WOUNDS-SUICIDE OR ACCIDENT? 269 behind, the direction may be the same as that commonly observed in cases of suicide. (See on this point the case of Reg. v. Dalmas, C. C C., May, 1844.). Again, if the person attacked is powerless, the wound may be deliberately made, so as to simulate a suicidal act; indeed, murderers seldom attack the throat except with the design of simulating an act of suicide. A homicidal stab may also take the same direction as one which is suicidal, but this wound would be confined to those cases in which the assailant was placed behind or aside. If in front of the person whom he attacks, the direction would probably be from left to right; but in suicide, when the right hand is commonly used, it is the reverse. Oblique wounds, passing from above downwards, are common to homicide and suicide, but those which take an oblique course from below upwards are generally indicative of homicide, for it is extremely rare that a person bent on suicide, unless a lunatic, thus uses a weapon. Homicidal incisions, especially in the throat, are often prolonged below and behind the skin forming the angles of a wound, deeply into the soft parts. Those which are suicidal rarely possess this character; they terminate gradually in a sharp angle, and the skin itself is the furthest point wounded; the weapon is not carried either behind, below, or beneath it. Suicides may graze the ligaments in front of the spinal column, but that they should make deep incisions into the bones, cut off hard bony processes, and divide the intervertebral substance and the vertebral arteries, is a proposition contrary to all experience and probability. The case of the Earl of Essex, who was found dead in the Tower in 1683, bore somewhat on these points. The deceased was discovered with his throat cut, and a razor lying near him. This razor was found to be much notched, while the throat was smoothly and evenly cut from one side to the other and to the vertebral column. Some considered this to have been an act of suicide, others of murder. Those medical witnesses who supported the view of suicide were asked to explain how it was that such an even wound could have been produced by a notched razor. They attempted to account for this by asserting that the deceased had probably drawn the razor backwards and forwards across the neck-bone; forgetting that before this could have been done by the deceased, all the great vessels of the neck must have been divided. Exceptions to these characters of homicidal and suicidal wounds may exist; but in a dark and intricate subject of this nature we have only limited rules to guide us. The instrument with which a wound is supposed to have been inflicted should be adapted to the edges of the incision, its sharpness compared with the cleanness and evenness of the cut, and its length with the depth of the incision or stab. It is no uncommon occurrence for a murderer to substitute some instrument, belonging to the deceased or another person, for that which he has actually employed; and this by its size, shape, bluntness. or other peculiarities, may not account for the appearances presented by the wound. It is not often that any difficulty is experienced in distinguishing a suicidal from an accidental wound. When a wound has really been suicidally inflicted, there are generally to be found about it clear indications of design; and the whole of the circumstances are seldom reconcilable with the supposition of accident. But if the position of the deceased with respect to surrounding objects has been disturbed; if the weapon has been removed, and the body carried to a distance; then it will not always be easy to distinguish a wound accidentally received from one inflicted by a suicide or a murderer. The evidence of those who find the body can alone clear up the case; and the medical witness may be required to state how far this evidence is consistent with the situation, extent, and direc 270 WOUNDS SUICIDE OR HOMICIDE? tion of the wound found on the deceased. In the case of the Uxbridge murder (Reg. v. Elizabeth Gibbons, C. C. C., Dec. 1884), the situation and direction of four gunshot wounds on the deceased man were allimportant considerations; and from a careful consideration of these Bowlby was enabled to arrive at a conclusion adverse to suicide. (Brit. Med. Jour., 1885, i. p. 62.) Circumstantial evidence is commonly sufficient to show whether a wound has been accidentally received or not; but as an accidental wound may sometimes resemble one of homicidal or suicidal origin, so it follows that it is not always possible for a medical jurist to decide the question peremptorily from a mere inspection of the wound. It would not be difficult to produce instances in which murderers have alleged, in defence, that the wounds observed on the bodies of their victims were of accidental origin, and the allegations have been clearly refuted by medical evidence. A witness must be prepared, therefore, in all cases in which death has taken place in secrecy, and the nature of the wound is such as to render its origin doubtful, to be closely examined by counsel for a prisoner charged with felonious homicide, on a question whether the wound might not have been accidental. The law requires that it should be made clear to a jury, before such a charge can be sustained, that the fatal wound could not have had an accidental or suicidal origin. The subject of wounds of the neck has been examined in relation to homicide, suicide, and other medico-legal questions, by Güterbock. (Vierteljahrsschr. f. Gerichtl. Med., 1873, 2, p. 1.) Wounds inflicted by the Right or Left Hand.