An essay on the signs of murder in new born children / translated from the French, of Dr. P.A.O. Mahon, ... by Christopher Johnson, surgeon, Lancaster: ... with a preface and notes by the translator.

  • Johnson Christopher.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the signs of murder in new born children / translated from the French, of Dr. P.A.O. Mahon, ... by Christopher Johnson, surgeon, Lancaster: ... with a preface and notes by the translator. 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.

    134/138 page 110
    Extracted from Morgagni. ‘‘I see It therefore objected, that the lungs of an infant who . was born alive may, nevertheless, subside in water, if they have cither been not sufficiently distended from a want of strength in the infant, or have been made heavy from disease, or from suffocation itself: and that 'on the other hand, the lungs of the infant, who was born dead, may swim on the surface, if they are distended with air, which either putrefaction may have discharged, or itself may have drawn in, before it came into the world, or some person afterwards, in order to excite respi- ration, has blown in, through the mouth. And these, and any other dangers of deception whatever, it is necessary to know, and to be cautious of, in the manner which will be immediately pointed out.” And first, there is no reason to doubt of what that very grave man, Laurence Heister *, testifies his having seen (for as to some other observations, not much unlike this in other respects, as far as belongs to the crying of the infant, I see that they depend upon a forced testimony of contemptible women) that an infant, after living nine hours, weakly indeed, and continu- ally sending forth feeble lamentations, the lungs, which were in other respects sound, appeared just in the same manner, as in those who never breathed, and subsided in water, as they are wont to do in this kind of infants: which ought not to seem very wonderful, if you observe with this author, whom I have already commended f, that air sent by us, into the lungs of a foetus, in small quantity, and with little impetus, is unequal, as he has often found by experiment, to the task of expanding so many vesicles of the lungs, as is necessary, in order to render |hem specifically lighter than water. And this being fhe state • Dissert, de fall. pulm. infant, exper. n. 10. & seqq. f Ibid a. Id,
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3