing its color. Different employments often 
impart some peculiarity to the hands or other organs. 
The above rules apply also to the examination of a dead 
body, in case the appearance has not yet been affected by 
decomposition. 
§ 1229. That scars, however, may he deceptive, will be 
readily seen. On the bodies of several persons may be often 
seen scars so similar that at a short distance of time it is im- 
possible to remember how they are distinguishable. Scars, 
also, may be simulated ; and they wear out in the course of 
time. Of the uncertainty of such testimony the Tichborne 
case,(/) and that of Heasman, to be presently given, may be 
taken as illustrations, to which may be added the following:— 
§ 1230. In 1857 the body of a young woman, upon whom 
an abortion had been produced, and who had been murdered 
by a blow upon the head, was found in a ploughed field near 
Newbrug, New York. The body was supposed to have been 
identified as that of Miss Sarah Bloom, and a man named 
Jenkins, with whom Miss Bloom was last seen, was arrested, 
and already a strong chain of circumstantial evidence, fixing, it 
was thought, the murder upon him, was made out. Jenkins 
insisted that the corpse was not that of Miss Bloom, and, sure 
enough, after four days, when the mysterious corpse had been 
buried, Miss Bloom made her appearance alive and well. The 
resemblance between herself and the corpse, however, was so 
striking as to increase the caution with which similar cases 
(/) Ante, § 1219. 
1103 § 1231] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
should be regarded in future. The body had a scar on the left 
eyebrow precisely where Sarah has one; the body had a cut 
on the main finger of the left hand precisely where Sarah has 
one of the same character; the body had a small black mole 
about half-way between the ankle and the knee, on the 
shin bone, exactly where Sarah has one; but, strangest of 
all, the body had two toes of the left foot grown together, 
precisely like Sarah’s, except that Sarah’s are not grown 
together so far down on the joint; the toes of both feet of the 
body, like Sarah’s, were pressed together from wearing tight 
shoes, and Sarah wears a coral ring on just the finger from 
which on the corpse a ring had been stripped. These facts, 
connected with Sarah’s absence, the remarkable story of Jen- 
kins as to where he had left her, the incident of her going in 
a direction where she did not hear of the discovery of the body, 
and was not herself heard from for four days, combined to 
make a case of indicatory evidence on which a conviction 
might well have rested. 
§ 1231. d. Daguerreotypes, photographs, and portraits.—The 
admissibility of photographs is discussed in another work ;(g) 
and it is there shown that they are now received as primary 
evidence of identification.(A) 
(g) Wh. C. L., 7th ed. (1874). See title “Photograph.” 
(h) Another point, so writes Dr. George Burr, when discussing the Ruloff 
case in the Journal of Psychological Medicine for October, 1871, was some- 
what novel. It was important that the bodies of the two drowned men should 
be identified. No one who saw them recognized either one. They had lain 
in the water two days ; were now exposed to a warm atmosphere, and de- 
composition was rapidly progressing ; and, unless their present appearance 
could be preserved, in a few hours all hopes of recognition would be' gone. 
A photograph picture was therefore taken of the bodies, which, by means of 
a stereoscopic instrument, enabled acquaintances subsequently to recognize in 
them the persons of Jarvis and Dexter, both ascertained to be comrades and 
associates of Ruloff. 
Counsel for the prisoner objected on the trial to any evidence of identifica- 
tion being received, founded upon an examination of the pictures. The ob- 
jection was overruled, and exception taken. In this case there were other 
circumstances which corroborated the testimony of the witnesses who identi- 
fied the bodies from viewing the pictures, and which established their identity 
beyond all doubt; but, as this kind of evidence is quite likely to be 
employed in various ways upon the trial of cases, the remarks of Judge 
Potter, one of the judges in the Supreme Court holding the general term, in 
1104 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
[§ 1232 
§ 1232. Pictures have not been without their use for de- 
tective purposes.(t) A capital conviction is reported by Mr. 
discussing the point, may very properly be quoted. He says: “It is the 
every-day practice to use the discoveries in science to aid in the investigation 
of truth. As well might we deny the use of the compass to the surveyor or 
mariner ; the mirror to the truthful reflection of images; or spectacles to aid 
the failing sight, as to deny in this day of advanced science the correctness, 
in greater or less degree depending upon the perfection of the machine, and 
the skilful admission of light to the photographic instrument, its power to 
produce likenesses ; and upon the principle, also, that a sworn copy can be 
proved when the original is lost or cannot be produced, this evidence was 
admissible.” 
As germane to this point, I add the following, taken from the New York 
Evening Post, which, although a newspaper paragraph, is somewhat signifi- 
cant of the future employment of photographs upon the witness-stand. 
“ An Australian gentleman, examining a mining claim, was seized, stripped, 
and covered with tar and wool. He went and got himself photographed in 
this guise, and sued his assailants for two thousand dollars damages, putting 
in his picture as evidence.” 
(i) For the following note I am indebted to the officers having charge of 
this special department (1860) in the Mayor’s office in Philadelphia. 
“ During the mayoralty of the Hon. John M. Scott, in 1842-43, rough pen 
and pencil sketches were made of the countenances of the prisoners the 
remembrance of whom it was thought desirable to perpetuate. Of these 
there now remain on file, etc., sketches of twelve individuals ; this may be 
considered as the first approach towards the formation of a Rogue’s Gallery ; 
these have been found useful in a number of instances. During the adminis- 
tration of Mayor Gilpin from 75 to 80 daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of 
noted men in police annals were made the nucleus of a gallery, though kept 
in a trunk under lock and key most of the time. They were seldom ex- 
hibited to others than officers of the detective department of police. With 
the present administration the gallery of photographs commenced, and has 
been carried forward to its present condition, numbering now (April 24,1860) 
266 portraits. It has been thought desirable, in furtherance of police ends, 
to add, as far as possible, the portraits of men, notorious in other cities, but 
who occasionally visited us professionally. Exchanges have been made to 
some little extent with New York, Albany, Pittsburg, etc., and pictures 
received have been hung up in our gallery. As it regards the pictures 
of men known to the police as rogues of a high grade, very few of these, as 
yet, are known to exist, in any portion of the land. Generally, these men 
will not, under any consideration, sit for their portraits. When in custody, 
and are therefore secure, the question is often asked, How do you get the 
consent of these men and women to sit and have their likenesses taken to be 
hung up for general exhibition ? The answer is, Sometimes by threats of 
thirty days’ imprisonment, as the alternative of refusal; at others, and in 
most cases, the parties have been arrested for the commission of some crime,. 
vol. ii.—70 
1105 § 1233] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
"Wills to have been secured by the prisoner having given his 
portrait to a youth, which enabled the police, after watching 
a month in London, to recognize the culprit.(j) 
§ 1233. 2d. By inferential evidence, a. Presence in the neigh- 
borhood.—When a person very strongly resembling the accused 
was seen in the neighborhood of the alleged crime, it is very 
strong evidence of identity. Evidence of proximity, and that 
of presence as inferred from it, may sometimes be made out 
by physical facts, such as the impression of boots of a peculiar 
kind, afterwards discovered to be the same as those of the 
prisoner. This latter evidence is very common, and the one 
most naturally sought for directly after the commission of the 
crime. Footsteps, as evidence of the number as well as the 
particular kind of persons engaged, are important indications. 
In the case of Mrs. Arden, who, with a number of others, wras 
accused of murdering her husband, at Feversham, in England, 
in 1551, the crime was committed in the house of the deceased, 
and the dead body carried out and laid on the ground. From 
the impressions made upon the recently fallen snow, the pris- 
oners were tracked through all their progress back to the 
house, where, by means of yet stronger evidences of guilt, con- 
viction was brought about. 
Impressions from other parts of the body answer likewise 
a useful purpose in detecting and identifying an offender. In 
the case of Rex v. Brindley fk) impressions were found on the 
soil, near the scene of crime, of the knee of a man who had 
worn breeches made of striped corduroy, with a patch of 
and, having years of imprisonment before them, are reckless and regardless 
of consequences so far as their pictures are concerned, and yield readily to 
the demand therefor. The greater portion of the pictures in our gallery are 
the pictures taken under these circumstances ; and, therefore, for any practical 
purposes, are by the writer deemed almost useless—especially so with regard 
to the younger portion of them. They alter so materially in person, etc., as 
often to be hardly recognized after years of imprisonment. 
“ The one great idea in the establishment of a Rogues1 Gallery should be 
to enlarge the acquaintance of detective officers with individuals with whom 
they have to do, and thus to give the officers greater facilities in the per- 
formance of official duty.” 
C j) Wills, Circum. Ev. 95. 
(&) Wills, Circum. Ev. 100. 
1106 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS LIVING. 
[§ 1284 
peculiar shape; which was found to correspond exactly with 
the dress of the prisoner.(^) 
§ 1234. In a case that came before the Hew York Court of 
Appeals in 1865, it appeared that the plaintiff in error had 
been indicted for the murder of Owen Thompson, and tried 
and convicted in the lower court; after which the case came 
before the Court of Appeals on exceptions to the judge’s charge. 
The evidence against the prisoner, which was purely circum- 
stantial, seemed to prove that the deceased was killed opposite 
a cattle yard, leased by the prisoner only the day previous, and 
the abstraction from his person of his pocketbook and a large 
sum of money; that the last time Thompson was seen alive 
was in company with the prisoner, that the day following the 
murder the prisoner disappeared from the place where the 
murder was committed, that he was poor and destitute for a 
long time previous and up to the time of the murder, and 
that he was possessed of a large sum of money the night 
after the murder. Other circumstances appeared in evidence 
against the prisoner, such as having made false representations, 
etc. The prisoner introduced no evidence to prove his where- 
abouts on the day of the murder, or how he came into 
possession of the money. The judge charged the jury, “ That 
when it is in the power of a party, if he is not the man, to 
show where he was on that day, at some time of the whole 
day, and he living in a place where he is well known, that 
which before may have been regarded as highly probable 
ripens into certainty;” also, “He has had abundant opportu- 
nity, also, of showing where he got that money; but he has 
not done it. Circumstantial evidence of this sort, when left 
unexplained, if in the power of the prisoner to explain if not 
true, becomes of a conclusive character.” 
The Court of Appeals held this charge to be erroneous; 
“ that it was unnatural and illogical, and fatal alike to inno- 
cence and guilt.” The true rule of law in such cases is, that 
an absence of an attempt to account for the person’s where- 
abouts, when it appears to be in his power to do so, is not, in 
(l) See Wh. Cr. Law, § 862. 
1107 1108 
LEGAL KELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
law, conclusive of the facts in dispute, but is strong presump- 
tive evidence against him.(m) 
§ 1235. b. Suspicious circumstances.—Under this head we 
may mention anything remarkable in the appearance of the 
prisoner, either before or after the crime, which may lead an 
observer to suspect something wrong. Singularities of conduct 
of a criminal, from the inability to conceal the secret which 
is weighing on his mind, have been already mentioned. When- 
ever any physical connection exists between something belong- 
ing to the prisoner and traces of the criminal at the scene of 
crime, identification may be established by actual comparison. 
In the case of footprints, this is done by fitting the feet or 
shoes of the party to the impress which they left. Footprints, 
or impressions made by instruments used by the person com- 
mitting a crime, may aid in identification in two ways: first, 
by showing the quarter from which the criminal came imme- 
diately before the crime, or to which he went directly after it; 
second, as specially pointing out the guilty person. Marks of 
violence, such as impressions of instruments used in forcing 
the way into a house, show that the perpetrator came from with- 
out. The absence of any such traces may lead also to the 
inference that the criminal was an inmate of the house. Evi- 
dence of the peculiar manner in which an instrument of 
crime was used, may contribute material aid in fixing guilt 
upon a particular person. Where the evidence shows that a 
fatal wound has been inflicted by the left hand, for example, 
and the accused is found to be left-handed, this circumstance, 
although, of course, not conclusive, lends great force to other 
indications. Objects left at the scene of crime, which are 
found to belong to the prisoner, are evident means of identifi- 
cation. A connection, also, between something found at the 
place of the crime, and something in the prisoner’s possession, 
may here be mentioned. Where the bullet, for instance, with 
which a murdered man was killed, fits exactly a fire-arm in 
the prisoner’s possession, or where the wadding of a gun cor- 
responds to wadding found with the prisoner, strong evidence 
(m) Gordon v. People, 33 N. Y. 501. 
