strangulation will be found in the great amount of violence, the marks of which will be seen upon the neck or elsewhere. The marks upon the neck will be either simply broader, deeper, and more ecchymosed than those which are met with in the rare cases of suicide, or will be attended with other local injury which could result only from the application of a rude and sudden force. A case is related by Casper's in which there was not only a brownish-yellow groove with reddened edges upon the neck, but also three ecchymosed spots, two at the angle of the jaw on the left side, and one on the right side of the jaw. These could only have resulted from outward compression, and they were supposed to indicate a grasp of the throat by the hand, the thumb leaving its impression on the one side and two of the fingers on the other. Without doubt the murdered woman had been first seized by the throat, and then, after having been rendered senseless, was strangled by the ligature, the mark of which we have described. In a case communicated to Dr. Taylor by Dr. Campbell, of Lisburn, there was a mark on either side of the larynx, under which, also, in the substance of the muscles, coagulated blood was found. The thyroid cartilage, which was partly ossified, was fractured through the ossified portion. The case was clearly one of homicidal strangulation with the hand.

An equally clear case is reported by Dr. Wilson.14 The body of a woman, two days after death, presented the following appearances: The right cheek and the lower part of the neck, over the collar bones, were deeply livid; the eyes were suffused and red; there was a circular contusion on the forehead; a hard and parchment-like yellowish-brown mark, about an inch and a half in length by half an inch in breadth, on the left side of the chin, running along the lower margin of the jaw; and another similar mark of nearly equal dimensions passed transversely across the throat, immediately over the larynx. There were traces of blood which had flowed from the right nostril. There was an extravasation of blood among the muscles of the neck, and the thyroid gland was largely infiltrated. The trachea contained frothy mucus; blood was effused beneath the lining membrane of the larynx; there was a fracture of the right wing of the os hyoides, and the cricoid cartilage was broken in two places. Extravasated blood was found below the left mamma and greater pectoral muscle. The brain was congested. No other lesion existed. The probable interpretation of these facts was that the woman had been felled by

13 Gericht. Leichenöffn., 1stes Hund., Edin. Med. Journ., Vol. I., p. 290. Fall 49, 1853.

a blow upon the forehead, that the murderer had then knelt at her right side, with his face towards hers, and his right knee across her chest, causing the effusion under the pectoralis major muscle; and then, pressing her head to the floor by his left hand on the left side of the chin, producing here another mark, he had grasped her throat with his right hand, and strangled her with violent pressure, either with the hand alone or aided by a ligature. The husband of the woman, who was indicted for her murder, admitted that he was alone with her at the time of her death, which he explained by her falling while intoxicated. The judge objected to the medical evidence that it was "merely inferential," and the prisoner was acquitted! Upon which, Dr. Wilson quotes from Archbishop Whateley: "He who infers proves, and he who proves infers."

MM. Briand and Chaudé quote the case of a woman who was found dead in her bed. Some discoloration of the neck suggested the suspicion that she had hung herself, and that her family, to avoid scandal, had laid her body in bed. But a more attentive examination showed that the bruises were confined to one side of the neck, that the two horns of the hyoid bone were unusually movable, and that the thyroid cartilage was flattened; the cricoid cartilage was also broken across its middle. The brother-in-law of the woman afterwards confessed that he had attempted to violate her, and, in order to stifle her cries, had grasped her by the neck until she ceased to live. He was found guilty of murder.15

Mr. O. Pemberton16 relates the following case: A maiden lady, aged sixty, who resided alone, was found one evening about half past six o'clock, lying dead at the top of a flight of stone steps leading to the cellar. The body was still warm. The post-mortem examination was made eighty-eight hours after death. The body was fresh; marked lividity of the middle third of the nose; nasal cartilages torn from the bones, and nose pushed to the right side. Mouth closed placidly; no marks of violence about gums or tongue. Anterior aspect of neck was livid and in places greenish from decomposition. Cricoid cartilage fractured on left side, fracture running through the cartilage in an angular direction, the angle jutting out and pointing to middle line. This and the thyroid cartilage were ossified in a marked degree,-the thyroid most. Blood was effused about the cricothyroid muscle and adjacent cellular tissue. Inside the larnyx the mucous membrane was uninjured, but the submucous

15 Manuel de Méd. Lég., 6iéme ed., p. 1 Lancet, May 22, 1869, p. 707.

tissue was infiltrated for a space corresponding to the fracture. Lungs and heart in the condition usually found after death from suffocation. Vessels of brain congested.

