in a state of intoxication he had fallen from the trestle and drowned, and by the incoming tide the body had been carried a little farther inland. The answer to the question, How long has this body been in the water? is of importance, but it can rarely be answered with exactness, as has been shown in the part of this article which treats of putrefaction.

DEATH FROM COLD AND HEAT.

While cases of death from extreme cold are of comparatively rare occurrence, they are still worthy of some passing mention in a work of this character. Of course the cases will occur only in the winter time, in the northern part of temperate climates, and in those zones which are known as frigid. The rarity of the occurrence of these cases has left the medical jurist with insufficient data from which to draw accurate conclusions as to the post-mortem appearances characteristic of death. from cold.

Out of some four thousand cases of death from violence which have come under my own observation, there was only one case which could be in any way attributed to the effect of extremely low temperature, and even in this case the history was such as to render rather obscure the question whether the death was not caused primarily by the narcotic effect of alcohol, the freezing occurring immediately after death.

From an observation of some nineteen cases, Dr. Ogston says that the peculiar appearance in the bodies of adults who are frozen are: first, an arterial hue of the blood generally, except when viewed in masses within the heart; second, an unusual accumulation of blood on both sides of the heart and in the large vessels, and both arteries and veins above the chest; third, a pallor of the general surface of the body, an anæmia of the viscera largely supplied with blood; fourth, the irregular and dusky red patches on limited portions on the exterior of the body in parts not dependent, and which contrast visibly with the pallor of the skin and general surface. On the other hand, Casper says: "There is not one appearance which can, with any certainty, justify the assumption of death from cold." He mentions also that in cases where the ears, the points of noses, and the fingers are readily broken off, such appearances have been proclaimed as signs of death from freezing. But this condition only proves that these parts of the deceased had possibly been frozen before death. Of course it is not an infrequent occurrence to find, in winter time, on post-mortem examination of bodies, in the hollow organs fluids which have been converted into masses of ice. He further says that the overloading of the vessels of the brain, lungs, and heart, and large venous trunks, any or all of them, is of no real value in the way of demonstrating death from cold, since this condition is found after other kinds of death; so that, really, the diagnosis is only to be made by considering the whole picture in connection with the history of the case, and the absence of evidence of death from any other cause. But Casper calls atenttion to one point of negative evidence, which is this: if a body found frozen is in a state of commencing or advancing putrefaction, it is quite clear that the individual did not die from cold, but that the body had already begun to putrefy before the freezing, inasmuch as ice itself is a preservative.

In regard to the points made by Dr. Ogston, it is said that the arterial hue of the blood is to be found after death in other cases, notably in cases of death from carbonic oxide poisoning. As to the unusual accumulation of blood in both sides of the heart, it is well known that this may be found in cases of death from other causes, as, for instance, in some cases of heart disease. Pallor of the general surface of the body is common to all kinds of death; but as to the dusky red patches which are found in parts other than those dependent, it may be said they are of a certain diagnostic value, but, without corroborating circumstances, would not be in themselves sufficient to warrant an absolute opinion that the death was caused by cold.

It may be said with regard to the persons who most readily succumb to exceedingly low temperature, that they are naturally those people whose vital powers are the feeblest-that is, in the very young and the very old, and those who are narcotized from excessive indulgence in alcohol. And it may also be stated that in the case of the habitual drunkard the pathological changes which have taken place in the tissues of the heart render the circulation more feeble, and consequently render the individual himself less able to withstand the effects of the cold.

The diagnosis of death by freezing must rather depend upon common sense than upon specific changes found on dissection; and although there have been exceptionally rare cases where death from this cause has been attributed to the intentional act of another, in the vast majority of cases such deaths must be looked upon wholly as the result of accident.

Death from the other extreme of temperature-excessive heat-is, on the other hand, of fairly common occurrence. And while the human body is capable of resisting for a brief period a high degree of temperature, a long-continued exposure to a moderately great elevation of temperature, or the exposure a short time to excessively high temperature, results in the destruction of life.

There are notable instances of people who are able to bear high temperature for an extended period-the firemen or stokers in the enginerooms of the ocean steamers, where the temperature is often from 145° to 150° F. In the Turkish bath the temperature is sometimes from 180° to 200°. In both of these situations deaths have occurred. The first effect of heat is to stimulate tremendously the action of the heart, followed by a feeling of giddiness and suffocation and death by coma; or if the person does not die immediately, it may lead to congestion of the lungs with the attendant fever. Excessive heat, aside from actual burning, kills by producing apoplexy, and the post-mortem examinations in cases of death from sunstroke have shown that the appearances were those of apoplexy.

According to Dr. Tidy, when death has occurred from excessive heat rigor mortis comes on quickly, putrefaction sets in very rapidly, and livid spots and petechia are often found on the body. The brain and its membranes are injected, and serum will be found in excess in the ventricles. The lungs are especially dark and injected, particularly the central and posterior parts and the bases. There are often large pulmonary apoplexies. The heart is generally filled with liquid blood, especially on the right side, and the entire venous system is usually congested; and yet these appearances are by no means constant.

Death in Consequence of Burning.-Under this head I shall not consider the cases where death is from suffocation by smoke or by the spasm of the glottis in consequence of inhalation of flame. The effects of heat upon the body vary in proportion to the severity, from simple reddening to an entire charring of the body and destruction of the deepseated parts. Death takes place in two different ways: severe and extensive burns may destroy life from the depression of the nervous system, owing to the number of superficial nerves that are affected; or the victims may suffer from inflammatory reaction and from suppuration and fever at a later period, and they may die from the effects of the destruction of the skin (although the burn may be superficial, yet covering a very large area of the body), the chief gland of the body.

The question as to the connection of certain pathological changes in the interior of the body with alleged burns, which have not during life attracted special attention, is not likely to give rise to a great deal of trouble. It is in cases where the appearance of the exterior of the dead body is suggestive of burns that the question might be raised as to whether the burns were inflicted in life, or whether after death for the purpose of concealment of crime.

The researches of Christison and Taylor, which are practically in agreement, show that the appearance which follows immediately upon the application of heat to the living body is a flush of redness around the burned part, removable by gentle pressure, disappearing in time, and not permanent after death. Next to this in order, following almost immediately after the injury, is a narrow line of deep redness, separated by a line of deep whiteness passing into a blush, but not capable of being removed by pressure. This line of redness may be seen after the application of the actual cautery. The next phenomenon is the appearance of blisters, which may generally, when the agent is a scalding fluid, appear in a very few minutes, as in young children, or may be delayed for hours.

Christison considers that a line of redness not removable by pressure, followed by blisters containing serum, is a certain sign that the burn was inflicted during life, while blisters containing only air may be produced by heat after death. In bodies dead thirty minutes he failed to produce such an effect by boiling water or cauterizing-irons. Dr. Taylor arrived at the same results and same conclusions, though he warns us that the absence of these blisters does not certainly lead to a conclusion that death was not caused by burning.

Casper, after repeated experiments, says: "It is quite impossible to confound a burn inflicted during life with one inflicted after death." The vesicles produced after death are of very small size, do not contain serum, and quickly burst.

Ogston's criticisms on these conclusions are, that we not only occasionally fail to produce vesication by burning during life, but sometimes even any redness at all of the burned part is not perceptible; and, moreover, that vesication without redness on a dead body would not be sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the burn had occurred during life, as such blisters may come from other causes, as was illustrated in the article on putrefaction.

In regard to the matter of so-called spontaneous combustion, although its occurrence has been claimed by as eminent an authority as Orfila, the possibility of such an occurrence is extremely doubtful.