Legal Specs

Definition 1

med. jur. A temporary suspension of the motion of the
heart and arteries,
swooning, fainting. This term includes persons
who have been asphyxiated by
submersion or drowning, by breathing
mephitic gas, by the effect of
lightning, by the effect of cold, by
heat, by suspension or strangulation.
In a legal point of view it
is always proper to ascertain whether the
person who -has thus been
deprived of his senses is the victim of another,
whether the injury
has been caused by accident, or whether it is. the act
of the
sufferer himself.


2. In a medical point of view it is
important to ascertain
whether the person is merely asphyxiated, or whether
he is dead.
The following general remarks have been made as to the
efforts
which ought to be made to restore a person thus situated,



1st. Persons asphyxiated are frequently in a state of only
apparent death.



2d. Real from apparent death, can be distinguished only
by
putrefaction.


3d. Till putrefaction commences, aid ought to be
rendered to
persons asphyxiated.


4th. Experience proves that
remaining several hours under water
does not always produce death.



5th. The red, violet, or black color of
the face, the coldness of the body,
the stiffness of the limbs, are
not always signs of death.


6th.
The assistance to persons thus situated, maybe administered
by any
intelligent person, but to insure success, it must be done
without
discouragement for several hours together.


7th. All unnecessary
persons should be sent away, five or six are
in general sufficient.



8th. The place where the operation is performed should not be too
warm.



9th. The assistance should be rendered with activity, but
without
precipitation.