-Some remarks have been made in reference to the direction of a cut or stab varying according to whether the right or the left hand has been used by a suicide. It is necessary for a medical jurist to be aware that there are many persons who are ambidextrous, i. e. who have equal facility in the use of the right and the left hands. This may not be generally known to the friends of the deceased; and such persons are often pronounced, even by those who have associated with them, to have been right-handed. A want of attention to this point is said to have been one of the circumstances which led to a suspicion of murder in the case of Sellis. (Wills's Circ. Evid., p. 97.) The man was found dead on his bed with his throat cut; the razor was discovered on the left side of the bed; whereas, it was generally supposed and asserted that he was right-handed. The truth was, he was equally expert in the use of the razor with his left and right hands; and thus the apparently suspicious circumstance of the razor being found on his left side was at once explained away. The importance of making due allowance for the characters presented by wounds in the throat is also illustrated by a case which occurred in London in 1865. A publican and his wife had been frequently in the habit of quarrelling. One night the wife gave an alarm, and the man was found dead on the bed, with his throat severely cut. On examination, the fatal wound had all the characters of a left-handed cut, while the deceased was generally believed to be righthanded; and there was bloody water in a wash-hand basin in the room. The wife, who had marks of bruises upon her, said that she had left her husband in the bedroom for a short time, and on her return found him dead. The suspicious facts were explained at the inquest by a daughter of the deceased by a former marriage. She stated that her father had been brought up as a wood-carver, a trade which requires a man to use both hands equally well; that he had frequently threatened to destroy himself; and that the blood in the wash-hand basin was owing to her having washed her hands after she had touched her father's head. This SUICIDE OR HOMICIDE?-WEAPONS, HOW HANDLED. 271 satisfactorily explained the medical circumstance which appeared at first to point to an act of homicide. [It sometimes becomes of importance to establish whether right- or lefthandedness existed, or whether both hands could be used equally well in handling a weapon, pen, or for other purposes. Dr. J. N. Hall of Denver, one of our best authorities, in treating of this subject says: "The matter has generally been settled by the production of witnesses, who have testified freely in many cases to a given condition, when an equal number of witnesses has been brought forward who have testified to an opposite condition. In many cases the question could be better settled by an examination of the prisoner, if such an examination could be obtained, or of the corpse, in case this became desirable, by a study of the cicatrices upon the hands, such as are inflicted by every man who handles tools of any kind, but especially the pocket-knife. Although most left-handed boys are taught to write with the right hand, I believe the knife is commonly handled with the left hand in such cases by the left-handed, and many tools are used in similar manner in various trades. In women the study could not be expected to be of so much value, and still it has proved to be fairly conclusive in many cases. I should say further, that in the cases of professional and other men, not much given to the handling of tools, cicatrices may not be found, although in America, as long as the Yankee retains his reputation for whittling upon every possible opportunity, they will be present in most cases, and furnish more conclusive testimony than can be given orally. I have found these knife-cuts, as one would expect to find them, upon the radial side and dorsum of the forefinger, upon the ulnar side of the thumb, and to a less extent upon the dorsum, particularly about the knuckle, and in many cases upon the radial side and dorsum of the middle finger. It should be stated that, because of the fact that both hands present scars upon some parts of their surface, a decided preponderance of linear cicatrices upon one side should be necessary to justify a conclusion that implements were constantly used in the other hand, and such a preponderance we have found in most of the cases examined. "The proposition that we should find, in most cases, scars upon the hand not holding the implement seems so reasonable that it should require but little proof; but, more in order to learn in what proportion of cases we should be able to form an opinion, I have collected the following one hundred successive cases, with the assistance of Drs. Will F. Hassenplug and S. D. Hopkins, who have done very careful work in the examination of the fifty cases which they have contributed to my list, many of which cases they have shown to me. In the cases in which the cicatrices greatly predominated upon the left hand, generally in a ratio of from four to twelve or fifteen upon this hand to one to four on the right hand, we have simply stated the cases to be right-handed, as they have invariably been, while in case the opposite condition existed, the great majority existing upon the right hand, we have called the persons left-handed, without error, excepting as is hereinafter stated in connection with ambidexterity. "The 100 cases were divided as follows: Males, 88; females, 12. (a) Right-handed, that is, with such a preponderance of scars upon the left hand that no doubt could exist, 78. (b) Left-handed, where the opposite condition existed, 7. (c) Cases without scars enough upon either hand to make a decision possible, 8. (d) Cases in which the comparatively even distribution of the scars between the right and left hands made the question doubtful, and in which it was correctly assumed, nevertheless, that the person had originally been left-handed, and had since tried to use the right hand, 6. (e) Case in which many scars were found upon both hands, and 272 SUICIDE OR HOMICIDE?