1108 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS DEAD. 
1109 
is afforded of identification.(n) Chief Justice Shaw, in his 
charge in the Webster case,(o) mentions the case where a 
portion of a broken knife blade was found in the murdered 
man’s body, and afterwards the handle, with a small portion 
of the blade remaining, was discovered, and the two parts 
were found to fit so exactly that no doubt could exist of their 
having once been joined together in the same blade. Positive 
evidence was adduced to show that a knife with exactly the 
identical handle had been in the prisoner’s possession but a 
day or two before the crime.(p) 
§ 1236. 1st. Age.iq) 
2d. Teeth.ir) 
3d. Sex.(s) 
§ 1237. 4th. Skeleton.—This subject, in its general relations, 
has been already noticed.(t) Where nothing but the skeleton 
has been found, it may be identified by peculiar marks or ob- 
jects found near it. In the case of Rex v. Clewes,(w) twenty- 
one years after the death of a certain person his body was 
identified by his widow from some peculiarity about the mouth, 
and by a carpenter’s rule and a pair of shoes found near the 
remains, and identified as having belonged to the 
§ 1238. 5th. Clothing.—In Peterson’s case, which has been 
already given, the difficulties attending this kind of evidence 
are illustrated. There the clothes were so much decayed as to 
make their recognition almost impossible. The wife of the 
deceased, however, was able to identify a small fragment of his 
vest, and a little package of needles she placed in his pocket 
before he left her. 
§ 1239. The legal weight of photographs as identifying 
dead bodies has been already noticed. Undoubtedly such 
testimony should be received, but it should be examined with 
B. Of Persons Dead. 
(n) See ante, £§ 1220, 1223. (o) Bemis’ Report, 465, 466. 
(p) See Bemis1 Report. (q) See ante, § 289. 
(r) See ante, § 292. (s) See ante, § 296. 
(t) See ante, § 289. (u) 4 Carr. & P. 221. 
(») Burrill on Circ. Ev. 681. 
1109 § 1239] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
great scrutiny, and no conviction had on it without full proof 
of the corpus delicti aliunde. Several cases have occurred of 
mistakes in this kind of testimony. Some years ago (1868) a 
man, in all probability an escaped lunatic, named Heasman, 
was found in a cupboard of a house in Hackney, England, 
dead. Great publicity had been given to the circumstances 
attending the discovery of his body, and the result was that a 
crowd of persons, most of them bringing photographs, visited 
the dead-house to see if the features corresponded with those of 
missing friends. Among the visitors was Dr. Ellis, Medical 
Superintendent of St. Luke’s Hospital, who recognized the 
body, showed that the clothes were those of a patient in St. 
Luke’s, and declared that the name of the deceased was Heas- 
man—the name of a patient who had recently escaped from 
the establishment. The name on the stockings worn by de- 
ceased corresponded with this statement. On the following 
day the brother of the deceased confirmed the physician’s 
view. The body, beyond all doubt, was that of his brother, 
Mr. B. Heasman, recently a patient in St. Luke’s. One would 
think such a mass of evidence was beyond all doubt past any 
reasonable cavil, yet it is certain that one visitor, totally un- 
connected with the asylum, produced a photograph very like 
the deceased; and that another, Mrs. Mary Ann Banks, posi- 
tively swore that the body was that of her husband, Mr. Ebe- 
nezer Charles Banks, a commercial traveller. She adhered to 
this statement upon oath in the Coroner’s Court, her two 
sisters partially supported her, and she lias one strong circum- 
stance in favor of her statement. Before she had seen the 
body, she described a particular wound upon the little finger, 
which wound appears to have been found. Ho question existed 
as to her firm belief that the deceased was her husband.(wj) 
(w) “ The interest felt in the case, an interest out of all proportion to the 
importance of the facts, reveals a curious doubt which is always latent in 
the public mind, and which has, we suspect, as much justification as popular 
instincts usually have, a doubt whether appearance is conclusive, or even 
strong evidence of identity. The doubt is probably based upon tradition, 
which deals much in stories of mistaken identity, but we are inclined to 
believe it much more solid than either policemen or artists would be willing 
to allow. A large proportion of ordinary persons, it may be even a majority, 
but certainly a very large proportion, are very untrustworthy witnesses to 
1110 BOOK IX.] 
[§ 1240 
OF PERSONS DEAD. 
§ 1240. Objections to evidence identifying dead bodies goes not 
to admissibility but to weight.—From what has been said here, 
identify when dependent on appearance alone. They are, either from nature 
or habit, incapable of appreciating form, and form alone is the unerring proof 
of personal identity. The difficulties in the way of identification, more 
especially of the dead, are to them insuperable. In the first place, people are 
much more similar than we always remember. Without accepting or disput- 
ing the extraordinary idea which exists in so many countries, and is the basis 
of so many fables, that every man has his “double” somewhere, an indi- 
vidual absolutely identical in appearance with himself, it is quite certain that 
the most extraordinary likenesses do exist among persons wholly disconnect- 
ed in blood; that there are faces and forms in the world which are rather 
types than individualities, people so like one another that only the most 
intimate friends and connections can detect the difference. The likeness of 
Madam Lamotte to Marie Antoinette is a well-known historic instance, and 
there are few persons who have not, in the course of their own experience, 
met with something of the same kind. The writer has twice. In one case, 
he was on board a ship in which were two passengers, who neither were, nor 
by possibility could be, connected by birth or any other circumstance what- 
ever, except, indeed, caste. Oddly enough, they were unaware of a like- 
ness which was the talk of the ship, dressed in the same style, but from some 
inexplicable repulsion—we are stating mere facts—disliked and avoided one 
another. The writer, in a six weeks’ voyage, and with a tolerably intimate 
acquaintance with one of the two, never succeeded in distinguishing them 
by sight; and of the remaining passengers, certainly one-half, say thirty 
educated persons, were in the same predicament. In the second instance, 
the evidence is far less perfect, but sufficient for the argument we are now 
advocating. The writer stopped short in Bond Street utterly puzzled by the 
apparition of one of his closest connections, not two yards off. Clearly it 
was he, yet he could from circumstances by no possibility be there. Still it 
was he, and the writer advanced to address him, when a momentary smile 
broke the spell, leaving, however, this impression: ‘ I would have sworn to 
Blank in any court of justice. His double must be walking about Bond 
Street.’ The likeness was really astounding, quite sufficient to have de- 
ceived any number of policemen unacquainted previously with either man. 
“The writer has a faculty for likeness, or a stupidity about identities. That 
is a plausible, though an erroneous explanation, and it brings up just the 
point we want to make. Is it not just possible—it is rather a serious suppo- 
sition, when our criminal procedure is considered—but is it not just possible 
that something like color-blindness affects this matter of identification—that 
there is a large number of persons, whose evidence upon any question of 
identity, though perfectly honest, is worthy of very little trust—that men 
upon this, as upon most other matters, are guilty of an unconscious careless- 
ness, like that which makes testimony about figured statements so often 
valueless ? We are all apt to think that we observe faces very carefully ; but 
it is quite certain, more certain than almost any assertion of the same kind, 
1111 § 1240J 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book ix. 
and in the chapter in which the physiological bearings of this 
question are discussed, it will be seen that evidence as to the 
that we do not so observe them. We are also apt to believe that the difference 
in faces is very great, is radical, and not dependent upon accidental features, 
yet it is almost certain that no such difference exists; that men are in reality as 
nearly alike as animals appear to be. Take, for instance, in evidence of both 
these propositions—of the carelessness of our usual glance, and of the simi- 
larity among men—a fact which a number of our readers can test for them- 
selves. No man, on landing at an Indian or Chinese port for the first time, 
can, for a few days, tell one man from another. The natives are more de- 
cisively unlike than so many Englishmen, because, in addition to every other 
distinction, their complexions cover a wider range of color ; but, being simi- 
larly dressed, they seem for a few days as much alike as so many sheep, who 
are all alike to a Londoner, but among whom a shepherd or a dog makes no 
mistake. Now, if men were much unlike, more unlike than the sheep are, no 
such curious haziness would be possible ; nor would it be, if the observer 
were unconsciously in the habit of studying the form and character of each 
face. He has, as a rule, no such habit; but, unless an artist or a policeman, 
relies unconsciously on accidental circumstances, color, hair on lip or chin, 
gait, expression, or peculiarity of some one feature, and should that by any 
accident disappear, he is utterly puzzled. One-tenth at least of Western 
mankind is, consciously or unconsciously, short-sighted, and never sees, in 
any true sense of seeing, any face whatever; never quite catches its nuances 
of expression ; never is quite sure about its minor features; never quite 
ceases to idealize according to a preconceived theory of character. Even of 
those who do see perfectly, a large proportion are not artists; never catch the 
specialty of the face they are looking at enough to caricature it—some faces 
will not submit to caricature, Lord Derby’s, for instance, and Mr. Gladstone’s, 
in both of which the caricaturist invariably intensifies the whole expression 
—and really recollect it mainly by its accidents of color, or the like, acci- 
dents which may disappear in life, and do disappear in death. It is not easy 
to recognize the photographs of men whose appearance depends on color; 
and death does its work in destroying color even more perfectly than the sun. 
Fatness and thinness, too, are great aids to recognition; yet they are tempo- 
rary, dependent sometimes on mere accidents of health. We have all of us 
met friends whom we have not seen, say for three years, who have grown 
wider, if not wiser, in the interval, and whom we should not, without speech, 
have recognized. Death, as a rule, while it leaves much unchanged, abso- 
lutely destroys every distinction, based either upon color or upon fatness, and 
modifies thinness in the most unexpected way, revealing unsuspected depths 
about brow and mouth, while leaving the cheek untouched. No child is 
recognizable in death by mere acquaintance, because in children’s faces the 
prominent points are color and contour. An actor cannot change his real 
face, but only the accidents of the face ; yet Mr. Webster, for example, has 
once or twice deceived his audience for some minutes, and could, we suspect, 
deceive them, if that were his object, altogether. 
1112 BOOK IX.] 
OF PERSONS DEAD. 
[§ 1240 
identity of dead bodies is to be carefully scrutinized, and is 
not entitled, if resting simply on resemblance of features, to 
be regarded as sufficient to sustain a verdict. But this operates 
not to exclude such testimony, but only to diminish its credi- 
bility. Thus, in a case in Iowa, where a man had been mur- 
dered and the head severed from the body, and was by a phy- 
sician preserved in alcohol, many witnesses were called to 
identify it. The prisoner proposed to prove, by two witnesses, 
“Think, again, of the excessive difficulty with which the memory retains 
a face. Portrait painters of half a century’s standing will tell you that they 
hardly retain the impression of a sitter five minutes, though they have been 
studying him keenly; that their own first touches from him as he sits are in- 
valuable helps ; that they would all, if it were convenient for art reasons, like 
to keep a photograph in full view for their work when the original is away. 
We think we remember, but in five minutes we forget the half of a friend’s 
face nearly as perfectly as we forget the whole of our own. Clearly, if iden- 
tification were as easy as we are apt to believe, we should not so forget faces. 
