should carefully preserve them in alcohol, or in salt and water; and in cases where the state of the uterine system is involved in the inquiry, the uterus and its appendages, should be removed. In the case of Miss Burns, the witnesses must have experienced a considerable degree of satisfaction arising from a precaution of this kind, for they were thus enabled to obtain a confirmation of their opinion from the most eminent midwives in London.
After this service has been duly performed, the body must of course be committed to the grave; but should it not have been satisfactorily identified, the head ought to be preserved in spirits, in as natural a state as possible, that it may be recognised by the friends of the deceased. A curious instance stands on record, where this precaution led to the detection of the murderers. Catherine Hayes, and two accomplices, Billings and Wood, murdered the husband of the former, cut off his head, and threw it into a dock near the Horseferry, Westminster. The head was in a few days found, and exposed on a pole in St. Margaret's Church-yard, and afterwards preserved in spirits, by which means the face of the deceased was identified, and the perpetrators of the crime discovered, for which they were executed at Tyburn in the year 1726.
EXAMINATION OF THE SKELETON.
It will appear in the course of the present inquiry, that the anatomist may be called upon to examine a part, or the whole skeleton of a person supposed to have been murdered; and his evidence upon such occasions will be of the greatest importance. Convinced of this fact, we are induced to offer the following observations.
