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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    wounds in an exposed and anterior region of the body, is in favour of their being suicidal. (c) The shape or form, and depth of wounds sometimes points to the hand of a murderer. For example, in a midland county, some years back, a farmer was found, with his throat cut, lying on a high road, with his pockets rifled. On examining the wound, the surgeon discovered that the knife had been entered deeply just below the ear, and that the carotid and jugular, with the throat and windpipe, had been cut from behind for- wards ; the shallowest part of the wound being at the point of exit. In fact, it was done just as a butcher might cut a sheep’s throat. The prisoner, who was subsequently tried and executed for this crime, had, it appeared, been a butcher. [See Guy and Taylor.] Orfila quotes a case in which the body was divided into two, between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, just as butchers divide animals, and this led to the arrest, trial, and condemnation of a butcher. Sometimes the neat way, so to speak, in which joints are disarticulated, or a body opened, or decapitated, has led to the suspicion that the perpetrator of the crime was an anatomist, or a surgeon, or at least, a medical student. It should, however, be borne in mind, that many lads, especially in country villages and small towns, are fond of watching the manoeuvres of butchers. Also that in medical schools and hospitals, where there are Faculties of Arts, Law, Theology, Ac., others, besides medical students, often witness dissections and operations on both the living and the dead subject. The depth of a wound may be conveniently taken by means of either a probe or a small bougie, comparing it with a measuring rule or tape, this should be gently insinuated under the edges of the wound, and then, if we are making a post-mortem examination, we may surround the wound in this manner (|) by a couple of semi-lunar incisions : and thus preserve the relation of the external parts, skin, muscles, Ac., to the deeper portions of the wound. (d) As regards the nature of the wound, we have before explained the principal characters of wounds of different kinds, incised, lacerated, con- tused, penetrating, Ac. We need not, therefore, repeat what we said, but pass on to notice that— (e) The direction of a wound is considered by many writers on this subject to be of very great importance. Thus suicidal wounds of the throat, generally run from left to right, when inflicted by persons who are right-handed. Such persons cut pretty straight across, and often very high up, just between the hyoid bone and the thyroid and cricoid cartilages. The larynx or wind-pipe [organ of the voice] is thus wounded and cut across, but the carotids and other large vessels often escape, particularly if the knife be somewhat blunt. A left-handed person would of course cut in the reverse direction. It has, therefore, been recommended to place a knife or razor (the very weapon found, or one that is capable of inflicting a similar wound, in the right hand of the deceased [or vice versd in the left hand], and see if the incision could have been easily made in such a direction. It has, however, been remarked in answer to this, that if a murderer went behind his victim, he would inflict a similar wound in the throat as the person himself, according to which hand he used. In some cases it might be found that the hand of the murdered person was incapable of reaching the wounded part. You must, of course, in making such an experiment, overcome pos mortem rigidity, if present, by forcibly bending the limbs, lingers, Ac.,