A STATEMENT 
OF THE 
CASE OF THE PEOPLE 
AGAINST 
ELISHA B. FEBO. 
BY 
CHARLES IT. PORTER, M. D. 
ALBANY, N. Y. 
\FROM THE JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE, APRIL, 1870.] 
NEW YORK: 
D. A P P L E TON A CO M I* A N Y , 
90, 92 & 94 GRAND STREET. 
1870. Elliots Obstetric Clinic. 
A Practical Contribution to the Study of Obstetrics and the Dis- 
eases of Women and Children. By George T. Elliot, Jr., 
A. M., M. D., Prof, of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women 
and Children in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, Physi- 
cian to Bellevue Hospital and to the New York Lying-in Hos- 
pital, etc., etc. 8vo, pp. 468. . . Cloth, $4.50 
This volume, by Dr. Elliot, is based upon a largj experience, including fourteen 
years of service in the lying-in department of Bellevue Hospital of this city. The 
book has attracted marked attention, and has elicited from the medical press, both 
of this country and Europe, the most flattering commendations. It is justly be- 
lieved that the work is one of the most valuable contributions to obstetric literature 
that has appeared for many years, and, being eminently practical in its character, 
cannot fail to be of great service to obstetricians. 
The volume by Dr. Elliot has scarcely less value, although in a different direction, than 
that of the Edinburgh physician (Dr. Duncan, Researcher, in Obstetrics). The materials com- 
prising it have been principally gathered through a service of fourteen years in the Bellevue 
Hospital, New York, during the whole of which time the author has been engaged in clini- 
cal teaching. The cases now collected into a handsome volume illustrate faithfully the anx- 
ieties and disappointments, as well as the fatigues and successes, which are inseparable 
from the responsible practice of obstetrics—a line of practice which, under difficulties, de- 
mands the greatest moral courage, the highest skill, and the power of acting promptly on a 
sudden emergency. Dr. Elliot’s favorite subject appears to be operative midwifery; but 
the chapters on the relations of albuminuria to pregnancy, ante-partum haemorrhage, the in- 
duction of labor, and the dangers which arise from compression of the funis, are aL' deserving 
of careful perusal. The pleasure we feel at being -able to speak so favorably of Dr. Elliot’s 
volume is enhanced by the circumstance that he was a pupil at the Dublin Lying-in Hospital 
when Dr. Shekelton was master. We can certainly say that his teachings reflect great cedit 
upon his Alma Mater.”—London Lancet, April 11,1868. 
“ This may he said to belong to a class of books ‘ after the practitioner’s own heart.’ in 
them he finds a wider range of cases than comes under his observation in ordinary practice; 
in them he learns the application of the most recent improvements of his art; in them he 
finds the counterpart of cases which have caused him the deepest anxiety ; in them, too, lie 
may find consolation, for the regret—the offspring of limited experience, which has always 
cast a shadow on the remembrance of some of his fatal cases—will pass away as he reads of 
similar ones in which far greater resources of every kind failed to avert a fatal termination. 
“ There are not many books of this kind in our language; they can probably all be num- 
bered on the fingers of a single hand. * * * Many circumstances concur, therefore, to influ- 
ence us to extend to this work a cheerful welcome, and to commend it as fully as possible. 
We do thus welcome it; as the production of a gentleman of great experience, acknowledged 
ability, and high position—as an emanation from one of the leading schools of our country, 
and as an honorable addition to our uational medical literature.”—American Journal of 
Medical Science, April, 1868. 
“As the book now stands, it is invaluable for the practitioner of obstetrics, for he will 
hardly ever in practice find himself in a tight place, the counterpart of which he will not 
find in Dr. Elliot’s book.”—New York Medical Journal, February, 1868. 
“ The book has the freshness of hospital practice throughout, in reference to diagnosis, 
pathology, therapeutical and operative proceedings. It will be found to possess a great 
amount or valuable information in the department of obstetrics, in an attractive and easy 
style, according to the most modern and improved views of the profession.”—Cincinnati 
Lancet and Observer, April, 1868. 
“ As a whole, we know of no similar work which has issued from the American press, 
which can be compared with it. It ought to be in the hands of every practitioner of mid 
wifery in the country.”—Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. ( 
“One of the most attractive as well as forcibly instructive works we have had the 
Eleasure of reading. In conclusion, we recommend it as one having no equal in the English 
mguage, as regards clinical instruction in obstetrics.”—Am. Jour, of Obstetrics, Aug., 1868. 
Many ripe, elderly practitioners might, but few young could, write a book so distin- 
guished by candor, want of prejudice, kindly feeling, soundness of judgment, and extent of 
erudition. While we do not say the book is faultless, we say there is no book in American 
obstetrical literature that surpasses this one. * * * * The work new under review is 
his first-born book or volume, and shows how fine opportunities he has had, chiefly at Belle- 
vue Hospital, for acquiring experience, and how diligently he has availed himself of them. 
But his book shows much more. It is the work of.a physician of high education, a qualifi- 
cation in which obstetric authors are often deficient—it shows qualities of mind and skil. 
»f hand rarely attained by so young a man.”—Edinburgh Medical Journal, Feb., 1868. A STATEMENT 
OF THE 
CASE OF THE PEOPLE 
AGAINST 
ELISHA B. EERO. 
BY 
CHARLES H. PORTER, M. D. 
ALBANY, N. Y. 
{FROM THE JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE, APRIL, 1870.] 
NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 
9 0, 9 2 & 94 GRAND STREET. 
1870. CASE OF THE PEOPLE 
AGAINST 
ELISHA B. EERO. 
Principal Subjects discussed: Essential Characters of Contusion, Infiltration, Sug- 
gillation, and other Discolorations of the Cadaver; Methods of distinguishing 
between them; Extensive Fractures of the Skull by small Balls; Contre-coup 
Fractures of the Skull by small Balls ; Fractures of the Skull produced by Un- 
skilfulness in removing the Skull-cap. 
The case of The People vs. Elisha B. Fero was tried 
at the Delaware (N. Y.) Oyer and Terminer, commen- 
cing September 23, and ending October 1, 1869, Hon. 
Ransom Balcom presiding. Hon. M. B. Champlain, At- 
torney-General ; H. F. Davidson, District Attorney; 
F. R. Gilbert and N. P. Hinman appeared for the 
people; Henry Smith, N. C. Moak, Charles Holmes, 
W. Gleason, and A. R. Gibbs, for the prisoner. 
Fero was indicted for the murder of his wife, 
Louisa Fero, on the morning of November 24, 1868, 
by shooting her in the head with a pistol, and by 
striking her upon the head with unknown weapons. 
The following facts were not disputed: The ac- 
cused was a merchant, living in the village of West 
Davenport, and doing business at that place. His 
house, which fronted to the north, was near (thirty 
feet distant from) his store, and in the* immediate 
vicinity of other dwellings. The room in which he 
slept with his wife was on the east side of the house; 4 
MEDICO-LE 3rAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
its dimensions were eight by twelve feet. The bed 
was in the northeast corner; between it and the south 
wall were a bureau and a chair, thus leaving in front 
of the bed but a passage three feet wide. 
On the east side, near the head of the bed, was a 
window, the only one in the apartment. The door was 
opposite the window, and opened directly into the 
kitchen. The entrance to the kitchen from without 
the house was by a door on the west side. 
At about two o’clock, on the morning of November 
24tli, the neighbors living near the house heard the 
sound of a pistol-shot, and, in a few minutes after, 
several other shots and calls for help. Upon going to 
the house, in which there was no light, Fero was found 
near the kitchen door, down upon one knee, with his 
hands at his sides. He was crying, appeared greatly 
excited, and trembled, and said: “ Oh, dear, some one 
has been here ! ” He had on his coat, trousers, and vest, 
his suspenders were hanging down behind, stockings 
were upon his feet, but no boots or shoes, neither had 
he on collar nor cravat. As he seemed much exhausted 
and could not well stand, he was assisted to a lounge, 
and supported while sitting there, by a man on either 
side. He took a small Smith and Wesson’s revolving 
pistol from his coat-pocket and handed it to a neigh- 
bor, who placed in a desk. He recounted the occur- 
rences of the night (which will be stated hereafter), 
and said that he did not see why Louisa (his wife) did 
not get up. Upon going to the bedroom with a lan- 
tern, a gurgling sound was heard from Mrs. Fero; a 
moment after, she died. She was lying in the back of 
the bed, with her face toward the wall. A small hole, 
apparently made by a pistol-ball, was observed above 
the left ear. The only blood visible was that which MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
5 
had quietly flowed from the ball-hole, in a fan-like 
form, across the left side of her face, disappearing 
beneath her person. 
In the excitement of the moment, and having but 
a single lantern with them, it is not probable that the 
parties who entered the bedroom made a deliberate 
and accurate survey of other objects than the body; 
the circumstances will account for slight discrepancies 
which occur in their statements. It appears, however, 
that the bed-clothing, which partially covered the 
shoulders, was somewhat rumpled, and a little lower 
down in front of the bed than behind, and that the 
front pillow was flattened. The furniture of the bed- 
room and kitchen was undisturbed. A few spots of 
blood were found on a desk which was in the kitchen, 
on the casing of the outer door, and on the door-step 
of the same apartment. 
The fact that his wife was dead was immediately 
told to Fero, who received the announcement with 
emotion. ITe wept, and was in apparent agony; 
making use of the following and similar expressions: 
“ Oh, is Louisa dead ? ” u My all is gone! ” “ Oh, dear! 
it would have been better if it had been me instead of 
her.” He started to go to the bedroom, but was taken 
back by those who were assisting him. 
Fero’s statement was substantially as follows: 
Three or four months previous to the murder, hear- 
ing a noise about midnight, he got up, and went to 
the kitchen window, when he caught a glimpse of a 
man. He mentioned this circumstance to a neighbor 
(as was proved). A few nights afterward, he heard a 
similar noise, but saw no one. Mrs. Fero was usually 
in good health; a day or two before her death, how- 
ever, she had a pain in her stomach, and was told by 6 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
her physician to apply to the part flannel cloths wet 
with hot water. This was done on the night of the 
murder after they went to bed, a little after eleven 
o’clock. His pocket-book, containing $250, he placed 
under his pillow between himself and wife. Upon 
examining the bed after the discovery of the murder, 
no pocket-book was found. They both lay upon their 
right sides, that is, with their faces toward the back 
of the bed. At about two o’clock, he felt something 
touch his shoulders or draw the bed-clothes down. 
