CASES.
Case 1. Death from Cold. Accidental (Dr. Hilty in Caspar’s Vierteljahrschrift, II., 1865, p. 140).—Male, æt. 52; intoxicated. Severe winter weather; death from exposure. Post mortem: Blood crimson; both sides of heart full; internal organs congested.
Case 2. Criminal Exposure to Cold (Ann. d’Hygiene, 1868, Vol. II., p. 173).—Girl, unmarried; sudden delivery when at stool. She stated that she had fainted, and found the child dead when she recovered. The child had breathed and the cord was cut. No marks of violence. Evidence of death being caused by wilful exposure. Imprisoned.
Case 3. Ill-Treatment and Criminal Exposure (Ann. d’ Hygiene, Vol. VI., p. 207, 1831).—Man and wife tried for manslaughter of a child, æt. 11. Wife the stepmother. Starvation and ill-treatment by mother, followed by forcing the child, in a cold December day, to get into a barrel of cold water and remain there. Though removed by a servant, she was again placed in the cold water by the mother, death resulting. The woman was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Case 4. Sunstroke, High Temperature, etc. (Dr. A. Flint, Jr., New York Med. Jour., 1872, p. 168; Dr. Katzenbach, New York Med. Jour., 1873, p. 93).
Case 5. Scald, Drinking from a Tea-kettle. Accidental (Mr. Sympson, Brit. Med. Jour., 1875, June 19th, p. 809).—Boy, æt. 2½ years, drank boiling water from spout of tea-kettle. Inflammation of pharynx and glottis. Tracheotomy; recovered.
Case 6. Fatal Scald of Insane Person in a Bath (Brit. Med. Jour., April, 1871, p. 456).—An insane patient fatally scalded in a bath, through carelessness of an attendant. The charge of manslaughter brought against the attendant.
Case 7. Fatal Burn of Genitals. Accidental (Caspar, “Forensic Med.,” Vol. I., p. 315).—Female child, 2½ years, fell on a hot flat-iron. Genitals burned; died in eleven days. Vagina gangrenous; blood fluid; lungs anæmic and pale; trachea bright red, etc.
Case 8. Red, Parchmenty Skin, Cracks, etc. (Caspar, “Forensic Med.,” Vol. I., p. 307).—While a chimney-sweep was cleaning a chimney a fire was lighted below. Death. The entire skin was of a coppery red color, with yellow patches. No carbonization. Skin parchmenty, with fissures upon the edges of which the fat had melted and flowed out.
Case 9. Asphyxia. Sooty Mucus, etc. (Caspar, “Forensic Med.,” Vol. I., p. 314).—Two children, æt. 3 and 7, burned; death from asphyxia. The youngest, the girl, burned externally; the boy was not. Post mortem in both showed the trachea to contain frothy and sooty mucus. Lungs and vessels of thorax and abdomen distended with dark and fluid blood. Brain congested, etc.
Case 10. Burn of Body. Inflammation of Stomach (Amer. Jour. Med. Sciences, Jan., 1861, p. 137).—Superficial burn of lower part of body. Death on the thirteenth day. Post-mortem examination showed the stomach inflamed and the intestines also.
Case 11. Accidental Scald. Pleurisy (Caspar, “Forensic Med.,” Vol. I., p. 312).—Female child, æt. 6; scalded with a pot of boiling coffee overturned upon the side of neck, right axilla, thorax, and right arm. Death on the eighth day. Post-mortem examination revealed inflammation of right pleura, pericardial effusion, etc. Body anæmic.
Case 12. No Internal Lesion Found (Guy’s Hospital Reports, 1860, Vol. VI., p. 146).—Female, æt. 9. Burn of upper part of chest and arms by clothing taking fire. Death on the ninth day. Post-mortem examination revealed no lesion of the internal organs.
Case 13. Cracks and Fissures of Skin (Caspar, “Forensic Med.,” Vol. I., p. 314).—Male, æt. 83. Clothing caught fire; death. Body carbonized. On right side were fissures opening into the abdomen; the viscera could be seen, etc.
Case 14. Fissures, Vessels Crossing, etc. (Taylor, “Med. Jurisprudence,” Vol. I., p. 696).—Boy, æt. 2; death in three-quarters of an hour. On legs were fissures and lacerations near each knee. On right thigh a laceration 2¾ inches long, 1/6 inch deep and 1/4 inch wide; fatty tissue seen beneath. No blood effused; small vessels could be seen stretching across the fissures.
