Page:Medical jurisprudence (IA medicaljurisprud03pari).pdf/35

 tower, much information was lost by the body having been stripped and removed before a due examination took place; the hasty manner in which this was performed, excited on that, as it necessarily must on all similar occasions, very considerable suspicion respecting the motives which could prompt so premature and unnecessary an interference. An attention to the posture of the body is also important in cases of wounds, which should always be examined with reference to this circumstance. It has also been very justly observed, that a person in a fit, or in a state of intoxication, might fall accidentally into such a posture, as to be actually suffocated by the pressure of his own hand, or that of any resisting body upon his throat. If such a case were to occur, all evidence of the fact would be destroyed by any officious interference that might change the exact posture in which the body was found.

General appearance of the countenance, as to colour, vascular turgescence, or congestion, and morbid physiognomy.—The observation of the countenance of a deceased person will very frequently furnish the medical inquirer with a useful hint in the investigation; we have, for instance, already spoken of the expressive physiognomy of a strangled person, (page 45) and in the course of our work, the reader will find ample illustrations of the general importance of the subject.

Whether any discharge issues from the mouth, nostrils, ears, or any other orifice.—The appearance of froth about the mouth indicates that the death of the person has not been instantaneous, but sudden, either from apoplexy, epilepsy, or any other violent cause, see Appendix, p. 273. In drowned persons the mouth and nostrils are covered with foam. In epileptic pa