He raised his right hand, which came in contact with 
the barrel of a pistol, and seizing it, jerked it down, 
when it was discharged. He grasped the robber’s arm 
with his left hand, and, maintaining his hold, was drawn 
out of bed. As he touched the floor, he received a 
blow over the left eye, and called to his wife to get up 
and light a lamp. The struggle was continued, first in 
the bedroom, and then in the kitchen, where he received 
a number of blows, and finally a kick on the scro- 
tum, which compelled him to loose his hold. The rob- 
ber then escaped through the kitchen door. Going to 
the desk (where the spots of blood before spoken of were 
found), he obtained Lis pistol, and, opening the door, 
fired it and hallooed. Having nothing but his shirt 
on, he returned to the bedroom for his clothing, leav- 
ing the pistol upon the desk. His wife did not at any 
time answer his calls. Not finding his trousers upon the 
chair near the head of the bed, their usual place, he 
put on his vest, coat, and stockings, and finally discov- 
ered his trousers on the kitchen floor, by his feet com- 
ing in contact with them. He put them on. 
He again fired his pistol from the kitchen door, and 
heard the voice of a neighbor saying that he would be 
over as soon as he obtained a light. Fero then sank MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
7 
upon the floor from exhaustion and fright, where he 
remained until the neighbors came in, when he at- 
tempted to rise, and was assisted by them in doing so. 
It has already been stated that Fero was found 
crying, agitated, and excited. There was a bruise on 
his left eye-brow, but the skin was not broken, his nose 
was scratched, and his lips swollen. Blood was run- 
ning from the scratch upon his nose, and from the nos- 
trils over his lips. There were black marks, as if from 
burnt powder, between the middle fingers of his right 
hand. No other marks of injury were found upon his 
person. 
Preparatory to the post-mortem dissection, the posi- 
tion of the body and its external appearance were ob- 
served. Mrs. Fero lay in the back part of the bed 
upon her abdomen, her head resting upon the right side. 
Both arms were extended and beneath her; the hands 
were near each other. A ball-hole was found above her 
left ear. The blood from the wound had flowed over 
the left side of the face upon her neck, and formed a 
large pool beneath her chest. A w~et flannel folded a 
number of times covered her stomach and lay smooth- 
ly upon it. There was a slight swelling around the 
ball-hole, but no other swelling, no black and blue spots, 
abrasions, or other evidence of external violence, were 
found. The dissection (made by Dr. M. Case) was 
commenced at ten o’clock, eight hours after her death. 
An incision was made across the top of the head, 
extending from ear to ear, the blood was found to be 
liquid. Before noticing the condition of the tissues 
covering the skull, the fractures will be described as 
they were subsequently found. The ball entered the 
skull two inches above the external orifice of the left 
ear, making an aperture of irregular form (whose 8 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
average diameter was five-sixteenths of an inch), 
having small radiating fractures. (See Fig. 1.) This 
aperture communicated below, by a fracture a quarter 
of an inch in length, with an opening made by the re- 
moval of a triangular piece of bone which had been 
separated by fractures on either side. This triangular 
opening was in the course of a fracture which extended 
posteriorly to within an inch of the occipital protuber- 
ance. The fracture extended anteriorly across the tem- 
poral, sphenoid, and in the frontal bone above the left 
superciliary ridge, then inclining to the right, upward 
and backward, terminated in the right parietal bone, 
just posterior to tlie coronal suture. The length of 
this fracture was eleven and a half inches. 
Fig. 1. 
Fac-simile of Mrs. Few's skull. Left side. A. Ball-hole and radiating fractures. 
B. Triangular opening. C. Great fracture on left side. D. First saw-cut. E. Second 
saw-cut. 
A fracture on tlie right side was found, commen- 
cing near tlie junction of the sagittal and lambdoidal 
sutures, passing over the parietal eminence, then into 
the transverse suture, and terminated in the middle of 
the right supraorbital plate. (See Fig. 2.) The length MEDICO-LEGAL COXTKIBUTIOXS. 
9 
of this fracture was ten and a half inches. A fracture 
an inch in length was found in the right parietal bone, 
which terminated at its upper extremity in the main 
fracture. 
Fig. 2. 
Fac-similo of Mrs. Fero’s skull. Eight side. C. Continuation of great fracture on left 
side. D. First saw-cut. E. Second saw-cut. F. Third saw-cut. G. Great fracture on 
right side. (See Fig. 1.) 
The doctor (Case) says that, before removing the 
skull-cap, he observed, perhaps, two or three inches of 
a fracture in the immediate neighborhood of the bul- 
let-wound, and on the right side perhaps the same 
length of another fracture, the central portion of it. 
Thus, after simply laying back the scalp, without re- 
moving muscle, connective tissue, or pericranium, it is 
stated that fractures to the above extent were discov- 
ered, no part of which were depressed! Dr. C. says 
the areolar tissue, and, as is inferred, the correspond- 
ing parts of the scalp, to some extent, appeared to be 
“injected” with blood over the posterior portion of 
the right side, and the posterior and lateral portions 
of the left side of the head. These discolorations, which 
varied in intensity in different parts, appeared to bear 
no particular relation to the fractures, but extended 10 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
above and below them. The tissue covering the pos- 
terior part of the fractures (perhaps one-lialf of their 
length) only showed the discoloration. These discolora- 
tions were regarded by the doctor as bruises; in his 
cross-examination lie spoke of them as being produced 
by infiltration; being asked what infiltration was, he 
replied, “ Injection of the connective tissue with blood; 
it is very nearly the same thing as ecchymosis.” Ecchy- 
mosis, he said, “ can occur without a bruise; a rupture 
of a blood-vessel would cause it, whether it existed 
with a bruise or without it.” 
The skull-cap was next removed; a carpenter’s back- 
saw was used, the blade of which was ten or twelve 
inches long, and three or four inches wide. The first saw- 
cut commenced on the right side, was continued around 
the front and on the left side, and terminated at the 
back of the head, just beyond the median line. A 
second cut at the back of the head was made higher 
up than the first, with which it communicated at a 
point in the left parietal bone, one inch anterior to the 
lambdoidal suture. This cut extended on the right 
side of the head to a point one and a quarter inches 
below the parietal eminence. A third cut commenced 
on the second cut, one and a quarter inches from its 
extremity on the right side, and ended at the begin- 
ning of the first cut on the same side. (See Figs. 1 
and 2.) Subsequently a large part of the muscular 
tissue in the temporal regions was rudely dissected 
from the skull. A flattened conical ball, weighing 
twenty-six and a quarter grains, was found lodged in 
the middle of the right cerebral hemisphere. It had 
not struck the skull on the right side of the head. Its 
base fitted the shells of the metallic cartridges used in 
Fero’s pistol. MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
11 
After the dissection, the face was washed. In the 
evening of the same day, a dark discoloration was ob- 
served of the upper lid of the right eye, and at its in- 
ner angle. There were also reddish marks about the 
face, which appeared to certain witnesses as if a hand 
had been pressed upon the face, the thumb on the right 
side extending to the eye, while the fingers were upon 
the left cheek; others stated that the marks were ir- 
regular and crossed each other. 
December 2d—eight days after death—another 
examination was made. The main fractures were 
measured, and a fracture was observed of the right 
supraorbital plate; near its centre loose fragments of 
bone were found, which were removed, leaving an 
aperture a quarter of an inch in diameter. After the 
examination, the head was cut off and placed in a ves- 
sel with ninety-five per cent, alcohol. The liquid was 
poured off after a few weeks, and the vessel filled with 
fresh alcohol of the same strength. 
April 28, 1869, the head was brought to Albany, 
and examined by Dr. A. Van Derveer (Professor of 
General and Special Anatomy in the Albany Medical 
College), and Dr. George T. Stevens; none of the tis- 
sues were removed by them, but portions were sent to 
them a week afterward. April 29tli, the head was 
examined by Drs. J. R. Boulware, L. Cross, and C. H. 
Porter, who removed specimens from different parts, 
which will be designated hereafter. 
The theory of the prosecution was, that Mrs. Fero 
was murdered by her husband; that he fired a ball 
into her head with his Smith and Wesson’s pistol; 
that he struck her numerous blows upon both sides 
of the head, also upon its front and back, with some 
broad, heavy, elastic body, making the fractures found 12 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
iii the skull. As there were ledgers in a desk in the 
kitchen, it was suggested by a medical witness that 
one of these might have been used to strike the blows. 
That the discolorations about the fractures were bruises, 
the result of the blows; that the money found after 
the murder in the desk (something over $100) was his 
own, and rendered his story regarding his missing 
pocket-book highly improbable. 
Numerous medical witnesses were called by the 
prosecution, who testified substantially: first, that the 
discolorations observed about the head were bruises, 
the result of external violence; second, that a pistol- 
ball could not make the fractures found. 
The views of Dr. Case, who made the first post- 
mortem examination, have already been given in the 
account of that dissection. The physicians who were 
present at the second examination concurred in his 
opinion. Two witnesses called as experts by the pros- 
ecution (Drs. Van Derveer and Stevens), who first 
saw the head April 28th, swore that the muscular tis- 
sues of the head and the tissues around the right eye 
were bruised. Thus, Dr. Van Derveer said, the tissue 
over the left temporal region appeared bruised, the 
back part of the head had apparently been pounded, 
there was a slight ecchymosis under the right eye; and 
Dr. Stevens said that the scalp was mangled, bruised, 
and discolored in parts. They stated that they formed 
the opinion that the head was bruised—1. By the 
appearance of the tissues ; 2. By cutting into them; 
and 3. By a microscopic examination of them. We 
will notice these points in order. 
1. In regard to the appearance of the muscular 
tissue little need be said; it was in parts dark in color, 
darker certainly than if ordinary muscular tissue had MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
13 
been soaked in dilute alcohol, firmer and more con- 
tracted. The temporal muscles, instead of having 
smooth surfaces and their natural form, as they would 
have had if they had been carefully dissected from 
their attachments, were uneven, rough, and haggled, 
and hanging in coarse shreds. This deeper color and 
rough condition may have suggested to their minds 
ante-mortem injuries, but certainly cannot be regarded 
as furnishing satisfactory data for the formation of a 
positive opinion. 
2. By cutting into these tissues, exposed to the 
action of strong alcohol five months, what peculiarities 
of color and consistency were observed proving bruises \ 
How did these tissues differ from healthy muscular 
fibre, or that infiltrated with blood, and exposed to the 
same influences ? No information was given on these 
points, and no evidence furnished that either of these 
gentlemen had before seen any tissue which had been 
thus exposed for a considerable time, or had made 
a single experiment to elucidate the point. Without 
a proof of such knowledge or experiment, it seems un- 
safe to regard their opinion as conclusive upon the 
subject. 