Case 15. Brain Congested, etc. (Caspar, “Forensic Med.,” p. 316, Vol. I.).—Boy, æt. 1-1/2 years, set fire to his clothing. Death in 1½ days. Post-mortem examination showed congestion of the brain, inflammation of the trachea, engorgement of the lungs with hepatization of the lower part of the right lung.
Case 16. Burn of Lower Part of Body. Death (same reference).—Woman, æt. 81; burn of lower part of body, including the gluteal region, the perineum and genital organs (external). Death after several days. Post-mortem examination showed the upper lobe of left lung in a stage of red hepatization, etc.
Case 17. Tardy Appearance of Redness and Vesication (Tidy, “Legal Med.,” Vol. II., p. 124, Case 15).—Woman, insensible from cold, had hot water applied in tins to her sides and feet. The flannel coverings became displaced and the hot tins came in contact with the body. No redness or vesication could be detected two hours afterward. The next day, when consciousness had returned and recovery from insensibility had taken place, the parts had become reddened and vesicated.
Case 18. Were the Burns Ante Mortem or Post Mortem? (Caspar, “Forensic Med.,” Vol. I., p. 317).—Woman intoxicated; clothing caught fire; death due to asphyxia. Some burns apparently caused during life and some after death. The case was decided upon the character of the vesications and their contents. Lungs and other organs normal. Right side of heart engorged with dark blood.
Case 19. Murder. Body Burned (Dr. Duncan, Med. Gazette, Lond., Vol. VIII., p. 170).—Man charged with the murder of his wife and attempting to burn the body afterward. The body was so extensively burned as to remove all means of deciding the cause of death. The man claimed that her clothing took fire when she was intoxicated. Persons in the same house had heard sounds of a struggle before smelling smoke and fire. Furniture was not burned, nor the house. The prisoner was found guilty of murder.
Case 20. Blisters. Was the Scalding Ante Mortem? (Taylor, “Med. Jurisprudence,” 8th Am. Ed., p. 411).—The body of an infant found in a saucepan, boiled. The prisoner admitted that the child had breathed. The boiling water had destroyed the means of positively deciding whether the child had breathed. Blisters found upon it contained yellow serum. Was the child living when put in the water? The prisoner was acquitted.
Case 21. Scald of a Lunatic in a Bath (Taylor, “Med. Jurisprudence,” 8th Am. Ed., p. 411).—Insane patient placed in a hot bath. Temperature 123° F. Death in collapse next day (1879).
Case 22. Criminal Burning, Strangling (Report of Profs. Liebig and Bischoff, of Giessen, March, 1850).—The man Stauff was tried at Darmstadt for the murder of the Countess of Goerlitz, whom he had attacked and murdered in her chamber, and then fired the furniture in order to conceal the crime. It was uncertain whether she had died from injury to the head or from strangulation. The tongue protruded and was swollen, as in cases of strangling, and maintained this condition. He was convicted chiefly on circumstantial evidence. After conviction he confessed that he had strangled her and then set fire to the furniture, which he had piled up about her.
Case 23. Murder. Body Burned. Identified (“Report of the Trial of Prof. Webster,” etc., Boston, 1850).—Prof. Webster killed Dr. Parkman and then burned the body, in portions, in a furnace in his laboratory. Search among the cinders of the furnace disclosed pieces of human bones and a set of false teeth which the dentist who made them recognized as made by him for Dr. Parkman, etc.
Case 24. Murder. Body Entirely Burned. Identified (the “Druse Case,” Trans. New York State Med. Soc., 1887, p. 417).—Mrs. Druse, with the compulsory aid of her children, killed her husband with an axe. The body was burned in a wood stove, with pine shingles. The ashes were thrown into a swamp near by. They were found and carefully sifted. Pieces of bone of various sizes, identified as human, were found, as also a few porcelain buttons, etc. A few hairs found, with stains, completed the identity. Experiments in this case showed that the body could have been consumed within ten hours. The prisoner was convicted of murder.
THE MEDICO-LEGAL RELATIONS
OF
ELECTRICITY.
BY
WILLIAM N. BULLARD, M.D.