Mortal wound

“ If one wound is mortal and one or more are not, whether the wounds are suicidal or homicidal, it has sometimes been considered that the former must have been inflicted last. But we cannot admit that as a general rule the most grave wound was the last inflicted. For the murderer or suicide, especially the former, may go on wounding after the infliction of a mortal wound, especially as it is the exception, and not the rule, to die instantly after a mortal wound. ”

“ I beheld my friend, stretched upon the earth, ghastly with a mortal wound, alone, with no traces of the slayer visible, no tokens by which his place of refuge might be sought, the motives of his enmity or his instruments of mischief might be detected.
I hung over the dying youth, whose insensibility forbade him to recognise his friend, or unfold the cause of his destruction. I accompanied his remains to the grave; I tended the sacred spot where he lay; I once more exercised my penetration and my zeal in pursuit of his assassin. ”

“ And such folk as can heal and cure came to examine into their wounds and to tend them that night, for they could do nothing more for them, so severe and so deadly were the stabs and the thrusts, and the gashes of the many wounds that they had, than to apply to them spells and incantations and charms, in order to staunch their blood, and their bleeding mortal wounds. ”

“ A Simple Wound is that which only opens the Flesh, and hath no other concomitant Circumstances; but a Complicated Wound, on the contrary, is that which is attended with grievous Symptoms, as Hæmorrhages, Fractures of Bones, Dislocation, Lameness, and others of the like Nature. {142}
What is a dangerous and mortal Wound?
A dangerous Wound is that which is complicated the Accidents whereof are dreadful: As when an Artery is open'd or prick'd, when a Nerve or Tendon is cut, or when the Wound is near a Joynt and accompanied with a Dislocation or Fracture. ”

“ Consequently we will suppose that there are but two wounds, and not multiple ones, and the question remains which of these wounds was the cause of death. A wound may be said to be of itself mortal when it is the cause of death directly or indirectly in spite of the best medical assistance. In some continental states mortal wounds are divided into two classes, those absolutely and those conditionally mortal, the former including those in which the best medical assistance is at hand, sent for or timely rendered without everting the result. ”

“ Who, I say, without grief could behold those sad sights which then offered themselves, of human beings lying mangled over the crimson ground — some stone dead, some still alive and struggling, with brains oozing from their cloven skulls — and others sitting up, or leaning on their elbows, but pale with loss of blood, running in streams from their mortal wounds, and they themselves looking down, the while, sadly thinking of home and of distant wives and children, whom they shall never see again. ”

“ The very man who had dealt him his death-wound has laid the body straight out on the ground, and spread a cloak over it. "And when he wiped the blood from the face it was very beautiful, and there was red in the cheeks, as if he only slept." ”

“ A. "Whose sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."—Gen. ix. 6.
"He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. . . And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."—Ex. xxi. 12 and 23-25.
"He that killeth any man shall surely be put to death-And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor, as he hath done, so shall it be done unto him: breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth."—Lev. ”

“ You shudder when a child mutilates its tender fingers, and the wound is carefully cleansed and dressed; then what emotions would have thrilled through every nerve of your body could you have seen those shattered frames, with limbs wrenched from the trunk by exploding shells, with gaping fissures, through which the soul had nearly escaped. ”

“ An injury which opens a large blood-vessel is likely to lead the victim of such a wound to the tomb.
It is always wise to hold out hope to the patient, even if the symptoms point strongly to a fatal issue. ”

“ One little drop flowing through your heart; a vein bursting in your breast; a suffocating cold in the throat, a violent rush of blood, a fever, a wound, a flash of lightning, is enough to deprive you of life. Death will come to you when you least expect it. ”

“ In the latter case death may be due as much, if not more, to other causes than the wound, and sometimes not at all to the wound itself. Thus death may be due to natural causes, latent disease, an unhealthy state of the body, imprudence or neglect of treatment, or improper treatment, etc. These various degrees of responsibility of a wound as the cause of death we will now consider more at length. ”

