EXHUMATIONS
It becomes necessary sometimes to exhume the bodies of persons who have been buried. The cases which generally call for this always unpleasant proceeding are those where a suspicion of poisoning or violence has arisen some little time after the burial of the supposed victim. Or the necessity may arise to show that the body buried is that of a person whose death it is absolutely necessary to prove. In the case of Livingstone, though this can scarcely be called a case of exhumation, yet an examination some months after death of the arm of the corpse alleged to be that of Livingstone, proved the existence of a badly united fracture which the deceased was known to have had.
In conducting the exhumation, it is necessary that the medical experts should be present to see the body removed from the coffin, and also any person or persons who may be in a position to speak as to the identity of the corpse—as, for instance, those who dressed it and prepared it for burial. The person who made the coffin may also be of assistance to speak as to its identity. As soon as the medical men are armed with the proper authority, no time should be lost in order to get the body as fresh as possible, and at once prove or disprove the accusation of the crime, which, in the case of innocent persons, cannot be too quickly removed. The best time to take up the body, if in the summer, is early in the morning; and, in all cases, the examination, if possible, should be made during daylight. Everything necessary for making a medical inspection should be taken, and also a table on which to place the body. Rubber gloves should be worn. A pail containing a solution of some disinfectant, for the inspectors to wash their hands after the exhumation is finished, should be close at hand. And it is as well to expose the body for a short time to the air before beginning the inspection. There is seldom any risk to health in removing a single body, yet certain precautions are necessary; thus it is as well to stand on the windward side of the corpse. Vaults should not be entered as soon as they are opened, but time allowed for their ventilation. Carefully note the amount of preservation of the coffin, and, if broken, if any of the surrounding earth is in contact with the body. This precaution is necessary in cases of suspected mineral poisoning (as in arsenic, &c.), and it is as well also to save one or two pounds of the earth immediately above the coffin for analysis. The body may then be examined externally, any hair left on head or face preserved for identification; and then an inspection of all the cavities made, the contents of the stomach and bowels being placed in dry earthenware jars or glass bottles, corked and capped with thin indiarubber skin, and so tied and sealed that the string must be cut or the seals broken in order to open them. The ends of the string should be sealed in the presence of the authorities. In the examination, the instructions previously given should be carefully followed. All injured or diseased parts should be removed and preserved whenever this is practicable. Soft parts not intended for analysis may be preserved in a concentrated solution of salt.
Beyond what Period is it useless to Exhume a Corpse?—There is no scientific limit, for even the bones may show that violence has been used, or may point to the identity of a corpse, as in the case of Livingstone just mentioned. Pregnancy may be detected. The medical inspectors must proceed with the inspection unless they can positively say that the progress of decay is such as to render the examination nugatory in relation to its special objects. Casper mentions the case of a man whose body was three times exhumed for different purposes. In Scotland the law imposes a limit of twenty years, but in England the law is silent on the point; in France a limit of ten years from the date of the supposed crime; and in Germany, the limit is thirty years, if the offence is that punishable with death, the time varying from three to thirty years with the nature of the crime.
CHAPTER V
ASSAULTS, HOMICIDE, AND WOUNDS
Assault.—Every act of attack upon the person of another is an assault in law, whether it injure or not; nor is it necessary that the act done take effect. Spitting on anyone is an assault. No provocation by word, whether written or spoken, can justify an assault, though it may mitigate the offence. If a medical man unnecessarily strip a female patient naked, under pretence that he cannot otherwise judge of her illness, it is an assault if he himself take off her clothes (R. v. Rosinski, 1 Mood C.C. 12). So, where a medical man had connection with a girl fourteen years of age, under the pretence that he was thereby treating her medically for the complaint for which he was attending her, she making no resistance solely from the bona fide belief that such was the case, this was held to be certainly an assault, and probably a rape (R. v. Case, 1 Den. 580; 19 L.J. [M.C.] 174). Such an act is now held to constitute a rape.
Battery.—This includes beating or wounding. A touch of the finger, however slight, is included under this term.
Homicide.—In Scotch law homicide is held to be committed only where a distinctly self-existent human life has been destroyed. Destruction of an unborn child, however short a time before delivery, may be criminal, but is not homicidal. In the same country criminal homicide is divided into two classes:
(1) Murder. (2) Culpable Homicide.
1. Murder is constituted in law by any wilful act causing the destruction of human life, whether plainly intended to kill, or displaying such utter and wicked recklessness as to imply a disposition depraved enough to be wholly regardless of the consequences. Murder may be the result of personal violence, poison, or by the committal of some other serious crime, as where anyone causes the death of a woman in the attempt to procure criminal abortion, rape, or by the exposure of an infant which results in its death. The use of weapons is not essential.
2. Culpable Homicide.—The name applied in law to cases where the death of a person is caused or materially accelerated by improper conduct of another, and where the guilt does not come up to the crime of murder:
(a) Intentional killing of another in circumstances implying neither murder on the one hand, nor justifiable homicide on the other—e.g. if a person exceed moderation in retaliation for an injury, or kill another when the danger to which he was exposed is passed.
Every charge of murder is held to conclude a charge of culpable homicide, and the jury, if they see cause, may find that culpable homicide only has been committed.
(b) Homicide, by the doing of any unlawful, or any rash and careless act, from which death results, though not foreseen as probable—e.g. using firearms in a public street, &c.
(c) Homicide, resulting from negligence or rashness in the performance of a lawful duty—e.g. a signalman on a railway forgetting to alter the points, and thus causing a collision, and loss of life. In England this would amount to manslaughter.
Justifiable Homicide.—Self-defence; hanging a prisoner properly sentenced to death; killing another to prevent murder, if prevention can avail in no other way. In self-defence, the person killing must be in reasonable dread of death at the hand of his adversary.
In England there is—1. Murder; 2. Manslaughter; 3. Justifiable Homicide.
Murder, according to Lord Coke (3 Inst. 47), is constituted “where a person of sound memory and discretion unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being, and under the King‘s peace, with malice aforethought, either expressed or implied.”
In England the killing must be committed with malice aforethought. Malice may be expressed or implied.
In Scotland malice aforethought is not necessary (5 Irv. 525, and 40 S.J. 92, and 5 S.L.R. 20).
The law in both countries appears to differ more in terms than in practice. In England, if an injured party live for one year and a day, and then die, death is not attributed to the injury; but in Scotland, although no definite time is fixed, yet no case would I believe be entertained at any lengthened period after the commission of a homicidal act. The longest interval, according to Taylor, at which conviction has taken place from indirectly fatal consequences was nine months.
In the United States, as a rule, the crime of murder admits of two degrees: in the first, where the act is intentional or is the result of an attempt at burglary, rape, arson, or by poison; otherwise the crime falls under the second degree.