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

Date:: 1877

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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$EXAMINATION OF WEAPONS. region] by a bolt used in rivetting. The force of the blow stuns him, fractures his skull, so as to expose and lacerate the dura mater, and allows a portion of the brain to escape. There was considerable htcmor- rhage. Yet as soon as he recovered consciousness (in about a quarter of an hour) he walked a distance of more than two miles to the London Hospital, and told his own story. This case occurred in Mr. Curling’s practice, but was seen by one of the Authors. The man recovered, too, iu spite, first of erysipelas, and then of hospital gangrene.*' E. Any weapons that are shown you, or which may be found in, or upon, or near, the body of the ivounded pet-son, should next be carefully examined, and if possible compared with the wound or wounds then and there. In the case of a dead body this is of course easy. Many discussions have arisen as to what constitutes a weapon. Webster defines it as “ an instrument of fence ; something with which one is armed to kill or injure another, as a sword or musket, &c.” Formerly there was much legal discussion on this point. There could, of course, be little doubt as to in- struments of warfare ; so that all projectile-throwers, slings, and bows and arrows, firearms of all kinds and sizes, both large and small, and plain- bored or rifled; swords, spears, javelins, battle-axes, bayonets, daggers, Ac. were clearly included. Nor was it easy to say that a common axe or a surgical knife were not weapons. But exception was taken to including stones and brickbats, sharp tools, such as awls, or chisels, or augurs, or hammers used in peaceful trades, and in one case to an iron hook at the end of a wooden arm, used by a one-armed man as a weapon, and, as it turned out, a very fatal one. You are not likely to be much troubled with these subtleties of law and philology, at least in England, for the words of the statute are now plain—“ Whosoever shall, by any means whatsoever, •wound, or cause any grievous bodily harm, to a person, &c.” Yet, as Dr. Taylor remarks, the use of any weapon, that is, of any addition to what may be called the natural weapons or means of defence (the fists or feet) is considered an aggravation of the prisoner’s crime, and the more deadly the weapon, as for example, a sharp and twisted stiletto, or a many- chambered revolver, the greater the offence. You may consult Henke’s “ Zeitschrift der S. A.,” 1844, 1, 67, quoted by Dr. Taylor; Fodere, and Orfila, and some of the older -writers deal with this point at some length. The characters we have given in the introduction, of incised, lacerated, and other wounds, will assist you in forming a judgment as to the kind of weapon. Incised wounds, for instance, will usually be inflicted by weapons with sharp edges, such as knives, swords, two-edged cutlasses, and the like. A razor is a kind of knife, and so are most surgical instru- ments used in cutting. [See page 1047, note.] A sharp-pointed and narrow * The following, from Beck, is a case in point. At the Warwick Assizes in 1832. John Danks was tried for the murder of Mary Green. After conviction he confessed that'he cut her throat with a knife in a hovel. The wound was 7 inches long, 3 deep, dividing the trunk of the carotid, and all the principal branches of the external carotid and jugulars ; yet in this state it appears that she ran 23 yards, besides crossing a bar-gate, 3 feet 10 inches high. At this distance at least sne was found, and the criminal to the last denied that he had touched her, except in the hovel, where he left her for dead. A gentleman went over the ground after the trial, and it took him about thirty seconds. Scarcely any blood was observed in the intermediate space, and this is explained by supposing that she closed the wound with her cap, and also by holding down her head. Much blood had. how- ever, flowed down her breasts, and lodged about the pubes. In the hovel, also.* large quantity was observed. “ Loudon Medical Gazette,” vol. x., p. 183. ba -, p. G31.$