And their expression? Doubtless, expression, being, so to speak, an intel- 
lectual rather than a physical fact, stirring and rousing the intellect of the 
observer, his secret and almost instinctive likes and dislikes, remains longer 
fixed in the mind than mere feature. The witness who arrested Judge Jeff- 
ries might have forgotten his face, did forget it, in fact, for Jeffries, when 
seized, had only changed his wig, but he could not forget the ferocious glare 
of those insufferable eyes. But expression changes quickly, may change 
permanently. We all say, every now and then, ‘His face quite changed,’ 
while nothing is changed except, perhaps, the expression and the color. Mad- 
ness, extreme anger, drink, will all change a well-known face till it is almost 
irrecognizable; and though, no doubt, it requires a combination of circum- 
stances to deceive a wife as to her husband’s identity, still there is one 
expression which, in a case like that of Hackney, she has never seen, and 
that is death, of all influences the one which may most modify expression, 
both by altering the set of the features, and changing the emotional medium 
through which we regard them. No doubt there are faces so marked and so 
individual, so completely isolated from any type, and so independent of acci- 
dent, that it is almost impossible they should ever be forgotten or mistaken. 
It would have been nearly impossible for Sir Thomas More to disguise him- 
self, and we question if Dr. Newman or Mr. Tennyson could abolish the 
expression of eye and brow sufficiently to baffle recognition; and there are 
artists, and as the public believes detectives, who would recognize any face 
under any disguise. But the majority of men trying under changed circum- 
stances to recognize ordinary faces from their memories of feature alone are 
liable, we feel convinced, to self-deceptions as extraordinary, and yet as 
natural, as that we may charitably attribute to Mrs. Banks, or that which 
prompted the evidence against the marine so nearly hung for his share in the 
recent Manchester emeute."—London Spectator. 
1113 § 1240] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF IDENTITY. 
[book IX. 
who were physicians and surgeons, and whose knowledge and 
attainments in their profession made them familiar with the 
natural changes through which a human body must necessarily 
pass after death, that on account of such natural and inevi- 
table changes, it was not possible for any one to identify the 
head. The court properly refused to permit the evidence of 
the physicians to go to the jury. It would have been com- 
petent, so it was declared, for the witnesses to have stated the 
nature and character of the changes in the human body pro- 
duced by death, within certain periods of time, and to have 
explained to what extent these changes had operated upon the 
head of the deceased, and to have stated their usual and ne- 
cessary effect, according to the laws of nature. The progress 
of decay, the distortion and discoloration of the features, and 
the consequent change or destruction of the peculiar expression 
of the countenance, by which human faces are usually dis- 
tinguished and identified, as shown by the head in question, 
would have been proper facts for the witnesses to have pointed 
out and explained to the jury. But the fact of such changes 
existing cannot be used to exclude the testimony of witnesses 
seeking to prove such identity.^) 
(x) State v. Vincent, 24 Iowa 570. 
1114 BOOK X. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
[ As to qualifications of experts, see vol. i. § 275. 
Their duties in conducting examinations, see vol. i. § 300. 
vol. ii. §§327, 682,119-21. 
Medico-legal examinations, vol. ii. § 1006. 
Mode of drawing up reports, vol. ii. § 1022.] 
(a) Distinction between experts and non-experts, § 1242. 
(5) Experts maybe asked as to hypothetical fact, but not as to conclusion of 
law, § 1243. 
(c) They may be examined as to conclusions of science, § 1244. 
(d) But not as to their opinions outside of science, § 1245. 
(e) Ex parte examinations under certain circumstances inadmissible, § 1246. 
(/) But not when notice to opposite side would not have enhanced their 
accuracy, § 1247. 
(g) Proposed revision of legislation as to experts, § 1248. 
§ 1241. The law of experts is, in some relations, so closely 
connected with that of insanity, that in treating of the latter 
it has been found necessary to discuss much that includes the 
former. To these discussions the reader is now referred.(a) 
At present it will have to suffice simply to announce, some- 
times by way of recapitulation, sometimes by way of inde- 
pendent statement, the following points:— 
§ 1242. (a) Distinction between experts and non-experts.— 
Whether such a distinction exists is the subject of much con- 
flict of opinion. In some jurisdictions, all persons acquainted 
with the facts, and capable of reasoning on them, are admis- 
sible. In others, the witness, to be admissible as an expert, 
must have made the distinct topic under consideration his 
specialty. But whether the distinction is to be made at all, 
and whether the particular witness is an expert in the par- 
(a) Vol. i. §§ 272-303. 
1115 § 1246] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
[book x. 
ticular case, is exclusively for the judge trying the case, sub- 
ject to correction by the appellate court. 
§ 1243. (b) Experts may be asked as to hypothetical fact, but not 
as to conclusion ’of lav:.—Experts may be asked their opinion as 
to the scientific bearing of a particular fact and as to a hypo- 
thetical case, but not as to the inferences to be drawn from the 
whole trial, for this would be to invade the province of the jury, 
nor as to conclusions of law, for this would be to invade the 
province of the court.(6) 
§ 1244. (c) They may also be examined as to conclusions of 
science drawn from particular experiments.(c) 
§ 1245. (d) But not as to their opinions on matters not of their 
particular science.—Opinion as a rule is not admissible testi- 
mony ; and the only exception to this rule exists when the 
witness gives certain conclusions which it requires special study 
of a particular abstruse science to reach. Where, however, 
the jury is equally competent with the expert to draw con- 
clusions from facts, then the expert must restrict himself to 
stating the facts, leaving it to the jury to draw the inferences. 
Thus, an expert is not to be asked whether certain disturb- 
ances of clothes about a dead body argued death at a particu- 
lar period \{d) whether a rape was effected in a way requiring 
no special scientific knowledge to decide ;(e) or whether the 
position of a dead body can be inferred from the character of 
a wound.(/) The reasons for this rule are obvious. The 
parties have a right, when this is practicable, to hear the con- 
clusions or facts on which their rights depend determined, not 
by experts who from their present mode of selection often only 
represent the party employing them, but by a jury chosen irre- 
spective of the particular case, and acting as arbiter of the 
conflicting interests. 
§ 1246. (e) Examinations made ex parte, when there could have 
been notice to the opposite side, are inadmissible.—Examinations, 
for instance, of an alleged lunatic, conducted by a professed 
specialist, or examinations of blood on clothing, or of alleged 
(6) See vol. i. §§ 287-292. (c) See vol. i. § 283. 
(d) People v. Bodine, 1 Denio 281. 
(e) Cook v. State, 4 Zabr. 843. 
(/) Kennedy v. People, 5 Abbott N. S. 147. 
1116 BOOK X.] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
[§ 1246 
poison contained in the stomach of a deceased person, or in 
bottles or utensils, can in most cases as readily be made upon 
notice to the opposing interest as without notice. For various 
reasons such notice, if practicable, should be given. First, it 
is a familiar principle of law that depositions purely ex parte 
are inadmissible; such testimony being liable to be affected by 
fraud or prejudice, and, from want of cross-examination, being 
necessarily imperfect. Secondly, there are peculiar reasons 
why ex parte examinations, of the character here noticed, 
should be undertaken only upon notice to the opposing interest. 
In such examinations everything depends upon the accuracy 
of the tests employed; the exhaustiveness of the exploration; 
the fidelity and cautiousness of the examiner. In questions 
of poison and of blood-stains, in particular, it is important 
that there should be on the spot, at the time of the examina- 
tion, the representative of the adverse interest, for the purpose 
of seeing that the objects examined had not been previously 
tampered with, that no foreign elements were interposed, that 
the investigation was conducted with scrupulous conscientious- 
Of course, when investigations are conducted by a 
coroner or magistrate, immediately after the commission of a 
crime, the public action of such functionary is adequate notice 
to all parties that the procedure is taking place. The very 
fact, also, that such examinations must necessarily be made 
on the instant, before the traces of crime are defaced, brings 
such cases within the operation of the exception that notice is 
not necessary when notice is impracticable. But when, after 
these preliminary inquiries are over, an examination is desired 
by one of the parties in interest, and when this examination 
relates to a subject matter not fleeting but continuing, then 
the examination is analogous to the deposition of a witness, 
and the policy of the law requires that it should be taken only 
after notice to the opposite side. Sometimes, perhaps, testi- 
mony of value, inadvertently taken, will be excluded by the 
application of this rule. But this will be abundantly com- 
pensated for by the suppression of those inquisitorial and im- 
(g) See some striking observations on this point from Dr. Reese, ante, vol. 
i. § 296, note y. 
1117 § 1248] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
[book x. 
perfect investigations by which the administration of public 
justice has been so much disgraced,(A) and by the investing of 
expert testimony with checks and sanctions by which alone 
can its dignity be restored. Heretofore the courts, in applying 
those limitations, have confined themselves mostly to general 
statements that precautions such as are here specified are 
necessary to give expert examinations weight.(z) But there can 
be no question that when the question comes fairly up, such 
examinations, when taken flagrantly ex parte, at a time when 
there could readily have been notice to the opposite side, will 
be ruled out as inadmissible. 
§ 1247. (/) But investigations by persons having intimate and 
continuous opportunities of examination, are not excluded because 
ex parte when these investigations would not be enhanced in accu- 
racy and authoritativeness by being preceded by notice to the oppo- 
site side.—This is commonly the case with regard to investiga- 
tions by medical attendants (as distinguished from special visit- 
ing experts called in post litem, motam) in cases of 
It also applies to investigations as to facts of nature {e. g., forces 
of tides, habits of animals) ;(&) as to certain physical peculiari- 
ties touching identity ;(l) and as to the value or condition of 
property.(m) 
§ 1248. (g) Proposed revision of legislation as to experts.— 
The application by the courts of the tests just stated will re- 
lieve expert testimony of some of the difficulties under which 
it now labors, and tend to restore to it a large measure of 
public confidence. The radical defect, however, of our present 
Anglo-American practice in this respect is the volunteer posi- 
tion of experts, which makes them, to a large measure, the 
mouth-pieces of a party who often only selects them because 
(h) See vol. i. § 296a. 
(*) See the cases examined in seventh edition of Wh. Cr. Law, § 821a. 
(j) See ante, vol. i. § 283. 
{k) Porter v. Poquannoc Man. Co., 1 Camp. 117 ; Folkes v. Chadd, 3 Doug. 
157 ; Cottril v. Myrick, 3 Fairf. 222. 
(i) Com. v. Dorsey, 103 Mass. 413 ; see ante, §§ 1218-31. 
(»») Yendine v. Burpee, 13 Mete. 288 ; Walker v. Boston, 8 Cush. 279 ; 
Dwight ». County, 11 Cush. 201 ; Swan v. County, 101 Mass. 173 ; Spear v. 
Richardson, 34 II. 428. 
1118 EOOK X.] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
[§ 1249 
their pre-ascertainecl views suit his purposes, or who only pre- 
sents them with such materials as subserve his interests. In 
what way this defect can be removed is one of the most im- 
portant questions to which social science can now be addressed. 
In elucidation of this question the following remarks, con- 
densed from the fifth (1871) edition of Liman’s Casper, may 
be of use.(w) 
§ 1249. “The advantage possessed by most German States 
of established medical experts in matters of medical jurispru- 
dence and of sanitary economy is one not universally enjoyed. 
Even in countries so highly civilized as England and France 
the most arbitrary voluntaryism obtains. In some cases (e. g., 
in France), the judge calls in experts according to his discre- 
tion. Sometimes he is guided by personal confidence in his 
family physician; sometimes by the popular reputation of a 
distinguished practitioner, without any assurance that the 
expert thus called has made the particular subject matter of 
the trial his specialty. This practice has been beneficially 
modified in Paris by the appointment by each court of a 
specific number of permanent experts, whose duty it thus be- 
comes to familiarize themselves with the particular learning 
of this department, and to devote to it a special interest. 
Even here, however, there is no fixed system binding impe- 
ratively the courts. 
In Germany it is fortunately otherwise. In criminal cases, 
the experts first summoned are exclusively those whom the 
State, after prior examination of their competency and skill 
in such particular inquiries, has duly authorized to act for this 
purpose; while in addition to this there is organized a tribunal 
of experts to which the opinions of expert witnesses can be 
referred. 
