Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the presumption of survivorship / by James Bell Pettigrew. 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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![Lis wife, the chances of survivorship would have been greatly in his favour. In cases of shipwreck, e.g., when the vessel goes aground on a stxndy coast, and the wife, daughter, or mother is found in the cabin, and consequently submerged, while the husband, son, or father is found lashed to the mast above water, the j)robability is that the latter died gradually from fatigue and expo.sure, while the former met an instan- taneous death. A case in point occurred within my own knowledge. Two boys were drowned by falling into an old shaft in their attempts to gather brambles at its edge. The elder of the two was known to be an expert swimmer, and when the bodies were discovered that of the elder was found jdaced above that of the younger. In addition, the arms and legs of the elder boy were found discoloured and lacerated, which discolorations and lacerations were no doubt produced in his attempts to prolong existence. Another instance, in which there would have been little difficulty in determining the survivor, occurred in the west of Scotland within the last few years. A band of boys, seven in number, were amusing themselves on their return from school by sliding on a pond adjoining the road. The ice gave way, and all perished. The sad event told its own tale, for on the disappearance of the boys a search was in.stituted, and a slight fall of snow being on the ground, enabled the searchers to trace the footsteps of the boys from the school to the margin of the pond. Arrived there, a recently- formed slide was discovered which extended from the margin for some distance into the pond, and at the end of it was a large irregular opening in the ice. The satchels and other incinnbrances of the boys Avere found strewed around, and pointed significantly to the yawning chasm in question. Further .search only tended to confirm the worst fears of the searchers, for the bodies of the spirited but unfortunate boys were found piled the one above the other in the calm but treacherous waters. A case of a similar nature occurred at Dunbar within the last three years. An English family had gone to the coast for the purpose of sea-bathing. One of the daughters while enjoying that luxury went beyond her depth, and her sister seeing her sinking and hearing her shrieks, rushed to her assistance. They were both immediately in the same sad dilemma. The father and bi’other, who were walking on the beach and saw the accident, instantly rushed to the spot. The brother instinctively hastened to the rescue of his sisters, but being unable to keep himself afloat, it was evident that all three were fast perishing. The ti’agedy craved yet another victim, for the father, un- able in his despair to profit by the sad warnings he was receiving, also jjlunged to the fatal rescue. Here, then, there was a sequence in the order of death j and if a question of survivorship had arisen, little diffi- culty Avould have been experienced in determining it. Of a like nature in the order of events was the melancholy accident Avhich occurred in the Theatre Koyal of Glasgow in 1849. In this calamity sixty-two perished, and in this wise. An alarm of lire was raised, and, as usual in such cases, all rushed to the door. The door was unfortunately closed, and as the long narrow ])a.ssage leading thereto was literally choked with panic-stricken individuals eager to avoid an imaginai-j](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21955876_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
