THE DESTRUCTION AND ATTEMPTED DESTRUCTION OF THE HUMAN BODY BY FIRE AND CHEMICALS.

THE destruction of the human body, more or less complete, usually with the purpose of removing evidence of a previous crime, is a somewhat common occurrence in criminal cases and raises a number of important questions for the medical jurist and expert. Fire is the agency usually resorted to and deserves chief consideration, chemicals having been used to only a very limited extent.

DESTRUCTION BY FIRE.

The questions arising in consequence of the attempted destruction by fire may be considered under four heads: (1) Where all material sources of evidence have been removed; (2) where there remain ashes from which evidence as to the former existence of an animal body can be derived, but the human character cannot be distinguished; (3) where the remains permit the recognition of their human origin; and (4) where the personal identity of the body can be determined with more or less probability.

In connection with each of these, numerous matters of inquiry may arise, such as the time and fuel required for the more or less perfect destruction of the body, the differentiation of the effects of fire applied before and after death, the effects of fire in producing fractures of bones,

etc.

Complete Destruction of the Body by Fire.-When the human body has been completely consumed by fire and the ashes have been disposed of, the material evidences of the crime are obliterated. The medical witness may, however, be called upon to answer certain questions as to the possibility of the destruction of the body, the time required, the amount and quality of fuel needed, as well as to give his opinion in regard to the meaning of odors, etc., which may have been perceived by others at the time of the alleged destruction.

Time and Amount of Fuel Required.-One of the most important questions relates to the time required to burn a body and the amount of fuel necessary for the purpose. An exact answer to these questions can be given only as the result of actual experiments, conducted under conditions resembling as nearly as possible those under which the alleged burning took place, but an opinion can be formed as to the

approximate time required from observations already made. At the trial of Professor Webster in 1850,' Dr. Woodbridge Strong testified that he undertook to burn a body in the open air, but after working all night there was still much unconsumed. The kind of fuel is not stated, but was probably wood. In the Calder case it was in evidence that the two murdered men were placed on a great fire of logs at 2 P. M.; the fire was replenished from time to time, and at midnight the bodies had been mostly consumed; at daybreak (September 25) only ashes and cinders were left, among which subsequently several teeth and many parts of charred bones were found.

As the result of experiments in connection with the trial of Roxalana Druse in 1885 Dr. A. Walter Suiter found that a human body weighing 140 pounds could be burned in a wood-stove in eight hours, and that only one and one quarter pounds of fuel such as was used in this case (dry pine shingles) would be required for each pound of mixed animal tissues. It was found that the tissues first lost

water and then the dry mass burned readily.

In the celebrated Pel case in Paris in 1884 Brouardel performed experiments with a small kitchen stove such as Pel used. He found that a body could be consumed at the rate of 14 kilograms, or 3 pounds, per hour, so that a corpse weighing 60 kilograms, or 132 pounds, could be consumed in forty hours, using charcoal as fuel. The weight of ashes left in this case was 6 kilograms, or 13 pounds.

No very marked odor is necessarily occasioned by the burning of the body. The first part of the process in which the flesh is deprived of water and begins to char is usually accompanied by an odor resembling that of meat scorched in cooking, but the further burning does not of necessity give off much odorous gas. A great deal depends, however, on the method of combustion-the more nearly perfect and rapid it is the less the odor, while in the case of slow and imperfect combustion the odor may be quite offensive.

According to experiments conducted by Professor L. Hektoen,' in burning three bodies in a furnace upon a bed of glowing anthracite coal, the body can be consumed in a very short time. The fire-box of the furnace in this case was 4 feet long, 35 inches wide, and 18 inches high. In each experiment a body was destroyed in less than an hour, so that nothing was left in its original form except the bones of the pelvis. The extremities were removed in each case and placed by the side of the body in the furnace.

When alcohol, petroleum, or oil is used as fuel, the time necessary for combustion, according to Descoust, Robert, and Ogier, must be at least an entire day.

Determination of the Animal Source of the Ashes.When the ashes are left in the stove or can be obtained and identified,

1 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1850, vol. xlii., pp. 166, 167. Transactions Medical Society of State of New York, 1887, pp. 417-428.

Annales d'Hygiène, Paris, 1886, 3 S., xv., pp. 113–123.

• Personal communication. Annales d'Hygiène, Paris, 1894, 3 S., xxxi., p. 533.

they may furnish positive evidence of the consumption of an animal substance. If the combustion has not been complete, the ash will have a brownish color, which indicates the probability of an animal origin. In some cases of incomplete combustion the ashes become permeated with a substance of a fatty consistence resembling tallow, which may be a melted or saponified animal fat. The ashes should be examined for these appearances, and such parts be reserved for careful chemical analysis as may be able to reveal the source of the fat. The principal evidence of the animal origin of ashes is found in the presence of a large amount of phosphates, especially the phosphate of calcium derived from the burning of bones. The following table gives the composition of the ash of the bones of various animals : 1

The ash of muscle contains somewhat more than one-third its weight of phosphoric anhydrid, which is mostly combined with potassium instead of calcium. The ash of human bones constitutes from 60 to 70 per cent. of their weight.3 From these facts it may be possible to calculate from the amount of phosphates found in the ashes the amount of bone consumed. This was done in the Druse case, with the result that the weighed fragments of bone and the computed weight of bone represented by the calcium phosphate found in the ashes were equivalent to about two-thirds of the weight of a human skeleton. No fragments of bones of the trunk were found, so that it is probable that the bone ashes were deposited in part in another place. The ashes of ordinary wood have a very different composition, containing from 10 to 30 per cent. of compounds of potassium, chiefly carbonate, and phosphates corresponding to only from 4 to 7 per cent. of phosphoric anhydrid.* Coal-ashes consist chiefly of silica, alumina, lime, and oxid of iron. They contain but little potassium compounds and from 0.4 to 1.2 per cent. of phosphates, calculated as phosphoric anhydrid.

