April 26, 1883 | 
burning the spot with lighted strips of bamboo, but such 
a wound will be level with the surrounding flesh and be 
soft to the touch. If willow bark has been used for the 
same purpose, the flesh will be rotten and black, livid all 
round, and free from hardness. A lighted paper placed 
inside a cup and applied to the flesh makes a wound 
which resembles the result of a blow with the fist ; but it 
will be observed that all round there is a red, scorched 
mark, that the flesh inside is yellow, and that although it 
swells, it does not become hard. On the other hand, a 
genuine wound can be distinguished by the well-defined 
colours of the surrounding flesh. At the extremity of the 
wound there should be “a halo-like appearance, like rain 
seen from a distance, or like fleecy clouds, vague and 
indistinct.” 
Murders, it is held, are seldom the result of premedita- 
tion, but are in a great majority of cases to be traced to 
drunken brawls ; and further, coroners should remember 
that the relatives of a wounded man, unless their ties be 
of the closest, desire his death that they may extort 
money from his slayer. It becomes their duty, therefore, 
on hearing of a fray in which any one has been seriously 
wounded, to see that the injured man be carefully tended 
and provided for. If death ensues, a careful examination 
of the corpse should be made, beginning from the head 
downwards, and in doing so, should it be suspected that 
tattoo-marks on his cheeks or elsewhere have been obliter- 
ated, such parts should be tapped with a slip of bamboo, 
which will have the effect of making the marks reappear. 
Attention should be given to see if the ears have been 
bitten or torn, whether the nostrils have been wounded, 
and whether the lips are open or closed. The teeth 
should be counted, the jaws examined, and the limbs 
carefully scrutinised down to the finger- and toe-nails. If 
the body bears marks of corporal chastisement, it should 
be noted, and any scars there may be, both on the inside 
and outside of the ankle-bones, may be safely set down 
to torture. When the mark of a wound which is known 
to have been inflicted cannot be traced, vinegar with 
the lees should be poured on the spot, and a trans- 
parent piece of oilcloth be held between the sun and part 
to be observed. Ona dull day live charcoal must take 
the place of the sun. If the result be not satisfactory, 
spread powdered white prunes, with more vinegar and 
lees, and examine closely. Should this also prove un- 
satisfactory, then a cake composed of the flesh of white 
prunes, red pepper, onions, salt, and lees should be made 
very hot over a fire and applied to the parts, when the 
wound will appear. 
In the same way, when violence is suspected, but no in- 
jury is at first sight apparent, it is directed that vinegar 
with the lees should be poured on the body, over which the 
clothes of the deceased saturated again with hot vinegar 
should be laid, and, covering all, mats spread to keep the 
steam in. The temperature of the vinegar should be 
regulated by the season of the year, and in very cold 
weather, when the vinegar, however hot, is insufficient to 
relax the rigidity, the corpse should be laid in a hole in 
the ground, in which a roaring fire has been subdued by 
copious sprinklings of vinegar. The fumes of steam 
which will then arise may be expected to accomplish the 
object. A careful examination should then be made, and 
if the marks of a wound or wounds are observed on the 
skin, their size, shape, and position are to be carefully 
noted, and death attributed to the one on the most vul- 
nerable part. One of the most curiously perverted pieces 
of coroners’ science is contained in the assertion that, if 
death has arisen from a blow on the lower part of the 
abdomen, the injury is discoverable by the condition of 
the roots of either the top or bottom teeth in the case of 
men, and in that of women by the appearance of the gums. 
If the services of the coroner should not be called in 
until the body is in so advanced a stage of decomposition 
that the condition of the bones is the only test left him, he 
NATURE 
613. 
should choose a bright day, and having steamed them in 
the fumes of hot vinegar he should examine them under 
a red oilcloth umbrella. The blood having soaked into 
the injured parts, these will at once become visible, and 
will leave clearly-defined red, dark blue, or black marks. 
A long-shaped, dark-coloured mark so discovered points 
to a wound inflicted by a weapon, a round one to a blow 
of the fist, a large one to a butt of the head, and a small 
one to a kick. The fact of saturation of blood in the 
bone is evidence that the wound was inflicted before death. 
Should there be any doubt as to the identification of the 
bones, it is only necessary for a child or grandchild of the 
deceased to cut himself and herself with a knife, so that the 
blood may drip upon the bones, when, if they be really those 
of the parent, the blood will soak into them, otherwise it 
will not. In connection with this test it is curious to find 
stated the old-world belief that the blood of relations, if 
dripped into a basin, will mix, and not in the case of 
others. This test would appear to be often appealed to, 
since coroners—though it is difficult to see what it has to 
do with coroners—are warned to see that those interested 
in proving a relationship do not smear the basin with salt 
or vinegar, under the influence of either of which any 
bloods will mix. 
Observations have shown, so coroners are told, that a 
man who has been killed with a knife dies with his mouth 
and eyes open and his hands clenched. The skin and 
flesh about the wounds will be shrunken, and in case of a 
limb having been cut off the bone will be protruding. 
Where decapitation has taken place, the muscles will 
have shrunk backwards, the skin will have curled over, 
and the shoulders will be shrugged up. These appear- 
ances will be wanting if the wounds have been made 
after death has taken place. It is necessary to be par- 
ticular on these points, we are told, as murderers con- 
stantly endeavour to mislead coroners by inflicting wounds 
after death in such a way as to lend a colour to vamped- 
up stories of suicide. The exact frame of mind in which 
a man was when committing suicide can be readily dis- 
covered by the features of the corpse. If the teeth are 
firmly set, the eyes slightly open and looking upwards, a 
fit of violent passion prompted the act; if the eyes are 
closed, but not tightly, the mouth slightly open, and the 
teeth not shut, then it was due to an excess of pent-up 
rage ; if fear of punishment has driven him to it, his eyes 
and mouth will be placidly closed, ‘‘for he looks on 
death merely as a return home and a happy release from 
the responsibilities of life.” The hands also furnish a 
test when there is a doubt whether the case of a man 
whose throat has been cut be one of murder or suicide. 
The hand with which a suicide commits the deed will 
remain soft for a time, and will curl up a day or two- 
after death, neither of which symptoms will occur when 
death has been caused by another person. ‘ 
Strangulation is one of the commonest means by which 
persons tired of life “shuffle off this mortal coil,” and 
full directions are given as to the points to be observed 
when holding inquests on such cases. The exact position 
of the body, the kind of scar on the neck, the existence or 
absence of the mark of a knot, the expression of the face, 
and a thousand other matters are detailed at length, and 
are contrasted with similar appearances in the case of 
murders. One curious piece of superstition receives the 
sanction of the Board of Punishment in connection with 
suicide by hanging. Beneath the spot where the crime 
was committed, at the depth of three or more feet below 
the surface of the soil, there will be found a deposit of 
charcoal, and by this test, should any doubt exist as to 
the scene of the suicide, the matter may be settled. The 
directions given in the case of deaths by drowning are 
voluminous, and, speaking generally, accurate. The habit 
of generalising from insufficient data, which is so common 
with Chinamen, occasionally leads them astray here as 
elsewhere. It has been reserved for them, for example, 
