Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/707

Rh and soft. If birch-bark has been used for the burning, the flesh is black and soft, and the edges of the wound are livid. Burning with paper produces a wound like a fist-blow; but a red and burned spot may be remarked around the wound, while the flesh within appears yellowish and tumefied, but without consistence. A true wound can also be recognized by the clear color of the surrounding flesh. The edges of the wound resemble a kind of rainbow, something like rain seen at a distance, like clouds with a vague and indistinct aspect."

After having thus defined the characteristics of a wound, and the means of exposing every kind of deception, the manual passes to the consideration of the motives for crime. "Murders," it says, "are rarely premeditated; they are sometimes the consequence of intoxication. The magistrate," it continues, "should remember that the relatives of a wounded man may have an interest in dispatching him, so that they may demand a more considerable indemnity from the murderer. He must also inform himself, in the case of a man who was severely wounded in a brawl, whether he was honestly taken care of. In case of death, examine the body carefully from head to foot; see whether the ears have been pulled and torn, whether the nostrils have been hurt, whether the lips are open or closed, count the teeth, inspect the cheeks, carefully feel the limbs to the finger-nails and toe-nails. If the coroner can not find a visible mark of a wound, he should pour on the part vinegar with its dregs, and then put a piece of oiled, transparent cloth between the sun and the body, and look carefully. If nothing appears, let him make another trial, with powdered white plums added to the vinegar. If this, too, fails, he should prepare a cake of white plums, red pepper, onions, salt, and vinegar, and apply it boiling hot on the part of the body where the wound ought to be. An attentive examination having been made of the body, and the marks of wounds on the skin, their shape, size, and position having been noted, death should be attributed to the wound that is found in the most vulnerable spot."

It is one of the curious features of this system that, if the death is due to a blow on the lower part of the abdomen, a clew to it may be obtained from the state of the roots of the teeth in men and of the gums in women. When the inquest is held over a body in so advanced a state of decomposition that nothing is left of it but the bones, a clear day is chosen, and the bones, after having been exposed to the vapor of hot vinegar, are examined through a red and transparent cloth. The blood having been coagulated in the wounded parts of the bones, they will be brought out, and the marks—red, dark blue, or black, as the case may be—will be made visible. A long and dark mark indicates a blow made by the arm; a round mark, a blow of the fist; a smaller mark, a kick. Extravasation of blood in the bone indicates a wound made before death. If doubts exist as to the identity of the remains, a son or grandson of the deceased is required to shed