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Identification of the Human Character of the Remains.— Unless the combustion has been very complete, fragments of bone are likely to be left and these may furnish evidence, more or less conclusive, that the body consumed was that of a human being. It is not possible within the limits of this article to establish the identity of the human skeleton, but it may be well to indicate a general method of procedure by which this evidence may be made most available. After picking

308.

1 Zalefsky, quoted in Simon's Physiological Chemistry, p. 387. Gautier, Chemie applique à la physiologie, à la pathologie et a l'hygiène, vol. i., p. Gautier, op. cit., vol. i., p. 352. Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon, vol. i., p. 979; Richardson and Watts' Chemical Technology, i., 440.

5 Meyer, op. cit., vol. i., p. 979; Watts' Dict. Chem., vol. i., p. 1031.

out from the ashes any large fragments of bone, the ashes should be sifted through a series of sieves and the fragments obtained carefully sorted and diligently studied. Fragments which cannot be recognized should be compared with other fragments in order to find any which fit each other so as to show that they are fragments of the same bone. These should be attached to each other for subsequent study. The identification of such fragments as parts of the human skeleton requires a thorough knowledge of comparative as well as human anatomy. The animals whose remains are most likely to be present in such ashes are the domestic animals, but a skilful defense is likely to exhaust every resource to throw doubt on the human origin of the fragments. The bones likely to leave fragments characteristic of the human skeleton are those of the skull and of the feet and hands. The temporal bone seems very likely to be left, and is a strong evidence of human origin. In the Luetgert case (see below) a temporal bone (greatly softened but still recognizable), found near the furnace, seemed to have passed through both the boiling alkaline bath and the furnace fire. The teeth are especially important, and are, moreover, quite resistant to the action of fire.

Determination of Age, Sex, and Personal Identity.-If the body has been but partially consumed, questions as to age, sex, and personal identity and the origin of bruises and fractures may be raised. The changes in the shape of the lower jaw in consequence of the loss of teeth are the principal means of identification of the age of the deceased. The discovery of hairs may also furnish evidence. Distinction of sex may be possible by the characters of the male and female pelvis. The size and shape of the bones, and the prominence of the muscular ridges may permit an inference as to the size of the individual and the development of the muscular system.'

The personal identity of the victim is an important question upon which the examination of remains mutilated by fire is not likely to throw much light. In the Webster case identification was attempted by measurement of the parts of the body which had not been consumed, but the most that witnesses could establish was that these measurements were not inconsistent with the size and muscular development of Dr. Parkman, whose body was missing. The examination of artificial teeth furnished more important evidence, although this evidence was questioned by some dentists. It was generally agreed, however, that a dentist would be able to recognize his own work.

Were the Burns Produced Before or After Death ?-Where the injury to the body has been slight, the question may be raised whether the appearances are due to burns received before or after death. The distinctive characters of a burn received before death are the characteristic vesicles, the area of inflammatory redness around the burned spot, and the presence of pus or granulation tissue underneath the dead skin.

1 For a discussion of the data concerning the age, size, and sex derived from the skeleton, see Dwight, Medical Communications, Massachusetts Medical Society, 1878, 2 S., viii., p. 169.

2

Experiments undertaken by Christison, Taylor, and Casper indicate that vesication is a sure sign of burns produced before death, except, perhaps, in the case of anasarcous bodies, but lack of blisters is not a sure indication that the burning was not done before death. The experiments of Gräff,' of Maschka, and of Taylor3 show, however, that the effects of heat upon the living and the recently dead are very similar. The blisters raised upon the dead, except in the case of dropsical subjects, contain air instead of serum. The serum exuded after death is said not to be coagulable by heat and nitric acid, while that in blisters produced before death is coagulable by these reagents.

The line of redness that forms around a burned part is due to a vital action and is never seen in case of burns produced after death. The absence of this appearance is not certain proof that the burn was received after death, but its presence may be regarded as positive evidence that the burning took place while the person was living. Similarly, the discovery of pus or granulation tissue is positive evidence of a vital action, and hence of the occurrence before death.

Were the Wounds Observed Produced before Death, or are they the Effect of Heat ?-The action of heat upon the body may produce the appearance of wounds. Apparent wounds of the soft parts are produced by the giving way of tissues weakened by the heat in consequence of stress of some kind. These tears are apt to be more ragged than wounds made before death, the fissures extending in several directions.

Fractures of bones occasioned by heat may be mistaken for fractures which occurred before death. In fractures occasioned by heat more superficial cracks are observed and the fracture seems never to extend beyond the portion of bone whose structure has been injured by the heat.

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M. Tardieu, after a conflagration in Paris in which a number of persons perished, made the following observations, according to Wharton and Stillé: "The bones were dried and brittle, and in the long bones fractures with obliquely splintered and charred ends were observed, differing distinctly from the character of ordinary fractures. In the flat bones, which were thinned by heat, the fractures caused by the heat assumed the form of fissures confined to one surface, and not penetrating the substance of the bone. The intervertebral disks were contracted in their diameters. Teeth and cartilage seemed to resist the action of fire more than other hard parts. Some of the viscera were mummified. The blood of the heart, aorta, and other large vessels presented an extraordinary appearance, resembling wax or fatty matter, of a most beautiful carmin color."

Casper cites the case of five carbonized individuals, a man, a woman, and three children, who presented the following appearances :

Annales d'Hygiène, Paris, April, 1854.

5 Wharton and Stillé, Medical Jurisprudence, third ed., vol. ii., part 2, p. 762. Vol. i., p. 308, London translation, 1861.