3. It was stated, however, that, of the three modes 
adopted for determining that the tissues were bruised, 
they regarded their microscopic examinations as the 
most reliable. Let us briefly consider the nature of 
these examinations, which were so satisfactory to these 
experts that they were willing to deliberately swear 
that the tissues of Mrs. Fero’s head were bruised. 
Both Dr. Stevens and Dr. Van Derveer state that 
they saw broken muscular fibres, in certain specimens 
of tissues from Mrs. Fero’s head, which they examined 
under the microscope with powers magnifying objects 14 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
from seven hundred to one thousand diameters. We 
do not question the accuracy of their observations in 
this particular; but of what importance is it in deter- 
mining whether or not the tissues were bruised, whether 
blows were struck before death ? 
According to Bowman, the average diameter of 
the ultimate muscular fibres of the human female is 
one four hundred and fifty-fourth part of an inch; these 
are bound together by connective or cellular tissue into 
small bundles, and these again into larger ones, which 
constitute muscle or lean flesh. In order to examine these 
ultimate muscular fibres, the usual method is, to take 
a small portion of a muscle as fresh as possible, but 
after it has lost its contractility, and, using magnify- 
ing glasses, the particle is torn under water into fine 
shreds by means of needles. The connective tissue is 
so strong that force must be used to separate the ulti- 
mate fibres, which as a consequence are in parts irreg- 
ularly broken or torn. The specimens thus prepared 
may then be submitted to examination under a high 
power of the microscope, in such a condition as to ex- 
hibit most of the important points in their structure. 
In this case, however, broken muscular fibres were 
not found in f resh specimens from Mrs. Fero’s head, pre- 
pared by the above or similar manipulations, but only 
in specimens of the tissue after it had been subjected 
to the action of strong alcohol five months. But, as 
lias just been said, the above method of preparing 
fibres for examination is very certain to break them. 
Even were this not necessarily so, would it be safe or 
wise to say that the delicate muscular fibres were not 
broken during these manipulations, when the bulk of 
the material worked upon in each case was much 
smaller than the head of a pin ? But this is by no MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
15 
means all: it is necessary to bear in mind the treat- 
ment the head had undergone before these examinations. 
It had been subjected to the action of saws, knives, and 
lingers, during two post-mortem examinations; to burial 
and exhumation; to repeated handling in Davenport, 
Delhi, and Albany; it had been placed on wooden ta- 
bles and marble slabs, and the muscular parts had 
been cut, pulled, and separated from each other at dif- 
ferent times and places. It would be strange, indeed, 
if thousands of fibres were not broken during these 
operations, as undoubtedly they were—this even a 
casual examination would show—and stranger still if 
broken fibres were not detected when the tissue was 
examined under the microscope. Both of these ex- 
perts, on their cross-examination, admitted that they 
could not determine by the microscope whether the 
fibres were broken before or after death; we agree with 
them in this, and hence fail to see how their discovery 
of broken fibres, under the actual circumstances, was 
the slightest evidence of blows or bruises. 
Dr. Stevens saw not only broken muscular fibres, 
but also some other objects which he thought might 
be fibrin. Let us examine into this. The blood con- 
tains, besides water, blood - globules, albumen, and 
fibrin. The coagulation of blood is caused by the 
spontaneous solidification of the fibrin, as a.net-work of 
filaments, which entangles the blood-globules, and forms 
a mass called the clot. The albumen remains liquid, 
and is gradually forced out as the clot contracts. If 
blood is placed in alcohol, the albumen solidifies in 
minute granules. The albumen being thirty to forty 
times as abundant as the fibrin, when both of these 
constituents are solidified, which takes place when 
blood or a tissue containing blood is placed in alcohol^ 16 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
the filaments of fibrin cannot be distinguished, as they 
are concealed by the albuminous granules. The same 
condition was induced when Mrs. Fero’s head was im- 
mersed in alcohol. Although the blood had coagu- 
lated, the fibres were surrounded by a liquid contain- 
ing albumen, which soon formed granules, and con- 
cealed the fibrin-filaments. Hence, it seems unreason- 
able to believe that Dr. Stevens saw fibrin, as he 
thought probable. The following question was pro- 
posed to the same gentleman (a question which, prop- 
erly answered, was regarded by the defence as of great 
importance) : “ Can you distinguish between a piece 
of flesh stained only with liquid blood, then soaked in 
alcohol, and afterward bruised, and a piece of flesh 
bruised before death, and then soaked in alcohol ? ” 
He replied that he could not distinguish between 
them. 
Dr. Van Derveer found in the specimens examined by 
him broken ultimate muscular fibres, also some healthy 
muscular fibres. He likewise stated that he observed 
fragments of broken blood-globules driven into the ulti- 
mate muscular fibres. This statement is of such a 
character that its mere announcement might be re- 
garded as its sufficient refutation; but, lest injustice 
be done to the expert who made it, it is proper to 
submit it to examination. The blood-globules of man 
have an average diameter of one three-thousandth of 
an inch. They are not solid bodies, but, on the con- 
trary, have a consistency which is very nearly fluid. 
They are homogeneous, and are not provided with an 
investing membrane. It is these minute, almost fluid 
bodies, we are told, which were shattered by blows 
upon the head, and their fragments—fluid be it re- 
membered—forcibly driven into the solid ultimate mus- MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
17 
cular fibres, the average diameter of which is one four 
hundred and fifty-fourth part of an inch. And this 
observation, it should be borne in mind, Avas made not 
upon fresh blood-globules, but upon the alleged frag- 
ments of blood-globules Avhich had been subjected to a 
five months’ immersion in ninety-five per cent, alcohol. 
It appears that, after this long immersion of the 
tissue in alcohol, Dr. Van Derveer swears that he posi- 
tively identified, as fragments of blood-globules, certain 
particles Avhich he saw in specimens of the tissue ex- 
amined under the microscope! Moreover, he swears 
that he saw these fragments of blood-globules (frag- 
ments of fluid bodies) embedded, like wedges in a log 
of wood, in the substance of the solid ultimate mus- 
cular fibres, Avhere, Ave are asked to believe, they had 
been mechanically driven five months before, by the 
force of bloAvs Avhich were assumed to have been struck 
upon the head of Mrs. Fero. But, even if we admitted 
the correctness of the observation, and that blows 
might produce such effects, of what importance is it in 
the case, Avhen we are unable to determine Avhether 
the condition described Avas produced before or after 
death \ 
There Avere no external marks of injury about the 
head, such as are known to result from se\Tere bloAvs 
like those which were assumed to ha\Te been struck. 
Hoav Avas this accounted for ? Experts called by the 
prosecution cited cases of injury to the trunk, lacerat- 
ing different organs without producing external injury. 
Such cases, it may be stated, are by no means uncom- 
mon, but fractures of bones Avithout external marks 
are more infrequent; so that Guy says, “ When severe 
injuries of hard parts, such as fractures of bone, are 
unattended by a bruise” (of the skin), “there is a 18 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
strong presumption against these having been caused by 
a blow,”—(Forensic Medicine. London, 1868, p. 288.) 
Common experience teaches us that comparatively 
light blows about the head are followed by swelling, 
eccliymosis, and even laceration of the scalp. How 
much more likely, then, that these external marks 
should appear when blows are struck upon the head 
severe enough to fracture the skull—when blows are 
struck upon a part, as the parietal eminence, where the 
bone is thick and arched either way ! How remarka- 
ble it is that repeated blows could have been struck 
on both sides, on the front and back of Mrs. Fero’s 
head, as it is assumed they were, and yet not leave a 
trace of injury at any point! But, that the truth may 
be fully presented, a case must be noticed (the only 
one of the kind I find reported; it was not referred to 
at the trial) which seems to show that the view enter- 
tained by the prosecution, although highly improb- 
able, may be regarded as possible. It is given by 
Casper; the essential points only are quoted: 
Rupture of the Brain from being run over. No external marie.— 
“ An aged tailor was run over and killed. The whole body, and particu- 
larly the head, evinced not the slightest trace of injury, and yet there was 
a fissure of the skull, extending from the end of the sagittal suture to the 
middle of the squamous portion of the left temporal bone. There was a 
rupture of the brain about an inch in length and width.”—(Casper’s Fo- 
rensic Medicine. London, 1861. Yol. i., p. 114.) 
As regards the fractures in the skull of Mrs. Fero, 
the medical witnesses called by the prosecution testi- 
fied that, in their opinion, they could not •have been 
made by a pistol-ball. 
The defence was based negatively upon the follow- 
ing considerations: 
1. That Fero had no motive for the commission of 
the murder, or, at least, that no motive was proven. MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
19 
2. That his physical condition was such as almost 
to preclude his committing the alleged violence. 
3. That the appearance of Mrs. Fero, and her sur- 
roundings at the time of the discovery of the murder, 
rendered the theory of the prosecution untenable. 
These points will be considered in order: 
1. The prosecution examined a number of wit- 
nesses for the purpose of proving an improper inti- 
macy between the accused and a Mrs. M., whose hus- 
band was a cooper. It was testified to that Fero was 
in the habit of going frequently to Mrs. M.’s house, and 
to the shop, and that there were rumors of improper 
relations existing between the two. It was proved by 
the defence that Mrs. M. had charge of the financial 
affairs of the family and business; that she purchased 
family supplies from Fero, and was occasionally in 
debt to him ; and that he, at different times, took 
mortgages on her hog, cow, watch and chain; that 
Mrs. Fero, to the time of her death, was on friendly 
terms with Mrs. M., and mentioned to her (Mrs. M.) 
the stories alluded to above regarding herself and 
Fero. When Mrs. M. heard these stories, her husband 
and herself went to Fero, at his store, and confronted 
the parties who had circulated the reports. They all 
denied having seen any thing improper between them 
one remarked that he only wanted to have a little fun 
with the squire. It was also proved by the defence, 
the witnesses being neighbors and near relatives of 
Mr. and Mrs. Fero, that the accused and his wife lived 
happily together. No evidence to the contrary was 
given, and no intimation made that any difficulties or 
unpleasant relations of any kind had ever occurred be- 
tween them. The store was sold with Mrs. Fero’s ap- 
proval the day before her murder, and a mortgage^ 20 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
running ten years was taken for a part, and notes due 
at long dates given for the balance. 
2. Fero had been out of health since October, and, 
for a few weeks before the murder, was unable regu- 
larly to attend to business. His wife had charge of 
the store while he remained at home, posting books 
and taking care of the house. The money found in 
the desk was assumed by the defence to be that col- 
lected in the store by Mrs. Fero. The accused was 
quite feeble, dependent upon his wife, and apparently 
was not in a condition, physically or mentally, to in- 
flict such violent blows as were alleged to have been 
given. 
