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forms just mentioned is in general the same. sure on the trachea-thus arresting respiration-and also on the important vessels and nerves of the neck, produces death, which may be brought about in four different ways:—

1. Cerebral congestion, or apoplexy.

2. Congestion of the lungs and heart.

3. Combination of the above - apoplexy and asphyxia.

4. Neuro-paralysis-nervous apoplexy.

The following table will show the relative frequency of each form of death :

Hanging.-Death may occur in any of the forms above stated. Sensibility is soon lost, and death rapid. The external appearances are more or less those described under death from suffocation. In the greater number of cases, the face bears a quiet placid expression, no turgidity or lividity being noticeable. The eyes are not protruded. The tongue does not hang out of the mouth, nor is it bitten by the teeth.

Turgescence of the male and female genitals is said by some to take place. Casper states that, in not one of the many cases he had examined of persons hanged, has he ever found an erection of the male organ,' and he also asserts that the emission of semen is

extremely rare. Seminal emissions take place in persons who have been shot, and also in those who have been poisoned by irrespirable gases and by hydrocyanic acid. As a test of strangulation, it is therefore worthless. The escape of urine and fæces is of common occurrence, but is by no means a test of hanging, as it may occur after death if the body be shaken in a cart,

or roughly used when first found. A fat person dying of apoplexy may have a mark round the neck as if strangled. Injury to the spinal cord due to fracture or dislocation of the cervical vertebræ is rare in suicidal hanging. Fracture of the spinal ligaments and of the hyoid bone is also rare. Rupture of the internal and middle coats of the carotid arteries sometimes occurs. Death from hanging may take place although the toes or other parts of the body rest on the ground. Death is complete in four or five minutes.

Marks of the Cord.-The mark of the cord is often interrupted, sometimes only seen on one side. In strangling, the mark is low down, most frequently encircling the neck; in hanging, the mark is generally above or on the thyroid cartilage, and carried obliquely upwards. The mark of the cord may be of a dirty yellowish-brown colour; and when cut into, feels more or less hard and leathery. In general appearance, it is not unlike the mark left by mustard plasters or blisters applied within a short time of death. This effect is probably produced by the rubbing off of the epidermis, and subsequent drying up of the cutis on exposure to the air. At other times the mark may be of a dirty reddish or bright blue colour; or, lastly, there may be little or no mark present, or the edges may assume a livid red coloration, being nothing more or less than a post-mortem stain. The marks left by the act of throttling are the same as those produced by hanging and strangulation, only differing in form. The impression of the fingers is upon opposite sides of the throat, and are more or less separated. The skin presents at times the parchment-like appearance just described, with slight ecchymosis under the patches. The impressions left by the nails may sometimes be seen.

May the mark of the cord be produced after death? On this point Casper says: That any ligature with which any body may be suspended or strangled, not only

D

within a few hours, but even days after death, especially if the body be forcibly pulled downwards, may produce a mark precisely similar to that which is observed in most of those hanged while alive.' And the same authority also adds, that the mark of the cord is a purely cadaveric phenomenon.'

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Suicide or Homicide ?-The answer to this question must be framed in accordance with the history of the case, and the attendant circumstances under which the body was found. Homicidal hanging is so rare as scarcely to require notice, and it also presupposes a vast amount of strength on the part of the assailant to accomplish his purpose. Suicidal hanging favourite mode of death with suicides-is common enough. The absence of marks of injury on the body found suspended, and the want of evidence as to a previous struggle having taken place, all point to suicide. Throttling is never suicidal; strangulation may or may not be the act of a suicide, but the evidence is in favour of homicide. It must also be remembered that murderers not infrequently suspend their victims after death, to give an air of suicide to the transaction. In all doubtful cases, therefore, the stomach should be examined for poison, and the body for bruises, which latter may, however, be inflicted by the suicide on himself in his struggles before death ensues. The fact that the feet are found in contact with the ground does not militate against the probability of suicidal hanging.

PRETENDED ASSAULT.

How may wounds alleged to have been the result of an assault be shown to have been self-inflicted?By considering-—

1. The Character of the Wounds.-In these cases the wounds are generally slight, and may consist in a series of small superficial wounds.

2. The parts of the Body where they are, and those where they are not.-They are never found on vital parts, but always where there is little danger of doing much harm.

3. The Clothes of the Person pretending to have been assaulted.-The cuts in the clothes do not, as a rule, correspond with those on the body; for instance, a long cut in the coat and a short one on the body, or vice versa.

DROWNING.

Death by drowning occurs when the breathing is arrested by watery or semi-fluid substances, blood, urine, or the muddy semi-fluid matter found in cesspools and marshes. It is not necessary for the whole body to be submerged. Death may result if the face alone be immersed, as in the case of a man in a fit of drunkenness being drowned in the water contained in the imprint of a horse's hoof left in the mud.

In addition to the changes in the internal organs identical with those present in persons who have died from suffocation or hanging, water is found in the lungs and stomach. Death may be due to—

a. Apoplexy.

b. Asphyxia.

c. A combination of the two.

d. Neuro-paralysis.

Death from pure apoplexy is rare.

It is more difficult to restore the drowned than those dying from mere stoppage of air from entering the lungs.

In death from drowning, the lungs are distended and overlap the heart, and have a peculiar spongy feel. They also contain a quantity of frothy fluid, which, according to Casper, cannot be produced in the dead body, as it is the result of the violent efforts made by the individual to breathe in the act of dying. This frothy condition of the fluid in the lungs is an

important sign of death by drowning, especially if the fluid corresponds with that in which the individual is said to have perished. It is just possible, however, that the person may have been first suffocated and then thrown into the water, froth in the trachea being found in those suffocated. Water in the stomach is an important indication of death from drowning, especially if the water contained in the stomach can be identified with that in which the body was found. Casper concluded that a person had been drowned by finding a small quantity of mud in the stomach after putrefaction had set in.

Of the external signs, the presence of sand, gravel, or mud under the nails, may or may not be an important sign, for sand or mud may collect under the nails during the efforts to drag the body from the water. The cutis anserina-goose skin-present generally on the anterior surface of the body, and not, however, peculiar to death from drowning, is important as a sign of recent vitality. The face of those who have been drowned, and then quickly removed from the water, is pale, and in most cases not swollen, the eyes closed; and not infrequently round the mouth there is more or less froth, especially when death is due to asphyxia. In summer, however, after two or three days, and longer in winter, the face assumes a reddish or bluish-red coloration, putrefaction taking place about the head and upper extremities earlier than in other forms of death. The contraction or retraction of the penis is a well-marked sign of death by drowning, and Casper asserts that he has not observed anything similar so constantly after any other kind of death.'

Suicide or Homicide?-Homicide by drowning is rare, except in children. Accidental drowning is common enough. The signs to be sought for are

1. Absence of any injury.

2. Cutis anserina and retracted penis.