“ When the bone had made the wound, the dead man's power, which had been brought by incantations to the arrow, would make the wound fatal. The preparation of burning juices mixed with charms, and smeared upon the bone with charms, carries to the wound what is itself like inflammation, and the ghost will make it inflame. ”

“ The bleeding is but new stanched, and such matters as seeing his father and mother may make the heart to swell, and so maybe the wound burst afresh and he die. An he would hope to live, he must rest quiet until to-morrow day. ”

“ Thou art wounded—and with a poisoned weapon, I warrant me, for by force of stab so weak an animal as that could scarce hope to do more than raze the lion's hide.—Suck the poison from his wound one of you—the venom is harmless on the lips, though fatal when it mingles with the blood. ”

“ For it is he that has done this, and the white face and lifeless eye are saying to him that he has slain a man. He has too much at stake for us to accept his statement that the wound on the temple is no bullet-hole in the skull, but good for profuse loss of blood for all that. ”

“ The little discomfort which the flowing of blood causes me, compared with the other pain, is like a fresh breeze after a blast from the infernal regions. It does me a real good to see my blood pouring forth: let it flow, it does me extreme good."
The stranger watched with an expression of delight the blood pouring from the wound, and the doctor was obliged to insist on binding up the hand. ”

“ There is no doubt that a prolonged struggle took place, but the absence of blood-smears, such as would have been caused by the naked feet of the deceased, proves that the wound from which the blood proceeded could not have been inflicted during the struggle. ”

“ Some rushed round the fallen man and raised him up, gazing on his face, or striving to stanch the bleeding of a small wound on the right side, which would have seemed of no great importance, had not the torrent of gore which poured from it told how deep the avenging blade had gone. ”

“ It was a horrible wound. The skull, shattered by some deadly weapon, left the brain exposed, which was much injured. Clots of blood had formed in the bruised and broken mass, in color like the dregs of wine. ”

“ In a moment the skin is off, the raw flesh protrudes, blood and matter exude from the wound, and the pain goes to the very marrow of our bones. One cannot refrain from crying out and screaming as if one had lost one’s senses. ”

“ The amputated limbs and the dissevered body were united to the bloodless head of the murdered woman, and every injury by you inflicted after death has afforded the means of proving by comparison, beyond doubt, that the wound on the eye was inflicted by you while your victim was in life, and strength, and health. Horrible and revolting to humanity as was the spectacle presented by the mutilated trunk and mangled remains, fresh details and discoveries suggested both the means and manner by which you accomplished the destruction of the deceased. ”

“ A soul bleeding to death, till Christ were sent for, and cried for in all haste, to come and stem the blood, and close up the hole in the wound with His own hand and balm, were a very good disease, when many are dying of a whole heart. We have all too little of hell-pain and terrors that way ”

“ I was then young, and new to the sight of blood, and not relishing the thought that creatures who had spirits like myself, should lay on the naked ground, to be torn asunder by beasts, or to bleach in the rains, I buried the dead with my own hands, under that very little hillock, where you have placed yourselves; and no bad seat does it make either, though it be raised by the bones of mortal men. ”

“ Wounds made during life might show the suggillation peculiar to bruises or traces of inflammation. Besides, the gaping nature of the lips of the wound, the fact of hemorrhage [431] having taken place and the coagulation of the blood, the infiltration of blood into the cellular tissue, etc., are surgical facts that would leave but little doubt as to the infliction of the wounds during life.
The cause of death is often a difficult matter to determine, as it may have been accidental, suicidal, or the result of homicide. ”

“ Oh, if the cruel shots could only kill at once—but this terrible mutilation, when the soul is almost let out of the gaping wounds, and struggles with the full strength of manhood, till faint and weary—weak with the deluge of blood, which has drained the fountain, the cold hand of dissolution clutches at the heart, and the soul goes forth from the torn body, leaving it a poor lump of festering flesh, on which the worms may banquet at will! ”