3. The prosecution assumed that the injuries were 
inflicted while Mrs. Fero was in bed, but did not spe- 
cify whether the alleged blows were given before or 
after the pistol-shot. It seems probable, to say the 
least, that, if blows sufficient to produce the fractures 
were struck before the pistol-wound was made, blood- 
vessels within the skull would have been ruptured, 
and that a considerable quantity of blood would have 
been found in the cranial cavity, which was not the 
case. If blows were struck upon different parts of 
the head, as alleged, after the pistol-wound was made, 
the blood which was flowing from the wound would 
have been spattered in different directions. But the 
contrary was the fact; the blood had flowed quietly 
in but one direction, proving that the position of the 
body had not sensibly changed after the bullet entered 
the head. There is another fact that seems inconsist- 
ent with the theory that blows were struck. That fact 
is, the folded woollen cloth lying over the stomach of 
Mrs. Fero. If she had been struck upon different parts 
of the head, the body must have been moved, and, in all MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
21 
probability, there would have been a struggle which 
would have disarranged if it would not have caused 
the cloth to have fallen off. On the contrary, it was 
found folded, lying smoothly over the stomach where 
her physician had ordered it to be placed. 
The theory of the defence was : 
1. That there were no bruises upon the head. 
2. That the fractures of the skull were the result 
of the pistol-shot, and the unskilful manner in which 
the skull-cap had been removed. 
3. That the discoloration of certain parts was the 
result of the infiltration of blood from vessels ruptured 
by the fractures of the skull. 
These points were elaborated by Drs. Boulware 
and Porter, and by Dr. Cross, experts called by the 
defence. A brief resume of their opinions and reasons 
for holding them will be presented : 
1. There were no bruises upon the head. The im- 
portance, in this case, of determining whether or not 
there were bruises upon Mrs. Fero’s head cannot, per- 
haps, be better shown than by quoting, from the judge’s 
charge to the jury, his remarks upon this point. He 
said: 
“ On the part of the prisoner, it is claimed that no other violence was 
used upon her person, except by shooting her with a pistol. Now, gentle- 
men, what is the truth respecting this proposition? And, in determining 
this proposition, it is material for you to ascertain, from the evidence, 
whether there were any bruises upon her head which must have been in- 
flicted by blows previous to her death. As I understand the evidence of 
the medical witnesses, it will he unsafe for you to find that blows had been 
inflicted upon her head unless you are satisfied that the flesh or muscle be- 
tween the scalp and the skull had been bruised. If there was no bruise of 
the flesh or muscle found upon her head, then, gentlemen, upon the testi- 
mony of the medical witnesses, I think it would be unsafe to find that blows 
had been inflicted upon her head—not that I have come to any fixed and 
irrevocable conclusion in my mind upon this question—but, before you can 
find such a proposition, you must be satisfied beyond a reasonable donty 22 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
of its truth. You will recollect that the coroner, Dr. Case, Dr. Fitch, and 
Dr. Calhoun, testify that in their judgment there was bruised flesh, or tis- 
sae, or muscle, and you will recollect the testimony of Dr. Stevens and of 
Dr. Van Derveer as to how much, if any, their evidence corroborates the 
testimony of the four physicians T have named. You will also recollect 
the evidence of Dr. Covel. You will recollect the evidence of Dr. Porter, 
who made the examination and tests ; the evidence of Dr. Boulware and 
of Dr. Cross upon this question, and all that has been read from the medi- 
cal books touching it, and what has been said bearing upon this question 
by any other witnesses whom I have not named. 
“ Now, gentlemen, are you satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt, from the 
evidence of these witnesses, and all that there is in the case, that there 
were bruises upon the head of the deceased which must have been caused 
by the infliction of blows, and that those blows produced the fractures upon 
or in her skull other than the one immediately surrounding the hole made 
by the pistol-ball ? If you are, then you will have come to a conclusion 
which is of most importance to the people in establishing the guilt of the 
prisoner ; for, if blows were inflicted upon this woman’s head sufficient to 
fracture her skull, it so entirely contradicts, or is so entirely in conflict 
with the story told by the prisoner, that you will have very little doubt of 
the conclusion that he must have inflicted the blows and fired the pistol. 
If you are not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that there were bruises 
caused by blows, then, gentlemen, it is safer in a case of this description to 
adopt even an uncertain theory, and find that the pistol-ball may have pro- 
duced the fractures upon this woman’s skull as well as making the hole in 
her skull.” 
Before considering the question of bruises, we will 
briefly define certain terms, that there may be no mis- 
understanding when they are afterward employed. 
Contusion (or bruise) is an injury in which tissue 
is broken down by mechanical violence, and blood ex- 
travasated into the injured part. The blood coagulat- 
ing becomes, as it were, incorporated into the broken 
tissue. 
Ecchymosis is the discoloration produced by the 
blood extravasated into a contused part. 
Infiltration is the discoloration produced by the 
effusion of blood into non-contused cellular tissue. 
Suggillation is the discoloration produced by a 
congestion of the capillary vessels after death. MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
23 
Cadaveric imbibition is the discoloration produced 
by the staining of tissue with the reddish fluid arising 
from decomposed blood. 
We are well aware that exception may properly be 
made to these definitions, but we have adopted them 
as being, upon the whole, the best that we could sug- 
gest. 
The discolorations of infiltrations may readily be 
mistaken for the discolorations from contusions, or 
either of these may be confounded with suggillation or 
cadaveric imbibition. 
The life of a human being may depend upon deter- 
mining which of these is present in a case undergoing 
legal investigation. That these distinctions are not 
always readily made, is the general testimony of those 
best informed on the subject. Thus Casper says: 
“ Post-mortem stains [suggillations] are a most important post-mortem 
appearance, because the inexperienced are liable to confound them with 
ecchymoses, and consequently with traces of violence committed previous 
to death; and, indeed, often enough do so confound them.”—(Casper’s 
Forensic Medicine. London, 18G1. Vol. i., p. 19.) 
Taylor (A. S.) remarks: 
“There is what is called cadaveric lividity, which comes on during the 
act of cooling. At a still more advanced period dark livid spots or patches 
are met with in the skin, to which the name of suggillation or post-mortem 
ecchymosis has been given. These appearances have often been mistaken 
for the effects of violence applied during life, and serious mistakes have 
thence arisen. Innocent persons have been acccused of murder or man- 
slaughter, and have been tried on charges that have afterward proved to 
be groundless. Dr. Christison refers to two cases, in one of which two 
persons were convicted, and in the other three persons narrowly escaped 
conviction upon a mistake of this kind.”—(Taylor’s Principles and Prac- 
tice of Med. Jur. London, 1865, p. 46.) 
Again, Wharton and Stille remark: 
“ Suggillations deserve careful attention, because they may be easily 
mistaken by the inexperienced for ecchymoses or bruises, and, consequently, 
for traces of violence inflicted during life.”—(Wharton and Stille, Med. Jur. 
Philadelphia 1860. §951.) 24 
MEDICO-LEGAL COXTRIBUTIOXS. 
Briand says: 
“ We are especially liable to fall into grave errors, when we seek to dis- 
tinguish between ecchymoses, the sanguineous infiltration resulting from 
blows inflicted during life, and the purely mechanical phenomena resulting 
from the imbibition of liquids.”—(Briand et Chaud6, Manuel Med. Leg. 
Paris, 18G9, p. 359.) 
D’Ollivier (d’Angers) reports a remarkable case 
where the discolorations from cadaveric imbibition 
were mistaken for eccliymoses, the result of violence 
during life. It was only on the third post-mortem ex- 
amination that the nature of the discolorations observed 
in the body were satisfactorily determined.—(Annates 
(VHyg. Pub. et de Med. Leg., tome xxii., p. 202.) 
The means of distinguishing between these differ- 
erent conditions is not in all cases so satisfactory as 
could be desired. Casper says of suggillations and ec- 
chymoses: “These are, however, very easily distin- 
guished from one another by comparing the results of 
incision in the parts discolored; no incision into a post- 
mortem stain, be it ever so deep or bold, will ever give 
vent to effused blood or coagulated blood: at the most 
there will be but a few bloody points, the result of cut- 
ting across some small veins in the skin, while, in the 
smallest eccliymoses, the effused blood will at once be 
brought to light by the incision. As this simple pro- 
ceeding affords an infallible means, and there is no 
other of distinguishing between post-mortem stains 
and eccliymoses, so the medical jurist ought never to 
omit solving his doubts by making an incision, and in- 
dividual medical referees or courts of reference are per- 
fectly right, when this has been omitted, to impugn the 
statements of those who examined the body, with all 
their consequences.”—(Casper’s Forensic Medicine. 
London, 1861. Yol. i., p. 19.) 
D’Ollivier (d’Angers) says: MEDICOLEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
25 
“ We may preserve in alcoliol the different eccliymosed tissues, without 
the prolonged immersion making the blood disappear which has penetrated 
during life; the skin, for example, presents then a violet lees of wine color 
which remains almost indefinitely; on the contrary, the sanguinolent infil- 
tration, which is but the effect of cadaveric imbibition, disappears very 
quickly, and does not leave its particular coloration in the infiltrated tis- 
sue.”—(Annales d'Hyg. Pub. et de Med. Leg., tome xxii., p. 202.) 
Briand, alluding to tlie above observation of d’Ol- 
livier, which lie quotes, says: “ It is this incorporation 
of tlie blood in the thickness of the skin which consti- 
tutes the essential character of ecchymosis (from blows), 
and which remains even when the tissue has been ma- 
cerated in water or preserved in alcohol.”—(Briand et 
Chaude, Manuel Med. Leg. Paris, 1869, p. 369.) 
We may add that the discoloration of infiltrated 
tissues disappears by soaking in dilute alcohol, or by 
maceration in water. A longer time, however, is re- 
quired to remove the color than in' tissues stained by 
cadaveric imbibition. 
In reference to these last tests, our ordinary expe- 
rience confirms them, as an example or two will show. 
Thus the specimens of soft tissues (free from contu- 
sions), preserved in dilute alcohol, gradually lose their 
color, even when parts of them have been infiltrated 
with blood. Hunters often kill animals that they 
have wounded, by cutting their throats; the flesh 
around the incised wound in the neck becomes infil- 
trated with blood. If these parts are soaked in weak 
brine, the color disappears in a few hours. When, 
however, portions are contused or lacerated, as where 
the animals have been bitten by dogs, the discolora- 
tion of those parts remains. Again, the flesh of ani- 
mals slaughtered by the butcher is in parts infil- 
trated with blood, which is rapidly removed if the 
meat is immersed in water, but the discolorations, 
made by contusions while the animals were living, 26 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
remain, and this is so even when the meat has been in 
brine for months, and afterward soaked in water. 
