uals; in the male, however, the antero-posterior diameter is the greatest, whereas in the female the bilateral is the largest. The bones in general of the female are more slender proportionately than those of the male, and if the age of the remains can be fixed, even though the pelvic bones are missing, by comparing the proportion of the bones with their estimated age it may be possible to form a fairly positive opinion as to the sex of the remains. No positive opinion, however, ever ought to be given which is not based on an inspection of the pelvic bones. When the teeth are present, up to the age of twenty-one the age of the skeleton may be determined by them alone. If no teeth be found, the age of the bones must be determined by the degree of ossification of the various bones, and by the union of the epiphyses to the shaft of the long bones. This is of no avail after the age of twenty-four, at which time the upper epiphysis of the tibia unites to the shaft of the bone, being the latest of all the epiphyses to unite with its shaft. From the twenty-fourth year until middle life it is not possible to form any exact idea of the age, as ossification is complete. If the metasternum is found joined to the mesosternum by bone, it may be concluded that the individual had reached middle life. It is quite exceptional for the presternum and mesosternum to be united by bone, but when this is found it is probable that the individual had attained the age of sixty. The same applies to the bony union of coccyx and sacrum. The process of absorption which takes place in the alveolus of the lower jaw, and the approach of the mental foramen to the lower border of the bone, are also signs of old age. After the age of twenty-four it is only possible, therefore, to say that the individual was middle-aged, or that he had reached the age of sixty, or that he was an aged man.

Not infrequently the teeth are found detached from e jaw-bone. The following brief description of their points of difference may serve to then distinguish them. The central upper incisors are very much larger than the laterals; the lower central incisors much narrower than the upper set. The root of the first bicuspid is either single or marked by a single longitudinal depression, while the root of the second is double. The lower bicuspids are smaller than the upper, and have single roots. The upper molars have four cusps and three roots; the first of the lower molars has five cusps and two roots, which are sometimes completely divided by a groove so as to make four; sometimes only one root is so divided in this way. The second lower molar has but four cusps or a faintly developed fifth cusp. Its roots have a tendency to coalesce. The roots of the upper wisdom tooth coalesce and form a cone. The lower wisdom tooth has two roots, which may become confluent. (Morris.) When no teeth are found, but only a few of the larger bones, we must rely on the degree of ossification of the bones and the condition of the epiphyses.

DEATH IN ITS MEDICO-LEGAL ASPECTS.

BY

FRANCIS A. HARRIS, M.D.

IN the preparation of an article which shall treat of the subject of death in its relation to forensic inquiry, with the consideration of the phenomena attending and following upon certain forms of violent death, it must be obvious that little that is absolutely novel can be offered to the student of legal medicine who has availed himself of the careful and scientific exploitation of the subject by such eminent writers as Devergie, Tardieu, Casper, Taylor, and Ogston, who from their great opportunities for observation, and from the fact that most of them occupied positions under governments which at a very early period recognized the importance of this branch of medical investigation, and which provided a certain fixed and logical method of inquiry, have been enabled to present most accurate data in the matter of medico-legal examinations; and the writer acknowledges at the outset that he has availed himself, in the preparation of this article, of the results of their labors as found in their published works. He will only endeavor to present such facts as have already been found to obtain, and, if possible, to emphasize them by such illustrative cases as have come under his personal observation in the course of the past sixteen years, while acting under the provisions of the so-called medical-examiner law of Massachusetts.

Governmental Regulation.-Other countries, notably France and Germany, have for a long time had statutes which provided for the action of medical experts in criminal cases, or in those which were supposed to be such, and have even laid down with the greatest care and minuteness not only the legal steps to be pursued, but definite instructions as to the method of performing an autopsy and recording the results of the same.

The United States has not thus far advanced. In most States the old-fashioned, illogical, and practically worthless system of investigation, derived from the English custom, the coroner's inquest, still is the pri mary court of inquiry, and the solutions of questions of great moment to the State and the individual are still left to men who have neither the legal nor the medical training requisite to determine either the cause of the death in a given case or decide the responsibility, if there should be any.

