propriate moment, fall down in it and break his leg.

Then he would proceeds of his

sue the municipality for damages, and live on the fall. It was claimed that he had thus beaten the Missouri Pacific and several other railroads, and Wichita, and other municipalities.

VI. BLOOD STAINS.

291. In general.- It is often desirable to be able to identify stains, bits of tissue, hair, etc., as coming from the human body or from some particular animal. Special treatises on these different subjects should be consulted; but blood stains are of such great importance that they deserve particular attention here.

The value of microscopical evidence of the character of stains and of hair is well illustrated by the following case,17a which occurred in Norwich, England. A female child, nine years old, was found lying on the ground, in a small plantation, quite dead, with a large and deep gash in the throat. Suspicion fell upon the mother of the mur dered girl, who, upon being taken into custody, behaved with the ut most coolness, and admitted having taken her child to the plantation where the body was found, whence the child was lost by getting separated while in quest of flowers. Upon being searched there was found in the woman's possession a large and sharp knife, which was at once subjected to minute and careful examination. Nothing, however, was found upon it, with the exception of a few pieces of hair adhering to the handle, so exceedingly small as scarcely to be visible. The examination being conducted in the presence of the prisoner, and the officer remarking: "Here is a bit of fur or hair upon the handle of your knife," the woman immediately replied: "Yes, I dare say there is, and very likely some stains of blood, for, as I came home, I found a rabbit caught in a snare, and cut its throat with the knife.” The knife was sent to London, and, with the particles of hair, subjected to a microscopic examination. No trace of blood could at first be detected upon the weapon, which appeared to have been washed; but upon separating the horn handle from its iron lining, it was found that between the two a fluid had penetrated, which turned out to be blood, certainly not the blood of a rabbit, but bearing every resemblance to that of the human body. The hair was then submitted to examination. Without knowing anything of the facts of the case, the microscopist immediately declared the hair to be that of a squirrel. Now, around the neck of the child, at the time of the murder, there was a tippet or "victorine," over which the knife, by whom

17a Chambers's Journal, Pt. XXXV., Dec., 1856.

ever held, must have glided; and this victorine was of squirrel's fur. The woman was convicted, and, while awaiting execution, fully confessed her crime.

292. General appearance. The general appearance of stains due to blood is dependent upon their age, and the material upon which they are deposited. Recent stains are of a deep red color which, in the course of about ten days, becomes a dull brown. The rapidity of this change of color is increased by exposure to heat, sunlight, and certain chemicals. Other chemicals remove the color from the stain. If the blood falls upon a nonabsorbent surface the spot has a dark red almost black color and a polished surface. On the other hand, if the blood is absorbed by the material upon which it falls, the stain is reddish brown; or, if attempt has been made to wash out the stain, it may assume a yellowish color.

On colored stuffs, especially on those which are brown, blue, or black, the spot is more easily recognized by candle-light than by day. This important fact was discovered by Ollivier d'Angers. He had been directed to re-examine the room of a person accused of murder; having already visited it in the daytime, his second examination was conducted at night, and he now discovered, by holding a lighted candle near to the paper hangings, which were of a pale-blue color, a number of drops of an obscure, dirty red, which by day had the aspect of small black specks, and were lost in the general pattern of the paper. On a further examination, other spots of the same kind were found on the furniture. On the chimney jamb, which was painted blue, there was a large stain of blood, which appeared red by the light of the candle. The next day by daylight Barruel and Lessueur could not find these spots, and were obliged to make use of artificial light to discover them.18 The same remarks will, of course, apply to spots of blood upon dark woollen cloth, in which they can also be detected by the stiffening of the material. If the stain be upon a weapon, such as the steel blade of a knife or poniard, the color will be of a pale-red where the layer is thin, and of a dark-brown color where it is of greater thickness.

293. Arterial distinguished from venous blood.- The distinction of arterial from venous blood, except when recently effused, is manifestly impracticable. Their chemical reactions are very nearly alike, and the only ground of distinction is in the more florid color of the former when recently poured out, and occasionally, also, in the form of the spots; those made by arterial blood being generally of an oval

"Briand, Méd. Légale, p. 782.

or elongated shape, in consequence of the blood having been thrown in a jet from the divided vessel. Moreover, in practice the two kinds of blood will almost always be mingled together, as it is difficult to conceive a wound being made which will not involve both sets of vessels. Dr. Taylor makes some interesting observations on the form and direction of spots of blood, suggested by the case of Reg. v. Spicer:19 "At the top of the stair, and at the height of 4 or 5 feet above the level, several spots of blood were observed upon the brick wall, which was whitewashed. The spots took an oblique direction from above downwards, were of a pale red color at the upper part, but dark red below, terminating in a point consisting of the fibrin, and the greater part of the red coloring matter. Their form and regularity proved that they had proceeded from a small artery, and that the wounded individual could not have been very distant from the wall, while their shining lustre rendered it probable that they were of recent origin, and their well-defined termination in a firm coagulum showed that they had proceeded from a living blood vessel. The deceased had died from fracture of the skull and vertebral column, by a fall from the top stair; one branch of the right temporal artery was found divided, and this wound could not have been produced by the fall. It was, therefore, evident that a murderous assault had been made upon her at the top of the stairs; this had led to the spirting of the arterial blood on the brick. The height at which the spots existed, and their appearance, proved that the jet of blood had been from above downwards; thereby rendering it probable that the deceased was standing up, or that her head was raised at the time the wound was inflicted. Further, as the brick with the spots was on the left hand in the descent, and the wounded artery was on the right side, it is probable that the deceased was face to face with her assailant in the act of ascending the stairs, and that she was killed by being precipitated to the bottom." 20 It has been supposed that menstrual blood could be distinguished from other kinds by the absence of fibrin; but, although this discharge does not usually coagulate, it nevertheless contains fibrin and sometimes in very appreciable quantity. Dr. Franz Simon says: "There can be little doubt that there is fibrin in the menstrual secretion; its determination is, however, usually rendered impossible by the presence of a large amount of mucus, which seems to deprive the blood of its power of coagulat