In the case of Mrs. Fero, the season of the year and 
the short time after deatli when the post-mortem ex- 
amination was made forbid the idea that any sensible 
decomposition had taken place. Hence the discolora- 
tions found were not the result of cadaveric imbibition. 
The fact, that discolorations were observed only upon 
the head, and in the vicinity of the fractures, renders it 
evident that they were the result either of contusions 
or infiltrations. If the tissue had been critically ex- 
amined at the time of the first post-mortem examination, 
it would not have been difficult to have arrived at a 
satisfactory conclusion. But the head, with the skin 
and other tissues, remained for eight days in contact 
with blood, which was liquid at the time of the first 
examination, and was then placed in ninety-five per 
cent, alcohol. This alcohol was changed once, if not 
twice, before the examination in Albany. It is to be 
remarked that dilute alcohol is ordinarily used for pre- 
serving; the soft tissues. When the head was examined 
April 29tli, the tissues were firm and contracted. There 
was a reddish discoloration of the skin around the bullet- 
hole, which, passing from the hole, gradually diminished 
in intensity, until, at the distance of about two inches, 
the skin was as pale as in other parts. The skin 
around the left temple was slightly reddened, as was 
that in front of the light ear and near the right 
temple. There was also a dark discoloration upon the 
upper lid of the right eye, and at its inner angle. The 
temporal muscles were of a deep-red color; they had 
been dissected both from the scalp and skull, and pre- 
sented rough, haggled surfaces, and hung in shreds, 
from the size of a finger to that of a knitting-needle. MEDICO-LEGAL COXTEIBUTIOXS. 
27 
April 29tli, the following specimens were removed 
from the head: 
No. 1. Shin and muscular tissue from right side of 
head adjoining the sawed surface, on a line with the 
mastoid process. The skin was distinctly, the muscles 
more slightly, discolored. 
No. 2. Adipose tissue greatly discolored, from be- 
tween the upper surface of the globe of the right eye 
and the supraorbital plate. 
No. 3. Muscular tissue highly discolored from the 
left side of the head, just anterior to the bullet-hole. 
No. 4. Highly-colored, blood-stained dura mater 
from the superior surface of the cranium, around the 
longitudinal sinus, containing shreds of coagulated 
fibrin and clots of blood. 
No. 5. Muscular tissue and scalp from occipital 
bone near the sawed surface of the bone. The scalp 
was not at all discolored ; the muscular tissue 
slightly discolored. 
No. 6. Skin and muscular tissue from the temple, a 
little above and back of the right eye. The skin was 
slightly discolored. 
These specimens were placed in water, when the color 
immediately began to disappear. At the end of four 
days the color had almost entirely disappeared, except 
from the thicker portions of certain of the specimens 
of muscular tissue, which were not wholly free from 
color until after six to ten days had elapsed. Speci- 
men No. 4, however, was a marked exception to these 
results: although the color of the dura mater rapidly 
disappeared, the small clots of blood (considerably 
smaller than a pea) that were attached to it retained 
the same color that they had at first, as also their form, 
even after weeks of exposure; the shreds of coagulated 
fibrin likewise did not change their appearance. 28 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
September 25th, the following specimens were re- 
moved from the head: 
No. 7. Skin and muscular tissue from immediately 
around the bullet-liole, considerably discolored. 
No. 8. Skin and muscular tissue from immediately 
above the outer angle of the right eye, somewhat dis- 
colored. 
No. 9. Skin and muscular tissue from immediately 
above the outer angle of the left eye, not discolored. 
No. 10. Upper lid of the right eye greatly discol- 
ored. 
No. 11. Portion of left temporal muscle from a 
point a little above and back of the eye near the tem- 
poral ridge, somewhat discolored. 
These specimens were placed in water, and in five 
days most of them entirely lost their color. The speci- 
men No. 7, however, preserved its color for a distance 
of nearly an eighth of an inch around the bullet-hole— 
that part undoubtedly being contused. The specimen 
No. 11, a portion of the left temporal muscle, did not 
entirely lose its color until nearly ten days after being 
placed in water. Before giving our opinion as to the 
condition of the tissues on Mrs. Fero’s head, we must 
report a few of our experiments, the results of which 
influenced us in coming to a decision. 
I. Portions of the muscular tissue of beef, contain- 
ing contusions, were immersed in ninety-five per cent, 
alcohol over five months; the contused parts still retained 
their color. Fragments of the same, after having been 
in alcohol six weeks, two months, and four months, re- 
spectively, were macerated in water twenty days or 
more, without the discoloration of the contused parts 
disappearing or perceptibly diminishing. 
II. Specimens of the tissue from the forearm of a MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
29 
boy, injured by a railroad accident, were taken forty 
hours after the accident, and twenty hours after the 
amputation, as follows: 
No. 1. Skin somewhat discolored, and middle 
portions distinctly bruised. No. 2. Muscular tissue 
bruised. No. 3. Skin a little decomposed, color blu- 
ish white, corrugated; tissue beneath slightly if at all 
bruised. 
Half of each of these specimens were placed in 
ninety-five per cent, alcohol, the other half in water. 
At the end of five months the parts placed in alcohol 
were found to have retained their color, with the ex- 
ception of specimen No. 3, the color of which had 
in part disappeared. The parts placed in water re- 
tained their color (excepting No. 3), until decomposi- 
tion took place. After three months’ immersion in al- 
cohol, a part of specimens Nos. 1 and 2 were placed in 
water, where they remained four weeks, without per- 
ceptibly losing their color. 
III. The blade of a narrow scalpel was introduced 
beneath the scalp of a dog, and moved freely around 
to divide blood-vessels; when free haemorrhage was pro- 
duced, the scalpel was withdrawn. A similar incision 
was made in one of the liind-legs of the same animal. 
After seven hours, the dog was killed by blows upon 
the head. The contused parts, treated with alcohol 
and with water, did not lose their color. Portions of 
areolar tissue were found in the head and leg, infil- 
trated with blood. These were immersed, part in 
ninety-five per cent, alcohol and part in water. The 
parts placed in water lost their color within twenty- 
four hours, and probably sooner, but were not earlier 
examined. The parts placed in alcohol soon lost a 
little of their color, but, after thirty days’ immersion, 30 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTEIBUTIOXS. 
the color was almost the same as at first. By macera- 
tion in water the color gradually disappeared. 
These and similar experiments that were made, 
prove: 1. That bruised tissue does not sensibly lose its 
color by maceration in water, after a prolonged immer- 
sion in alcohol. 2. That tissue infiltrated with blood, 
though losing its color in a limited degree by pro- 
longed immersion in alcohol, loses it entirely when it 
is afterward macerated in water. As the specimens of 
the tissues taken from Mrs. Fero’s head, after being 
immersed for five months in strong alcohol, entirely 
lost their color by subsequent maceration in water, we 
could come to no other conclusion but that the tissues 
were simply infiltrated with blood—that they were 
not bruised. 
2. The f ractures of the skull were the result of the 
pistol-shot, and the unskilf ul manner in which the 
skull-cap was removed. 
The general experience of surgeons, as well as the 
results of our own observations, leads us to the convic- 
tion that blows could not be given on either side of 
the head with such force as to produce fractures like 
those found in Mrs. Fero’s skull, without bruising the 
tissues between the weapon and the skull, though there 
might not be in all cases an open wound of the scalp. 
As, after careful examination and repeated experiments, 
we find no indication of bruises in the tissues of Mrs. 
Fero’s head, we are forced to the conclusion that no 
blows of the character described were given, and we 
must account for the fractures in some other way. 
What is the most reasonable way of accounting for 
them, taking into consideration all the circumstances 
of the case ? Our views on this subject we will now 
proceed to develop. Extensive fractures of the skull MEDICO-LEGAL CONTKIBUTIONS. 
31 
by bullets are by no means rare, but few cases, how- 
ever, are to be found in treatises on surgery, described 
with that detail which is desirable. The Army Med- 
ical Museum (Washington, D. C.), so rich in its vari- 
ous departments, furnishes numerous examples of this 
kind of injury. Our limited space allows us to pre- 
sent but three of these cases. We would here express 
our obligations to Dr. George A. Otis, U. S. A., Curator 
of the Museum, for furnishing us with facilities for 
prosecuting our investigations: 
A. (No. 849, Surg. See. A. M. M.) A musket-ball entered the left 
parietal bone, about one inch from its posterior-inferior angle, making radi- 
ating fractures on the left side. The fractures extended from the bullet- 
hole as follows : one extended to the junction of the squamous and lamb- 
doidal sutures; a second across the parietal and frontal bones, into the 
supraorbital plate near its inner angle; a third to a point on the coronal 
suture half an inch from the median line; and a fourth to a point on the 
sagittal suture, half an inch above its junction with the lambdoidal suture. 
The ball had apparently divided and passed out through two apertures on 
the right side, connected with which were extensive fractures. 
B. (No. 5,345, Surg. Sec. A. M. M.) A musket-ball entered the right 
parietal bone an inch from the anterior-inferior angle. Fractures ex- 
tended from the bullet-hole as follows: one across the frontal-bone into 
the right supraorbital plate; a second, a curved fracture, extended in the 
parietal bone, just above and around the upper part of the squamous por- 
tion of the right temporal, then into that bone, where it divided, one branch 
extending to the external orifice of the ear, the second branch to the pos- 
terior portion of the squamous suture; a third fracture passed across the 
parietal into the occipital bone, where it terminated near the median line. 
C. (No. 276, Surg. Sec. A. M. M.) E. V., struck by a musket-ball in 
the forehead, at a point half an inch above the right eyebrow, carrying 
away both tables of the frontal bone, to the extent of one and one-fourth 
by two and one-fourth inches. A fracture reached through the parietal to 
within two inches of the occipital bone. The orbital plate of the right 
superior maxillary was fractured and depressed, and a fissure an inch long 
ran down the body of the bone. 
We also present the following cases : 
D. A canal-laborer, aged twenty-one, was shot through the head by a 
musket-ball. “ In the middle of the right cheek there was an irregular 
roundish wound [the aperture of entrance], “about the size of a half- 
penny.” “ The aperture of exit was at the right mastoid process, and was a 32 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
triangular wound with soft, unecchymosed edges. The whole of the right 
side of the skull was shattered, and particularly the right great wing of the 
sphenoid, the temporal bone with its petrous portion, and part of the oc- 
cipital bone.”—(Casper’s Forensic Medicine, vol. i., p. 276.) 
