CHINESE CORONERS' INQUESTS. 691 



and soft. If birch-bark has been used for the burning, the flesh is 

 black and soft, and the edges of the wound are livid. Burning with 

 paper produces a wound like a fist-blow ; but a red and burned spot 

 may be remarked around the wound, while the flesh within appears 

 yellowish and tumefied, but without consistence. A true wound can 

 also be recognized by the clear color of the surrounding flesh. The 

 edges of the wound resemble a kind of rainbow, something like rain 

 seen at a distance, like clouds with a vague and indistinct aspect." 



After having thus defined the characteristics of a wound, and the 

 means of exposing every kind of deception, the manual passes to the 

 consideration of the motives for crime. *' Murders," it says, " are rarely 

 premeditated ; they are sometimes the consequence of intoxication. 

 The magistrate," it continues, " should remember that the relatives of 

 a wounded man may have an interest in dispatching him, so that they 

 may demand a more considerable indemnity from the murderer. He 

 must also inform himself, in the case of a man who was severely 

 wounded in a brawl, whether he was honestly taken care of. In case 

 of death, examine the body carefully from head to foot ; see whether 

 the ears have been pulled and torn, whether the nostrils have been 

 hurt, whether the lips are open or closed, count the teeth, inspect the 

 cheeks, carefully feel the limbs to the finger-nails and toe-nails. If 

 the coroner can not find a visible mark of a wound, he should pour on 

 the part vinegar with its dregs, and then put a piece of oiled, trans- 

 parent cloth between the sun and the body, and look carefully. If 

 nothing appears, let him make another trial, with powdered white 

 plums added to the vinegar. If this, too, fails, he should prepare a 

 cake of white plums, red pepper, onions, salt, and vinegar, and apply 

 it boiling hot on the part of the body where the wound ought to be. 

 An attentive examination having been made of the body, and the 

 marks of wounds on the skin, their shape, size, and position having 

 been noted, death should be attributed to the wound that is found in 

 the most vulnerable spot." 



It is one of the curious features of this system that, if the death is 

 'due to a blow on the lower part of the abdomen, a clew to it may be 

 obtained from the state of the roots of the teeth in men and of the 

 gums in women. When the inquest is held over a body in so ad- 

 vanced a state of decomposition that nothing is left of it but the bones, 

 a clear day is chosen, and the bones, after having been exposed to the 

 vapor of hot vinegar, are examined through a red and transparent 

 cloth. The blood having been coagulated in the wounded parts of the 

 bones, they will be brought out, and the marks — red, dark blue, or 

 black, as the case may be — will be made visible. A long and dark 

 mark indicates a blow made by the arm ; a round mark, a blow of the 

 fist ; a smaller mark, a kick. Extravasation of blood in the bone indi- 

 cates a wound made before death. If doubts exist as to the identity 

 of the remains, a son or grandson of the deceased is required to shed 



