In the first, besides other indications of asphyxia, the face is pale or violet, a frothy foam at the mouth, froth in the larynx, t•a chea, and bronchi, water in the trachea and sometimes, in the ramifications of the bron chia, and also in the stomach. In the second, the face and skin are pale, the trachea empty, lungs and brain natural, no water in the stomach. In the third, the usual indications of death by apoplexy are found on examination of the brain.
11. Death by hanging is produced by as phyxia suspending respiration by compress ing the larynx, by apoplexy pressing upon the veins and preventing the return of ,blood from the head, by fracture of the cervical vertebrae, laceration of trachea or larynx, or rupture of the ligaments of the neck, or by compressing the nerves of the neck. The signs and indications depend upon the cause of death. Among these are, face livid and swollen, lips distorted, eyelids swollen, eyes red and projecting, tongue enlarged, livid, ,compressed, froth the lips and nostrils, .• a cwt.), ecchymosed mark of the cord about he neck, sometimes ecchymosed patches on different parts of the body, fingers contracted or clenched, and the body retaaning its animal heat longer than in other, modes of death.
12. Death by strangulation presents much the same appearances, the mark of the cord being lower down on the neck, more hori zontal, and plainer and more distinctly eechy mused.
Death by cold leaves few traces in the sys tem. Pale surface, general congestion of internal organs, sometimes effused serum in the ventricles of the brain.
Death by burning presents a narrow white line surrounding the burnt spot ; external to that, one of a deep-red tint, running by de grees into a diffused redness. This is suc ceeded in a few minutes by blisters filled with serum.
13. Death by lightning usually exhibits a contused or lacerated wound where the elec tric fluid entered and passed out. Sometimes an extensive ecchymosis appears,—more com monly on the back, along the course of the spinal marrow.
Death by starvation produces general ema-, ciation ; eyes and cheeks sunken ; bones pro jetting; face pale and ghastly ; eyes red and open ; skin, mouth, and fauces dry; stomach and intestines empty ; gall-bladder large and distended; body exhaling a fetid odor; heart, lungs, and large vessels collapsed; early com mencement of the putrefactive process. These and all other questions relating to persons found dead will be found fully discussed in works on medical jurisprudence.
14. The Legal Consequences of.
Persons who have been once shown to have been in life are presumed thus to con tinue until the contrary is shown: so that it lies on the party asserting the death to make proof of it. 2 East, 312 ; 2 Rolle, 461.
But proof of a long-continued absence un heard from and unexplained will lay a foundation for presumption of death. Various periods of time are found in the adjudged cases. Thus, such presumption arises after twenty-seven years. 3 Brown, C. C. 510. So, also, twenty years, sixteen years, 5 Ves. Ch. 458• fourteen years, 3 Serg. & R. Penn. 390; twelve years. 18 Joh n s. N. Y. 141. The general rule, as now understood, is that the presump tion of the duration of life ceases at the expira tion of seven years from .the time when he was last known to be living. 1 Phillipps, Ev. Cowen & H. ed. 197; 2 Cowen & Notes, 489 ; 1 Greenleaf, Ev. 41 ; 5 Johns. Ch. N. Y. 263 ; 5 Barnew. & Ald. 86. It seems that such continued absence for seven years from the particular state of his residence, without showing an absence from the United States, is sufficient. 10 Pick. Mass. 515 ; 1 Raw/e, Penn. 373 ; 1 A. K. Marsh. Ky. 278 ; 1 Penn.,N. J. 167 ; 2 Bay, So. C. 476.
15. Questions of great doubt and difficulty have arisen where several persons, respect ively entitled to inherit from one another, happen to perish all together by the same event, such as a shipwreck, a battle, or a conflagration, without any possibility of as-, certaining who died first. In such cases the French cavil code and the civil code of Loui siana lay down rules (the latter copying from the former) which are deduced the probabilities resulting from the strength, age, and difference of sex of the parties. If those thus perishing together were under fifteen, the eldest shall be presumed the sur vivor. If they were all above sixty, the youngest shall be presumed the survivor. If some were under fifteen and others above sixty, the former shall be presumed the sur vivors. If those who have perished together had completed the age of fifteen and here under sixty, the male shall be presumed the survivor the ages are equal or the difference does not exceed one year. If, they were of the same sex, that presumption shall he admitted which opens the succession in the order of nature; and thus the younger must be presumed to have survived the elder. French Civil Ccde, art. 720, 721, %2; La. Civ. Code, art. 930, 931, 932,' 933.