THE LESIONS IX CERTAIN FORMS OF DEATH FROM VIOLENCE. 45 



rupture of the internal vertebral ligaments and of the inner and middle 

 coats of the carotid arteries. Similar changes may be produced in the 

 dead body by the use of great violence. 



If death occur from asphyxia, the internal lesions are similar to those 

 described above. In some cases for example, where death has occurred 

 from fright or shock the results of post-mortem examination are en- 

 tirely negative. 



DEATH FROM DROWNING. 



Iii examining the bodies of persons who have been drowned, it is 

 necessary to bear in mind a number of questions which may arise: 

 "\Vhether the person came into the water alive or dead? How long a 

 time has elapsed since death? Whether the person committed suicide, 

 or was drowned by accident, or was murdered! These questions are to 

 be solved sometimes certainly, sometimes with probability, sometimes 

 not at all, by the post-mortem examination. Persons dying in the water, 

 to which condition the term drowning is commonly applied, may die 

 from asphyxia, from exhaustion, from fright or syncope, from disease of 

 the heart, apoplexy, injuries, etc. While in the majority of cases as- 

 phyxia is a predominant or important factor in death by drowning, tho 

 conditions under which death occurs are so apt to be complex that in the 

 minority of cases only are the lesions of pure asphyxia found after 

 death, while in most cases the bodies present the more or less well -marked 

 lesions of asphyxia together with those indicative of complicating con- 

 ditions.. There are no post-mortem conditions which alone are abso- 

 lutely characteristic of drowning, and it is only by considering all the facts 

 elicited by the autopsy together that any just conclusion can be arrived 

 at. It should always be borne in mind, moreover, that even the most 

 characteristic of the evidences of drowning are apt to be modified or to 

 disappear as decomposition goes on. 



EXTERNAL INSPECTION. 



Post-mortem rigidity usually sets in early, sometimes immediately 

 after death. Decomposition progresses, especially in summer, with un- 

 usual rapidity in bodies which have been removed from the water: Fre- 

 quently, but by no means constantly, the peculiar roughening of the 

 skin, known as goose skin (cutis anserina), is found, but this may occur 

 after death from other causes. A light, lathery froth, either white or 

 blood-stained, is frequently seen about the mouth and nostrils within 

 twelve to twenty-four hours after removal of the body from the water, 

 but it may be absent, and may be seen after death from other causes. 

 After the body has lain for several hours in the water (twelve to twenty- 

 four) the thick skin of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet may 

 become macerated and thrown into coarse wrinkles, just as it may after 

 prolonged soaking during life, or in a dead body thrown into the water. 

 The penis and nipples may be retracted, and the scrotum shrunken, but 

 this is not constant nor characteristic. 



