Outlines of medical jurisprudence for India / by J.D.B. Gribble and Patrick Hehir.

  • Gribble, J. D. B. (James Dunning Baker), -1906
Date:
1898
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of medical jurisprudence for India / by J.D.B. Gribble and Patrick Hehir. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    184/576 page 154
    154 OUTLINES OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. [SEC. II. Asphyxia. Drowning. 237. Under the head of asphyxia are included all forms of death in which the act of respiration is primarily arrested, as, for instance, death from drowning, hanging, suffocation, and throttling.* 238. The cause of death in Drowning is the same as that in strangulation, and most of the internal appearances are therefore similar. In cases of drowning, fresh air is pre- vented from entering the lungs, by the water which has been inspired, and the blood in the lungs becomes imperfectly aerated. There is no longer any supply of oxygen, and the blood circulates in a state unfitted for the preservation of life. The action of the heart becomes gradually weaker until at , last it ceases, and then the person asphyxiated dies. The action of the heart, however, often continues for some time after asphyxiation has taken place. It is only after all action of the heart has ceased that recovery becomes impossible. In strangulation the process is exactly the same. The ligature round the throat compressing the trachea or windpipe, pre- vents the supply of fresh air to the lungs, and death follows in the same manner. In investigating a case of alleged drown- ing, the following considerations may be of use :— (a) Previous history of persons found in the water,—any alleged suicidal tendency, or any motive that would render suicide probable. (/>) Height from which the person fell. (c) Absence or presence of signs of death from drowning. (d) Absence of stakes or other objects in the water that might have caused in juries to any one falling against them. 239. The goose skin or cutis anserina, is considered This External appearances in i QASPER to a gure Qf t]eatn |)y drowning cases of drown- J & J & ing. ~ * The modes of suicide most frequently met with are drowning, poison- ing, and hanging. In India, as in England, of (lie deaths from violence, the largest number are accidental, the proportion of suicides and homicides being comparatively small, especially the homicides. Suicide bn children is much more common in India than in England. Tn 1872, in the Bengal Presidency, of a total of 1,71C suicides, 23 were children : in tin' Province of
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