Upon dissection we shall perceive the vessels of the brain more or less gorged with blood;[[31]] in the trachea a watery and bloody froth will be found; the lungs will appear expanded, full of frothy mucus, and, generally, livid; the right cavities of the heart gorged with blood, the left nearly empty; and it has been sometimes noticed that the blood remains fluid[[32]], and follows after every incision by the scalpel. The stomach will generally be found to contain some water. Hebenstreit also states, that since in the act of drowning the person dies on an inspiration, the diaphragm is necessarily found convex, or bent towards the abdomen; this statement however is erroneous.
Upon these appearances we have a few observations to offer, especially as they have given origin to some important questions; and first, with respect to the presence of water in the stomach and lungs, than which few indications, connected with the subject of drowning, have given occasion to greater controversy.[[33]] For since it hath been observed that water is rarely found in the stomach or lungs of a person who has been submerged after death, it was inferred that the presence of that fluid in these organs necessarily proved that the individual must have been plunged into the water during life. As a general proposition this may be admitted as correct, although it is liable to certain exceptions with which the medical jurist ought to be acquainted; we may, for instance, suppose a case, in which the submerged person may be so plunged at once under water, as to have been suffocated without his previously coming to the surface, and when asphyxia has taken place, the powers of deglutition, on which the presence of water in the stomach wholly depends, are at an end; or we may suppose that the party in question faints from terror; a remarkable instance of this kind is quoted by Foderè,[[34]] from Plater, of a young woman, who having been condemned to be drowned for infanticide, fainted at the moment she was plunged in the water, and having remained for a quarter of an hour under its surface, recovered after being drawn out.[[35]]
With respect to the presence of water in the bronchiæ and lungs, we may observe that, in the violent struggles of a drowning man, a certain portion of water generally passes the epiglottis; and being immediately mixed with the air and mucus of the trachea, constitutes that frothy mucus, which we have described as being so highly characteristic of this species of violent death; although we are not to conclude with Larrey, that it is the immediate cause of dissolution in such cases. The quantity of water, however, thus forced into the pulmonary structure, is extremely small, for its entrance is powerfully opposed by a spasm of the muscles of the glottis;[[36]] were it to occur in any considerable quantity, and to appear in its fluid state, instead of that of froth, the influence would clearly be, that it had passed in after death.
Although the presence of this frothy matter must be considered as a strong presumptive proof that the person found in the water had perished by drowning, the converse of this proposition is by no means established by the absence of such an indication.
The buoyancy of the human body is another point in the history of Drowning, which has occasioned much discussion; and in solving the problem, so highly important in its forensic relations, whether a body found in the water, had been drowned, or thrown in after death, it has been considered by some physiologists as capable of affording a certain degree of presumptive evidence, although we are inclined to attach but little or no importance to such an indication. The specific gravity of the human body, under ordinary circumstances, is very little greater than that of fresh water, so small indeed is the difference that, when the lungs are inflated, a man will float[[37]] with little or no effort, if he have sufficient self possession, and does not attempt to raise too great a portion of his body out of the sustaining fluid;[[38]] but, when the air of the lungs is expelled, and probably, at the same time, a certain quantity of water is taken into the stomach,[[39]] the body becomes specifically heavier, and the victim sinks. It may be assumed as a general rule, that no newly drowned body floats, although many facts have been adduced in support of a contrary opinion; the naval custom of loading the dead bodies with weights, before they are consigned to a watery grave, is not for the purpose of sinking the corpse, but for preventing its rising after the process of putrefaction has commenced. The period during which a body will remain at the bottom cannot be very accurately determined, as the change does not take place until a sufficient quantity of air be generated to buoy it again to the surface; in the melancholy instance of the loss of the Royal George, the dead bodies were observed ascending to the surface of the sea, on or about the fifth day. The general position of a body which has thus risen, provided there be no external or adventitious circumstances to change it, is such, that it floats nearly immersed, the face, arms, and legs hanging downwards, and the loins being uppermost; this is the form which the body must mechanically and hydrostatically assume, if the sustaining power of generated air be, as it generally will, in the cavity of the abdomen, where putrefaction is more likely to commence; for the head and limbs are generally[[40]] specifically heavier than water, while the trunk, especially if inflated with air, is somewhat lighter.
It has been said that a position, different from that which we have just described, will take place where the person has been strangled, and the body then thrown into the water; for in this latter case, it is contended, that the lungs will be distended with air, and that consequently, the sustaining power must be in the thorax; in support of this opinion the story of the appearance of Caraccioli[[41]], Admiral of the Neapolitan navy, has been ingeniously adduced; this unfortunate man was hanged in pursuance of the sentence of a court martial, and his body was committed to the deep in the usual manner; thirteen days after which, while the King of Sicily was walking on the deck of Lord Nelson’s ship, he suddenly exclaimed with a yell of horror—“Vien! Viene!”—The Admiral’s corpse, breast high, was seen floating towards the ship; the shot that had been attached to the feet for the purpose of sinking it, not being sufficiently heavy. This may perhaps be explained by supposing that the corpse was stiff before it was immersed, in which case, the centre of gravity being exceedingly low on account of the shot tied to the feet, he must have floated upright, wherever the buoyant power from generated air might be situated. At all events, we feel no hesitation in at once rejecting the proposition, for the support of which it has been brought forward; the fact is that, in relation to gaseous contents, the lungs are the same in strangled, as in drowned persons; for in both cases a quantity of air is forcibly expelled from them before dissolution.
2. BY HANGING:
The suspension of a person by means of a cord, or some other ligature, round the neck, by which death is produced by closing the trachea, and preventing respiration.
Although we are in this case bound to admit that the immediate cause of death is suffocation, yet we cannot deny that other injuries are often produced by hanging, such as
1. Pressure on the vessels.