6. The Stomach.—Casper considers that the presence of fluid in the stomach, corresponding to that in which the body is found, is “an irrefragable proof of the actual occurrence of death from drowning,” and that the swallowing of it must have been a vital act of the individual dying in the water. The absence of water from the stomach does not negative death from drowning. Water is not always present. It is possible for it to reach the stomach of a submerged body after death.
Water in the intestines is a more reliable sign of death from drowning, and indicates submersion during life. It is only after very long submersion and under great pressure that water finds its way into the intestines after death.
N.B.—Putrefaction in the drowned in most cases commences in the upper part of the body, and extends downwards. The face, head, and neck are first attacked. This is the reverse of putrefaction in air.
CHAPTER X
DEATH FROM STARVATION, COLD, HEAT,
BY LIGHTNING AND ELECTRICITY
DEATH FROM STARVATION
Death from starvation may be due to the total withdrawal of food, to prolonged insufficiency, defective quality, inability to swallow it, and inability to retain it.
Death from starvation may occur during famines, amongst ship-wrecked sailors, and persons entombed in mines or pits, and is due to sheer privation. It may follow criminal starvation, wilful refusal to take food as a form of suicide, and it has been noted in cases of hysteria and lunacy.
It may result from mechanical hindrance to the entrance of food into the body from ankylosis of the jaws, or its passage through the alimentary tract from stricture of the œsophagus or stomach, from cancer or cicatrisation after injury from swallowing corrosive substances. Amongst other diseases, tuberculosis, malignant disease, and diabetes mellitus are the chief which produce external appearances of starvation.
In the withdrawal or deprivation of food for criminal purposes the victims are usually old, helpless, or feeble-minded persons, or young children.