A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers.

  • Chevers, Norman, 1818-1886.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    551/902 (page 517)
    The said marks, however, being in lines radiating toioards the right elbow, if applied by the person himself, and showing very fine red parallel Hues where the cuticle has been perforated, may, on careful inspection, generally be readily recognised as indicating friction with some rough substance, and not blows. The Sikhs are the only persons I have ever known to practise this trick. BURNS. Except as regards those burns which are inflicted as a means of torture, to which ample reference is made in the Chapter devoted to that subject, and those which are made by native pi'actitioners, by moxa and charcoal gool, by way of counter-irritation in cases of spleen, rheumatism, &c, all that I am aware of as being remarkable in this class of injuries here is, that native children very frequently fall into the fire. There is probably not a village in India where many children may not be seen miserably scarred or with contracted necks or limbs from this cause. SCALDS—SUN-BURNS. In India, an excessive degree of sun-burning produces, in certain sub- jects, especially in thin-skinned Europeans of rufous complexion, a state of parts precisely resembling an extensive scald. This danger is chiefly incurred by those who venture to bathe in tanks, upon which the sun is shining. As they leave the water, their backs are burnt. Their position is that of,a hand placed on a mirror upon which a tropical sun is shining. The drummer boys, up-country, are well aware of this danger. About five years ago, a red-haired European, who had been bathing in a tank in Entally, came to the Medical College Hospital with nearly as much vesication upon his back as would have been caused by pouring the contents of a kettle of boiling water over it. His recovery was, how- ever, much quicker, as the injury to the skin was less. In 1868, the death of a man named Ram Sao, said to have been killed by lattee blows, came before the police at Lokemanpore in the Bhaugul- pore district. The Civil Surgeon stated decidedly that the beating had not caused death, but was of opinion that death might have been caused by a severe scalding, the marks of which were plainly visible. There was, however, no proof that the man had been scalded, but it appeared that he had been rolling about drunk in the sun, and the medical officer said that death might possibly have resulted from heat-apoplexy, though this would still leave the marks of scalding unaccounted for. There was a long correspondence carried on between the police, judicial aud medical authorities, but the question was never cleared up, though the three persons accused were committed under section 304.* * Bengal Tolice Report, for 1868, p. 119.