The signs of drowning medico-legally considered.

  • Forrest, James, M.D.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The signs of drowning medico-legally considered. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    14/84 (page 10)
    Casper; 4, The presence of water in the stomach; 5, Goose- skin, retraction of the penis, &c. I shall consider these dif- ferent signs seriatim. 1. Water in the lungs. A very great discordance of opinion exists among authors on this sign. De Haen thought that the lungs were so much filled with water as to stop the cir- culation of the blood through them. Morgagni, on the other hand, could not find water in the lungs of guinea pigs drowned by him.1 Cullen, in his letter to Lord Cathcart, states, as the result of many dissections, that there is often no water in the lungs, and that the quantity is never so great as to injure their organization in any way. Goodwin, after many interesting experiments, concludes that although a small quantity of water usually enters the lungs, the quantity is never so large as to produce death. Professor Meyer, of Bonn, in his experi- ments, performed under all possible circumstances, uniformly found it not only in the windpipe and its great ramifications, but also in the minute bronchial tubes : he adds, however, that it was only sometimes found in substance, and more commonly in the form of froth. Orfila and Devergie both state, that in many instances they have seen more or less water in the lungs. Taylor says that water is only occasionally met with in them, and that the quantity is commonly small and subject to variation. Casper, believing the frothy fluid found in the lungs to be a product of inhaled water, says nothing about water itself being found in them. From these, and a host of other authors I deem it unnecessary to quote, it is abundantly evident, that water in substance is only occasionally found in the lungs of drowned persons. The sign, therefore, cannot be of much value. This value, too, whatever it may be, is materially lessened by the fact, established by Orfila and 1 “ Niliil hujus in ventriculo, nihil in gula, nihil in trunco arteries asperse liabuerunt; spnmosus dumtaxat humor, manu e pulmonibus exprimebatur.” —Morgagni de sedibus et causis 7norborumy 1766. Vol. ii. p. 108.