Report of the trial of George Stephen for murder at Aberdeen, 18th and 19th April 1865 / by Alexander Silver.

  • Silver, Alexander.
Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the trial of George Stephen for murder at Aberdeen, 18th and 19th April 1865 / by Alexander Silver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1 : 35 after respiration. The most marked differences exist in the observations of Lecieux, Orfila, and Devergie; the remainder are much less considerable. The small group of facts collected by Haartmann gives nearly the same values before and after respira¬ tion, and the same remark applies to the results of my own obser¬ vations. The average values obtained from Mr Taylor*’s facts and from my own are worthy of notice, and of comparison with the numbers in the first table. On referring to this table it will be seen that the average weight of the lungs before and after respira¬ tion differs very slightly in Mr Taylor’s observations, whilst in my own the weight of the lungs in the still-born infant greatly ex¬ ceeds that of children born alive; but a reference to the last ta¬ ble shows that the proportion which the weight of the lungs bears to that of the body in Mr Taylor’s observations is much less be¬ fore than after respiration, and that in the case of my own obser¬ vations the proportion is exactly the same. This circumstance is easily explained by the aid of a fact established in my former es¬ say, viz. the greater weight of the body of the still-born infant. The average weight of the bodies of the five still-born in¬ fants examined by Mr Taylor greatly exceeds the average weight of the four who survived their birth, the former being to the latter as about 41 to 36; and in my own observa¬ tions the weight of the still-born is to that of those born alive as 10 to 9 nearly. It is this great disparity of weight which has made the average proportions before and after respiration to differ much more than the absolute weight of the lungs in Mr Taylor’s observations, and this same disparity has equalized the proportions obtained from my own facts. Here, then, is an obvious advantage of Ploucquet’s test over the absolute weight of the lungs ; and if the question to be decided was, which of the two should be pre¬ ferred, there can be little doubt to which the superiority ought to be assigned. The superior value of Ploucquet’s test is still further shown by comparing the several proportions before and after respiration, in the same manner as the absolute weights of the lungs before and after respiration have already been contrasted. From this compa¬ rison it results, that whereas there were only eight instancesin which the maximum weight of the lungs after respiration exceeded the maximum weight before respiration, there are no less than 29 in¬ stances in which the proportion which the lungs bear to the body is greater after respiration than before; that is to say, there are 29 instances in which, assuming the proportion 1 : 24 to be the true maximum, we could state with certainty that respiration had taken place. On the other hand, there is only one instance in which the proportion of the lungs to the body is less before respit ration than the least proportion observed in children born alive; 6
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