1. The persons who have suffered this species of combustion have been long accustomed to drink spirtuous liquors.
2. These persons have been generally females, and advanced in years.
3. The body has not burned spontaneously, but accidentally, in as much as it required for its inflammation the contact or approach of some burning body, or that of electric matter.
4. The extremities of the body, such as the feet and hands, have in general escaped.
5. The fire has little injured, and sometimes not at all, those combustible things that were in contact with the body when it was burning.[[609]]
6. The combustion of these bodies has left a residue of greasy and fœtid ashes and fat, that were unctuous, and extremely offensive and penetrating.
Various theories have been proposed for the explanation of this singular phenomenon; and we may here observe, that if the bodies in question were actually found consumed, in the manner described, it is quite impossible to suppose that they were burnt by ordinary means; nor, even admitting that they had been rubbed over with a highly combustible substance, is the explanation less difficult; at a period when criminals were condemned to expiate their crimes in the flames, it is well known what a large quantity of combustible materials was required for burning their bodies. A baker’s boy, named Renaud, being several years ago condemned to be burnt at Caen, two large cart loads of faggots were required to consume the body; and at the end of more than ten hours some remains were still visible. In this country the extreme incombustibility of the human body was exemplified in the case of Mrs. King, who having been murdered by a Foreigner, was afterwards burnt by him; but in the execution of this plan he was engaged for several weeks, and after all did not succeed in its completion.
2. RAPE.
Rape is the unlawful and carnal knowledge of a woman by force and against her will: a ravishment of the body and violent deflowering her, which is felony by the common and statute law. Co. Litt. 190, 124.[[610]] Formerly it was the law (especially in case of appeals of rape) in order to prevent malicious accusations, that the woman should immediately after, “dum recens fuerit maleficium,” go to the next town, and there make discovery to some credible persons of the injury she had received: and afterwards acquaint the high constable of the hundred, the coroners and the sheriff with the outrage. Glanv. l. 14. c. 6: Bract. l. 3. c. 28. 1 Hales P. C. 632. Afterwards by statute Westm. 1. 3. Ed. 1. c. 13. the time of limitation was extended to forty days. At present there is no time of limitation fixed, for it is punished at the suit of the king, and the maxim of law takes place, that, nullum tempus occurrit Regi. The appeal of Rape (for there were formerly several appeals beside that of murder) has been long obsolete; see Jac. Law Dic. tit. Appeal, and is now abolished by the statute 59 Geo. 3, c. 46:[[611]]. But though there is no time limited, a jury will seldom give credit to a stale complaint. In Scotland it is said the limit was twenty-four hours; the King against Colonel Charteris, Maclaurin’s Crim. Cases, p. 66. 69. And in a medical point of view it is yet more necessary that examination should be immediate, many collateral proofs might be observed on an early enquiry, all signs of which would be obliterated in a few hours.[[612]] This remark applies as well to the supposed criminal as to the sufferer; both should in all possible cases be subjected to immediate surgical examination; the case related by Sir Matthew Hale, (P.C.) furnishes an instance where an innocent man might have been saved from a malicious prosecution, to the hazard of his life, by this precaution. Foderè, in his work on Medical Jurisprudence, vol. 4, p. 363, mentions two cases from Zacchias, where the falsehood of an accusation was determined by a comparative inspection of both parties. See also the same work, and vol. 4, p. 365. 370.[[613]]
As this is a crime of which the accusation is peculiarly easy, and the disproof proportionably difficult, more than ordinary acuteness is necessary for its investigation; and this can be best exercised while the event is recent, and before one or other of the parties can have time, deliberately, to frame the account of their injuries or innocence: here, as in some cases of murder, to which we shall have occasion to allude, the medical practitioner is likely to be one of the earliest witnesses to the conduct of the accuser (if not also, of the accused), immediately after the alleged transaction; to him therefore the Court will look, not only for surgical, but also for general observations. The following are among the first that will occur.