The first officer in this tribunal is the county or city physi- 
cian (Kreis-oder Stadt-physicus, Gerichtsarzt Landgericlitsarzt, 
u. s. w.). In Prussia and other countries it is requisite to his 
appointment that he should be scientifically trained (rite pro- 
movoirter) in the three primary branches of medicine, surgery, 
and obstetrics. In addition to this, he must have duly passed 
(n) Casper’s Gericht. Med., Berlin, 1871, I. § 3. 
1119 § 1250] 
[book x. 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
examination in the specialty of medical jurisprudence, such 
examination, under a ministerial edict of February 20, 1863, 
being conducted by the supreme medical board of the State. 
With him in Prussia and other German States is associated 
the county surgeon (Ilreis-Wundarzt), who, in present practice, 
is the assistant of the official physician above described. In 
Berlin this distinction was, in 1865, done away with, and two 
physicians (Physici) were appointed, who were to alternate in 
dissections, while all other duties were imposed on them by 
specific assignment.” 
From Holtzendorff’(o) we have the following additional 
details:— 
For every county (Kreis) are appointed a governmental 
physician and a surgeon. These may differ in their opinions; 
and for such cases, and for cases of appeals, a medical college 
is appointed for the province; a college to which are assigned 
men of peculiar experience and knowledge in medical juris- 
prudence. And for purposes of final correction, are final 
appellate courts (dritte Instan2en), established for the entire 
State Thus, in Prussia, we have (1) the county physi- 
cian and county surgeon; (2) the Medical College of the Pro- 
vince, consisting of the chief-president, the governmental medi- 
cal counsellor, two medical counsellors, a pharmaceutical asses- 
sor, and a physician whose specialty is the diseases of animals 
(Departments thierarzt); and (3) an appellate medical com- 
mission for the whole monarchy. 
§ 1250. A similar system could be readily grafted on our 
American practice. We are familiar with army physicians 
and army surgeons, and of subordination in rank in these 
officers. There would be no difficulty in providing in each 
county for a county physician, who, by the tests of an ade- 
quate competitive examination, shall show his general and 
special competency for this particular post. In addition to 
the duties devolved on him of conducting post-mortem exami- 
nations, and of pursuing any other investigations that may be 
required in a litigated issue, such a physician might be made 
the arbiter in those moot questions by which the law has been 
1120 
(o) Rechts lexicon, Leipzig, 1870, I. 478. BOOK X.] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
[§ 1250 
kept in a state of such distressing incertitude. Is there such 
a disease as moral insanity or as mania transitoria? Can 
human blood-stains be distinguished after having become 
dried? If a question of this kind arise on the trial of a cause, 
it would not be inconsistent with the analogies of the law to 
refer it to an official expert, just in the way that a chancellor 
sends a question of fact to be determined by a master in chan- 
cery or by a common law court and jury. But if this be done 
it should be done with the checks which attend the chancery 
system, which has just been noticed. The official physician 
who acts as referee must be placed under judicial restraints. 
He should owe his appointment to neither party, but to the 
State, irrespective of any particular case. His duty it should 
be to take testimony, if needed, on the case, and to hear 
counsel, so that he will be in no danger of hazarding one of 
those rash and ignorant opinions which have so much disgraced 
this branch of medical practice. After thus judicially hearing 
the case, it should be his further duty to judicially certify 
his opinion to the court by whom the reference is made. In 
proper cases there might be allowed an appeal from such 
opinions to a supreme court of governmental experts appointed 
by the State at large. It may be said that this may be pro- 
ductive of occasional delay. This is true; but the difficulties 
thus arising would not be so great as those which almost 
every contested medical issue now involves,(p) and which, in 
cases of insanity, have led courts so often to grant new trials 
from sheer despair of drawing a decisive conclusion from the 
jargon thus introduced. Soon, also, the delays of appeals 
would be reduced; for certain great cardinal questions would 
be settled beyond dispute. We should soon know whether 
there is such a thing as moral insanity, and whether it is 
practicable to distinguish human blood after the expiration of 
a week from the period of its drying. Settle a few such points 
as these, and we relieve criminal justice of a large part of the 
uncertainties by which it is now beset, and we will have a 
series of rules by which cases can be intelligently, consistently, 
and humanely conducted. ’ Hor will this be all. We will be 
(p) See yoL i. § 296a. 
VOL. II.—71 
1121 § 1250] 
LEGAL RELATIONS OF EXPERTS. 
[book x. 
able to get the judicial utterances of science as to vexed issues 
of fact, instead of the interested arguments of experts who 
are virtually employed as counsel by the party calling them, 
or the wild utterances of philosophic monomaniacs who are 
called simply because of their absorption in some unique 
theory of their special concoction. Such men need not be 
silenced. Experts as counsel, indeed, will find a proper and 
important office in presenting the two sides of the issue to the 
expert who acts as referee. But the expert who fills this last 
judicial post will be disembarrassed of all personal relations. He 
will have no client to serve, and no past partisan extravagances 
to vindicate. He will render his opinion as the advocate neither 
of another nor of himself. When he speaks, he will do so 
judicially, as the representative of the sense of the special 
branch of science which the case invokes, governed by the 
opinion of the great body of scientists in this relation, and 
advised of the most recent investigations. When this is done, 
we will have expert evidence rescued from the disrepute into 
which it has now fallen, and invested with its true rights as 
the expression of the particular branch of science for which it 
speaks. 
1122 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
[The figures refer to sections.] 
A. 
ABDOMEN, 
wounds of the, 827-8. 
ABORTION AND FOETICIDE, 
natural causes, 84. 
drugs as means of producing abortion, 85. 
ergot, 85. 
savin and oil of tansy, 86. 
venesection, 91. 
mechanical means, 92. 
legitimate medical practice as inducing premature labor, 96. 
blows upon the abdomen, 97. 
signs of abortion, 98. 
from an examination of the body expelled, 98. 
from an examination of the female, 107. 
ABSORPTION OF POISONS, 829. 
ACETATE OF LEAD, 
poisoning by, 469-79. 
ACETIC ACID, 374. 
fatal results from, 874. 
ACID, 
in general, 845. 
arsenious, 399. 
arsenic, 399-501. 
hydrochloric, 361-3. 
tests for, 363. 
nitric, 355-360. 
prussic, 558. 
sulphuric, 345. 
tartaric, 373. 
ACONITE, 
poisoning by, 627-9. 
symptoms in poisoning by, 628. 
tests for, 629. 
AGE, 
in relation to impotence, 210. 
relative to identity, 287. 
1123 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
ALCOHOL, 
poisoning by, 596. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 600. 
symptoms in poisoning by, 598. 
ALKALINE POISONS, 376-382. 
ALMONDS, 
oil of bitter, 580. 
AMMONIA, 
poisoning by, 379. 
tests for, 379-80. 
ANATOMICAL LESIONS, 539. 
ANIMAL BLOOD, 
distinguished from human, 724-753. 
ANTIMONY, 
chloride of, 495-501. t 
in organic mixtures, detection of, 498. 
APOPLEXY, 
distinction from narcotic poisoning, 538-541. 
APRICOT KERNELS, 
poisoning by, 581. 
ARSENIC, 
form of, most commonly used, 398 
arsenious acid, 399. 
symptoms of poisoning, 400. 
chronic poisoning, 405. 
external application, 408. 
kobbalt, arsenic greens, aniline red, anileine, orpiment, realgar, savon 
de Becceur, etc., 409. 
fatal dose of, 410. 
eaters of (toxicophagi), 411. 
post-mortem appearances caused by, 412. 
external application causes same appearance, 414. 
effects upon putrefactive process, 415. 
can be found in tissues a long time after death, 416. 
chemical examination, special tests, etc., 417 et seq. 
when mixed with organic matter, 426. 
value of Marsh’s test, 431. 
report of Sherman trial, 435. 
poisoning by papers colored with, 444. 
antimonial and arsenical mirrors, 498. 
differential table of chemical properties of antimony and arsenic, 500. 
of combinations of arsenic and antimony, 501. 
ARTERY, CAROTID, 
ruptured in hanging, 926. 
ASPHYXIA, 
in drowning, 954. 
ATROPA BELLADONNA (deadly nightshade), 646. 
atropia or atropine, 647. 
1124 INDEX TO YOL. II. 
ATROPA BELLADONNA, continued. 
post-mortem appearances, 648. 
recovery from organic mixtures, 649. 
AUTOPSY, 
liow to be made, 1007-1022. 
B. 
BARYTA, 
carbonate of, 382. • 
poisoning by, 382-4. 
tests for, 382. 
BEALE, DR., 
case of, 343. 
BELLADONNA, 
poisoning by, 646. 
BISMUTH, 
subnitrate of, poisoning by, 514. 
BITTER ALMONDS, 
essential oil of, 577, 580. 
oil of, symptoms of poisoning by, 580. 
poisoning by, 580. 
strength of oil of, 580. 
BITTERSWEET, 
poisoning by, 606. 
BLADDER, 
wounds of the, 831. 
BLOOD, 
arterial and venous, distinguished, 724-753. 
coagulation of, after death, 724-753. 
corpuscles of man and animals, 755. 
extravasation of, in wounds, 691. 
menstrual characters of, 750. 
microscopical characters of, 753. 
stains of, 724-752. 
chemical examination of, 726. 
color of, 724. 
human distinguished from others, 726-7-9. 
microscopical evidence, 753. 
on clothing, etc., 726. 
BRAIN, 
concussion of the, 793. 
extravasation of blood upon the, 793-5. 
wounds of the, 791-793-795. 
BROMINE, 
fatal results from, 392. 
properties of, 392. 
1125 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
BURNED, 
post-mortem appearances in tlie, 847. 
wounds upon the, 840-3. 
BURNS AND SCALDS, 
how classified, 839. 
appearance of burns upon dead body, 840. 
wounds upon the burned, 843. 
effects upon the system, 846. 
post-mortem appearances, 847. 
C. 
CADAVERIC CHANGES AFFECTING THE EVIDENCE FROM 
WOUNDS, 689-691. 
lividity, character of, 691-700. 
CAMPHOR, 
poisonous effects of large doses, 601. 
CANTHARIDES, 
small quantity fatal, 525. 
symptoms in poisoning by, 524. 
poisoning by, generally, 523. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 526. 
CARBONIC ACID GAS, 
effects of poisoning, 666. 
cause of death generally accidental, 668. 
coal-gas a blood poison, 670. 
pure carbonic acid not poisonous, 671. 
explanation of its action, 672. 
physical characters, 673. 
CASTOR SEEDS AND BEANS, 
fatal results from, 519. 
CASTRATION, 
a cause of impotence, 203. 
CATAMENIA, 
suppression of the, 46. 
CEDAR OIL, 
poisoning by, 632. 
CHEESE, 
poisoning by, 634. 
CHERRY-LAUREL WATER, 583. 
CHEST, 
wounds of the, 815. 
CHILD, 
active movements of, 7. 
new-born, causes of death in the, 108-178. 
CHLORAL-HYDRATE, 655. 
atal dose, 657. 
symptoms of poisoning, 657. 
1126 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
CHLORAL-HYDRATE, continued. 
chemical characters of chloral, 658. 
of chloral-hydrate, 659. 
CHLORINE, 
poisoning by (see Poisoning), 896. 
CHLOROFORM, 585. 
symptoms of poisoning, 586. 
phenomena of etherization, 587. 
internal administration, 588. 
mode of death occasioned from inhalation of, 589. 
post-mortem appearances, 590. 
detection of, 591. 
chemical examination, 592. 
in organic mixtures, 598. 
Dr. Kidd on medico-legal bearings, 594. 
to facilitate robbery, 595. 
to facilitate rape, 245. 
CICATRICES, 
disappearance of, 300. 
identification from, 300. 
COAL-GAS, 
7 • 
a poison, 670. 
COCCULUS INDICUS, 
symptoms of poisoning, 639. 
results of experiments, 642. 
post-mortem appearances, 643. 
used to adulterate liquors, 644. 
detection, 645. 
COITION, 233-263. 
COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE, 516a. 
detection of after death, 51 Qa-b. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 516, 
smallest quantity fatal, 517. 
symptoms in poisoning by, 516-7. 
COLD, 
as retarding putrefaction, 305, 982. 
death from, 880-2. 
post-mortem appearances in death from, 882. 
COMBUSTION, 
spontaneous, 849. 
COMPRESSION, 
effect of, on inflated lungs, 132-4. 
CONCEPTION, 
time of, 1-22. 
CONCUSSION OF THE BRAIN, 791. 
distinguished from intoxication, 791-5. 
CONIUM MACULATUM, 
poisoning by, 616-19. 
1127 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
COPPER COINS, 
poisoning by, 482-8. 
in organic mixtures, detection of, 480-8. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 482. 
salts of, 480-8. 
symptoms of poisoning by, 481. 
tests for, 485. 
utensils, poisoning from the use of, 486. 
CORD, 
mark of, in hanging, 922. 
umbilical, compression of and by, 157-160. 
CORPUS DELICTI, 1114, 1213. (See Homicide.) 
CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE (bichloride of mercury), 446. 
form administered, 448. 
post-mortem appearances, 449. 
external application of, 450. 
yalue of symptoms in evidence of poisoning, 451. 
danger of confounding these with arsenic, 452. 
with copper, 453. 
chemical examination, 454. 
CYANIDE OF POTASSIUM, . 
poisoning by, 584. 
D. 
DAPHNE MEZEREUM, 
poisoning by, 654. 
DALTON, DR., 
on Corpora Lutea, 29. 
DATURA STRAMONIUM, 
poisoning by, 607. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 608. 
DEFORMITIES, 
identification from, 298. 
DEATH, 
length of time since, 304. 
signs.of, 
cessation of the respiration and circulation, 960. 
filmy aspect of the eyes, 961. 
pallor of the body, 962. 
extinction of animal heat, 963. 
relaxation of the muscles, 964. 
relaxation of the cornea, 965. 
flattening of the fleshy parts, 966. 
suggillations, 967. 
external, 968. 
internal, 970. 
lungs, 971. 
1128 INDEX TO YOL. II. 
DEATH, continued. 
suggillations of brain, 972. 
kidneys and intestines, 973. 
heart, 974. 
cadaveric rigidity, 975. 
putrefaction, 977. 
fat, etc., 978. 
women after childbirth, 979. 
newly-born infants, 980. 
manner of death, 981. 
elfect of external agents, 982. 
exposure in the open air, 305-109, 82. 
moisture, 309, 95G, 983. 
heat, 984. 
external signs, 985. 
saponification, 986. 
mummification, 987. 
decomposition of internal organs, 988. 
windpipe, 989. 
brain of infants, 990. 
stomach, 991. 
intestinal canal, 992. 
spleen, 993. 
omentum and mesentery, 994. 
liver, 995. 
brain of grown persons, 996. 
heart, 997. 
lungs, 998. 
kidneys, 999. 
urinary bladder, 1000. 
oesophagus, 1001. 
pancreas, 1002. 
diaphragm, 1003. 
arteries, 1004. 
uterus, 1005. 
DECOMPOSITION, 
in coffins, 310-7. 
progress of, after death by drowning, 956 et sea. 
in vaults, 310-7. 
DELIVERY, 
feigned, 37. 
protracted, 41. 
sign of, 23-28. 
in the dead, 29-30. 
unconscious, 175. 
DEVELOPMENT OF FCETUS, 
premature, 7, 20, 67. 
1129 INDEX TO YOL. II. 
DIAPHRAGM, 
wounds of the, 830. 
DIGITALIS, 
poisoning by, 650. 
poisonous properties of, 651. 
DISEASE, 
as modifying the action of poisons, 325-330. 
DOUBTFUL SEX, 181-8. 
DRASTIC PURGATIVES, 
fatal results from, 518. 
DROWNING, 
how producing death, 943. 
time when body will float, etc., 945. 
signs of death by drowning, 947. 
paleness and coldness of skin, etc., 948. 
abrasion of the hands, etc., 949. 
water and froth in the lungs, 950. 
water in the stomach, 952. 
signs of asphyxia, 954. 
marks of violence, 955. 
putrefaction, etc., 956. 
accidental or otherwise, 958. 
of new-born child, 172. 
DURATION OF PREGNANCY, 
legal decisions, 40-66. 
statistical results, 50. 
E. 
EARLY VIABILITY, 67. 
ECCHYMOSIS, 
caused by umbilical cord, 150-8. 
from natural causes, 700. 
in wounds, 700-2. 
EMPHYSEMA, 
an objection to hydrostatic test, 132. 
ERGOT, 85. 
ERYSIPELAS FROM WOUNDS, 783. 
ETHER AND CHLOROFORM, 
physical effects of, 245. 
ETHERIZATION, 
external phenomena of, 587. 
EXAMINATIONS, MEDICO-LEGAL, 
locality, 1007. 
identity, 1008. 
indications of violence or unnatural death, 1009. 
manner of conducting the autopsy, 1010. 
natural aspect of the organs at different ages, 1012. 
mode of drawing up reports, 1022. 
1130 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
EXAMINATION OF THE BODY IN DEATH FROM WOUNDS, 689. 
EXECUTION BY HANGING, 919. 
EXHALATIONS FROM THE DEAD, 684. 
EXPERTS, 
qualifications of, 327, 682. (See Yol. I., 275.) 
duties in conducting examinations, 327, 682, 1119-21. 
medico-legal examinations generally, 1006. 
mode of drawing up reports, 1022. 
legal relations of, 1241. 
distinction between experts and non-experts, 1242. 
expert may be asked as to hypothesis, but not as to conclusions of 
law, 1243. 
may be asked as to conclusions of science, 1244. 
but not as to opinion outside of science, 1245. 
ex parte examinations, when admissible, 1246. 
proposed revision of legislation as to, 1248. 
F. 
FACE, 
wounds of the, 806. 
FISH, 
poisonous, 535. 
FOETAL HEART, 
pulsation of, 19. 
FOETICIDE. (See Abortion.) 
FOETUS, 
age of, 43-50. 
blighted, 84. 
first movement of, 19, 67. 
FRACTURES, 
identification from, 298. 
of the skull, 793. 
during birth, 161. 
FUNGI, 
poisoning by, 520-2. 
G. 
GANGRENE, 
death from, 784. 
GASES EVOLVED IN HUMAN DECOMPOSITION, 684. 
GAS, 
poisonous. (See Poison.) 
GENITAL ORGANS, 
wounds of the, 835. 
condition of in hanging, 927. 
GESTATION, 
protracted, 41. 
1131 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
GOLD, 
tercliloride of, 511. 
GUNSHOT WOUNDS, 707-714. 
character of, 708. 
H. 
HABIT, 
as modifying the action of poisons, 324-332. 
HAIR, 
fraudulent discoloration of the, 303. 
identification by means of the, 303. 
HANGING, 
general symptoms, 919. 
marks of the cord, 922. 
rupture of artery, 926. 
tumefaction of genital organs, 92T. 
condition of eyes, 908. 
suicidal or homicidal ? 929. 
position and condition of body, 930. 
marks of violence, 936. 
HASHISH, 
poisoning by, 604. 
HEAD, 
injuries of the, 790-5. 
HEART, 
pulsation of foetal, 289. 
rupture of the, 825-6. 
wounds of the, 820-6. 
HEAT, 
as a cause of putrefaction, 984. 
as retarding putrefaction, 984. 
death from, 869-72. 
HEMLOCK, 
its action, 616. 
symptoms of poisoning, 617. 
conia, or conicine, 618. 
effects of, 619. 
detection in organic mixtures, 620. 
HEMORRHAGE, 
as evidence of the vital origin of a wound, 770. 
from umbilical cord, 157. 
internal, 770. 
HENBANE, 
poisoning by, 602-3. 
HERNIA, 
as a cause of impotence, 207. 
1132 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
HERMAPHRODITISM, 181. 
female, 184. 
male, 181. 
real, 188. 
surgical interference in, 188. 
HOMICIDE, 
elementary definitions, 1093. 
murder, 1095. 
general definition of, 1095. 
malice the essential ingredient, 1096. 
malice either express or implied, 1096. 
when malice to he presumed, 1096. 
murder from general malice, 1096. 
when homicide is committed from general malevolence 
it is murder, 1096. 
hut when from wantonness, hut manslaughter, 1096. 
murder from individual malice, 1097. 
in reference to the party killed, 1097. 
how such malice to be proved, 1097. 
in what it consists by the civil and common law, 
1097. 
intent to kill, 1099. 
in this case the offence is always murder, 
1099. 
how such intent may be proved, 1099. 
declarations and acts of defendant ad- 
missible for this purpose, 1099, 1161. 
intent to do bodily harm, 1100. 
in this country such homicide generally is 
murder in the second degree, 1100. 
the grade therefore depends on the intent, 
1100. 
in reference to the party killed, when the blow falls on 
the deceased by mistake, 1101. 
when in an attempt to produce abortion, the mother 
is unintentionally killed, 1101. 
from collateral malice, 1102. 
this includes those cases where the malice is directed to 
an object other than that of human life or limb, 1102. 
manslaughter, 1103. 
general definition of, 1103. 
involuntary manslaughter, 1104. 
excusable homicide, 1105. 
where a man doing a lawful act, without any intention of hurt, 
by accident kills another, 1105. 
where a man kills auother in self-defence, 1105. 
the distinction between excusable and justifiable homicide 
is in this country merely theoretical, 1106. 
1133 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
HOMICIDE, continued. 
justifiable homicide, 1107. 
when committed by unavoidable necessity, 1107. 
when committed in advancement of public justice, 1107. 
murder in the second degree, 1108. 
object of distinction is the restriction of capital punishment to 
these cases only in which there is an intent to take life, 1108-9. 
the distinguishing feature between the two degrees is a specific 
intent to take life, 1108-9-10. 
homicide by poisoning not necessarily murder in the first degree, 
1110. 
homicide collateral to rape, robbery, etc., is necessarily murder 
in the first degree, 1111. 
homicide of A., when the intent was to kill B., is murder in the 
second degree, 1112. 
specific intent to take life to be inferred from circumstantial 
evidence, and from declarations, etc., 1113. 
corpus delicti. 
that a death took place, 1114. 
universal rule of civil and common law, that the fact of death 
should be proved, 1114. 
cases of conviction of innocent parties, from neglect of this pre- 
caution, 1114-6. 
exceptions to the rule, 1117. 
possession of body is unnecessary when deceased is proved 
by eye-witnesses, 1117. 
and so where it is proved that the body was destroyed by 
chemical or mechanical agents, 1118. 
that the death was from violence, 
poisoning. 
measures to be taken by the prosecution when poisioning 
is suspected, 1119. 
chemical proof of poison in stomach not essential, 1127. 
importance of chemical examination of stomach and 
its contents, 1128. 
when, hoAvever, this is prevented by the accused, he 
cannot set up the want of it, 1128. 
on the other hand, neglect by the prosecution to pro- 
cure it, if in its power, is a powerful presumption in 
favor of the accused, 1128. 
facts on which a verdict of guilty can be supported, 
1130. 
duties of counsel for prosecution and defence, 1135. 
wounds and blows, 1137. 
legal definition of wounds, 1137. 
under what circumstances wounds imply criminal agency, 
1140. 
character of the wounds themselves, 1140. 