E. “A young man, aged nineteen, was found shot through the head, 
and while his watch was left in his pocket, the pistol with which the deed 
was done was awanting. . . . The ball had entered about the middle of the 
forehead, where the soft parts were lacerated in the figure of the letter M. 
There wras no branding with powder in the neighborhood of the wound. 
The orifice of exit was in the occipital bone. The wound in the frontal 
bone was one inch in diameter, Avhile that in the occipital hone scarcely 
admitted the point of the index-finger. The whole of the cranial vault 
was blown off, being only firmly connected with the occipital bone for the 
extent of two inches.—(Casper’s Forensic Medicine, vol. i., p. 288.) 
F. Mr. Thompson had been wounded in the head by a pistol-shot. The 
left temporal bone was fractured, and there was a wound in the scalp over 
the parietal hone, hut no communication could be discovered between it 
and the wound over the temporal bone. Five portions of the depressed 
bone were removed. The man lived thirty-six hours. “ On dissection it 
was found that the fracture extended from the temporal bone in one direc- 
tion into the orbit, in another to the sagittal suture, and in a third to the 
mastoid process. Several loose portions of bone w’ere found on the dura 
mater, which was discovered to be lacerated.”—(Sir Astley Cooper’s Lec- 
tures on Surgery. Philadelphia, 1839, p. 149.) 
Iii the above cases, all the fractures in each skull 
communicated with one another; while, in the case of 
Mrs. Fero, the fractures on one side of the skull did 
not communicate with those on the other side. To ac- 
count for this, we must consider the subject of contre- 
coup fractures. A contre-coup fracture may be defined 
as a fracture produced at a point other than that 
where the force is applied, and usually at a point dis- 
tant, if not opposite. 
A familiar illustration of the production of this 
variety of fracture may be seen when a pumpkin or 
watermelon is thrown upon the ground. Sometimes 
the fruit is fractured at the point of contact, at other 
times the fractures commence at a point immediately 
opposite the part struck, and frequently at points be- 
tween the two. Surgical authorities generally acknowl- MEDICO-LEGAL COXTRIBUTIOXS. 
33 
edge tlie occurrence of contre-coup fractures of the skull. 
Thus Gross says: 
“ The older writers have much to say about fracture of the skull by 
contre-coup, and in reading their works we cannot fail to be impressed with 
the conviction that they considered it an accident of frequent occurrence. 
Modern research, however, lias pointed out the fallacy of this conclusion, 
by showing that this kind of fracture ranks among the rarest lesions of 
this portion of the skeleton. The most common site of fracture of the 
cranium by contre-coup is the base of the skull, from blows upon the 
vertex. Here the force, instead of being expended upon the part struck, is 
diffused over the cranium, and finally concentrated upon the sphenoid, 
temporal, and occipital bones, which are either separated along the line of 
suture, or broken in their continuity. A similar effect is sometimes wit- 
nessed in the occipital bone from blows upon the frontal and in the parietal 
bone of one side, from blows applied to that of the other side.”—(Gross’s 
Surgery. Philadelphia, 1866, vol. ii., p. 136.) 
Elicit sen remarks: 
“ This kind of fracture has been described by some surgeons as of fre- 
quent occurrence, while it has been denied by others. There can, how- 
ever, he no doubt but that it does happen, though less commonly, per- 
haps, than is generally supposed. Every hospital surgeon must have occa- 
sionally seen unequivocal instances of it. For its occurrence, several con- 
ditions are necessary. The skull must be struck over a large surface, as 
when a person falls with his head against the ground. If the blows alight 
upon a thin portion, this will be directly fractured; but if a dense and 
strong portion of the hone he struck, as the parietal eminence or the lower 
part of the os frontis, the shock transmitted through the cranium will 
cause the thinnest portions of the skull, though distant, to give way in 
preference to the stronger part on w'hich the blow has immediately fallen. 
These fractures by contre-coup are most common at the base of the skull, 
and are commonly much radiated. They are never depressed.”—(Erich- 
sen’s Surgery. Philadelphia, 1867, p. 283.) 
Desault, after noticing tlie philosophy of the pro- 
duction of contre-coup fractures, of which it is stated 
that he had seen a great number of examples, says: 
For their production “it is necessary that the motion be propagated 
generally throughout the whole cranium, which happens only when the 
striking body, being round and large, bruises an equally extensive surface 
of the cranium. On the contrary, if there is a sensible projection or point, 
the hone yields at the place struck, and the motion, being confined to that, 
cannot be propagated.”—(Desault’s Surgery. Philadelphia, 1814, pp. 12 
-14.) 34 
MEDICO-LEGAL COXTRIBUTIOXS. 
Thus, while the general doctrine of contre-coup is 
admitted, some of the principal authorities consider 
that the cranium must be struck over a large surface, 
before the fracture can be produced. In regard to 
this, we will here only say that contr e-coup fractures 
have been produced by a blow of the fist upon an 
arched part of the head, as upon the temple or parietal 
eminence, or in falling where the same parts have been 
struck, and that in these cases only a small surface of 
the head could have come in contact with the offending 
body. That a contre-coup fracture may be produced 
where the party is struck upon a thin part of the skull, 
as Erich sen appears to doubt, is shown by a case ex- 
amined by Dr. Boulware, and which was legally inves- 
tigated. A man received a single blow from the fist, 
on the left temporal bone, one of the thinnest parts of 
the skull. The party did not fall after receiving the 
blow, but was assisted to a seat; he lived two hours. 
At the post-mortem examination, a contre-coup fracture 
of the right temporal bone was found, two inches in 
length. 
Our attention must now be directed to contre-coup 
fractures produced by bullets. Casper gives the fol- 
lowing case: 
G. “In this case, the bullet lodged in the brain. It was a buck-shot, 
with which a boy, aged thirteen, had been shot in the head. The bullet had 
entered through the left parietal bone, and had carried with it two small 
splinters of hone down to the left lateral ventricle, where they were found. 
The little bullet was discovered, completely flattened, lying at the base of 
the cerebellum. From the shot-hole in the hone a denticulated fissure ex- 
tended in an exceedingly rare manner, viz., horizontally across the head, 
toward the right, where it ended in the middle of the lambdoidal suture, 
while by far the largest number of fissures in the cranial bones follow 
a vertical direction. We also found in the basilar part of the occipital bone 
a piece of bone the size of a bean, broken out and lying loose in the rest of 
the osseous tissue.”—(Casper’s Forensic Medicine, vol. i., p. 275.) MEDICO-LEGAL COXTEIBUTIONS. 
35 
This case was presented at the trial, and great doubt 
was expressed by the prosecution as to its being a case 
of contre-coup. We regarded it as such for the follow- 
ing reasons: 1. A fair interpretation of the report 
leads to no other conclusion. 2. An experienced ex- 
pert must be assumed to give all the material facts in 
a case he reports, and in this case nothing indicates that 
the ball had touched the basilar process and been de- 
flected into the cerebellum. 3. Again, Casper evident- 
ly carefully examined the brain. As he mentions that 
small splinters of bone were carried down to the left 
lateral ventricle, a fact of no great interest, it seems 
unaccountable that he should omit to report, if present, 
such a remarkable and evident wound as one extend- 
ing from the aperture of entrance through the brain 
to the basilar process, and then continued almost at 
right angles, passing through the medulla oblongata to 
the base of the cerebellum. 
We present the three following cases of probable 
contre-coup fractures, contained in the Army Medical 
Museum. Photographs of these specimens were po- 
litely furnished us through Dr. Otis, curator of the 
museum. The backings of these photographs present 
histories of the specimens under the signature of the 
above-named gentleman, whose general reputation as 
a writer on surgical subjects, and whose official posi- 
tion, giving him rare opportunities for observation in 
this department, entitle his opinions to be received 
with great confidence: 
II. (No. 830, Surg. Sec. A. M. M.) “ A musket-ball entered at the centre 
of the left branch of the coronal suture, and passed out at the posterior-in- 
ferior angle of the right parietal bone, the opening of entrance being three- 
fourths and that of exit one and a quarter inches in diameter. There is a 
fracture of the right orbital plate of the frontal, of the squamous portion 
of the right temporal, and of the body of the right superior maxilla, prob- 36 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
ably by contre-coup. A fracture of the occipital bone extends from the 
opening of exit to the right jugular foramen. The frontal suture remains 
distinct, although the skull is that of a middle-aged man. The specimen is 
believed to have come from the Twelfth Army Corps Hospital after the sec- 
ond battle of Bull Run.” 
I. (No. 3,254, Surg. Sec. A. M. M.) “ At a post-mortem examination of 
an unknown soldier at Lincoln Hospital, September 22, 1864, it was ascer- 
tained that a conoidal musket-ball had entered about one and a half inches 
above the left ear, causing a compound comminuted fracture of the squamous 
portion of the temporal bone. The ball was found embedded in the lower 
portion of the parotid gland.” The specimen shows “penetration and 
fracture of the left temporal bone, just above and including the meatus au- 
ditorius externus, with fracture of the occipital by contre-coup, caused by 
a conoidal ball which is attached. The opening is just above the root of 
the zygoma, and is three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The condyle of 
the lower jaw and the posterior half of the glenoid fossa are carried away, 
together with the extremity of the petrous portion of the temporal bone, 
the line of fracture passing through the internal meatus auditorius. From 
the left jugular foramen, two lines of fracture pass to the foramen magnum, 
one in front of and the other behind the condyle. On the right side the 
occipital bone is traversed by a fracture, which runs from the foramen 
magnum to the posterior angle of the right parietal.” 
J. (No. 1,318, Surg. Sec. A. M. M.) “Skull exhibiting an extensive 
fracture from grape-shot. The missile entered the left parietal bone, near 
the lambdoidal suture, and emerged through the squamous portion of the 
temporal bone. The bones forming the right orbit were fractured by contre- 
coup. The specimen was picked up by Surgeon Frederick Wolfe, Thirty- 
ninth New York Volunteers, in June, 1863, under an abatis near the stone 
bridge over Bull Run, and is supposed to be the cranium of a Confederate 
soldier killed in the second battle of Manassas, August, 1862. At that 
action a portion of Longstreet’s corps charged upon one of the Federal bat- 
teries in position near this locality.” 
