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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    louder or sharper when the weapon is loaded with ball. The sharp, whizzing crack or hiss of a rifle-shot is not easily forgotten by those who have been exposed to danger from it. If there were any wall, or tree, or fence beyond the person fired at, the bullet or ball might, and indeed probably would, strike this, and be imbedded in it. 4. You may be asked the character of the wound ; in other words, h, or ivas it, mortal, or dangerous to life 1 or calculated to do “ grievous bodily harm?” The latter expression covers all those cases of injury to the eye, ear, nose, or other organ of sense, and injuries to the limbs, or generative organs, which cannot be described as dangerous to life, and still less as mortal. It also includes those cases in’ which there is considerable disfigurement of the face ; or in ladies, of the shoulders, arms, and those parts of the bust which are uncovered in evening dress. Mutilations, again, of the fingers or toes must come under this description. 5. You may be asked, How soon would such and such wounds kill ? Or how long would the wounded person take to recover 1 It is clear from what we have already said, that your answer must depend on the special circumstances of the case in question. We have, as each portion of the subject was considered in turn, met with cases of instant death, of death after three-quarters of an hour, or an hour; and of death after a year or two. Whilst in other cases, suffering has been pro- tracted even forty years. Questions of survivorship, if two or three persons are concerned, must be answered on general principles, such as those given at p. 610. Similar questions, affecting only the wounded man, or woman or child, can only be answered by a careful consideration of his or her injuries and surroundings. Some of these questions will be dealt with under “ Wounds of Special Regions and Organs.” [“ Injuries to the Head, Chest, and Abdomen,” &c.] You may be asked, as to a gun, pistol, rifle, <fec., Has this weapon been fired lately ? It is not always easy to give a definite, and at the same time, true answer to this question. Gun-cotton, prepared saw- dust, and some of the patent cartridges with gunpowder, leave scarcely any residue behind, the combustion being perfect. But with gun- powder, and especially in suicidal and homicidal cases, where the person who loads the gun or pistol is nearly sure to put some excess of powder, there may very likely be, and indeed often is, somewhat incomplete com- bustion. Dr. Guy says, (p. 294), “ wh'eu the combustion of the powder i3 imperfect, the finger introduced into the barrel is blackened by the un- consumed charcoal; and the residue is found to consist of this uucon- sumed charcoal, mixed with sulphide of potassium.*’ But when the com- bustion is perfect, the finger is not blackened, for the residue consists of the white sulphate, and carbonate of potash. After an interval of some days, varying with the quantity of sulphur in the atmosphere, the mixed residue of charcoal and sulphide of potassium, becomes converted into sulphate—which, after a still longer interval, may be found blended with the rust of iron.” This account is not only somewhat loose in its * The old hepar sulphuris, the liver of sulphur, a brownish or reddish-yellow, foul-smelling, especially if damp, substance of various composition : KS„. h. Q, IQS,, K„S4, K.,Sv also a sulphydrate HKS. There is very often carbonate and sul- phate of potash in it; thus—2 (IQS,.) + IQS.,0., + IQCO.,. &c.