"Berk's Lent. Assizes, 1846. "Drory," by the same author. Guy's ❤Med. Jur., p. 203. See also case of Hospital Rep., Vol. VII., 1851.

ing." 21

M. Robin has given as characteristic qualities of menstrual blood, that it contains, besides blood-disks, epithelial cells and globules of mucus (leucocytes);22 but the latter elements are wanting whenever the menstrual flow is excessive, and in such cases, therefore, the liquid presents no distinctive characteristics.

The presence of fibrin in a blood stain is merely corroborative proof of the origin of the spot, but does not indicate with any certainty that the stain was derived from the blood of a living person; nor, on the other hand, does its absence give any support to the opinion that it was derived from a body already dead; since, if the stain be superficial, it may yield no traces of fibrin, even though it came from a living vessel; and coagulation in a dead body is not complete immediately upon the extinction of life. Hence, if the physician be able clearly to discover the traces of blood, it is superfluous to inquire for the presence of fibrin; and, on the other hand, this element of the blood could hardly be detected without ample proof of the nature of the fluid having been already obtained from other sources, since the quantity required would be considerable.

If the stain be upon linen or other similar stuff, it should be cut out and suspended by a thread in a small test-tube containing an amount of distilled water sufficient fully to dissolve the stain; the coloring matter of the blood soon begins to detach itself and seek the bottom of the vessel, the supernatant liquid remaining tolerably clear. The coloring matter will be dissolved in the course of a few hours; the fibrin, if any were contained in the spot, remaining attached to the stuff as a soft-grayish or rosy-white substance. The colored liquid in the test-tube may now be subjected to various tests; but one or two very simple ones are all that is necessary to establish the certainty of the presence of blood. Supposing the liquid to hold in solution. the coloring matter of the blood and albumen, the effect of heat carried gradually to the boiling point is to coagulate it and destroy its color. According to the amount of albumen, will be the degree of coagulation; if the liquid contain merely a trace of it, boiling merely renders it opalescent. But the alteration of color is peculiar to blood. It changes from its more or less red color to a grayish-green without a trace of red, the upper portion of the liquid acquiring, also, an indistinct yellow tinge. The grayish coagulated portion may be redissolved with potassa, and acquires thereby a brownish-red color by

"Animal Chemistry, Syd. Soc. ed., "Ann. d'Hyg., 2 ser., X. 421.

338.

refracted, and green by reflected, light. Another important test for blood is the absence of any change of color by the addition of ammonia, except when very concentrated or added in large quantity.

These tests will suffice to distinguish the colored serum of the blood from any stains resembling it. Thus, the red soluble dyes or stains from the juices of fruits are not coagulated by heat, nor do they lose their color on exposure to it, but the red color is changed either to a crimson or to a green, sometimes passing through a violet shade by the addition of ammonia.

294. Chemical tests; sodium tungstate test. The sodium tungstate test for blood is of value when the questionable material is in solution, or in the urine, or in stains on cloth that may have been partly washed out. The blood is extracted from the cloth with some 60 cubic centimeters of water, to which a crystal of potassium iodid has been added, to aid in the extraction, and then filtered. The clear filtrate is strongly acidulated with acetic acid, and a few cubic centimeters of saturated solution of sodium tungstate (also strongly acidulated with acetic acid) are added. If the solution is strongly colored it may need 5 to 10 cubic centimeters of the sodium tungstate. The precipitate which is obtained is then filtered off and tested like the dried stains for hemin, or with the spectroscope. If the sodium tungstate gives no precipitate, the solution is to be boiled and allowed to stand for forty-eight hours, and then any slight precipitate collected by decanting off the supernatant liquid, and the residue tested for blood.

294a. Guaiacum test. The guaiacum test is a valuable preliminary test if there is plenty of material to be examined. If the test is negative, blood is absent; and if the test is positive, we can only say that blood may be present, for the same reaction is given by a number of other substances. With blood the test is extremely delicate, detecting, according to Wormley, one part in five thousand. But it is important to note that guaiacum is blued by a number of substances, such as gluten, milk, and the fresh juice of various roots and underground stems (horse radish, colchicum, carrot, etc.) also by nitric acid, chlorin, the chlorides of iron, mercury, copper, and gold, the alkaline hypochlorites, and a mixture of hydrocyanic acid and sulphate of copper. Also by pus, saliva, and mucus, mixed with carbolic acid or creosote.23

Dr. Taylor, however, remarks that the fact that guaiacum is blued "Tidy's Legal Med., 1882. Vol. I.,

p. 221.