A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy. 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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    THE SITUATION OF WOUNDS. In general very extensive and deep wounds are supposed to be homi- cidal or to indicate murder. If very numerous, they probably do so, but their depth and direction must be considered. We have ourselves known suicides inflict very terrible wounds on themselves \see Illustrative Cases]. Beck, Casper, Guy, and Taylor, and most French and German authors agree with this statement. Whilst recommending you to be exact in the measurement of wounds, we do not advise you to state them too minutely in your evidence. A jury would understand you far better if you said a wound was about four inches long, than if you stated it as 3'95 inches. For in general both vulgar and decimal fractions arc but little understood by the populace. (b) The situation of a wound is often of considerable importance. There are some parts of the body, as all who have been accustomed either to gymnastics or ablutions with cold or hot water, can testify, which are either not capable of being reached at all, or reached only with extreme difficulty. A suicidal wound is therefore, in general, on the front of the body, and in parts which are reached with ease. Thus the throat or chest, the forearms, and the thighs or groins are favourite seats of suicidal wounds. But murderers may, and often do, select the same sites. Dr. Gordon Smith (“Forensic Medicine,” p. 302), is very rash in saying that if a bullet or shot-wound is made from within the mouth, we may “ take it for granted that it is not made by another,” and therefore suicidal. Because, as Dr. Taylor justly says, a cool and calculating murderer may easily attack a sleeping or feeble victim in this way. Still, we may cer- tainly admit, if other evidence does not point to murder, that finding is also divided into quarters, eighths, tenths, and sixteenths, as well as twelfths.) 12 inches = 1 foot. 3 feet (36 inches) — 1 yard. 4 inches = 1 hand (used in measuring horses). 3 inches = 1 palm. 3 palms (9 inches) = 1 span. 6 feet = 1 pace. 6 feet = 1 fathom. 54 yards (16J feet) = 1 perch or pole English. 7 yards (21 feet) = 1 Irish perch. 40 perches (660 feet) = 1 furlong English. 8 furlongs (or 1760 yards, or 5280 feet) = 1 mile English. 11 Irish miles = 14 English ones. French Measures of Length. 1 millimetre = 0-03937inches English. 10 millimetres or 1 centimetre = 0-39371 inch English. 10 centimetres or 1 decimetre = 3-93708 inches English. 10 deci- metres or 1 metre = 39-37079 inches English, or 1 yard, 3 inches, and Anyths of an inch nearly. 10 metres or 1 decametre = 10-936331 yards. 10 decametres or 1 hectometre = 109-36331 yards. 10 hectometres or 1 kilometre = 1093-6331 yards. Or 1 inch = 2-539954 centimetres ; 1 foot = 3-0479449 decimetres ; 1 yard = 0-91438348 metre; and 1 mile = 1-6093149 kilometre. German Measures of Length. 12 Austrian punkte make 1 linie = 0-0864 inch English. 12 linien = 1 zoll or inch = 1-0371 inch English. 12 zoll make 1 fuss = 12-445 inches English. Theelleis 30-66 inches, or 2-555 feet. The Austrian mile is 8297 yards, or 4-7142 miles English. In Hanover 12 linien make 1 zoll, or 0'95 inch English ; and the fuss of 12 zoll equals only 11-45 inches, or 0-9542 foot English. In Prussia 12 scrupel = 1 linie, or 0-086 inch English ; 12 linien = 1 zoll, or 1-03 inch English. The fuss (Rhein-fuss) is therefore 12-357 inches, or 1-0298 foot English ; and the mile (meile) is 8238 yards, or 4-6807 miles English. In Baden (Germany) 10 punkte make 1 linie = 0-118 inch English. 10 linien = 1 zoll, or 1-181 inch. 10 zoll = 1 fuss, or 11-811 inches or 0-9842 foot English. 10 fuss = 1 rathe, or 9-8425 feet English, = 3 French metres. In Saxony 10 linien make 1 zoll = 0-929 inch English. 12 zoll = 1 fuss, or 11-148 inches English = 0'929 foot English. The meile (mile) is 7432 yards, or 4-2227 miles. For the measures, &c. of other continental and foreign states, see “ The Weights Sand Measures of all Natiohs,” by W. S. B. Woolhouse, Esq., F.R.A.S, in Weale’s I beries.