1134 INDEX TO YOL. II. 
HOMICIDE, continued. 
adaptation to a particular instrument, 1140. 
shape and direction, 1143. 
particular class, 1144. 
gunshot, 1144. 
punctured, 1145. 
incised, 1146. 
contused, 1147. 
number, 1148. 
situation, 1150. 
expression of countenance, 1151. 
inferences from surrounding objects, 1152. 
clothing, 1152. 
agent commensurate to the effect, 1153. 
place -where found, 1154. 
position and appearance of the body, 1155. 
attitude, 1155. 
marks of blood, 1156. 
bruises, 1157. 
probability of infliction of injury before death, 1159. 
connection of the wound with the death, 1160. 
intent and design, from what to be inferred, 1161. 
prior attempts, preparations, and threats, 1161. 
evidence of such admissible, 1161-2. 
marks of violence, 1166. 
presumptions to be drawn from such, 1167. 
it must appear that the alleged violence was the cause of death, 
either in part or in whole, 1167. 
instrument of death, 1169. 
the use of a lethal instrument leads to the presumption that death 
was intended, 1169. 
suicide may be inferred from the position of the weapon, 1170. 
other presumptions to be drawn from instrument of death, 
722, 1171-2. 
liability of deceased to attack, 1174. 
possession of money, 1174. 
avarice and ambition, 1175. 
old grudge, 1178. 
jealousy, 1179. 
position of deceased, 717, 722, 1151, 1180. 
presumption to be drawn from this as to suicide, 717, 722. 
in cases of hanging, 1180. 
in cases of drowning, 1180. 
in cases of poisoning, 1180. 
materials appropriate to be converted into instruments of crime, 1182. 
importance of indicatory evidence in this respect, 1182. 
purchase of poison and powder ; preparation of other materials, 
1182. 
1135 INDEX TO YOL. II. 
HOMICIDE, continued. 
detached circumjacent bodies, 1183. 
dress of deceased. Footprints. Presumptions to be drawn from 
the latter, 1183-5-7. 
detached articles of clothing, 1186. 
wadding of gun, etc., 1186. 
cases illustrative of the importance of this species of evidence, 
1190, etc. 
possession of fruits of offence, 1198. 
Illustration of the general value of indicatory evidence, 1199. 
infanticide and foeticide, 1200. (See, for the Medical view of this sub- 
ject, 84-107, 108-178.) 
how far foeticide is affected by the degree to which gestation has pro- 
ceeded, 1200. 
at common law destruction of an unborn infant is a misde- 
meanor. Late differences of opinion as to whether there must 
be a quickening. Better opinion is, that all attempts of this 
character are misdemeanors, no matter what be the stage of 
gestation, 1200-2. 
how far the offence is affected by the fact of birth, 1207. 
when a child dies after birth, from a wound inflicted before, the 
offence is murder ; when the death takes place before birth it 
is at common law but a misdemeanor, 1207-8. 
tests of viability recognized by the courts, 1209. 
viability medically considered, 41-61-7, 128. 
difference of opinion as to actual degree of birth which is re- 
quisite to constitute the legal offence, 1210. 
general propositions of law bearing on this topic :— 
where there is a malicious wound inflicted on an infant, 
with intent to produce death, and death ensues after birth, 
the offence is murder, 1210. 
where there is a malicious exposure of an infant, with in- 
intent to produce death, and death ensues after birth, it is 
murder, 1210. 
where there is a wanton exposure of an infant, without the 
intent to procure death, but with' the expectation of shift- 
ing the support of the infant upon some third person, and 
death ensues after birth, it is manslaughter, 1210. 
where there is an exposure resulting from necessity, ignor- 
ance, or insanity, and death ensues after birth, the offence 
is excusable homicide, in which, in accordance with 
American practice, the defendant is entitled to an acquit- 
tal, 1210-13. 
corpus delicti in infanticide, 1213. 
difficulties arising in this respect from— 
the uncertainty of the fact of pregnancy, 1214. (See 18, 
1115.) 
the uncertainty of the time of death, 1215. 
1136 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
HOMICIDE, continued. 
uncertainty of presumptions, 1213. 
casualties of gestation and delivery, 1213. (See this sub- 
ject medically considered, 37-128.) 
HOSPITAL GANGRENE, 
from wounds, 784. 
HUMAN BLOOD, 
distinguished from animal, 724r-753. 
HYDROCHLORIC ACID, 361-3. 
chemical examination in poisoning by, 361. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 362. 
symptoms of poisoning by, 361. 
HYDROCYANIC ACID. (See Prussic acid.) 
HYDROCELES, 
as a cause of impotence, 207. 
HYDROGEN, 
arsenuretted. (See Poisons.) 
HYDROSTATIC LUNG-TEST, 132. 
7 I 
objections to the, 131-5. 
HYMEN, 
evidence from, in cases of rape, 240-252. 
HYOSCYAMUS, 
poisoning by, 602-3. 
I. 
IDENTIFICATION OF THE LIVING OR DEAD, 
cases of doubtful identity, 287, 1218. 
direct testimony, 1218. 
appearance, 1218. 
voice, 1218. 
daguerreotypes, photographs, etc., 1231. 
inferential proof, 1223. 
clothing, 1238. 
means of identification, 289, 1218. 
establishing age from the skeleton, 289-290, 1237. 
by means of the teeth, 292, 1236. 
determination of sex from inspection of the skeleton, 296, 1237. 
fractures, deformities, and peculiarities in the dead body, 298. 
cicatrices, 300, 1227. 
hair, 303, 1238. 
the length of time that has elapsed since death, 304. 
heat as influencing decomposition, 305, 982. 
air as influencing decomposition, 308, 983. 
water as influencing decomposition, 309, 983. 
dryness and moisture of the soil as influencing decomposition, 
310, 983-4. 
putrefaction in the foetus, 319. 
influence of lime on the putrefactive process, 320. 
vol. ii.—72 
1137 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
IDIOSYNCRASY, 
as modifying the action of poisons, 332. 
ILLUMINATING GAS, 
accidents from, 675. 
IMMATURITY OF THE FtETUS, 
signs of, 67. 
IMPOTENCE, 
congenital absence of the testes, 202. 
castration, 203. 
diseases of the testes, 205. 
defect in size and malformation of the penis, 206. 
obstructions from large hydroceles or herniae, 207. 
local relaxation, 208. 
causes of a psychical character, 200. 
want of age, 210. 
INDIGO, 
sulphate of. (See Poisons.) 
INFANCY, 
as causing impotency, 210. 
INFANTICIDE. 
characteristics of stillborn and living children, 108. 
tests of live birth, 128. 
hydrostatic lung test, 132. 
static test, 144. 
causes of death in the new-born child, 149. 
causes of death before or during birth, 150. 
compression of, and by, the umbilical cord, 150. 
protracted delivery, 155. 
debility, 156. 
hemorrhage from the umbilical cord, 157. 
length of the umbilical cord, 160. 
fracture of the skull, 161. 
causes of death after birth, 165. 
exposure, 166. 
suffocation, 168. 
strangling, 170. 
drowning, 172. 
wounds, 173. 
dislocation of the neck, 174. 
unconscious delivery, 175. 
poisoning, 176. 
general considerations, 178. 
INFLATION, 
artificial, an objection to hydrostatic test, 132-44. 
distinguished from imperfect respiration, 132-140. 
practicability of, 132-140. 
INSEMINATION AND CONCEPTION, 313. 
1138 INDEX TO YOL. II. 
INTERCOURSE, 
single act of, 312, 314. 
IODINE, 
poisoning by, 393-4. 
tests for, 395. 
IRON, 
chloride of, poisoning by, 513. 
sulphate of, poisoning by, 512. 
IRRITANT POISONS, 345-540. (See Poisons.) 
J. 
JALAP, 518. 
JAMESTOWN WEED, 607. 
K. 
KIESTEIN IN THE URINE, 22. 
KRAHMER, PROF., 
on duration of pregnancy, 317, 318. 
L. 
LABOR, 
induction of premature, 84-107. 
precipitate, 96. 
LACTUCARIUM, 605. 
LEAD, 
chronic poisoning by, 469-79. 
constitutional effects of, 475. 
in the tissues, detection of, 470-73. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 479. 
salts, poisoning by, 469-70. 
tests for, 470-7. 
LEGITIMACY, 
presumption of, 40. 
LEUCORRHCEA, 435, 436. 
LIFE INSURANCE, 
in questions of poisoning 547. 
LIGHTING GAS, 
accidents from, 675.. 
appearances after death- by, 675. 
LIGHTNING, 
death from, 878. 
post-mortem appearances in death by, 879. 
LIME, 
its influence upon putrefaction 310-20, 977-982 
LIVE-BIRTH, 
signs of, 128-144. 
1139 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
LIVER, 
wounds of the, 829. 
LOBELIA INFLATA, 
poisoning by, 630-1. 
LOCKJAW, 
from wounds, 782. 
LUNAR CAUSTIC, 
poisoning by, 664. 
LUNGS OF NEW-BORN CHILD, 108-144. 
wounds of the, 816. 
condition of, after drowning, 950. 
M. 
MALPRACTICE, MEDICAL, 
civil law practice, 1058. 
common law practice, 1062. 
in criminal prosecutions, 1062. 
in action for torts, 1086. 
MEAT, UNSOUND, 
poisoning by, 536. 
MECHANICAL INJURY, 
death from, 685. (See Wounds.) 
MECHANICAL MEANS FOR PROCURING ABORTION, 92-97. 
irritants, 537. 
MECONIC ACID, 
tests for, 553. 
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. (See Malpractice.) 
MEDICO-LEGAL EXAMINATIONS, 1007. 
locality, 1007. 
identity, 1008. 
indications of violence or unnatural death, 1009. 
conducting, 1001. (See Experts.) 
mode of drawing reports, 1022. 
MENSES, 
cessation of, 44. 
suppression of the, 1-47. 
MENSTRUAL BLOOD, 
characters of, 724-53. 
function, irregularity of, 12. 
MENSTRUATION, 44. 
MERCURIAL PREPARATIONS, 
poisoning by various, 462. 
MERCURY, 
bichloride of, 446. 
deleterious effects of, 462. 
effect of, on the mouth, 463-8. 
effects of, distinguished from disease, 463-8. 
nitrate of. (See Poisoning.) 
1140 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
METALLIC ARSENIC, 398. 
poisoning by, 398. 
METALLIC IRRITANTS, 398. 
METALLOIDAL IRRITANTS, 
phosphorus, 386. 
chemical examination, 389. 
in organic mixtures, 390. 
chronic poisoning by, 391. 
bromine, 393. 
iodine, 393. 
chemical tests, 395. 
chlorine, 396. 
MOISTURE, 
influence of, on putrefaction, 956-83. 
MORPHIA, 
poisoning by, 549-57. 
tests for, 549-57. 
MUMMIFICATION, 987. 
MUSHROOMS, 
deprivation of the poisonous property of, 530-3. 
poisoning by, 521. 
symptoms in poisoning by, 521. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 522. 
MUSSELS, 
poisoning by, 535. 
N. 
NARCOTICO-ACRID POISONS, 745-80. 
NARCOTIC POISONS, 538-595. 
NECK, 
wounds of the, 801. 
NEEDLES, 
poisoning by, 537. 
NEW-BORN CHILD, 
drowning of, 172. 
exposure of, 166. 
length of skeleton of, 289. 
strangulation of, 170. 
suffocation of, 168. 
wounds of, 173. 
NICOTINA, 
detection of in the viscera, GC9—11—13. 
poisoning by, 609. 
properties of, 613. 
NITRATE OF MERCURY, 460. 
NITRIC ACID, 355-360. 
character of, 355. 
1141 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
NITRIC ACID, continued. 
chemical examination in poisoning by, 355-358. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 355. 
stains on clothing from, 260. 
symptoms of poisoning, 356. 
stains on cloth, 360. 
NITROUS OXIDE GAS, 678. 
NUX VOMICA AND STRYCHNIA, 621. 
symptoms of poisoning, 622. 
fatal dose, 623. 
effects compared with tetanus, 624. 
post-mortem appearances, 625. 
chemical examination, 626. 
O. 
OPIUM AND ITS PREPARATIONS, 540. 
symptoms of poisoning, 541. 
fatal dose, 543. 
chronic poisoning, 544. 
effect of habitual use, 546. 
as to life-insurance, 547. 
post-mortem appearances, 548. 
morphia, 551. 
chemical examination, 550. 
salts of, 552. 
meconic acid, 553. 
in organic mixtures, 554. 
process of Stas, 555. 
separation by dialysis, 556. 
its value, 557. 
