The principles and practice of medical jurisprudence / by the late Alfred Swaine Taylor.

  • Alfred Swaine Taylor
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of medical jurisprudence / by the late Alfred Swaine Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    mornino-, early, that his grandson found his body in the state described. The deceased was 71 years of age. He was not fat, nor was he addicted to drunkenness. The temperature of the air was low ; and there were no electrical manifestations. The son and his wife were suspected of having murdered the deceased, and afterwards burnt the body in order to conceal the traces of the crime. The body, which had been buried was exhumed: and examined. The partially burnt cravat was still around the neck, and part of a sleeve of a nightshirt was found. The hands, completely burnt,, were also attached to the forearms by some carbonized tendons, which gave way on the slightest touch. The thighs were detached, so as to resemble a wilful mutilation, but for the discovery of animal charcoal about thera.- From these facts, Masson considered it impossible to ascribe the changes to the effect of accidental burning ; and as they could only be produced by violent combustion continuing for some time, he drew th& inference that the burning mast have resulted from some inherent cause in the person, probably roused into activity by the hot brick placed at the feet of the deceased. The burning once commenced, would be easily sup- ported by the state of the tissues. Hence the case was, in his ppmion, to be referred to the class of spontaneous combustions. Orfila is reported to have coincided with Masson in this opinion, and the accused were acquitted. (' Gaz. Med.,' Sept. 4, 1847.) With respect to the medical opinion, that a long-continued action of a strong heat was necessary m order to produce the effects observed, it may be remarked that it is not possible- to assign the degree of the duration of the heat which is required to pro- duce particular effects on the body. It appears probable that Masson had underrated the effects which are liable to follow from an accidental ignition of the clothes. In 1850 some German physicians advocated the hypothesis of spon- taneous combustion. A trial took place at Darmstadt in 1850, in which a valet named Jolm Stauff-was charged with the murder of his mistress, the Countess of Goerlitz. This lady was found dead in her apartment; 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 pro- truding from it. The skin of the neck, as well as the skin and muscles of the face and upper part of the chest, was much blackened and charred.. The joints of both arms were charred on their surfaces, and the blackened ends of the bones protruded. There were no marks of fire anywhere on the clothes beyond the margins of the burns on the body. A writing- desk near the body had been partially burnt, and the floor beneath and in front of the desk, over a space of a foot and a half, had been entirely con- sumed. The feet of a chair placed near the writing-desk were slightly charred. A folding-board and the drawers were also much burnt. The physician who was consulted could suggest no other explanation of the facts than that the body of the Countess must have taken fire spontane- ously, while she was engaged in writing at her desk. He could not even admit that her cap or dress might have become, by some accident, ignited by a candle ; because, had this been the case, she wou.ld, in his opinion,, have had time to escape or call for assistance. The other reasons assigned for the ado]3tion of this hypothesis were, that deceased went to bed in good health, that there was a greasy black or sooty substance found about the room, and that the body exhaled an empyreumatic odour. It may be- observed that when the room was first broken into, and the Countess was found dead, flames burst out simultaneously from the hangings, the writing-desk, and the floor beneath it, which required to be extinguished by water. The opinion thus given amounted to this : the Countess's.