Four persons were arrested, one of whom confessed that they had entered the house for the purpose of robbery. A fifth man, who had not been arrested, had been given the old lady in charge, and it was supposed that, in attempting to stifle her cries, he had unintentionally "squeezed her too tight."

An interesting case is related by Dr. Gräff,17 in which a woman was murdered by strangulation, and the assassin had taken great pains to convey the impression that the act was one of suicide by hanging. The body was found lying close to a door, with a string passed twice around the neck, and fastened in a slip-knot behind. The impression made upon the neck was deep, and, for the most part, of a dark-brown color, particularly on the sides. It was perfectly horizontal. The free end of the string looked as if it had been broken. There was a peg in the door over the body, on which a towel was hanging, not in the least disarranged; the peg itself was slight and incapable of bearing the weight of the woman's body. Furthermore, there was no portion of the string attached to it. An overturned chair lay near the body; and on a writing-table in the room, a paper was found declaring the intention of suicide, and purporting to have been written and signed by the deceased. It was clearly proved, however, that this document was not in her handwriting, nor correctly signed, and the fact of her having been murdered was abundantly shown by these attempts at deception, other marks of violence upon the body, and the subsequent discovery that robbery had been committed.

One of the most interesting cases of homicidal strangulation is that given by Dr. Taylor, in Guy's Hospital Reports for 1851. The prisoner was found guilty, and before his execution made a confession, in which he stated that he met the deceased by appointment, that they talked and walked about, after which, at her suggestion, they sat down on a bank. She had come to urge him to marry her. He passed a rope, which he had previously secreted, gently around her neck as they were sitting, and had got the end of it in a loop before she perceived it. She jumped up at once, and put up her hands to save her throat, but he pulled hard and she fell without a struggle. We have thought this case of sufficient interest to present

"Henke's Zeitschrift, 1846, p. 145.

a tolerably full abstract of it in the note, since it offers many incidental suggestions worthy of consideration.18

353c. Simulated strangulation.-M. Tardieu reminds us that

"At the Chelmsford Lent Assizes, for 1851, Thomas Drory was tried for the murder, by strangulation, of a female named Jael Denny. He was the son of a farmer of great respectability, and resided within a short distance of the cottage where the deceased lived. Both were about twenty years of age, and the girl, who was pregnant by the prisoner, had reached the ninth month of her pregnancy. On the afternoon of Saturday, October, 12th, 1850, the prisoner and deceased were seen conversing to gether for about twenty minutes, in the neighborhood of the prisoner's cottage. This was about half-past five, P. M. The evidence respecting the deceased showed, that about six o'clock on this day, she had tea with her parents as usual, appearing to be in good health and in high spirits. She told her mother that she had made an appointment with the prisoner to meet him at a stile very near the cottage, at halfpast six o'clock, and the prisoner, it was supposed, had led her to expect that at this interview he would make some arrangement regarding his marriage with her. At or about this time, the deceased left her tea half-finished, dressed herself hastily in some of her mother's clothing, left the house, and was not again seen alive. She was found next morning, at or about eight o'clock, lying dead in a field, at a short distance from the stile, at which she said she had made an appointment to meet the prisoner on the previous evening.

from behind, while the deceased was on her face. Her face was flat on the ground, and her nose pressed down tightly. The nose is described as being quite flattened, and turned a little to the left side by pressure; it was impossible, in the opinion of one witness, that the mere weight of the head could have produced either this degree of pressure, or the indentation observed in the ground. The features were SO altered, that, although this witness had known the deceased for four or five years, he could not recognize her. When the body was turned over, blood escaped or bubbled from the mouth, nose, and eyes; and the face was observed to be black and much swollen. There was half a teacupful of blood on the spot where the face lay-under the mouthand more blood in another spot about a foot from the head; the hair was matted together with blood and dirt. The right arm was lying bent at a right angle underneath the body, and pressed down by its weight; the left was raised, with the hand directed towards the left shoulder, but partly covered by the body. There was a cord on the neck, which was twisted round it three times. One of the witnesses took the third turn from off the neck, and observed that this turn was a little loose; but on putting his finger to the throat, he found a knot of cord lying in front of the neck. The remainder of the cord was very tight, a portion being actually imbedded in the neck, and the cord was "When her body was found, the head drawn so tightly that the skin of the was cold, and the arms and legs cold neck had swollen up between the coils. and stiff; but the body (the abdomen) From other evidence it appeared that was perceptibly warm to the hand. It the knot which formed the loop of the will be remarked, that from the time rope was pressing on the front part of the deceased was last seen alive, the neck, while the bight of the noose thirteen and a half hours had elapsed. was at the back part, a little behind left "The attitude of the body when found ear. There were three coils and a half is thus described by the different wit of rope round the neck, and, with the nesses: The deceased was lying on her exception of the last half coil, all were face, a little inclined on one side, owing tight, the two innermost coils being so probably to the prominence of the tight as to indent and cut the skin. abdomen. Her lower clothes were ar- The end of the cord went over the back ranged in a straight and orderly man of the left shoulder, and about an inch ner, and her fur-tippet was lying on the of its extremity was lying loosely (withground, two or three yards from the out being grasped) between the thumb body. Her bonnet was on her head, and finger of the left hand of the demuch crushed and broken. It was ceased, which was raised towards it. flattened in front as if from pressure One witness described this hand as

