Page:Medical jurisprudence (IA medicaljurisprud03pari).pdf/117

 the fontanelles, the connection between them is extremely imperfect. The eye-lids are closed; the hair on the eye-brows and the eye-lashes but thinly scattered; the pupil is generally closed by a membrane; the nails are wanting, or scarcely apparent. The sexual organs will also afford some characteristic appearances. In the male, the testes, between the sixth and eighth month are in progress towards the scrotum; at the end of the seventh they are not yet found there. The scrotum is generally of a bright red colour. In females the vulva is projecting, and the labia separated by the protuberance of the clitoris.

The general external appearance of a fœtus may, moreover, indicate the important fact of its having been retained in the uterus after its death. Lecieux observes that the ordinary term which it remains in the womb, in this state, is from five to twenty days; and that, according to the length of this period, the body will have lost more or less of its consistence and firmness; the limbs become lax, and the muscles are readily torn; the epidermis may be removed by the slightest friction; the skin also assumes a purplish, or brownish-red colour; there is often some bloody serum effused in the cellular tissue, just beneath the skin, especially about the cranium; the umbilical cord is large in circumference, soft, infiltrated with serum, livid, and is very readily torn; the thorax is flattened, the head falls into different shapes, and becomes flattened from its own weight; the membranes which serve as a bond of union to the several bones of the cranium, are much relaxed. The brain is in a nearly fluid state, and emits a fetid odour.

We should next proceed to a more minute and particular inspection of the external appearances; for