equally satisfactory and conclusive. Instances have also occurred in which the presumption of guilt against certain persons has arisen from the absence of such marks; this happened in the murder of Mr. Jeffries, by Elizabeth Jeffries, his niece, and John Swan, his servant, at Walthamstow, in July 1751; in which case the perpetrators of the deed were suspected to have been domestics, from the single circumstance of the dew on the grass surrounding the house not having been disturbed on the morning of the murder, which must have happened, had any persons left the premises.
Has there been any thunder storm?—For an account of the appearances in the body of a person, who has been thus suddenly deprived of life, we must refer the reader to our chapter on "Death by Lightning," vol. ii, p. 63. It will, at the same time, be right to consider, whether the death of the person in question can have arisen from an exposure to the rays of the sun, which has occasionally happened in the harvest field—"And Manasses was her husband, of her tribe and kindred, who died in the barley harvest. For as he stood overseeing them that bound sheaves in the field, the heat came upon his head, and he fell on his bed, and died in the city of Bethulia." Judith, chap. viii, v. 2, 3. Sauvage relates the case of several young persons, who suffered an asphyxia from sleeping in an open field, exposed to the rays of the sun; and it may deserve notice in this place, that in such cases, hemorrhage from the nose is not an uncommon occurrence; the appearance of blood will thus receive an explanation which might otherwise excite unjust suspicions of violence.
Whether any, and what weapons are lying near the body; and what is their position in relation to it?—