tween them. The trachea had been flattened by strong pressure, but had regained its shape; it had a bruised appearance in the parts, corresponding to the two marks on the aeck, and its

being stretched out a little, so that the end of the cord could be seen lying in the hand, before the body was moved or turned over. The deceased was righthanded; there was no mark of grasping, laceration, or indentation on either structure there was softer than natural. hand; and from the position of the bight of the noose and the direction of the coils, the cord could have been tightened only by pulling to the left of the deceased. The cord was stout, and of a thickness of a window-sash line. At the part where the noose had been tightened, the pressure had been so great that the cord was condensed to about half its thickness, and some of the fibres had been cut through by the force used. There was no blood upon it, except just at the end, where there was a small spot. The second coil had, at the back part, tightly locked in a portion of the apron of the bonnet and handkerchief of the deceased.

There was extreme ecchymosis on the upper part of the chest, such as might have been produced by a heavy blow, or by the pressure of a person kneeling upon it. There was a contraction of the fingers, which were drawn into the palms of the hands. There was an abrasion of the skin at the back of the right elbow. There were marks apparently of teeth, on the back of the right wrist, and there were also scratches on the back of the left arm and hand. On opening the head, there was great congestion of the whole of the brain. The heart was healthy, but much distended on the right side with blood in a Coagulated state. The lungs were congest"A woman who undressed the de- ed to an unnatural degree: the right ceased, six hours after the body was pleura was adherent, a result of prefound, stated that she examined her vious inflammation. The stomach conface and found the mouth bubbling tained ordinary food, and the coats were with blood; her tongue protruded out in a healthy condition. The intestines of her mouth, and was clenched very were healthy. On opening the uterus it tightly with her teeth. Blood oozed was found to contain a male fetus in from her eyes, mouth, and ears. Her the ninth month; and this was probably body, from her head to the shoulders, alive at the time of the deceased's was very black (livid). There were death."

two marks where the cord went round For the defense, two surgeons, Mr. the neck, quite lacerated through the Thorpe and Mr. Pollock, deposed: The skin. Upon the back of her left wrist first, that he thought there was a doubt were marks apparently of a bite from as to whether the deceased committed both rows of teeth-the impressions suicide or not; the second, that he would were quite distinct before they were feel considerable difficulty in forming washed, and blood was oozing from them. On the right elbow a piece of skin had been taken off, about the size of a shilling, and the patch was very black. The elbow had a bruised ap

pearance.

an opinion as to the cause of death, whether suicide or homicide. Both of these opinions were founded upon cases which they had met with, but which, as they had no similarity with the present case, may here be omitted. Dr. Taylor, however, gave a decided opinion that the case was one of homicide, and his observations, which are remarkable for their minuteness and logical accuracy,

"A post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased was made by Mr. Williams, surgeon, of Brentwood, on the second day after it was found. The eyes were much distended and suffused we here subjoin. with blood, and the pupils were dilated. "1. The deceased was right-handed, There was a general lividity and swell- and, on the hypothesis of suicide, she ing of the face; and the tongue, which must have made the tension with her protruded from the mouth, had been left arm and hand. From the position bitten by the teeth. There was a of the loop or noose, any traction to the superficial laceration of the skin, cover- right would not have been tightened, ing the lower part of the throat on both but have loosened the cord. sides; and there were two deep marks, "2. That supposing her to have exas if from two cords, or from two im- erted such a traction at all, she must pressions of one cord tied tightly have been in the erect or sitting posture. round the neck. The two impressions The force used, indicated by the great were both situated over the trachea, local violence to the neck, could not and the skin had swollen up be- have been exerted by a person attempt