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.

    1131/1268 (page 1095)
    one white human hair. The prisoner was acquitted. It was suggested that the ‘ caulker ’ or square piece of iron at the heel of a horse- shoe might have produced the injury. There was, however, no trace of any other part of the horse-shoe. We have known the edge of a horse- shoe produce a scalp wound which resembled a clean cut, except that the edges were more rounded and less sharp. Fracture also has been brought about in this way. As we stated before, teeth, hands, and feet, are not usually considered weapons in law. At the Nottingham Assizes, in 1832, it was sought to put artificial arms and legs on a similar legal footing. The prisoner had used an iron hook on a wooden arm. The objection was overruled. But in the similar case of Benson, tried at the Central Criminal Court for a ferocious assault, in November, 1871, the Deputy-Recorder, in passing sentence, said :—“ That having the hook screwed to his [left] arm the assault, though very brutal, was less heinous than if it had been done with a knife procured for the purpose.” In the event of finding hairs on weapons [which is a pretty common occurrence, see Taylor, pages 476-7, 509, &c.] you should examine them carefully to see if they are human hairs, or those of some domestic or wild animal. They should, if human, be compared with hairs from the victim, and also with those of the assailant’s head, &c. Hairs and portions of dress from the murderer or assailant are often found in the hands of the victim. A similar examination and comparison must be made here. The specimens should be cleansed in turpentine, and mounted in Canada balsam; so preserved, their dimensions and appearances are little altered, and micrometric measurements can be easily made and verified. Careful attention to the caution given in the chapter on Blood- Stains will prevent your mistaking rust-spots or grease for the latter. Many authors on Medical Jurisprudence (including even Dr. Taylor) enter into definitions and explanations as to direct evidence (or that from witnesses who have seen the deed, or heard the words, cries, &c.), and circumstantial evidence, such as that afforded by the wounds, blood-stains, dress, weapons, &c., or the presumptive evidence founded on all these. We do not propose to encumber our pages with these. Nearly all the evidence given by medical witnesses in the case of wounds, in trials for murder, belongs to the latter classes. You, as medical witnesses, depose to the facts or circumstances of the case. It is for the judge and jury in most cases to draw the conclusions. Yet you must not omit to guide their decisions by pointing out such obviously striking facts as may at once, from their nature, weigh heavily for or against the accused. For instance, “ it is recorded in the life of that great surgeon, Sir Astley Cooper, that when called to see Mr. Blight, of Deptford, who had been mortally wounded by a pistol-shot in the year 1806 ; he inferred from an examination of the localities that the shot must have been fired by a left-handed man. The only left-handed man near the premises at the time was a Mr. Patch, a particular friend of the deceased, who was not in the least suspected. This man was, however, subsequently tried and convicted of the crime, and made a full confession of his guilt before execution.” Taylor, loc. cit., p. 505 ; see also ibid., p. 493. In the case of Sellis [see Illustrative Cases] the prisoner was found to be ambidextrous. So in other cases. Dr. Taylor mentions one of a wood-carver * Although * The evidence as to right or left-handedness in a given individual, must in general be a matter of testimony of those who know the person. Dr. Struthers [“ Analo- 4 A 2