3. CASES WHERE A POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION IS NECESSARY TO TEST.
1. Alleged Drowning: otherwise in the absence of eye-witnesses of the fatality, “found dead in the water” is the only logical conclusion.
2. Alleged Overlaying: otherwise “found dead in bed with the parents” should be the “open verdict.”
In 1 and 2, cardio-respiratory diseases must be noted.
3. Alleged Still-birth: for although live-birth cannot thereby be proved in the absence of direct eye-witnesses, the lungs may have functioned.
4. Anatomical post-mortem examinations should be performed wherever possible in medico-legal cases; they are essential in alleged criminal homicide.
IV. VITAL ACTIVITIES WHICH MAY HAVE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDED SUDDEN DEATH,
1. Respiration: Soot or froth may be in the mouth, trachea, or nostrils.
2. Deglutition and Peristalsis: Local water or blood may have been swallowed; food may be in the stomach (e.g., of the newly-born); vomit or fæces may have been voided; salivation may have been profuse.
3. Blood-Circulation: Much blood may have been lost, possibly having “spurted” (e.g., in the newly-born); the heart and vessels may be empty; there may be true extravasation into or hyperæmia of the tissues (a microscope will reveal reaction to an irritant); the veins may be swollen on the distal side of a ligature; the blood may give spectroscopic tests for poisonings.