Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Principles of forensic medicine / by William A. Guy and David Ferrier. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![CAUSE OF DEATH. ]13 a. The death of an iufant after a few respirations, in spite of the most skilful and persevering attempts to restore animation, is an event well known to every accoucheur, and must be a common occurrence in children born under circumstances which preclude effectual assistance. The most common causes of early- death are a long and tedious labour, haemorrhage, continued interruption to the circulation through the cord, and immaturity or feebleness. The causes, too, which occasion still-birth promote the early death of children born alive. Thus, more large infants perish in the birth, or die soon after, than small ones, and more males (as being larger) than females; and more in a first preg- nancy than in subsequent ones. Illegitimate children in the absence of violence, or of intentional neglect, would seem to be specially liable to be still-born or to die soon after birth ; the reports of obstetric practitioners show that, while the mortality of legitimate children is about 1 in 20, that of the illegitimate is about 1 in 10, the deaths of males being to those of females as about 7 to 6. h. The chief obstacles to the breathing are the contact of the infant's mouth with some soft and yielding object, with blood, the discharges, or water; and the accumulation of mucus in the mouth, nostrils, and air-passages. Eespiration may also be pre- vented by the child being born in the membranes. c. The congenital diseases that prevent the establishment of the vital processes, or render their continuance for any length of time impossible, have their seat in the three organs most essential to life—the heart, the lungs, and the brain. Diseases of the heart and large vessels are rare in infancy ; but contraction, or early closure, of the foetal vessels (p. 110) afford.s a presumption of death from natural causes. Diseases of the lungs are more important. Of these the follow- ing are the chief : 1. Hepatization (red and grey), the consequence of ])neumonia before birth; 2. Pulmonary apoplexy; 3. Tubercle; 4. CEdema; 5. A disease described by Devergie as oedema larda- ciforme; and 6. A state known as atelectasis. The three con- Pig. 23. ditions of atelectasis, pulmonary apoplexy, and oedema larda- ciforme are illustrated in portions of lungs in Fig. 23, of which 1 shows atelectasis as figured by Jorg; 2, the oedema](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21965183_0131.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
