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is a very delicate one. The exhaustion after labor is extremely variable in degree. The woman may have been exhausted from her exertions, or she may have lost enough blood to have fainted, and then not merely have been unable to give the child proper care, but in fainting she may even have fallen on the child, and so caused its death." While we must recognize the possibility of the mother being unable to care for the child, still it should be borne in mind that the effect of the loss of blood is not instantaneous. Brouardel 95 describes two cases of fatal post-partum hemorrhage in which, before the effects of the hemorrhage overpowered the mother, she had had time to kill the infant. Usually, however, it can be demonstrated that no preparations had been made to give the infant due and sufficient care, so that the question does not turn upon the hypothetical considerations as to whether the woman was able to give the infant due care.

144. Mental irresponsibility. The mental responsibility of the mother at the time of the infanticide must be determined by an alienist in each case. Mania for infanticide at the moment of delivery, which lasts but for the few moments sufficient to kill the child, is certainly not the rule. Puerperal mania usually is several weeks or months in its development and course. And yet the courts have several times recognized a fleeting mania, and acquitted the woman. One case, ,96 in which a woman poisoned her child when it was one day old, came under the attention of Mr. Justice Cresswell, who, at the close of his charge to the jury, read the whole evidence, and remarked that he was bound to tell them that there was undoubtedly no direct proof that the prisoner was otherwise than in her perfect senses, as no person saw her laboring under delusion or insanity; and yet she was acquitted upon the plea of puerperal insanity. Brouardel cites several cases where infanticidal mania has been recognized by the courts, but he denies the existence of any such fleeting mania, attributing the crime to the mental condition of the woman. He says:97 "Il faut se placer dans le condition où se trouvait cette jeune fille. Elle a fait une première faute, pour laquelle le justice n'intervient

"Hofmann, p. 854, cites Die Ohnmacht bei der Geburt vom gerichtsärztlichen Standpunct. Berlin, 1887, by M. Freyer. There are reports of three incontestable cases of unconsciousness just after delivery, reported from Mende, Schmitt, and Wildberg.

95 Brouardel, p. 155.

Edin. Month. Journ., Sept., 1852. "Brouardel, p. 164: "One must put one's self in the condition in which that young woman finds herself. She has

made a first mistake of which justice takes no account; she made a second, hiding her pregnancy, which justice takes account of only in Germany; she has made a third which is the almost inevitable consequence of the other two; she wishes to save her reputation; may the judges bave pity. It is not I who would raise any objection; but be it far from me, a physician, to say that there is a form of insanity when such does not exist."

pas; elle en fait une seconde, elle a cachè sa grossesse, le justice n'intervient qu'en Allemagne; elle en a fait une troisième qu'était le consequence presque fatale des deux autres; elle voulait sauver son honneur, que les jurès lui soient pitoyables. Ce n'est pas moi qui souleverai une objection. Mais ce que loin ne me fera pas dire, à moi, medicin, c'est qu'il existe une forme particulière de fôlie, alors que celle ci n'existe pas.

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IX. GENERAL COMMENTS.

145. In general.— A few general comments at the end of this chapter seem desirable to help define the position of the medical jurist in connection with these crimes. It is a fundamental principle laid down by Henke that death by violence is by no means to be inferred from the fact that the child was born alive. Even where marks of death by violence exist, it does not follow that the child was murdered. In the former case it may have perished in consequence of some disease incompatible with its life, or have been suffocated by the caul upon its face, or by its lying in a pool of blood and water, or in a mass of feces, or under a limb of the mother, while in a state of exhaustion or unconsciousness; or, in consequence of there being no help at hand, or of the unwillingness of the mother to betray her condition, the child, may be suffocated, or may perish from exposure to cold, etc. While, says Casper, we refuse to be imposed upon by the "impudent lies" which women do not hesitate to tell to conceal their guilt, we should not forget that the dangers to new-born children are very numerous, and that, without any criminal intent upon the mother's part, the child may perish from any of the causes just mentioned, from an injury to the head, from constriction of the umbilical cord, or hemorrhage following its rupture, or from falling into a privy, etc. Even apparent marks of violence must be cautiously interpreted. Prints of finger-nails upon the head and face of the child may have been made by the efforts of the mother to extract the child after the birth of its head, and even a dislocation of the neck, under the circumstance, must be regarded as within the limits of possibility. But if the marks referred to should be accompanied by others which can only be explained by intentional violence, then the former must be more seriously interpreted. Yet it must not be forgotten that many marks of accidental injury are with difficulty to be distinguished from such as are feloniously inflicted. Care should also be taken not to confound these with marks which may have been made after death in recovering the body from cess-pools, privies, and

similar places, or which are merely signs of the voracity of fishes, hogs, rats, etc. In fine, the duty of the medical jurist, called upon to investigate cases like those under consideration, should be to preserve the strictest impartiality, to avoid being biased by his sympathy with the misfortunes of the accused, upon the one hand, or, on the other, by his abhorrence of her imputed crime, and to endeavor to give its just weight, and no more, to every circumstance which the investigation brings to light.

BOOK II.

QUESTIONS ARISING OUT OF THE DIFFERENCE

OF SEX.

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