Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    detected. There was a small blister containing what was suspected to be serum, on the inner side of the right leg, about four inches above the ankle, but neither around nor beneath this blister was there the slightest mark of redness. The body was discovered lying in an out-house, a few yards from the kitchen door, and was supposed to have, been dead some two or three hours. The burning had occurred in the kitchen. The medico-legal questions involved were—What was the cause of death ? and. Were the burns vital, or post-mortem ? It having been affirmed that the deceased was in her usual good health three or four hours prior to the finding of her remains, I expressed my belief that she had died of suffocation, and that the burning was post-mortem. In this opinion Mr. Bolton entirely agreed. The learned counsel for the defence,'* exercised a laudable ingenuity and ability in endeavouring to furnish substantive exceptions to the pathological data upon which the above opinions were based; and it is but due to them to say, that had their veritable province been medical instead of legal, they could scarcely have displayed more scientific acuteness or judgment. In the process of cross-examination, I was more than once obliged to advance an opinion at variance with that of a reputable authority;*^) but in so doing, I was simply expressing the results of my own experience, and reasoning, and research. These only was I called upon to give—and in endeavouring to give them faith- fully and without fear, I was impressed with the conviction, that, to be influenced, in any degree, by the opposite views of an author however distinguished, would (a) Mr. Huddlestone and Mr. Kettle. Mr. Whitmore and Mr. Fhillimore conducted the prosecution. (6) Dupuytren.