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.

    1129/1268 (page 1093)
    CUTS FROM GLASS AND CHINA. instrument [long-bladed knife, bayonet, spear, poniard, rapier, &c., will produce slabs or punctured wounds. In these, if they traverse, as remarked before, the aperture of entry is generally larger than the aperture of exit, and its edges are sometimes everted [although the contrary might be sup- posed, and does sometimes occur] from the withdrawal of the weapon, when done rapidly. It is sometimes assumed that wounds from broken glass cannot be clean-cut incisions, and must contain broken glass. The Authors know that this is not always true. It is, however, iu general correct to say, that ivounds from broken glass and broken china or earthen- ware are generally characterised by their great irregularity, and the uneven- ness of their edges. Again, punctures from a flint or sharp stone are gene- rally lacerated and irregular. The Authors know of a case in which a young lady suddenly sat down on and broke a crinoline steel, which pene- trated the vulva and vagina, to a considerable depth, thus producing a lacerated external wound, and a deep punctured internal one, with copious and alarming haemorrhage. Fortunately her father, who was a medical man, was close at hand. The cases given by Dr. Taylor, at pp. 471 and 472, were clearly not at all likely to be produced by broken glass, for one was a clean cut five inches long and one inch deep, laying bare the carotid artery; another, a clean cut, like that produced by a penknife (and one was found on the prisoner), about two inches long and one deep. But the Authors know of a case in which a chemist’s apprentice in cleaning a window cut his wrist, and severed his radial artery completely. The wound was not very ragged, and it looked at first as if it might have been done by a knife. But there were other and slighter cuts on the fingers from the broken glass. They also know of a case in which a thief got his head right through a pane of glass of large size, and thus cut his throat; some broken glass was, however, found in the wound. At the Worcester Summer Assizes in 1838, says Dr. Taylor, a case was tried in which the deceased was said to have died from a small punctured wound of the chest, supposed to have been produced by a small skewer found near the spot. The wound, five and a half inches deep, had completely traversed the right ventricle of the heart, and had led to death from loss of blood. The defence alleged that the wound was produced by falling on a nail projecting from a tub. The surgeon, however, said that the wound was a clean cut one, wThereas if done by a nail it would have been ' ragged. The 24th & 25th Viet., c. 100, which we have mentioned before, relieves medical witnesses from any very special responsibility as to the exact mode of production of wounds. But your own credit as surgeons and careful observers is at stake, and you may sometimes be able to prove the innocence of one prisoner, or the guilt of another, by a careful examination of a wound. Thus, says Dr. Taylor, Mr. Hancock ' was able by this means to disprove a charge of maliciously wounding 1 made against innocent persons in January, 1853. A little girl, whilst • sitting on or over an iron-grating, was said to have been wounded in the t’i ] private parts by some person or persons pushing a toasting-fork, or some | pointed instrument, through the bars from below. There wTere no marks 1 of punctures, as there should have been with such a history, but only • some slight laceration of the parts, such as she might easily have got by falling on the edge of the grating. There were also, to confirm this view of the case, some bruises on the thigh. Although the remark more pro- perly belongs to the section of wounds on the genitals, it is perhaps not ■ i amiss to remark here, that the accidental breaking of, and falls on, pots 4 A