some time for their operation. Apoplexy does not generally destroy life under several hours[1].
CASE III.
THE PERSON IS FOUND DEAD, AND THE HISTORY OF HIS DISSOLUTION IS UNKNOWN.
The deep obscurity in which this case is necessarily involved, can alone be dissipated by the concentrated light of circumstantial evidence, derived from the inspection of the dead body, in the exact situation and posture in which it was found, and that of the surrounding objects; from the information afforded by competent witnesses, respecting the previous history of the individual in question; and, lastly, from anatomical dissection.
In conducting such an inquiry the most trifling incidents connected with the deceased should not pass unheeded, for however unimportant they may at first, individually, appear, we shall often find that in combination they will afford the principal data for the solution of our problem. With how many examples will the history of crime present us where the more minute circumstances have alone furnished the "damning proofs" of guilt? Their apparent insignificance in such cases would seem to exempt them even from
- ↑ Cooke on Nervous Disease, vol. 1, p. 176. In some few instances, however, death takes place immediately in this disease. Dr. Kirkland speaking of apoplexy, in which there is an instantaneous extinction of the vital principle, relates the case of a mantua-maker, who being at work, was talking cheerfully with some of her friends about her, when her hands dropped down upon her lap, and she was perfectly dead. Forestus relates several similar cases, but hesitates in pronouncing them apoplexy. We have no doubt but that the greater proportion of sudden deaths depend upon diseases of the heart.