The Massachusetts law still leaves much to be desired both in the matter of accurate phrasing and the complete instruction as to details of a medico-legal examination. It is, however, a great step in advance of anything which has obtained before, and has worked very well in practice. The essential points of the law are that in the first place it follows

a logical order, and when there is to be an investigation into the manner of any suspicious death it puts the primary part of the inquiry-namely, Was this death one that resulted from violence, or did it result from natural causes?-into the hands of trained medical men, who under certain conditions and under certain proper restrictions make the autopsy; and it puts the second part of the inquiry-if there should be demonstrated the fact that the death was due to violence rather than to natural causes-into the hands of a judge of a court of first instance, who reports his finding to the superior court, and so everything is in train for prosecution. At the outset there was naturally doubt in the minds of the medical men acting under its provisions as to what really was meant by a dead body. They were required to act if they received notice that a dead body was lying within their district; but the courts had never decided what a dead body was. Was it a foetus in the very early stages of development? Was it a child that was at viable term, say at the period from one hundred and eighty to two hundred and ten days, or must it be a child at term to be considered a body within the meaning of the law?

Accepted Period of Life.-Medically, a foetus at the fourth or fifth month, although incapable of independent life, is a human being; but up to 1893 there had been no decision as to its status in law, that is, by the Massachusetts courts. The laws of foreign countries had made the distinction that a child must be wholly born alive before it could be the subject of an assault, and had even gone further, and decided that a child who was born alive and had lived not only for hours, but even days, but who on account of some congenital deformity, such as atresia of the rectum or the oesophagus, was incapable of sustaining independent life, is not a human being within the meaning of the law, whether civil or criminal. On the other hand, a child who had been born alive at a time when it was capable of sustaining a life independent of the mother, even if it was born prematurely, would be a subject of criminal assault like any other human being. During the present year, in the course of a trial for infanticide it was found that there had been no decision on this point in the State of Massachusetts, and for the first time the law was made, following the English law, that it must be proved that the child had been wholly born alive and capable of maintaining a separate existence before a charge of infanticide could be sustained.

Whether this law has been established by the courts of other States or not, the writer has no knowledge; but it is probable that if it is to be established it will be on the same lines. Such legal requirement, of course, increases the difficulty of securing the conviction of persons charged with killing a new-born child; but that is a matter which more nearly concerns the bar and the judiciary than the medical jurist.

The medical jurist may be required to examine the body of a fœtus at any term when the question of pregnancy is involved; but in general, he has to consider that only as a dead body which has arrived at least at a period of development where it is capable of sustaining independent life-that is, from the one hundred and eightieth to the two hundred and tenth day, and later.

The Determination of Death.-At the above-named period and later, a dead body, as far as the purposes of forensic inquiry are concerned, is a dead human being, and an investigation into the cause of its death

may be necessary to assist the criminal courts; and, furthermore, an examination of a dead body may be necessary to establish certain civil rights, such as succession, by determining the period at which death has · occurred.

This brings us naturally to the consideration of the signs of death, and the changes produced in the economy by the cessation of the vital functions.

Identity of the Dead Body.-Before proceeding directly to that subject, however, it occurs to me that a few words on the question of establishing the identity of an unknown body may not be out of place, as such an inquiry would naturally precede the autopsy itself. I am indebted to Dr. C. A. Hebbert for very great assistance in the preparation of the portion of this article relating to this question of identity. His experience with Mr. Bond, of London, renders his work of great value, and several cases cited by him in the Westminster Hospital reports are exceedingly interesting.

The determination of the identity of human remains is one of the most important and often most difficult problems submitted to the medical jurist. It is especially interesting to the student of forensic medicine in the United States, as the nation is composed of people from all parts of the world. Not only are met members of all the European races, but also the negroid, Australoid, and Mongoloid races, each presenting different and distinct characteristics. The examination will also include the subordinate or mixed people, such as the mulatto, a mixture of the European with the negro, the mestizos, a mixture of the European and the American indigenes, and the zambos, a mixture of the American indigenes with the negroes, and in these sub-races the physical characters and proportions are necessarily modified. These sub-races are particularized, inasmuch as they are all prolific and not sterile, as is the marriage of the European with the Australoid.