OXALIC ACID, 
character of, 365. 
chemical examination in poisoning by, 365. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 369. 
smallest quantity fatal in poisoning by, 366-9. 
symptoms of poisoning, 635. 
rapidity of poisonous effects, 366. 
case of poisoning by, with notes on post-mortem appearances, and with 
experiments on animals, 369. 
chemical examination, 370. 
OYSTERS, 
poisonous, 535. 
' P. 
PENIS, 
malformation of, 206. 
PERITONITIS, 
as a result of poisoning, 328-332. 
1142 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
PERFORATION OF THE STOMACH, 
in poisoning, 328-832. 
PINS, 
poisoning by, 537. 
PHOSPHORUS, 
chemical examination in poisoning by, 389. 
poisoning by, 386. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 386-90. 
smallest quantity fatal, 390-1. 
symptoms of poisoning by, 387-8. 
PLATINUM, 
bichloride of, 511. 
PLOCQUET’S TEST, 132-4. 
POISONS. 
definition of poisons, 321. 
poisons most commonly in use, 324. 
introduction and absorption of poisons, 325. 
sources of information for the expert, 326. 
value of symptoms, 326. 
recovery of the poisonous agent, 326. 
the value and duties of experts, 327. 
the general action of poisons, 328. 
absorption and elimination, 329. 
nature of the symptoms, 330. 
chemical analysis, 331. 
diseases liable to be confounded with effects of poison, 332 et seq. 
classification of poisons, 343. 
classification of M. Tardieu, 344. 
POISONS, IRRITANT, 
acids. 
poisoning by sulphuric acid, 345. 
poisoning by ink, 350. 
chemical examination for sulphuric acid, 351. 
stains of acid upon clothing, 353. 
nitric acid, 355. 
symptoms of poisoning, 356. 
chemical examination, 358. 
stains on cloth, 360. 
hydrochloric acid, 361. 
symptoms of poisoning, 361. 
chemical examination, 363. 
oxalic acid, 
symptoms of poisoning, 365. 
rapidity of poisonous effects, 366. 
case of poisoning by, with notes on post-mortem appearances, 
and with experiments on animals, 369. 
chemical examination, 370. 
tartaric acid, 373. 
1143 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
POISONS, IRRITANT, continued. 
acetic acid, 374. 
alkaline. 
potash and soda, 376. 
post-mortem appearance, 377. 
bleaching solutions, 378. 
ammonia, 379. 
baryta, 382. 
metalloidal. 
phosphorus, 386. 
chemical examination, 389. 
in organic mixtures, 390. 
chronic poisoning by, 391. 
bromine, 392. 
iodine, 393. 
chemical tests, 395. 
chlorine, 396. 
metallic, 
arsenic. 
form of, most commonly used, 398. 
arsenious acid, 399. 
symptoms of poisoning, 400. 
chronic poisoning, 405. 
external application, 408. 
kobbalt, arsenic greens, aniline red, anileine, orpiment, realgar, 
savon deBecoeur, etc., 409. 
fatal dose of, 410. 
eaters of (toxicophagi), 411. 
post-mortem appearances caused by, 412. 
external application causes same appearance, 414. 
effects upon putrefactive process, 415. 
can be found in tissues a long time after death, 416. 
chemical examination, special tests, etc., 417 et seq. 
when mixed with organic matter, 426. 
value of Marsh’s test, 431. 
report of Sherman trial, 435. 
poisoning by papers colored with, 444. 
corrosive sublimate (bichloride of mercury), 446. 
form administered, 448. 
post-mortem appearances, 449. 
external application of, 450. 
value of symptoms in evidence of poisoning, 451. 
danger of confounding these with arsenic, 452. 
with copper, 453. 
chemical examination, 454. 
nitrate of mercury, 460. 
deleterious effects of mercurial preparations, 462. 
description of mercurial stomatitis, 468. 
1144 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
POISONS, IRRITANT, continued. 
salts of lead, 469. 
symptoms of poisoning, 470. 
forms generally administered, 474. 
acute and clironic poisoning, 475. 
chemical examination, 476. 
in organic mixtures, 477. 
post-mortem appearances, 479. 
salts of copper. 
forms generally administered, 480. 
symptoms of poisoning, 481. 
post-mortem appearances, 482. 
chemical examination, 485. 
in organic mixtures, 486. 
fatal dose of, 488. 
tartar-emetic, 489. 
symptoms of acute poisoning, 490. 
fatal dose, 491. 
anatomical lesions, 493. 
chronic poisoning, 494. 
chemical examination, 496. 
in organic mixtures, 497. 
antimonial and arsenical mirrors, 498. 
differential table of chemical properties of antimony and arsenic, 
500. 
of combinations of arsenic and antimony, 501. 
salts of zinc. 
oxide of zinc, 504. 
not a poison, 505. 
sulphate of zinc, 506. 
cases, 507. 
chemical examination, 508. 
chloride of zinc, 509. 
tin, 510. 
silver, gold, and platinum, 511. 
iron. 
sulphate of iron, 512a. 
chemical examination, 5125. 
chloride of iron, 513. 
bismuth. 
subnitrate of bismuth, 514. 
chromic acid. 
bichromate of potash, 515. 
vegetable. 
colchicum autumnale, 516a. 
post-mortem appearances, 5165. 
chemical examination, 517. 
drastic purges; jalap, scammony, etc., 518. 
1145 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
POISONS, IRRITANT, continued. 
castor seeds or beans, 519. 
fungi (mushrooms), 520. 
symptoms of poisoning, 521. 
post-mortem appearances, 522. 
animal. 
cantharides, 528. 
symptoms of poisoning, 524. 
fatal dose, 525. 
post-mortem appearances, 526. 
sausages, 527. 
symptoms of poisoning, 528. 
post-mortem appearances, 530. 
trichinosis, 532. 
symptoms of poisoning, 533. 
poisonous cheese, 534. 
poisonous fish, 535. 
unsounS meat, 536. 
mechanical irritants. 
pins, needles, glass, etc., 537. 
POISONS, NARCOTIC, 
narcotism, 538. 
anatomical lesions, 539. 
opium and its preparations, 540. 
symptoms of poisoning, 541. 
fatal dose, 543. 
chronic poisoning, 544. 
effect of habitual use, 546. 
as to life-insurance, 547. 
post-mortem appearances, 548. 
morphia, 549. 
chemical examination, 550. 
salts of, 552. 
meconic acid, 553. 
in organic mixtures, 554. 
process of Stas, 555. 
separation by dialysis, 556. 
its value, 557. 
hydrocyanic acid (prussic acid), 558. 
symptoms of poisoning, 559. 
fatal dose, 562. 
recovery after very large doses, 563. 
post-mortem appearances, 564. 
origin of, 566. 
effects of eating bitter almonds, 567. 
chemical tests, 568. 
the iron tests, 569. 
for the vapor, 570. 
1146 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
POISONS, NAKCOTIC, continued. 
the silver test, 571. 
the sulphur or Liebig’s test, 572. 
order of applying the tests, 573. 
manner of applying the sulphur test, 574. 
the use of the spectroscope, 576. 
absence of odor does not prove absence of Prussic acid, 577 
chemical examination, 578. 
oil of bitter almonds, 580. 
apricot kernels, 581. 
peach kernels, 582. 
cherry-laurel water, 583. 
cyanide of potassium, 584. 
chloroform, 585. 
symptoms of poisoning, 586. 
phenomena of etherization, 587. 
internal administration, 588. 
mode of death occasioned from inhalation of, 589. 
post-mortem appearances, 590. 
detection of, 591. 
chemical examination, 592. 
in organic mixtures, 593. 
Dr. Kidd on medico-legal bearings, 594. 
to facilitate robbery, 595. 
alcohol, 596. 
symptoms of poisoning, 598. 
producing sudden death, 599. 
post-mortem appearance, 600. 
camphor, 601. 
hyoscyamus niger (henbane), 602. 
forms of administration, 603. 
haschisch, 604. 
lactuca, 605. 
solanum (bittersweet), 606. 
datura stramonium (Jamestown weed), 
nature and effects, 607. 
post-mortem appearances, 608. 
nicotiana tabacum (tobacco), 609. 
post-mortem appearances, 611. 
nicotina, 612. 
chemical character, 613. 
recovery of, 614. 
discovery of any liquid or volatile alkaloid, 615, 
conium maculatum (hemlock), 
its action, 616. 
symptoms of poisoning 617. 
conia or conicine, 618. 
1147 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
POISONS, NARCOTIC, continued. 
effects of, 619. 
detection in organic mixtures, 620. 
POISONS, MISCELLANEOUS, 
nux vomica and strychnia, 621. 
symptoms of poisoning, 622. 
fatal dose, 623. 
effects compared with tetanus, 624. 
post-mortem appearances, 625. 
chemical examination, 626. 
aconite, 627. 
symptoms of poisoning, 628. 
post-mortem appearances, 629. 
lobelia inflata (Indian tobacco), 630. 
lobelina, chemical character, 631. 
cedar oil, 632. 
savin, 633. 
post-mortem appearances, 634. 
detection, 635. 
taxus baccata (yew), 636. 
oil of tansy, 637. 
cocculus Indicus. 
symptoms of poisoning, 639. 
results of experiments, 642. 
post-mortem appearances, 643. 
used to adulterate liquors, 644. 
detection, 645. 
atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), 646. 
atropia or atropine, 647. 
post-mortem appearances, 648. 
recovery from organic mixtures, 649. 
digitalis purpurea (foxglove), 550. 
digitalin, 651. 
quinia, 653. 
daphne mezereum, 654. 
chloral-hydrate, 655. 
fatal dose, 656. 
symptoms of poisoning, 657. 
chemical characters of chloral, 658. 
of chloral hydrate, 659. 
its recovery, 660. 
veratrum, 661. 
album, 662. 
viride, 663. 
veratria and other alkaloids, 664. 
differential table for strychnia and veratria, 665. 
. POISONOUS OASES, 
carbonic acid gas. 
1148 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
POISONOUS GASES, continued. 
effects of poisoning, 666. 
cause of death generally accidental, 668. 
coal-gas a blood poison, 670. 
pure carbonic acid not poisonous, 671. 
explanation of its action, 672. 
physical characters, 678. 
ligliting-gas, 675. 
sulphuretted-hydrogen gas, 676. 
nitrous-oxide gas. 
explanation of its action, 678. 
method of analysis of gases, 
preliminary experiment, 679. 
on collecting gases, 680. 
analysis of gases, 681. 
preliminary formalities in a judicial examination, 682. 
exhalations from the dead, 684. 
POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION, 
locality, 1007. 
identity, 1008. 
indications of violence or unnatural death, 1009. 
manner of conducting autopsy, 1010. 
natural aspects of the organs at different ages, 1012. 
mode of drawing reports, 1022. 
POTASH, 
bichromate of, poisoning by. (See Poisoning.) 
binoxalate of. (See Poisoning.) 
nitrate of, poisoning by. (See Poisoning.) 
poisoning by, 366-8. 
POTASSIUM, 
cyanide of. (See Poisoning.) 
PREGNANCY, 
signs of, 
suppression of the menses, 1. 
enlargement of the abdomen, 3. 
changes in the mouth and neck of the womb, 6. 
quickening, 7. 
sympathetic phenomena, 12. 
pulsation of the foetal heart, 19. 
other sounds indicative of pregnancy, 20. 
kiestein in the urine, 22. 
duration of, 
presumption that the child born in wedlock is legitimate, 40. 
protracted gestation, 41. 
usual duration of pregnancy, 41. 
mode of reckoning duration of pregnancy, 43. 
cause of conception, 44. 
cessation of the catamenia, 46. 
POTASH, 
signs of, 
1149 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
PREGNANCY, continued. 
arrest of monthly discharge, 47. 
statistical results, 50. 
legal decisions, 66. 
early viability, 67. 
