in the dura were carbonized, and the brain cortex was sensibly hardened to one-sixth of its depth, "where there was a broken line of vascularity." The post-mortem temperature in this case seems to have remained unusually high, being 97° F. in the fourth ventricle and 99° F. at the back of the neck three hours after death in a room where the temperature was only 83°.

In autopsies after death by lightning the results are in general analogous. The brain and its membranes may be anæmic or congested. Effusions of blood may be found beneath the dura or in the brain substance itself, due to the laceration or injury of vessels. Rupture of the brain is said to have occurred, and Phayre reports a case in which the left hemisphere was entirely destroyed and changed into a dark gray homogeneous fluid mass, only a small portion of the corpus callosum remaining. No extravasation of blood, laceration of the vessels or membranes, or injury of the bones was detected.

Ecchymotic spots are frequently found beneath the serous membranes, pericardium, pleura, and peritoneum.

Schmitz states that parenchymatous inflammation of the internal organs may occur, and Sullivan reports a case where the stomach was found to be gangrenous over a large surface, the patient having lived several days. Cases of rupture of the heart, the liver, and the spleen are reported.

THE MEDICO-LEGAL CONSIDERATION

OF

DEATH BY MECHANICAL SUFFOCATION

INCLUDING

HANGING AND STRANGULATION.

BY

DANIEL SMITH LAMB, A.M., M.D.,

Pathologist Army Medical Museum, Washington, D.C.; Professor of Anatomy Medical Department Howard University, Washington; Secretary Association of American Anatomists; Late Acting Assistant Surgeon United States Army; President of Association of Acting Assistant Surgeons

U. S. A.; Member of Learned Societies.

MECHANICAL SUFFOCATION.

Suffocation is the name applied to both the act of and condition resulting from the deprivation of atmospheric air. If the deprivation is due to mechanical interference, the term MECHANICAL SUFFOCATION is used.

Mechanical interference may be by pressure upon or obstruction within some portion of the respiratory tract. Suffocation by pressure upon the neck is called hanging when the constricting force is the weight of the body itself; and strangulation in all other cases. German writers designate strangulation by cords, ropes, and the like as Erdrosselung, and by the hand as Erwürgung; French writers do not make this distinction. In English the word throttling is probably oftener applied to strangulation by the hand than by cords.

The term suffocation is also applied in a special sense to the act and result of pressure on the mouth, nose, or chest and abdomen, stopping the breathing; or of obstruction within the respiratory tract; or of pressure upon the tract from the œsophagus, etc.; or of breathing of irrespirable gases.

Strangulation is almost always homicidal, hanging almost always suicidal, and suffocation (limited) usually accidental, but also often homicidal.

Strangulation may be admitted, therefore, as including all cases of suffocation by pressure on the neck, whether by cords or the hand; but excluding hanging.

It will facilitate the study of the subject if we use the word ligature as a general term to cover the many forms of cords, ropes, etc., used in strangulation and hanging.

The word GARROTING is often used to indicate the forcible compression of the neck by the hands of thieves. The assault is usually made from behind, and the victim is robbed while the throttling proceeds. The brevity of the process explains why death is not more frequent. The word garroting comes from the Spanish; criminal execution in Spain and Italy is