Let us first consider the cases where the whole body or the whole skeleton has been found, and secondly where the body has been mutilated, dismembered, or partially destroyed, so that only a portion or portions have been discovered, and see how far, from such data as we have, we can identify the individual.

Such study will involve observation of the following points:

1. Race.

2. Sex.

3. Age.

4. Stature (including measurement of body and limbs).

5. Features (hair, nails, etc.).

6. Scars, moles, depressions on fingers by rings, or on legs by garters. 7. Deformities.

8. Occupation, as shown by stains on body or fingers, or tanning by exposure to the sun, callosities (bursæ, corns, etc.), the effects of pressure of dress on various parts of the body, the presence of foreign substances on the body (hair, straw, flour, etc.).

In addition to the above there is to be remembered the great value of photography, not alone in the case of the features, but also where several portions of a corpse are found at different intervals, and the question arises whether they belong to the same individual. In such a case, in addition to detailed measurements, photographs of the two arms

or of the two feet would be of material assistance in determining the question of identity.

1. Race. Where the corpse is entire and but partially decomposed, no great difficulty will be met, as the characters of the four great families are distinct; but it will be useful to bear in mind a brief summary of these features.

(a) The Australoid type, such as the coolies in southern India and the native Australians: skin chocolate-colored, hair black and wavy, the skull narrow or dolichocephalic, the brow ridges prominent, with a projecting or prognathous jaw, and thick lips; the nasal index platyrhine.

(b) The negroid type: the skin dark brown to black, the hair black, crisp, or woolly, the skull dolichocephalic, the brow ridges not prominent, the jaw prognathous, with fleshy, protuberant lips, the nose and nasal bones flat, the index being platyrhine.

(c) The Mongolian type, which includes the Chinese, the Japanese, and the American indigenes: skin from yellowish brown to a mahogany tint, the skull broad or brachycephalic, the hair black and straight, the brow ridges not prominent, the jaw not projecting except in the Esquimaux, the nose mesorhine, small and flat in the Japanese and Chinese, with oblique eyes, and the cheek-bones high. In some of the American Indians the nose is prominent; but as we are dealing with such peoples as are commonly met with, it is not necessary to do more than specify the typical features of the main group.

(d) The whites, divided by Huxley into the Xanthochroi, or fair whites, with pale skin, fair, wavy, or curly hair, light-colored eyes, mesocephalic skull, jaw orthognathous, and nose leptorhine; and the Melanochroi, or dark whites, the complexion darkening to a sallow or swarthy hue, the hair dark, and the eyes brown or black, the skull mesocephalic, with orthognathous jaw and leptorhine nose.

The comparison of the foregoing characteristics will at once decide the question of the membership of a definite race; but as in the subraces the skull and facial points are modified by the mingling of types so that other and probably external circumstances will be required for a proper decision, these will be considered hereafter, chiefly under the discussion of features. (Vide Identity of the Living.)

No mention is made of the stature or size of races, as it is well known that the height of individual members of each race varies, the Melanochroi, for instance, though being smaller than the Xanthochroi as a rule, having among them large and powerful individuals, and in the negroid group the Bosjesman is much smaller than the average negro. The value of the various indices, cephalic, facial, and nasal, is as follows. The cephalic index is the comparison of the length of the skull to its breadth, the length being taken as 100. The length of the skull is taken from the ophryon to the occipital point, the breadth the greatest interparietal measurement. If the index is above 80 the skull is brachycephalic, as in the Mongoloid races; if from 75 to 80, mesocephalic, as in the whites; if below 75, dolichocephalic, as in the negroid and the Australoid races. For example, if the length is seven inches and the breadth five inches, the index is 71.4, or dolichocephalic. If the length is seven inches and the breadth six inches, the index is 85.7, or brachycephalic.

The gnathic index is reckoned by comparing the basi-alveolar length with the basi-nasal length, the basi-alveolar length being taken from the