Injuries in the vital organs, and indeed all wounds of the larger vessels, must necessarily be fatal. The stoppage of respiration, from any cause, must also soon terminate in death. A question sometimes occurs, whether the person may not have been suspended or drowned afterlife had been extinguished? This question can only be answered satisfactorily by dissection. Indeed, when life is destroyed by suffocation, the mark of the injury is conspicuous in a much greater degree than by common suspension; and, in cases of drowning, the pale livid colour of the face, with froth round the mouth, may determine the question; but each sign is equivocal. In either case, however, the venous system, particularly of the vena cava, and of the head, is greatly distended; and in strangulation the pulmonary artery is unusually full. Whether death has proceeded from deleterious vapours, in which the body has been confined, to avoid the suspicion of former violence, is not so easily discovered. The application of galvanism would, however, show the extraordinary diminution of irritability, which is usually the effect of such vapours; and, in each case, other marks of violence, and the injury of organs essential to life, will give strong suspicions, which dissection will confirm.

To pursue, with forensic physicians, the wounds of every different part, would extend this article beyond its proper limits; nor indeed could we add any thing which a knowledge of anatomy and physiology will not supply. We must not suppose our readers ignorant of either.

Shocks and bruises. In the article respecting concussion we have shown how shocks impair the irritability of the vessels, and produce chronic inflammation in the brain or liver, which after some time is often the cause of death. Each cause here mentioned will also produce internal effusions, generally from a rupture of arteries, which may be fatal. A late instance has occurred, in which the radial artery was broken through its whole substance, by the shock only of a fall from a horse; and Pilatre de Rozicr, the victim of aeronautic folly, fell on his feet, and died immediately from the shock, which was found to produce internal effusions. Blows with a stick, without inflicting any wound, will occasion, internal, and sometimes neighbouring accumulations; and military punishments, when not fatal from gangrene, are sometimes so from abscesses forming below the bruised part. (Hamilton's Regimental Surgeon.) It is necessary, therefore, in forensic medicine, to look beyond the immediate injury, and examine the effects of what may arise from the shock or its consequences. In three instances we have heard from practitioners of credit decided testimonies that the blows were not the causes of death, because no mortal appearance attended the wounds. It was unlucky for the cause of justice that they were so ignorant; but humanity might smile through her tears, and charitably hope that the escape would prove a warning.

Hanging and drowning. We can scarcely separate the forensic from the more strictly medicinal consideration of these subjects, and must therefore refer to Strasgulatio and Suspensio.

Medicina politica. Medical interposition, according to our laws, is seldom necessary in questions of police. Yet there are many cases where an intelligent physician might afford satisfactory information. Perhaps the neglect has arisen from that dogmatism which is the effect of ignorance, or of imperfect science, as in the instance mentioned by Dr. Percival, where two physicians contradicted each other respecting the dangers from a copper work. One swore positively it was dangerous; because copper ores usually contained arsenic; the other had ascertained, by experiment, that the ore in question contained none.

In the article Aer we showed that weather, and a state of atmosphere apparently the most insalubrious, were sometimes found healthy; and that neither rea.-soning a priori, nor experiment with the eudiometer, would always point out situations where the health can be preserved. The vicinity of marshes certainly renders situations unwholesome; but this is liable to exceptions. If the prevailing winds blow from a marsh to a town, at the season when the marsh is covered with water, little danger arises from it; but if the wind passes over it when in a moist state, diseases often follow. Dilution of the miasma, we have said, is the best security, and, therefore, at a certain distance its power is lessened or destroyed; but unfortunately this distance is not ascertained, nor is it certain that every marsh produces deleterious vapours. Those covered with salt water at each returning tide, or even at each spring, are not always dangerous. We cannot ascertain the innocence of any other kind, except of those very generally covered with water or herbage. Stagnant water has indeed been accused; but we suspect without reason: it certainly is not eminently injurious, and, from the"green mantling," known to exhale oxygenous gas, it may probably be salutary.

Towns, it may be said, cannot be removed; but if unhealthy they will be gradually forsaken. A house may be removed to a healthier spot; but the more temporary situation of a camp or a barrack which may be chosen should be fixed with peculiar care. The reports of army surgeons frequently point out the fatal effects of inattention to this important circumstance; and it has been said that barracks have been heedlessly erected in spots peculiarly unhealthy; nor should we be surprised to find the same carelessness respecting health that we have found of expenditure. A medical topography should be published of every district, comprehending the particulars of its situation, its prevailing winds, usual temperature, and reigning diseases. This plan, which has been adopted in France, would truly merit the attention of the legislature; and it might easily have been appended to the agricultural surveys, were we as attentive to the lives and health of mankind as of the shape or breed of cattle.