Before presenting tlie results of certain experiments, 
it is important to call attention to the fact that fractures 
of the skull and other bones, laceration of internal 
organs, etc., are made with more difficulty on the dead 
than on the living subject. This truth, which is ac- 
knowledged by those conversant with the subject, is 
strongly insisted upon by Casper. Thus he says: “ It 
is extremely difficult to break up the organic cohesion 
of dead organs.” . . . “ If we endeavor to fracture the 
skull of a dead adult, we shall find that an amount of MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
37 
force, which, if applied during life, would indubitably 
have produced fissures, if not fracture or complete 
smashing of the skull, leaves the dead skull quite un- 
injured.” “ The most powerful blows struck downward 
upon the body laid horizontally were mostly without 
result, and only after repeated violent blows were we 
enabled to produce perhaps one or a few fissures in 
the occipital or parietal bones, or in the temporal bone 
(squamous portion), and certainly more easily in the 
latter. We were unable to produce more considerable 
effects, such as complete smashing of the skull, or fis- 
sures of its base, even in one single instance. The dead 
scalp seems to have considerably more power of resist- 
ance than the living one, and, after its removal, fissures 
of the bone were more easily produced by similar blows 
(vol. i., p. 245). And, again, “ the result of my experi- 
ments on the dead body in regard to gun-shot wounds 
could only be to make more complete the proof of the 
resistance of the dead corporeal tissues, in contradis- 
tinction to the same tissues when alive, after I had al- 
ready learned this peculiarity from my experiments 
with contused wounds, and this peculiar resistant prop- 
erty was found to be confirmed in a most remarkable 
manner.”—(Casper’s Forensic Medicine, vol. i., p. 271.) 
We will now call attention to the following ex- 
periments : 
K. A subject, a woman aged thirty-two, with the head still attached to 
the body and the integuments in their natural condition, was placed with its 
back upon a table. A pistol was fired at right angles to the head, at a dis- 
tance oC eighteen inches, making a wound on the left side. The pistol was 
a Smith and "Wesson’s small-sized revolver; a metallic cartridge was used, 
having a conical ball weighing twenty-nine grains. The ball entered the 
squamous portion of the left temporal bone, one and a half inches above the 
external orifice of the left ear. The squamous portion of the bone was 
shattered, the squamous suture loosened, and small fragments of the occip- 
ital bone detached. A fracture extended anteriorly from the bullet-hole, 3S 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
through the left parietal eminence, and, passing to the right, upward and 
backward, terminated five-eighths of an inch above the right frontal emi- 
nence. (See Fig. 3.) The skull-cap was removed, and accidentally dropped 
(K.) Fig. 3. 
Extensive fractures of a skull by a pistol-ball. Left side. A. Ball-bole. B. Great frac- 
ture on left side. C. Saw-cut. 
(K.) Fig. 4. 
Extensive fractures of a skull b v a pistol-ball. Right side. B. Continuation of great frac- 
ture on left side. C. Saw-cut. D. Fracture on right side. (See Fig. 3.) 
from the dissecting-table to the floor. It was afterward cleaned, when a 
fracture of the external table was found, one and a half inches in length, 
extending from the right parietal eminence toward the coronal suture. MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
39 
(See Fig. 4.) The general course of the fracture on the left side and on the 
front of the specimen corresponded with that in Mrs. Fero’s head. 
That the fracture on the right side was caused by contre-coup cannot 
positively he stated, though it appears to us more probable than that such 
a fracture in that position could have been caused by so slight a fall. 
L. A subject, a man, aged forty-five, with the head still attached to the 
body, and the integuments in their natural condition, was placed with its back 
upon a table. Fifteen shots from a small Smith and Wesson’s pistol were 
fired at different parts of the head, at distances varying from six inches to 
six feet. In three shots, the ball did not pass through the parietal bone, 
but remained embedded in the scalp and external table. The greatest frac- 
ture produced was half an inch in length; it was in the squamous portion 
of the left temporal bone, weakened by other shots. 
M. A subject, a woman, aged forty. The conditions were the same as 
in the above experiment. Eighteen shots were fired in different parts of 
the head. The greatest fracture produced was one-third of an inch in 
length, in the right parietal bone between the apertures made by two 
bullets. 
(Is.) Fig. 5. 
Extensive fractures of a skull by a pistol-ball. Leftside. A. Ball-bole. B. Ball. F. 
Fractures. 
N". A subject with the head still attached to the body, covered with the 
integuments, and these in their natural condition, was placed with its back 
upon a table. At pistol was fired at the head, at a distance of from twelve 
to fifteen feet. The pistol had a barrel nine and three-fourths inches in 
length, was rifled, and had a calibre of thirty-hundredths (.30) of an inch; 
the round ball used weighed forty-six grains. The ball entered near the 
centre of the left parietal bone, passed through the brain, and was found, 
flattened, lying near the petrous portion of the right temporal bone, which 40 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
showed signs of its impact. The skull was fractured in various directions, 
so that, when the flesh was removed, the face portion, and also a large 
fragment of the frontal and right parietal hones, separated from the rest. 
(N.) Fig. 0. 
Sams as Fiir. 5. Front. F, F, F. Fractures. 
N.) Fig. 7. 
Same as Fig. S. Right side. F, F. Fractures. 
The left side of the skull was completely shattered, fractures extending to 
the sagittal suture, to the petrous and squamous portions of the temporal 
hone; across the frontal bone in various directions, one extending to the MEDICO-LEGAL COXTEIBUTIOXS. 
41 
right supraorbital notch, another to the squamous and petrous portions of 
the right temporal hone. The base of the skull wras shattered, the fractures 
in it communicating with those on either side. This brief description gives 
hut a very imperfect idea of the extent and number of the fractures in this 
remarkable specimen. (See Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8.) 
(N.) Fig. 8. 
Same as Fig. 5. Base. F, F, F, F. Fractures, 
The specimen N is No. 1,308 of the collection of Dr. 
Jeffries Wyman, Professor of Anatomy in the Massa- 
chusetts Medical School (Boston, Mass.). The frac- 
tures were produced in an experiment made by Dr. 
Wyman as above described. We would here express 
our obligations to that gentleman for his politeness in 
loaning us so valuable a specimen, and for furnishing 
us with details of his experiments.1 
Although the histories of two of the specimens 
(H and J) from the Army Medical Museum are in- 
complete, and the fall of the specimen K throws doubt 
1 Stereoscopic pictures (eight in number), showing the above views of a 
fac-simile of Mrs. Fero’s skull, and of specimens K and N with their frac- 
tures, form part of the series of pathological stereographs published by E. 
S. M. Haines, 478 Broadway, Albany, Y. Y. 42 
MEDICO-LEGAL COXTRIBUTIOXS. 
as to tlie cause of the fracture on its right side, yet it 
seems but reasonable to conclude from all the evidence 
that contre-coup fractures are sometimes produced by 
small balls. That such fractures are not more fre- 
quently observed is not surprising, for the number of 
gunshot wounds of the head in which the skull is crit- 
ically examined is comparatively small, and, unless at- 
tention is particularly directed to the point, contre-coup 
fractures are likely to be overlooked, especially if the 
skull is not most carefully cleaned. In civil life, of the 
few gunshot wounds of the head that occur, a large 
proportion are by accident, and but a small pro- 
portion of the whole are investigated. In the army, of 
the thousands of persons struck in the head by bullets, 
a very large proportion die on the battle-iield or in 
the field hospitals, and but comparatively few post- 
mortem examinations are made. From a consideration 
of the facts mentioned, we have come to the conclu- 
sion that it is not unlikely that there was a fracture 
by contre-coup on the right side of Mrs. Fero’s skull. 
Another point must now be inquired into, viz., the 
danger of making or extending fractures while remov- 
ing the skull-cap. Shaw, in his “ Manual of Anatomy,” 
says: “The question whether there has been a frac- 
ture of the cranium previous to death is sometimes 
more difficult to decide than a person who is not ac- 
customed to make dissections would imagine. If the 
fracture has occurred immediately before the patient’s 
death, there will be coagulated blood found upon the 
bones and in the fissures; if the patient lias survived 
for some time, there will be marks of inflammation 
and perhaps pus in contact with the skull; but, if a 
f racture has been produced in making the examination 
(which sometimes happens in even very careful dissect- MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
43 
or s' hands), the blood in the fracture will not be coagu- 
lated, nor ivill there be any effusions around the por- 
tion s.v— (Quoted in Beck’s Medical Jurisprudence. 
Philadelphia, 1863, vol. ii., p. 27.) 
“ Mr. Alcock some time since stated in a public lec- 
ture in London that he had known a fracture of the 
base of the skull produced by the awkward and vio- 
lent tearing of the upper portion by the saw not pene- 
trating enough to divide the bones, and this was mis- 
taken by the inexperienced operator for fracture of the 
skull, producing death. Being a medico-legal case, it 
might have led to melancholy consequences had not 
the error been detected by an observer.” — (Beck’s 
Medical Jurisprudence, vol. ii., p. 28.) 
The correctness of the statements quoted above 
'will be confirmed by those who have had a large ex- 
perience in making post-mortem examinations. Thus 
Dr. Boulware said at the trial that he had seen a good 
many skulls fractured while removing the cap; and 
that, of the hundreds of autopsies he had made, he had 
frequently fractured the skull, and that w-here a savr 
was employed, when not making the examination 
with a view of ascertaining; the cause of death. It is 
apparent that the danger of fracture will be the greater 
the more unskilfully the dissection is made. The fol- 
lowing observations were recorded at the time of the 
examination of Mrs. Fero’s head, at Albany, April 
29th: 1. At the junction of the second saw7-cut with 
the first, the saw had not marked the skull on the 
lower side of the first cut. It was the same at the 
junction of the third cut with the second, the saw had 
not marked the skull on the lower side of the second 
cut. The condition of the parts showed that the saw 
must have lacerated the brain before the second and 44 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
third cuts were completed. 2. Where the saw-cuts 
met, the saw had not completely divided the bone, 
but it had been forcibly broken across / this was very 
evident at the junction of the first and second cuts, 
and less so at the junction of the second and third 
cuts. 3. On the right side, the third cut, instead of 
being straight, was slightly curved, and near its middle 
were the rough marks of comparatively coarse saw- 
teeth, showing that the saw had pinched while at- 
tempting to make the third cut connect with the first. 
This fact shows that the surrounding parts must have 
been under a constant strain during the sawing of the 
third cut. 
These various evidences of unskilfulness, together 
with the pressure of the hands in attempting to 
hold the skull-cap steady while the operator was for- 
cing the pinched saw along the sawed surface, lead 
us to the conviction that not only the fractures might 
have been, but in all probability were, greatly ex- 
tended in removing the skull-cap. This view is ren- 
dered the more probable if we bear in mind the loca- 
tion of the tissues that were perceptibly discolored. 
