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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$de chambre, not seldom inflict somewhat severe wounds on the female genitals. It is often difficult to say whether the fist, or a stone, or some blunt instrument have inflicted lacerated and contused wounds on the scalp. Sometimes a fall on stones, gravel, &c., may inflict injuries which may appear to have been caused by a blow. Gravel, sand, mud, or frag- ments of grass, sawdust, dec., found in a wound, may throw light on this question. We have before remarked that when the sldn is tense, compara- tively blunt things (edge of a pewter-pot, edge of a fender, the knuckles, &c.), will cause a tolerably clean cut wound in some situations (edge of orbit, zygoma, side of head, &c.). The tension and elasticity of the skin will modify the shape of a wound. Hence the wound of a bayonet, dagger, or bullet, &c., often looks smaller than the weapon or missile which produced it. The Act of Parliament referred to above makes it immaterial whether the wound was produced directly by a weapon, or indirectly by any violence on the part of the assailant. We mean immaterial as regards the conviction of the prisoner, for as regards his sentence, it is a very different thing whether the prisoner merely pushed the deceased, so that he or she sus- tained a fatal fall, or whether he aimed direct at the dead man or woman with a five or seven chambered revolver, and fired once or several times. In Reg. v. Dodd (Shrewsbury Summer Assizes, 1853), Justice Cole- ridge held, that if the prisoner knocked the deceased down, that it would make no difference whether the deceased died from the fall on a stone floor, or from injury directly produced by the stone which was thrown at him. The death took'place a week after the injury, from inflammation of the brain consequent on fracture of the skull. Do not be too positive that the knife or other weapon, even though it fits the wound, is the identical weapon. Be satisfied with saying, “ Such a knife [or other weapon] might have produced the fatal injury. Taylor gives the following case from Schworer [“ Lehre von dem Kinder- morde.”] “ A man stabbed another, and a knife with perfectly entire blade was produced as circumstantial evidence against him, the surgeon stating that the wound was caused by this knife. A year after an abscess formed where the wound was, and the broken point of the real weapon was discharged from it. Hence the knife shown in Court could not have been the weapon used.” When a weapon is brought to you do not wipe or cleanse it. Reserve it for further examination [for blood in the case of kuives, and other cutting or stabbing instruments, see chapter on Blood Stains, pp. 579-606]; and for evidence as to recent discharge or otherwise in the case of Firearms. Note particularly the maker’s name, or any marks or numbers in the case of knives, and other weapons. Make a tracing on paper with a pencil of the shape of the weapon—measure it. In the case of firearms, handle them discreetly, and do not point them at any one. Many accidents have arisen from inattention to this. In Reg. v. Skelton (Carlisle Spring Assizes, 1858) an old man, it was proved, died from fractured skull. On the left side of the crown of the head there was a square-shaped depressed fracture, about the size of half-a-crown piece, the bone being depressed or driven in. In the prisoner’s house was a hammer, with a square face, the comers being slightly rounded ; it fitted the wound described. The other end of the hammer fitted another smaller wound. There was, however, no blood on it. On an angular stone found near there was blood, and$