Fig. 18.—In this case the pulse rate increased, and then fell to 72 per minute towards the end.
- 1. 1 week before execution, 60 per minute.
- 2. 2½ minutes after the drop, 162 per minute.
- 3. 3 minutes, 138 per minute.
- 4. 3½ minutes, 132 per minute.
- 5. 4½ minutes.
- 6. 5¼ minutes, 168? per minute.
- 7. 5¾ minutes, 108 per minute.
- 8. 7 minutes.
- 9. 8½ minutes.
- 10. 10 minutes, 72 per minute.
- 11. 12 minutes.
Homicidal suffocation by compression of the chest has been effected in infants; in adults it is combined with the covering of the nose and mouth. The victims are generally old or enfeebled. Suffocation of infants may be homicidal, or accidental, due to “overlaying”; in the latter the greatest mortality is amongst the youngest infants. A child ten months old may struggle and free itself or awaken the mother.
In France a favourite mode of committing suicide by suffocation is the use of irrespirable gases—carbonic acid, carbon monoxide, and the like. Collateral circumstances must be taken into consideration, and will more or less help to point to the true cause of death.
The cause and nature of the death in all of its forms just mentioned are in general the same. Pressure on the trachea—thus arresting respiration—and also on the important vessels and nerves of the neck, results in death, which may be brought about in four different ways:
- 1. Cerebral congestion, or apoplexy.
- 2. Congestion of the lungs and heart—apnœa or asphyxia.
- 3. Combination of above—apoplexy and asphyxia or apnœa.
- 4. Neuro-paralysis—nervous apoplexy, or syncope.
The following table will show the relative frequency of each form of death:
| Remer. | Casper. | ||
| Apoplexy | 9 | 9 | |
| Asphyxia | 6 | 14 | |
| Mixed | 68 | 62 | |
| 83 | 85 |
Traumatic asphyxia occurs when a heavy weight such as a fall of earth or masonry compresses the chest, and thoracic respiration is impossible. The head and neck appear ecchymosed, the purplish-blue lividity generally ending abruptly at the lower part of the neck or upper part of the thorax, about the level of the clavicles. The conjunctivæ are ecchymosed, and there may be epistaxis. This discoloration does not disappear on pressure by the finger, indicating its petechial character. If the person survive long enough, the discoloration gradually disappears, passing through the colour changes of an ordinary ecchymosis.