Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/351

MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE 339 or render it incapable of living. The mother may have been overtaken by the pains of labor when alone and unassisted, and then there are many chances against the safe delivery of the infant. Fainting or convulsions, which sometimes attend labor, may render her inca- pable of ministering to the first wants of her child ; unskilful and imperfect ligature of the umbilical cord may produce death. An exam- ination of the supposed mother has already been suggested. In determining questions of legitimacy, the consideration of premature and tardy births necessarily arises. The ordinary period of gestation, derived from accurate data, is fixed at ten lunar months, or 280 days. It is admitted on high authority that this time may be exceeded, but it has been suggested that the apparently exceptional cases may be explained by the fact of inaccurate computa- tion. Still it is to be remembered that the hu- man foetus is ordinarily expelled only when it has attained sufficient development, and that, as this may be delayed by disease or other causes, it is not strange that delivery may be for a longer or shorter time deferred. Whether a child born before the time expected is to be regarded as legitimate, has been already inci- dentally discussed. It has been seen that the best authorities deny that a perfectly natural child can be born in less than seven months after conception. The absence or incapacity of the husband during this period, and all other causes which render intercourse impossible, tend strongly to prove illegitimacy of the child. Births occurring at 13 and even 14 months after an alleged coition have been sometimes claimed to be legitimate. This topic of pro- tracted gestation has been abundantly discussed by medical writers. It must suffice here to say that, though the theory seems to be ably opposed by many, it is yet favored by a major- ity of the authorities, among whom are in- cluded Bacchias, Haller, Petit, Fodere, Capu- ron, Orfila, and others of almost equal emi- nence. It may be added that, of the cases cited in support of this theory, the best au- thenticated are those in which the ordinary period of gestation was exceeded only by three or four weeks. When a person is found dead under circumstances which render the cause of death doubtful, the medical expert may be called upon for an opinion whether death resulted from natural causes, or from violence ; and, if by vi- olence, whether that was self-inflicted or by the hands of an assassin. Under this division of our subject we shall notice some of the more usual and characteristic phenomena observed in cases of death by blows and wounds ; by asphyxia, considering here drowning, hanging, and suffo- cation; and finally, by poisons. The appear- ances in the body which are caused by effusions of blood will attract the early attention of the examiner. When a blow or contusion is suffi- ciently violent to rupture blood vessels, the effused blood spreads into the cellular tissues sand forms ecchymosis.. The intensity and grad- uation of color in these spots give clear indica- tions of their cause, and the freedom of the haemorrhage shows that they were produced during life. Ecchymosis is named traumatic when, as is usually the case, it proceeds from external causes, and spontaneous when it is the effect of internal violence. From this must be distinguished the post-mortem appearances caused by suggillation. This is the term applied to the determination of the blood, merely as an effect of gravitation, into the lower lying por- tions of the dead body, and into the capillary blood vessels, and not into the cellular tissue. Ecchymosis may be imitated on the dead body within a short time after life is extinct ; but very violent blows inflicted then will produce only the same effect as slight contusions during life. The body may plainly show, or dissection may disclose, that death was caused by wounds, that is to say, in the language of legal medicine, by a lesion of any part of the body. It may be remarked in passing that, in law, a wound means a breaking of the skin, at least, by the application of extreme violence. A division of the cuticle alone is not sufficient. The true skin must be penetrated, though there be no effusion of blood. In surgery, a wound means a solution of continuity, or disruption, in the fleshy parts. The first inquiries of course will be whether the wounds discovered were self- inflicted, or resulted from accident, or were given by a homicide. The position and direc- tion of the injuries will be noted. The pres- ence of many wounds argues violence by another hand than that of the deceased. The suicide generally directs the hurt to a single vital point. A wound made by a cylindrical and pointed instrument has distinct angles. A cut is larger than the cutting edge, and in the living body is always accompanied by some effusion of blood. A wound by a perforating instrument is generally smaller than the instru- ment which inflicted it. The entrance made by a ball is distinguished by the regular roundness and depression of its edges; the exit wound is torn and ragged. The former is also larger than the latter. The spiral motion of a rifle ball causes a more nigged wound than that of a ball from a smooth-bored arm. A single round wound can be produced by a shot charge only when it is fired at a distance of 10 or 12 inches, and then the injury is not the same as that of a ball, but is more extensive and more serious. The examination of spots supposed to be made by blood may lead to important dis- coveries. Blood washed from linen into water imparts to it a deep red color ; boiling pro- duces a muddy brown precipitate which is to be subjected to chemical tests. In fresh blood the microscope reveals the presence of red flattened disks, which are the blood disks, and among these, more rarely, the rounded color- less lymph globules. These latter may still be observed under the microscope in the water in which dried blood has been softened ; the blood disks are less easily obtained. It is often a