extensive wounds may be inflicted on the living body, with but little or no effusion of blood, but such wounds always belong to the class of lacerations, see vol. ii, p. 123. On the other hand, the knife of the anatomist not unfrequently draws considerable blood from the dead body, and wounds have been known to bleed long after life has fled; a fact which, as we have already observed, has been raised by superstition into prophetic importance. The orifice of a vein that may have been opened during life will sometimes bleed afresh after death; this occurred to a very considerable extent in the body of the Prince Royal of Sweden, who had died of apoplexy. John Lees,[1] the subject of the noted inquest at Oldham, bled after he was laid in his coffin; but, under such circumstances, the blood is never found in the state of coagulation.
If it be determined that such wounds have been inflicted during life, it then becomes important to solve the following questions.
Whether they resulted from an act of suicide or otherwise; whether from accident or design?—There are certain acts of violence which we feel no hesitation in declaring are not likely to be accomplished by the individual himself; such are incisions, or gun-shot wounds on the back of the body, and, perhaps, fractures of the skull; with regard to wounds in the throat, the death of the Earl of Essex, during his imprisonment in the Tower, has given rise to much speculation, and the reader will find an interesting
- ↑ The whole proceedings before the Coroner's inquest at Oldham, &c. on the body of John Lees, who died of sabre wounds at Manchester; taken in short hand by A. Dowling. London, Hone, 1820.
