SURFACE SIGNS OF IDENTITY.
Examination of the surface of the skin and of its appendages may in certain cases take decisive importance. Valuable medical proof is often furnished by scars, nævi, growths on the skin, pock-marks, traces of skin disease or of scrofula, and by the so-called professional stigmata which would suggest the trade, character of work, or occupation of the deceased. Thus cigarette-stains on the fingers of smokers, or silver-stains on the hands of photographers, the horny palm of the laborer, or the soft, delicate hand of one not accustomed to work, would be indicative. The alterations in the hand make it, so to speak, the seat of election; for in the majority of trades that may be mentioned it is the hand alone that bears the principal marks of daily work that indicate the calling. A case is recorded of a person who previously to his assassination was lame and walked with a crutch. Although the body was cut into fragments, an examination revealed in the palm of the hands characteristic callosities, showing prolonged use of support of this kind. In another instance of criminal mutilation a tattoo-mark found on the arm proved an overwhelming charge against the assassin and drew forth his confession. An accused was also convicted of murder after establishing the only missing link, the question of identity, which turned on the finding of cupping-marks and a tattoo on the body of the murdered man. Personal identity of the bodies of infants has, moreover, been proved by means of a small blister; by a patch of downy hair; by the similarity existing between two pieces of thread used to tie the umbilical cord; and by the severed end of that part of the funis attached to the infant fitting precisely to the corresponding portion attached to the after-birth. In addition to these a methodical examination may put in evidence other facts that may be derived from diverse influences that leave characteristic traces.