PREMATURE LABOR, 
induction of, 92-7. 
PRIORITY OF DEATH. (See Survivorship.) 
PRUSSIC ACID, 558. 
symptoms of poisoning, 559. 
fatal dose, 562. 
recovery after very large doses, 563. 
post-mortem appearances, 564. 
origin of, 566. 
effects of eating bitter almohds, 567. 
chemical tests, 568. 
the iron tests, 569. 
for the vapor, 570. 
the silver test, 571. 
the sulphur or Liebig’s test, 572. 
order of applying the tests, 578. 
manner of applying the sulphur test, 574. 
the use of the spectroscope, 576. 
absence of odor does not prove absence of Prussic acid, 577. 
chemical examination for, 578. 
oil of bitter almonds, 580. 
apricot kernels, 581. 
peach kernels, 582. 
cherry-laurel water, 583. 
cyanide of potassium, 584. 
PURGATIVES, DRASTIC, 
poisoning by, 518. 
for procuring abortion, 85-6. 
PUTREFACTION, 132. 
by cold, 310-17, 984. 
by heat, 310-17, 984. 
by moisture, 983, 310-17. 
by water, 982-3. 
as affecting evidence of strangulation, 907-11. 
as influenced by temperature, 305. 
in the foetus, 132, 319. 
influence of lime upon, 320. 
Q. 
QUICKENING, 7. 
period of, 7. 
value of, as a sign of pregnancy, 7-22. 
1150 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
QUINIA, 
poisonous effects of, 653. 
R. 
RAPE, 213-270. 
medical evidence in case of, 213. 
on adult females, possibility of, 233-240. 
on adults in an unconscious state, 233-48. 
on old women, 244. 
on persons asleep, 242. 
on persons under the influence of ether or chloroform, 245. 
upon children, 213. 
frequency of, 217. 
marks of violence in, 219. 
transmission of gonorrhoea, 219-22. 
physical evidence of, 249. 
condition of the hymen, 250. 
it is not always destroyed by the first connection, 251. 
it may be lost from other causes than coition, 252. 
seminal stains, 253. 
microscopical examination of semen, 254. 
feigned rape, 259. 
rape by females, 260. 
legal relations of, 263. 
submission of prosecutrix, 264. 
from artificial stupefaction, 264. 
from ignorance of the nature of the act, 269. 
from mistake of person, 275. 
from fear, 276. 
prior want of character of prosecutrix, 277. 
subsequent suppression of the fact by prosecutrix, 279. 
extent to which coition was carried, 280. 
want of age of defendant, 285. 
want of sexual capacity of defendant, 286. 
REPORTS, MEDICO-LEGAL, 
how to be drawn up, 1007. 
RESPIRATION, 
causes of imperfect, 19-128. 
signs of imperfect, 19-128. 
S. 
SALTS OF LEAD, 469. 
symptoms of poisoning, 470. 
forms generally administered, 474. 
acute and chronic poisoning, 475. 
chemical examination, 476. 
in organic mixtures, 477. 
post-mortem appearances, 479. 
1151 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
SALTS OF COPPER, 
forms generally administered, 480. 
symptoms of poisoning, 481. 
post-mortem appearances, 482. 
chemical examination, 485. 
in organic mixtures, 486. 
fatal dose of, 488. 
SAPONIFICATION, 986. 
SAUSAGES, 
poisoning by, 527-8. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 530. 
symptoms in poisoning by, 527-30. 
SAVIN, 
as producing abortion, 86, 633. 
detection of, after death, 635. 
poisoning by, 86, 633. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 634. 
SCALDS, 
effects of, 839-47. 
SCAMMONY, 518. 
SCARS, 
disappearance of, 298-300. 
identification from, 298. 
SEMINAL STAINS. 
analysis of, 253. 
SEX, 
doubtful, 181. 
identification of, 296. 
SEXUAL DISABILITY, 191-210. 
organs, absence of, 188, 202. 
SHELLFISH, 
poisonous, 535. 
SHOCK, 
death from, 774. 
SILVER, 
nitrate of, poisoning by, 511. 
SKELETON, 
female, peculiarities of. 296. 
identification by the, 289-98. 
SKIN, 
condition of, after drowning, 948. 
SKULL, 
fractures of the, 793. 
during birth, 161. 
in delivery, 143. 
SODA, 
poisoning by, 376. 
SODOMY, 261 
1152 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
SOLANUM, 606. 
SPECTROSCOPE, 
use of, 576. 
SPINE, 
dislocation of the, 808. 
wounds and injuries of the, 808. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION, 849. 
STARVATION, 
death from, 884-8. 
post-mortem appearances in death from, 888. 
STAS, PROF., 
process for the detection of nicotina, 612-5. 
detection of opium, 555. 
STATIC TESTS, 
conclusions, 144. 
of live birth, 144. 
STERILITY, 191-210. 
causes of, 191. 
STILLBORN CHILDREN, 
appearance of, 108. 
STRANGULATION, 
death by, 907-11. 
marks of violence upon the neck in, 908-9. 
before or after death, 908-11. 
evidence of design in death by, 911. 
suicidal, 911-2. 
of new-born child, 170. 
homicidal, 915. 
STRYCHNIA, 
poisoning by, 621-36. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 623. 
recovery from large doses, 622. 
symptoms in poisoning by, 622. * 
tests for, 626. 
SUDDEN DEATH AS PRESUMPTIVE OF POISONING, 332. 
SUFFOCATION, 
accidental, 897-902. 
death from, 896. 
homicidal, 902. 
of new-born child, 168. 
post mortem appearances in death by, 896. 
suicidal, 899. 
SUGGILLATIONS, 967. 
SUICIDAL WOUNDS, 
tests of, 717. 
and homicidal hanging distinguished, 929-930. 
suffocation distingushed, 899-902. 
drowning distinguished, 958. 
vol. ii.—73 
1153 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
SUICIDE. (See Homicide.) 
SULPHURETS OF ARSENIC. (See Poisons.) 
SULPHURETTED HYDROGEN GAS, 
accidents from, 676. 
appearances after death by, 676-7. 
SULPHURIC ACID, 845-53. 
characters of, 345. 
chemical examination in poisoning by, 351. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 345. 
smallest quantity fatal, 347. 
symptoms of poisoning by, 352. 
aromatic, 352-3. 
SUNSTROKE, 
death from, 869-72. 
post-mortem appearances in death from, 872. 
6UPERFCETATION, 
twin pregnancies in which the children have had different fathers, 73. 
parturition of children at the same time, but of different degrees of 
development, 77. 
short intervals between births of equally matured children, 77. 
SURGICAL INTERFERENCE, 
refusal of, 788. 
SURGICAL OPERATIONS, 
as influencing fatality of wounds, 786-7. 
SURVIVORSHIP, 
presumptions as to, 1024. 
from sex, 1025. 
from age, 1027. 
from size, etc., 1028. 
from health, 1030. 
from mode of death, 1031. 
from drowning, 1031. 
from asphyxia, 1046. 
from heat, 1047. 
from cold, 1048. 
from starving, 1049. 
from poison, 1052. 
from crushing alive, 1053. 
from childbirth, 1054. 
from wounds, 1056. 
tests where bodies are found dead, 1057. 
SYMPATHETIC PHENOMENA OF PREGNANCY, 12-14. 
T. 
TANSY OIL, 
as producing abortion, 86. 
poisoning by, 637. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 638. 
1154 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
TARTAR-EMETIC, 489. 
symptoms of acute poisoning, 490. 
fatal dose, 491. 
anatomical lesions, 493. 
chronic poisoning, 494. 
chemical examination, 496. 
in organic mixtures, 497. 
TARTARIC ACID, 373. 
fatal results from, 373. 
TARTRATE OF ANTIMONY AND POTASSA, 489-655. 
TATTOO-MARKS, 
disappearance of, 301-2. 
TAXUS BACCATA, 
poisoning by, 636. 
TEETH, 
indentification by the, 292. 
TEMPERATURE, 
influence of, on putrefaction, 305, 982. 
TESTES, 
congenital absence of, 202. 
diseases of the, 205. 
TETANUS, 
in wounds, 782. 
TIN, 
chloride of, 510. 
TOBACCO, INDIAN, 
poisonous properties of, 630. 
poisonous effects of, 609-15. 
post-mortem appearances in poisoning by, 610. 
TRICHINOSIS, 
poisoning by, 533. 
U. 
UMBILICAL CORD, 
compression of and by, 150. 
desiccation of, 150. 
evidence from, 150-2. 
hemorrhage from the, 157. 
mark left by the, 158. 
strangulation by, 158-9. 
usual length of, 160. 
UNCONSCIOUS DELIVERY, 175. 
URINE, 
kiestein in the, 22. 
UTERINE RESPIRATION, 19-108, 128. 
1155 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
V. 
VAGINA, 
absence of, 184, 191. 
VAGINAL RESPIRATION, 19,108, 128. 
VEGETABLE POISONS, 
colchicum autumnale, 516a. 
post-mortem appearances, 5165. 
chemical examination, 517. 
drastic purges ; jalap, scammony, etc., 518. 
castor seed or beans, 519. 
fungi (mushrooms), 520. 
symptoms of poisoning, 521. 
post-mortem appearances, 522. 
VENESECTION, 
as an abortive, 91. 
VERATRUM, 661. 
album, 662. 
viride, 663. 
veratria, and other alkaloids, 664. 
differential table for strychnia and veratria, 665. 
VIABILITY, 
early, 67. (See Homicide.) 
VINEGAR, 
poisoning by. (See Poisons.) 
VIOLENCE, 
marks of, in bodies found drowned, 955. 
VITRIOL. 
elixir of. (See Poisons.) 
W. 
WATER, 
as affecting putrefaction, 309, 956-8. 
WOMB, 
changes in the mouth and neck of, 6. 
WOUNDS, 
general considerations, 685. 
what a wound is, 685. 
general definitions, 686. 
how far dangerous, 687. 
examination of the body, 689. 
external phenomena, 690. 
internal phenomena, 690. 
wounds made before or after death, 691. 
ecchymoses from natural causes, 700. 
classification of wounds, 702. 
incised and punctured wounds, 703. 
1156 INDEX TO YOL. II. 
WOUNDS, continued. 
lacerated and contused wounds, 704. 
gunshot wTounds, 707. 
wounds from wadding and gunpowder, 714. 
homicidal, suicidal, and accidental wounds, 717. 
situation of wounds, 717. 
direction, 719. 
position of body and of weapon, 722. 
blood-stains, 
general appearance, 724. 
chemical examination, 726. 
microscopical evidence, 753. 
cause of death in wounds, 769. 
hemorrhage, 770. 
shock, 774. 
mechanical injury, 775. 
diseased condition of body, 777. 
wounds inflicted on pregnant women, 779. 
indirect complications, 780. 
tetanus, 782. 
erysipelas, 783. 
hospital gangrene, 784. 
nervous delirium, 784. 
surgical operations, 786. 
wounds in various parts of the body, 
injuries of the head, 790. 
concussion of brain, 791. 
fractures of the skull, 793. 
wounds of the substance of the brain, 795. 
wounds of the face, 800. 
wounds of the neck, 801. 
wounds and injuries of the spine, 808. 
wounds of the chest, 815. 
wounds of the lungs, 816. 
wounds of the heart, 820. 
wounds of the abdomen, 827. 
superficial wounds, 827. 
penetrating wounds, 828. 
wounds of the liver, 829. 
wounds of the diaphragm, 830. 
wounds and rupture of the bladder, 831. 
wounds of the genitals, 835. 
Y. 
YEW, 
poison by, 636. 
1157 INDEX TO VOL. II. 
z. 
ZINC, 
chloride of, poisoning by, 509. 
in organic mixtures, detection of, 509. 
oxide of, poisoning by, 504. . 
sulphate of, poisoning by, 506. 
tests for, 508. 
1158