Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology | Page 6

is difficult, if not impossible, to give any certain or positive
opinion as to the age of a scar; recent scars are pink in colour; old scars
are white and glistening. The cicatrix resulting from a wound depends
upon its situation. Of incised wounds an elliptical cicatrix is typical,
linear being chiefly found between the fingers and toes. By way of
disguise the hair may be dyed black with lead acetate or nitrate of silver;
detected by allowing the hair to grow, or by steeping some of it in
dilute nitric acid, and testing with iodide of potassium for lead, and
hydrochloric acid for silver. The hair may be bleached with chlorine or
peroxide of hydrogen, detected by letting the hair grow and by its
unnatural feeling and the irregularity of the bleaching.
Finger-print impressions are the most trustworthy of all means of
identification. Such a print is obtained by rubbing the pulp of the finger
in lampblack, and then impressing it on a glazed card. The impression
reveals the fine lines which exist at the tips of the fingers. The
arrangement of these lines is special to each person, and cannot be
changed. Hence this method is employed by the police in the
identification of prisoners.
In the determination of cases of doubtful sex in the living, the
following points should be noticed: the size of the penis or clitoris, and
whether perforate or not, the form of the prepuce, the presence or
absence of nymphæ and of testicles or ovaries. Openings must be
carefully sounded as to their communication with bladder or uterus.
After puberty, inquiry should be made as to menstrual or vicarious

discharges, the general development of the body, the growth of hair, the
tone of voice, and the behaviour of the individual towards either sex.
With regard to the identification of the dead in cases of death by
accident or violence, the medical man's assistance may be called. The
sex of the skeleton, if that only be found, may be judged from the bones
of the female generally being smaller and more slender than those of
the male, by the female thorax being deeper, the costal cartilages longer,
the ilia more expanded, the sacrum flatter and broader, the coccyx
movable and turned back, the tuberosities of the ischia wider apart, the
pubes shallow, and the whole pelvis shallower and with larger outlets.
But of all these signs the only one of any real value is the roundness of
the pubic arch in the female, as compared with the pointed arch in the
male. Before puberty the sex cannot be determined from an
examination of the bones.
Age may be calculated from the presence, nature and number of the
erupted teeth; from the cartilages of the ribs, which gradually ossify as
age advances; from the angle formed by the ramus of the lower jaw
with its body (obtuse in infancy, a right angle in the adult, and again
obtuse in the aged from loss of the teeth); and in the young from the
condition of the epiphyses with regard to their attachment to their
respective shafts.
To determine stature, the whole skeleton should be laid out and
measured, 1-1/2 to 2 inches being allowed for the soft parts.

IV.--EXAMINATION OF PERSONS FOUND DEAD
When a medical man is called to a case of sudden death, he should
carefully note anything likely to throw any light on the cause of death.
He should notice the place where the body was found, the position and
attitude of the body, the soil or surface on which the body lies, the
position of surrounding objects, and the condition of the clothes. He
should also notice if there are any signs of a struggle having taken place,
if the hands are clenched, if the face is distorted, if there has been

foaming at the mouth, and if urine or fæces have been passed
involuntarily. Urine may be drawn off with a catheter and tested for
albumin and sugar.
If required to make a post-mortem examination, every cavity and
important organ of the body must be carefully and minutely examined,
the seat of injury being inspected first.

V.--MODES OF SUDDEN DEATH
There are three modes in which death may occur: (1) Syncope; (2)
asphyxia; (3) coma.
1. =Syncope= is death beginning at the heart--in other words, failure of
circulation. It may arise from--(1) Anæmia, or deficiency of blood due
to hæmorrhage, such as occurs in injuries, or from bleeding from the
lungs, stomach, uterus, or other internal organs. (2) Asthenia, or failure
of the heart's action, met with in starvation, in exhausting diseases, such
as phthisis, cancer, pernicious anæmia, and Bright's disease, and in
some cases of poisoning--for example, aconite.
The symptoms of syncope are faintness, giddiness, pallor, slow, weak,
and irregular