Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/350

 338 MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE cord, and of the bones, whether the infant was dead or alive at delivery. The successive stages of fo3tal life, as they are marked by the size, weight, and development of the organs and functions of the child, will throw much light upon the matter in question. In its latest researches science has found that the changes in the brain furnish an index of the general development. Yet all inferences derived from the structure and dimensions of the foetus will be modified and controlled by considering the age and vigor of the mother, her mode of life, and perhaps the climate in which she lives. All systems of law contain provisions respect- ing newly born infants. To succeed to prop- erty, according to the Koman law, the infant must be perfectly alive. The English law makes a like requirement. By the French civil code the child must be viable, or capable of life, in order to be capable of inheriting; and on the authority of the most eminent sur- geons and jurists of France, life, or being born alive, means complete and perfect respiration. The viability of a child, that is, its capacity of life, comes then to be considered in questions of property, and of the division of inherit- ances ; for a child which is declared by medi- cal science to have been viable may be pre- sumed to have lived, and so to have inherited. " It is now very generally conceded," says Beck, " that no infant can be born viable until 150 days, or five months, after conception. The instances of exception to this rule are questionable; indeed, the survival of infants born at six, seven, or even eight months after conception, is by no means frequent." The criminal destruction of the foetus while still in the womb, generally described by its conse- quences as abortion, is more fitly named feti- cide. (See ABORTION.) The duty of the med- ical expert in cases of supposed fceticide is to determine whether the substance expelled from the womb be really the product of con- ception, and whether the causes of miscar- riage were natural or artificial. Infanticide is the murder of a child born alive. Here the medical examiner must address his inquiries first to the appearance of the body in order to determine whether it was born alive. If that be clear, he will seek to determine how long it lived, and the means by which it came to its death. These inquiries will naturally involve an examination of the alleged mother. Proof that life has existed in the child may be derived from the effects of respiration upon some of the organs of the body. In a child which has breathed completely and fully, the thorax will be found expanded and the diaphragm more or less depressed by the inflation of the lungs; hut these signs alone are not of much value. Respiration will also have distended the lungs and increased their volume, and will have changed their color from the brownish tint of the foetal lungs to a pale red or scarlet color. After respiration the langs become soft and spongy, and they crc-pitate more or less upon pressure. The hydrostatic test is often ap- plied. Galen had taught that by inspiration the lungs are rendered specifically lighter, and in modern times the test was first applied by Schreyer in 1682 to cases of suspected child murder. In the course of experiments it has been found that the lungs may float from other causes than respiration, as for example from putrefaction and the artificial introduction of air. But, observing certain precautions, it may be certainly known to what cause the buoyancy is due. If, says Beck, with such precautions it be found that the lungs float in the water, as well with the heart attached to them as sep- arate from them, and if when cut into pieces each fragment floats, then the proof is strong that the infant enjoyed perfect respiration. Something may also be concluded, though not with much certainty, from the character of the blood found in the body, but more from the changes in the blood-circulating organs which are known to be wrought by the establishment of respiration, as, for instance, in some of the vessels and ducts of the heart, and in the arte- ries and veins of the umbilical cord. The separation of this cord, in the living child, is preceded by several stages of desiccation ; and if this characteristic be present, its condition will afford evidence of the infant's age. To the validity of these indicia, so far as they tend to show the fact of life, it has been objected that the child may have breathed during de- livery, and yet have died before it was fully born. It is replied to this, that the fact of breathing during birth affords the best pre- sumptive evidence that the infant was born alive, and that the marks of any accidental cause of death will generally be discovered on inspection. More than that, respiration in such cases is commonly imperfect, and the objection will therefore have but little weight where the body presents the appearances which are in- duced by complete respiration. If the exami- nation lead to the conclusion that the child was born alive, the means of death must next be determined, and whether they were inno- cent or criminal. The omission to tie the um- bilical cord, permitting fatal haemorrhage by its severed vessels, may be a cause of death. In such a case the body presents externally a singular paleness, and a peculiar waxy appear- ance. Internally is observed a loss of color in the muscles and viscera, and absence of the usual quantity of blood in the heart and blood vessels. Exposure to cold immediately after birth, want of proper nourishment, the inflic- tion of blows and wounds, the thrusting sharp instruments into various parts of the body, are frequent modes of child murder. In cases of strangulation, suffocation, and poisoning, the indications of the cause of death are evident, and are suggested under the proper divisions of this article. It must be remembered also that accidental causes attendant upon birth, congenital disease, malformations or defects of internal structure, may deprive the child of life