-SEVERAL WEAPONS. yet the patient was right-handed (our assumption of left-handedness in this case being erroneous), 1. "Thus, of the 100 patients, we may at once throw out eight who had no marks to guide us; and one whose scars were equally distributed, who was right-handed, and six similar cases who were left-handed, leaving 85 cases in which a positive decision was arrived at, in every case this decision having been correct. Further, of the seven cases in which the scars were nearly evenly distributed between the two hands, and which were presumed to be left-handed, six were actually so, so that the seventh subject in this group was the only one in whose case error really existed. It must be noted further that many men claim to be right-handed who still use the knife with the left hand, which would presumably indicate that such subjects would use a weapon in attacking another person with the left hand, and especially so as, in times of excitement, it is well known that artificial habits give way to those natural to one in his earliest years. In a very large percentage of cases, one may with great certainty affirm that natural right or left-handedness exists, and in most of the cases presenting scars upon both hands in approximately equal numbers, is safe in stating that the person was probable originally left-handed, but learned to use the right hand only after having inflicted many cuts upon it through the use of the left, or possibly continues to use the left at times. It may prove that, in some occupations, the habitual use of edge-tools in the left hand may call for a modification of these statements." Dr. J. N. Hall also cites approvingly Dr. Catharine F. Hayden, who says that in women the forefinger of the hand in which the needle is not held shows the marks of the needle, although these would wear away in a short time if sewing were suspended, not being true cicatrices. "Dr. J. N. Thomas has also mentioned that he has seen, in the hands of wood-carvers and engravers in which the tool was not held, the scars of pricks made by the implement in question. Obviously the occupation of the person would have an important bearing in this connection."] The Presence of Several Wounds.-In suicides, except in cases of cutthroat, commonly one wound only is seen, namely, that which has destroyed life, and the presence of several wounds on the body, or the marks of several attempts around the principal wound, have been considered to furnish presumptive evidence of murder. But any inferences of this kind must be cautiously drawn, since not only may a murderer destroy his victim by one wound, but a suicide may inflict many, or leave the marks of several attempts before he succeeds in his purpose. Ogston, Sr., has pointed out (Lect. on Med. Jurispr., p. 424) that in suicidal cutthroat the principal wound is often associated with small tentative incisions, near and parallel to this; but that in homicidal incised wounds of the throat the tentative cuts, if present, do not preserve the same parallelism-obviously because the victim does not remain passive under the attack of his assailant; and thus the relative positions of the assailant and the assailed are continually changed. Ogston, Jr., describes a case in which a man was supposed to have committed suicide by cutting his throat and chest, finishing by drowning himself. The superficial cuts in this case might easily have given rise to a suspicion of murder, had not moral circumstances led the examiner to conclude that the case was one of suicide. (Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour., 1885, i. p. 689.) The Use of Several Weapons.-In general, suicides when foiled in a first attempt continue to use the same weapon; but sometimes, after having made a severe wound in the throat, they will shoot themselves, or adopt some other method of self-destruction. These cases can only appear WOUNDS EVIDENCE FROM CIRCUMSTANCES. 273 complicated to those who are unacquainted with the facts relative to selfmurder. Neither the presence of several wounds by the same kind of weapon, nor of different wounds by different weapons, can be considered of itself to furnish any proof of the act having been homicidal. In one instance, a lunatic, in committing suicide, inflicted thirty wounds upon his head. In a case of murder, when many wounds are found on a dead body, it may happen that the situation or direction of some will be incompatible with the idea of a suicidal origin. Thus a stab or cut may be close to a contusion or contused wound, and, although a fall or other accident might account for the latter, the former would indicate violence separately inflicted. Two or More Mortal Wounds.-When we find several wounds on the body of a suicide, it generally happens that only one bears about it a mortal character, namely, that which has caused death. On this account it has been asserted by some medical jurists that, when two mortal wounds are found upon the body, and particularly if one of them is of a stunning or stupefying tendency (i. e. affecting the head), they must be considered incompatible with suicide. An inference of this kind can be applied to those cases only in which the two wounds, existing on different parts of the body, were likely to prove immediately fatal. It must, however, be borne in mind that all suicides do not immediately perish from wounds. which are commonly termed mortal; on the contrary, they have often the power to perform acts of volition and locomotion, which might by some be deemed wholly incompatible with their condition. It is difficult to say whether one wound is likely to destroy life so rapidly as to render it impossible for the person to have inflicted another upon himself; but when there are several distinct incisions on the throat, each involving important blood vessels, there is good reason to infer that they have resulted from an act of murder Wounds produced simultaneously or at different times. When several wounds are found on a dead body, the question is frequently asked, Which was first received? If one is what is commonly termed mortal, and the others not, it is probable that the latter were first inflicted. This remark applies both to cases of homicide and suicide; but it is apparent that when, in a murderous assault, a person has been attacked by several assailants at once, the wounds may have been simultaneously produced. This is, however, a question to which it is not easy to give a specific answer. Each case must be decided from the special circumstances attending it; and in most instances, unless some direct evidence is forthcoming, a medical opinion can be little more than conjectural. It is a question almost always put in a court of law; and a witness should at least prepare himself to meet it by a proper examination of the medical circumstances of the case. CHAPTER XXVI. EVIDENCE FROM CIRCUMSTANCES.-THE WEAPON. POSITION OF THE BODY. OF THE OTHER SUBSTANCES ON WEAPONS.-MARKS OF BLOOD ON CLOTHING AND FURNITURE, ON THE DECEASED, AND ON THE ASSAILANT. Evidence from Circumstances.-In pursuing the examination of the question respecting the homicidal or suicidal origin of wounds, the attention of the reader may be called to the force of evidence which is sometimes |