Dr. Case says that he discovered infiltration (of the 
tissues) in the posterior portion of the right side, and 
the posterior and lateral portions of the left side of 
the head, and a very slight bruise (infiltration) on the 
forehead. Now, Shaw well observes that there will 
be no effusion of blood around parts fractured during 
examination; hence the fractures must have been ex- 
tended, for Dr. Case swears as above, and in other 
words, that the areolar tissue over the posterior part 
of the fractures—perhaps one-half of them—showed 
this injection of blood, the other half did not. 
The most reasonable conclusion that we can draw 
from our examination, and the only one that appears MEDICO-LEGAL COXTRIBUTIOXS. 
45 
to accord with, tlie facts, is, that the fractures found in 
Mrs. Fero’s head were the result of the pistol-shot, and 
the unskilful manner in which the skull-cap was re- 
moved. 
3. The discoloration of certain parts was the result 
of infiltration of blood from vessels ruptured by the 
fracture of the. skull. 
All the tissues are nourished by blood which is 
supplied by vessels permeating every part, as well the 
bone as the pericranium, areolar tissue, scalp, and mus- 
cle. This being so, it is difficult to see how any part 
of the living body can be divided without giving rise 
to more or less haemorrhage. It is true that usually 
the smaller arteries contract and their orifices close 
when they are lacerated, but this is not so with the 
veins. Moreover, grooves are found on the external 
and internal surfaces of the skull in which vessels are 
lodged, and are so firmly bound to the bone that they 
cannot contract when they are ruptured. Hence, when 
a cranial bone is fractured, blood is poured out from 
the ruptured vessels. The quantity of blood that may 
be effused varies indefinitely with the number and size 
of the vessels ruptured, the activity of the circulation, 
the length of time the person lives, etc. The blood 
may collect in circumscribed masses, or become infil- 
trated through the surrounding tissues, though usually 
both phenomena are observed. The extent to which 
infiltration takes place depends upon the quantity of 
blood poured out, and the nature and condition of the 
surrounding tissues. 
Common experience teaches us that infiltration fre- 
quently extends a considerable distance beyond an in- 
jured part; thus, a person receiving a blow above the 
eye may have a dark discoloration from infiltration 46 
MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIOXS. 
below the orbit. Occasionally, after an injury of the 
thigh, the infiltration will extend upward toward the 
hip, and not unfrequently as far down as the knee. 
A similar extensive infiltration of the soft parts around 
the fractured bone of a limb is not very infrequent, as 
every surgeon knows. Even after venesection at the 
bend of the elbow, the blood sometimes infiltrates the 
tissues as high up as the axilla, and as far down as the 
lower third of the forearm. 
These and similar facts lead us to regard the infil- 
trations found in Mrs. Fero’s head as the result of the 
fractures of the skull, not an uncommon or surprising 
result, but such as is usual, and to be expected as a 
matter of course. That the discoloration of the tissues 
around different portions of the fractures varied in in- 
tensity was to be expected, for the same size and num- 
ber of blood-vessels are not found in all parts of the 
tissues; and again, because a part of the vessels may 
have been only lacerated, and so more apt to bleed 
than if completely divided. 
The discoloration about the right eye was not ob- 
served until the evening following the murder, al- 
though, at the time of the dissection, the right side of 
the head was free from blood, and there was nothing 
to prevent any thing unusual about the part from 
being seen. This is readily accounted for, if we re- 
member that the blood was liquid at the time of the 
dissection, and if it be conceded that the fractures 
were extended while removing the skull-cap. Under 
these circumstances there would be no sensible effusion 
around the extended fractures, where the tissue was 
almost immediately removed. But the liquid blood, 
passing through the aperture made by the fracturing 
of the supraorbital plate, would gradually infiltrate MEDICO-LEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
47 
through the loose areolar and adipose tissues in the 
back of the orbit, and after a time become visible ex- 
ternally. The fact, that the tissues far back in the 
cavity were more discolored than those in front, is 
another proof that the discoloration, which was grad- 
ually developed about the eye, was owing to the in- 
filtration of blood from the fracture of the supraorbi- 
tal plate. The pressure of the hands upon the face 
during the post mortem sufficiently accounts for the 
temporary discolorations which were found upon the 
face. 
We may conclude our review of this case by the 
following comments on the chief points presented 
during the trial: 
1st. That while Fero’s story is remarkable, and was 
regarded by the prosecution as unworthy of credit 
from its very nature, there is nothing impossible in it, 
and nothing proved necessarily inconsistent with it. 
The fact that the base of the flattened ball found in 
the head of the deceased fitted the shells of the metallic 
cartridges used in Fero’s pistol (a Smith and Wes- 
son’s), though suspicious, is not in itself of great im- 
portance, from the fact that the same-sized metallic 
cartridges are used in a variety of j)istols in common 
use. The manufacturers of Smith and Wesson’s re- 
volvers inform us that they have made one hundred 
and fifty-eight thousand pistols of the same calibre as 
that in Fero’s possession, and which was No. 60,210. 
2d. That, while the prosecution assumed that the 
discolorations on the head of the deceased were bruises, 
and were the result of external violence (blows upon 
the head), the evidence of the defence was to the 
effect that the discolorations were simply infiltrations 
of blood, occasioned by the staining of the tissues with 48 
THE CASE OF IIERMAXX ALBERT : 
blood poured out from vessels ruptured by the frac- 
tures. The experimental and other evidence on this 
point, given by the medical witnesses called as experts 
by the defence, was so satisfactory, if not conclusive to 
the prosecution, that they did not cross-examine these 
witnesses upon the subject. 
3d. That, while the prosecution assumed that the 
fractures were the result of external violence (blows 
upon the head), the defence showed that the surround- 
ing parts did not exhibit any of the ordinary charac- 
teristics of such injuries. They accounted for the frac- 
tures as being produced by the pistol-ball, and the un- 
skilful manner in which the skull-cap was removed. 
In developing their views, the experts showed—1. 
That extensive fractures of the skull may be made by 
musket and pistol balls. 2. That contre-coup fractures 
may in all probability be made by musket and pistol 
balls; and 3. Authorities for and instances of fracture 
of the skull by unskilful manipulations in removing 
the skull-cap. 
After a clear and elaborate charge by the presid- 
ing judge, the jury retired, and, after being out two 
hours, brought in a verdict of “ Not Guilty.” Maudsley on the Mind. 
The Physiology and Pathology of the Mind. By Henry Mauds- 
ley, M. D., Physician to the West London Hospital. 8vo, 
pp. xv-442 (tinted paper). . . . Cloth, $4.00 
Dr. Maudsley’s aim in the preparation of this volume has been to treat of menta. 
phenomena from a physiological rather than, as has hitherto been the habit, from a 
metaphysical point of view, and in his history of the inductive method, as applied 
to the interrogation of the mind, he shows conclusively that self-consciousness—the 
favorite resort of the schoolmen—is inadequate, contradictory, and unreliable. N« 
book of the present day, devoted to the study of the mind, has attracted more atten 
tion or caused more comment than this. It is one of those works which mark the 
beginning of a new era in the study of mental science, and at the same time it is 
conceded on all sides to be, in its practical portions, a most reliable guide for the 
diagnosis, description, and treatment of insanity. 
“Dr. Maudsley has had the courage to undertake, and the skill to execute, what Is, at 
least, in English, an original enterprise. This book is a manual of mental science in all its 
parts, embracing all that is known in the existing state of physiology. * * * Many and 
valuable books have been written by English physicians on insanity, idiocy, and all the 
forms of mental aberration. But derangement had always been treated as a dibtinet subject, 
and therefore empirically. That the phenomena of sound and unsound minds are not mat- 
ters of distinct investigation, but inseparable parts of one and the same inquiry, seems a 
j-uism as soon as stated. But strange to say, they had always been pursued separately, and 
seen in the hands of two distinct classes of investigators. The logicians and metaphysicians 
jccasionally borrowed a stray fact from the abundant cases compiled by the medical author- 
ties ; but the physician on the other hand had no theoretical clew to his observations be- 
yond a smattering of dogmatic psychology learned at college. To effect a reconciliation be- 
tween the Psychology and the Pathology of the mind, or rather to construct a basis for both 
in a common science, is the aim of Dr. Maudsley’s book.”—London Sat. Rev., May 25,1861. 
“The first chapter is devoted to the consideration of the causes of insanity. It would be 
well, we think, if this chapter were published in a separate form and scattered broadcast 
throughout the land. It is so full of sensible reflections and sound truths, that their wide 
dissemination could not but be of benefit to all thinking persons. In taking leave of Dr. 
Maudsley's volume, we desire again to express our gratification with the result of his labors, 
and to express the hope that he has not yet ceased his studies in the important field which 
he has selected. Our thanks are also due to the American publishers for the very handsome 
manner in which they have reprinted a work which is certain to do credit to a house already 
noted for its valuable publications.”— Quar. Journal of Psychological Medicine and Medical 
Jurisprudence. 
“Then follow chapters on the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of insanity, each 
characterized by the same bold and brilliant thought, the same charming style of composi- 
tion, and the same sterling sense that we have found all through. We laydown the book 
with admiration, and we commend it most earnestly to our readers, as a work of extraordi- 
nary merit and originality—one of those productions that are evolved only occasionally in 
the lapse of years, and that serve to mark actual and very decided advances in knowledge 
and science.”—iV. Y. Medical Journal, January, 1868. . 
“ This work of Dr. Maudsley’s is unquestionably one of the ablest and most important, 
on the subjects of which it treats, that has ever appeared, and does infinite credit to his 
philosophical acumen and accurate observation. No one has more successfully exhibited the 
discordant results of metaphysical, physiological, and pathological studies of the mind, or 
demonstrated more satisfactorily the uselessness of an exclusive method, or the pressing 
need of combined action, and of a more philosophical mode of proceeding.”—Medical 
Record, Nov. 15,1867. 
“In the recital of the causes of insanity, as found in peculiarities of civilization, of relig- 
ion, sex, condition, and particularly in the engrossing pursuit of wealth, this calm scientific 
work has the solemnity of a hundred sermons; and after going down into this exploration 
of the mysteries of our being, we shall come up into active life again chastened, thoughtful, 
and feeling, perhaps, as we never felt before, how fearfully and wonderfully we are inade.”- 
Evening Gazette. 
\ 
“Dr. Maudsley’s treatise is a valuable work, and deserves the careful consideration of all 
who feel an interest, not only in general metaphysical facts, but in those manifestations 
which mark the boundaries between health and disease in the human mind.”—Provldence< 
IR. J.) Journal. t. 
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