The proofs of infanticide considered: including Dr. Hunter's tract on child murder, with illustrative notes ; and a summary of the present state of medico-legal knowledge on that subject / By William Cummin, M.D.

  • Cummin, William, 1800-1837.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The proofs of infanticide considered: including Dr. Hunter's tract on child murder, with illustrative notes ; and a summary of the present state of medico-legal knowledge on that subject / By William Cummin, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    despatch her victims by thrusting- a long needle into the fontanelle as soon as it presented, is well known. In cases of detected puncture, the wound should be carefully traced in all its extent, when it will be generally found that it widens as it departs from the surface, the murderer employing a rotatory motion of the instrument the more effectually to accomplish the purpose intended. A very important inquiry respecting blows and wounds is, whether they were inflicted before or after death ; nor must it be denied, that there is considerable difficulty, if not an utter impossibility, to decide the question—when, especially, there is reason to suppose that the injuries were inflicted soon after death ; for then there will be little or no appreciable diflTerence between such injuries and those done a short time before. But suppose the wounds produced some twelve or fourteen hours before death, there ought then certainly to be decided appear- ances present; swelling and redness, for instance,—and still more marked phenomena, if the injuries were of longer standing. Another point worth attending to is, to ascertain by what sort of weapon, or instrument, the wound was made; the form, length, breadth, and depth of each wound should be carefully examined ; likewise whether its edges are smooth, or lacerated, or bruised. Too much care, indeed, can scarcely be bestowed on the examination of wounds. Poisoning. Poisoning has sometimes been enumerated among the acts of fatal injury practised with a view to infanticide.