Many medical men, indeed, wear rubber gloves, and those less careful generally cover their hands with a layer of sticky ointment. It takes from two to four hours to do the job thoroughly.
But it is not all cutting up, as most people think. The first thing done is to notice the position of the body, and whether there are any weapons, bottles, or glasses near.
Then it is examined from head to toe for scratches, cuts, bruises, moles, tattoo marks. Everything about the hair, eyes, teeth, nose, ears, and other parts, is written down. The height, the age, the muscular development, are all noted.
Of course, this inspection alone often reveals the cause of death. Suppose, however, that no external injury is found and no organ is diseased, the suspicion of poisoning naturally arises. In that case, the doctor looks for certain marks that the commonest poisons make, and then he places the stomach and other parts in glass jars, which are securely covered, sealed, labelled, and handed to the analyst.
Poisoning is not much favoured by the Briton as a means of killing either himself or anybody else. He generally does the deed in a more open, if more brutal, way. But it is to be feared that a great many more people get rid of undesirable contemporaries in this manner than is popularly supposed.
THE DETECTIVE—NEW STYLE—IN THE LABORATORY.
Probably, in most cases, the ordinary medical attendant is able to tell whether a person is dying a natural death or is being carried off by some deadly drug. His position, however, is not a pleasant one. It is impossible to be certain; and, in order to make a full investigation, he must suggest either that the victim is committing suicide, or that someone else, perhaps his wife or son, is committing murder. And, after all, the signs in the living are very obscure. Of course, if a person is foolish enough (as many are) to drink sulphuric or nitric acid, his mouth and throat are burned as if he swallowed coals of fire, the former leaving black and the latter yellow stains; but when the poison is arsenic, or opium, or strychnine, the symptoms are very like those of certain diseases.
When the cholera was last in London, a father, mother, son, and daughter dined together. Immediately after dinner, all, except the son, became suddenly ill, and died in a few hours, with the symptoms of arsenic poisoning.
The son, who was always quarrelling with the rest of the family, was arrested on the doctor's report and charged with murder. But a post-mortem examination showed that cholera was the real cause of death.