“ Death has followed within a few hours of being struck with a poisoned arrow and this is only to be expected, for we know how dangerous it is for surgeons when they wound themselves during an examination of the dead body. ”

“ How long will it be before we shall learn that for every wound which betrays itself to the sight by a scar, there are a thousand unseen mutilations that cripple, each of them, some one or more of our highest faculties? ”

“ Haemorrhage from a Wound.--When the blood does not pour or trickle in a steady stream from a deep wound, but jets forth in pulses, and is of a bright red colour, all the bandages in the world will not stop it. ”

“ Let us suppose that a human body is wounded—that is, cut or torn by some outside agency. The tissues, lymphatic and blood vessels, glands, muscles, nerves, and sometimes even the bone, is severed, and the continuity interrupted. The wound bleeds, gapes and causes pain. The nerves carry the message to the brain, calling loudly for immediate help, and the Instinctive Mind sends messages here and there in the body, calling out a sufficient force of repair workmen, who are hurried to the scene of danger. ”

“ In the first two to four hours after death, therefore, as far as the condition of the blood is concerned, it may be difficult or impossible to say whether a wound was made before or soon after death. In other words, this difficulty exists as long as the tissues of the body live after the body as a whole is dead. ”

“ Where wound exists, the flies will ever flock amain,
To hide its hideousness from sight, and lull the pain,
Those flies the symbols are of man’s vain, baseless thoughts;
The wound they cover over’s ignorance high-wrought.75
’Tis only when the teacher salve applies with skill,
The throes are quieted that shoot across man’s will.
He then imagines that his wound is healing fast.
Effect this is of cunning used, that salve to cast.
O man, whose back is galled, accept his salve with thanks.
Thy solace thence arises ”

“ AND after this I saw, beholding, the body plenteously bleeding in seeming of [1] the Scourging, as thus:—The fair skin was broken full deep into the tender flesh with sharp smiting all about the sweet body. So plenteously the hot blood ran out that there was neither seen skin nor wound, but as it were all blood. And when it came where it should have fallen down, then it vanished. Notwithstanding, the bleeding continued awhile: till it might be seen and considered. ”

“ Then, as well as he could, the dying man stretched forth his arms, wherein flesh and blood alike were lacking, and with all the strength remaining in his bones embraced her who was the cause of his death. ”

“ How are we to ascertain whether a person has died from hemorrhage? This may be more difficult in the case of an open wound, for the body may have been moved from the spot where it lay after the wound was received, and the blood on the body, clothes, and surrounding objects may have been removed. ”

“ And if such acts do sometimes result in death, this fact must be regarded as essentially due to accident, and according as the wound happens to be inflicted, with more or less severity, upon a vital part of the body. ”

“ Hence it is that nobody has depicted its contrasts in stronger relief, nor as visibly shown the decay and bloom of life at one time the dull flabby corpse, a genuine clinical mass, empty of blood and substance, livid, blue and mottled through suffering, a clot of blood on the mouth, the eye glassy and the feet and hands clayish, swollen and deformed because death seized them first ”

“ Wretched beings at the point of death, thrown by the wayside, continued to call with feeble voice, 'I have not the plague, I am but wounded;' and, to convince those that passed, they might be seen tearing open their real wounds, or inflicting new ones. ”

“ To which we reply, that the issuing of fresh and crimson blood from the wound or the nostrils of the persons body that hath been murthered, is always a certain sign that the 307Corps that doth so bleed was murthered, because those that die naturally or violently by chance, man-slaughter or in the war, do not bleed, as hath been proved before. ”

“ I screamed, screamed in utter horror at the thing I saw there. Dead? Good God, I do not know. It was a corpse, a dead human body, standing before me like some propped-up thing from the grave. A face half eaten away, terrible in its leering grin. Twisted mouth, with only a suggestion of lips, curled back over broken teeth. Hair—writhing, distorted—like a mass of moving, bloody coils. ”