Bishop (smiling). The fact is, you are not in the habit of seeing fresh subjects, and you don't know anything about it. (Here Bishop and May both laughed.)
Mr. Thomas suggested to the prisoners, that they had better be quiet, as they were doing themselves no good.
Bishop.—I can do myself no harm at all events.
Mr. Beaman, the surgeon, who had minutely examined the body after death, was again called forward and re-sworn. He repeated his former opinion, founded on the post mortem examination of the body, that death had been produced by extravasation of blood in the spinal canal, an effect, which must have been produced by violence on the back of the neck. The violence might have been produced by a blow from a round stick or bludgeon, or even by the wrist of a strong man's arm. It was barely possible, certainly, that the injury might have been occasioned by a fall down stairs.
Mr. Partridge, demonstrator of anatomy at the King's College, agreed with Mr. Beaman in every particular, in regard to the causes which had produced death.
Mr. Minshull.—Is it your opinion, then, that the boy came to his death by violence—in short, that he was murdered?
Mr. Partridge.—I certainly do believe that the death of the deceased was effected by violence.
Mr. Minshull.—Is it from the state of the neck merely, or from other appearances, that you have come to that conclusion?
Mr. Partridge.—I believe the immediate cause of death to have been a blow on the back of the neck by some blunt instrument, but I judge of the violence which must have been used, from other circumstances, namely, the freshness of the body, the rigidity of the limbs, the swollen state of the face, the bloodshot eyes, and their perfect freshness.
In answer to a question by Mr. Swabey, the witness said that the superficial dirt on the thighs, belly and chest of the deceased, might have been done designedly or by accident. Trailing the body along a dirty floor would leave such marks.