Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright. 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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    slow combustion of wood, in which there was the same post-mortem peculiarity.**' Dr. A. T. Thomson concluded from a series of interesting experiments, that the physiological action of carbonic acid is strictly sedative.''^' I have myself seen one or two instances in which its sedative action was decidedly the chief physiological feature—all the cavities of the heart containing less blood than usual, and the lungs having a natural aspect. Though the results of my own experiments and observations lead me to the conclusion, that the indications are sufficiently obvious and precise to enable us, in the majority of cases, to distinguish between poisoning by carbonic acid and suffocation, yet knowing how certain acknowledged pathological conditions are liable to vary, I should assuredly let this fact restrain me from the expression of an absolute opinion on the subject in point, did it involve a question of criminal responsibility. (e) On Poisons, p. 802. (/) London Medical Gazette, April 6, 1839, p. 62.