Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred S. Taylor.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1850
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred S. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    authorities; but in a very large number of cases, it is so closely dependent for its elucidation on medical facts and opinions, that juries could never arrive at a satisfactory decision without medical evidence. Let us suppose, then, that a medical jurist is consulted in a doubtful case—What are the points to which he must direct his attention ? These are, with regard to the wound, its situation, its nature and extent, and its direction. Evidence from the Situation of a Wound.—It is a general principle in which most medical jurists agree, that wounds, inflicted by a suicide, are usually con- fined to the anterior or lateral parts of the body. The throat and chest are com- monly selected where cutting instruments are employed; while the chest, especially in the region of the heart, the mouth, the orbit, and the temples, are the spots generally chosen for the perpetration of suicide by fire-arms. But it is obvious, that any of these parts may be also selected by a murderer, with the especial design of simulating a suicidal attempt; therefore the mere situation of a wound does not suffice to establish the fact of suicide. Dr. Smith considers, in reference to pistol-wounds, that if a weapon has been introduced into the deceased's mouth, and there discharged, we may almost take it for granted that it has not been done by another; (For. Med. p. 302;) but this inference is rather too hastily drawn; because it is quite within the range of possibility, that a cool and calcu- lating assassin may purposely resort to this method of destroying his victim, in order to conceal his crime. In suicidal wounds from fire-arms, a discoloration by powder of the fingers of the hand which discharged the weapon is sometimes observed; this has also been looked upon as a source of evidence of suicide under doubtful circumstances, but a similar objection, although not with equal force, might be made to its admission. Some have regarded it as fully established in legal medicine, that when wounds exist at the posterior part of the body, it is a positive proof that they have not been self-inflicted. This situation is certainly very unusual in cases of suicide; but, as Orfila observes, it is not the situation, so much as the direction of a wound, which here furnishes evidence against the presumption of suicide. A wound, traversing the body from behind to before in a direct line, is not very likely to have resulted from a suicidal attempt; at least, it must be obvious that it would require more preparation and contrivance on the part of a self-murderer, so to arrange matters, that such a wound should be pro- duced, than we can conceive him to possess at the moment of attempting his life. Besides, his object is to destroy himself as quickly and as surely as circumstances will permit; he is, therefore, not likely to adopt complicated and uncertain means for carrying this design into execution. Nevertheless, we must not always expect to find suicidal wounds in, what a surgeon would pronounce to be, the most proper situation to produce instant destruction. A want of knowledge, or a want of resolution on the part of a suicide, or the accidental slipping of the hand, will often cause a wound in the part where we might least expect to find it. Wounds which result from accident or suicide, are generally in exposed parts of the body. An incised wound in a concealed or not easily accessible part, is presumptive of murder: because this kind of injury could only have resulted from the deliberate use of a weapon. Suicidal wounds are, however, sometimes found in the most unusual situations. In December, 1842, a surgeon destroyed himself by cutting through the brachial artery and the principal veins of his left arm with a penknife; and, in another instance, which occurred in 1839, a young man committed suicide, by dividing the arteries of the forearm on both sides. It is very rare that we find suicidal stabs in the abdomen or throat, but an in- stance occurred a few years since, where a woman destroyed herself by a stab in the lower part of the abdomen; and several similar cases are recorded by medico-legal writers. In an attempt at suicide, which fell under my own obser- vation, a stab was inflicted by a carving-knife on the forepart of the neck, traversing the parts from the trachea to the spinal column. In regard to situa-