CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAY AFFECT THE TIME OF SUBMERSION.
Putrid decomposition is the chief obstacle to diagnosis in a body that has been drowned. This presents great differences. The death happening in winter or summer, in a temperate or intertropical country, and sojourn of the cadaver in salt or fresh water, are each and all important details to be considered in studying the submergence of a body.[947]
It is only by studying the events in this order, along with the immediate signs of death, that the duration of the submergence may be conjectured. With anatomical appearances as the only guide it is impossible to fix the time of immersion. Many elements combined may affect even the gaseous putrefaction that takes place in submerged bodies. Summer heat and shallow or stagnant water hasten the development of putrid gas and subcutaneous emphysema which bring the cadaver to the surface, and that, too, sometimes in spite of precautions taken to insure the submersion. A case in point is the body of the Italian admiral, Caraccioli, mentioned in Southey’s “Life of Nelson.” Bodies weighted with lead or other heavy substance for the purpose of hiding crime have also been known to float in consequence of the putrefactive phenomena.
At Evansville, Ind., unsuccessful efforts were made to raise a sunken steamer with thirty head of cattle between decks. A few days after the attempt was abandoned the steamer was suddenly seen to float. The carcasses of the putrefying animals, swollen by gas, had sufficed to bring the wreck to the surface.
A great development of gas is very noticeable in what is known as a “blasted” whale, the stomach of which assumes balloon-like proportions. A few summers ago, at Provincetown, Mass., it was my rare fortune to be within a few feet of an enormously distended putrid whale, which suddenly exploded.
In cold countries drowned bodies are longer in coming to the surface. In Russia, for instance, in spring after the rivers and lakes have thawed, the bodies of numerous victims of alcoholism and accidental drowning of the previous winter are taken from the water. Last summer, at Quebec, I was present when the body of a man drowned the winter before came to the surface of the St. Lawrence River. On a visit to the northern lakes many persons connected with the navigation of Lake Superior told me that bodies drowned in its waters seldom or never came to the surface.
Specific gravity of the water itself may be an additional cause for the body coming to the surface. Dr. Tidy says that every structure of the human body floats in the water of the Dead Sea. The same cannot be said about the buoyancy of the water of Great Salt Lake, the accounts of which have been greatly exaggerated. It does not “support a bather as if he were sitting in an arm-chair and float him like a fresh egg.” Experience shows that there is no difficulty either in swimming or in sinking in its waters, the solid constituents of which are estimated to be about six and a half times more than that of sea-water. Analysis of Dead Sea water places the solid constituents at 24.580, while that of Salt Lake is 22.282. Another strong natural brine in the United States is said to be that of Syracuse Saline, New York, which contains 17.35 per cent of sodium chloride.
It is evident from what has been stated that no positive assertion can be made as to how soon a drowned body will rise to the surface, and at best any conclusion as to the date of submersion is so unsatisfactory that it may be said to be an unscrupulous use of guessing privileges. Errors in legal medicine are sadder in their consequences than those of medical diagnosis. The medical legist would therefore do well to preserve the frame of mind that often doubts and rarely affirms, and he should be circumspect enough to avoid dogmatic assertions about matters of uncertainty.
DEATH FROM STARVATION.
IN ITS MEDICO-LEGAL ASPECT.
BY
ENOCH V. STODDARD, A.M., M.D.,
Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica and Hygiene in the University of Buffalo;
Member of the Medical Society of the State of New York and of the Central
New York Medical Association; Fellow of the New York Academy
of Medicine and of the American Academy of Medicine;
Late Surgeon 65th Regt. N. Y. Vols.; Late
Health Commissioner, Rochester,
N. Y.; etc., etc.