By Surgeon
T.
Duka, M.D., F.R.C.S.,
Civil Surgeon, Darjeeling. Ox the morning of the 30th of October last, a rumour reached the station that a small solitary bamboo hut, on the road to
Independent Sikkim, and distant about one mile from the cntcherrv, was destroyed by fire the previous night, and that its lonely inhabitants, an old Bhooteeah woman and her grandchild, about four years old, perished in the flames. This hut on three sides was surrounded by brushwood, the embankment of tho road forming the fourth. About thirty yards to the south was the only other hut in the vicinity, separated by jungle and occupied by a chowkeedar. The old woman's daughter and mother of the little child beinsr in service as an ayah, slept at her mistress's house in the station. On paying, as she intended, an early morning visit to her relatives, she found a smouldering spot only, and the remains of the corpses, as she declared, were mixed or covered with ashes. The wailinga of the poor ayah, as she passed through the station, detailing her sad tale of the lo*s of a mother and child by such a shocking accident, excited universal sympathy, and induced some of tho charitable to give her substantial help. made among the ruins, and the remains of the two bodies extricated were sent by the police, in the course of the usual routine, to the deadhouse; the ayah came also to claim Search
was
them after they had been inspected by me. Tho usual police report merely repeated tho generally known story, and thus I proceeded to tho deadhouse to see the bodies and to make over
to the relatives.
The corpse of the
presented a charred mass. On of the debris, on closer inspection, I discovered some marks, which raised a suspicion in my mind that there was some foul play in the case. The time of the day was getting late, I therefore postponed a thorough examinaremoving
from it
woman
some
tion till the morrow, giving, howover, immediate notice to tho of Police that I suspected a murder, and
Superintendent
accordingly llr.
Stack issued prompt orders that
evening.
A careful examination next morning verified my suspicions entirely, and there remained no doubt in my mind that a murder, probably a double-murder, had been committed. The old woman, and probably the child also, were hacked to pieces, and the hut then burned, doubtless with the view of bodies, and thus all traces of tho deed, by fire. The
destroying
the
the appearances of the remains, of which, complete record, I caused a photograph Mr. Phillips, and Lieutenant Anderson of
following were
for the sake of to be taken
a more
by
H.M.'s 63rd Regiment has kindly done the sketch, both of which accompany. The following reduced woodcut will give some idea of the state of the "remains" of both woman and child. The
length
of
the mutilated
corpse was 33 inches ; the whole was charred and black, particu-
iti '?m.
in wswjMT ?
m I hm 'JMU
mm
larly
neck, the reparts contract-
the face and
main?. of the soft
ed and dried up, the cut ends of the bones protruding, bare and
charred, particularly the femora. The cranial bones
were
want-
ing, except part of the occiput and the temporals attached. The cerebral coverings were black, tho brain hardened and contracted. Both
upper
extremities
1873.
portion of the spine of the scapula ; the sharply defined edges of the trianglo also show the nature of the perpetrated deed. This is well marked 011 the photograph. Another small piece of skin in a similarly charred condition remains on the region of the sacrum ; the soft parts of the dorsal and lumbar regions were almost entirely removed. Both the thighs were cut oft about the middle, the muscles retracting and partially charred. The woman was probably lying on her low cot, 011 her left side, half turned 011 the face, when the severe gashes were inflicted. A kookrie, as used by the Nepalese, was in all probability the weapon, wielded by a strong man, probably a butcher, as the clean cut on the right side along the spine most particularly suggests. That cut on the right side, by far the most severe, was levelled from the pelvis upwards, removing the crest of the ilium and shaving the lumbar muscles slantingly upwards. The four lower ribs were wanting. Of the upper ribs there remained the articular ends attached to the spine; of the fourth rib there remained one inch, of the third three inches, of the apex the outer
A REMARKABLE MEDICO-LEGAL CASE.
them
[February 1,
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
3g
were
absent; the dorsal region almost entirely bared of soft parts before cremation ; a small triangular piece of charred skin only remains on the left side, its base touching the lumbar region, and
the second three inches-and-a-half; the first was entire. The scapula was absent as well as half of the acromial end of the clavicle. The muscles of the
gluteal regions
were
removed,
and the
right trochanter exposed. region is the small triangular piece of skin above alluded to, its sharply cut edges distinctly traceable, the remaining portion bared of muscles by a cut running in the direction from the occiput downwards. The upper extremity was absent, but part of the scapula rsmained, namely, its infra spinous portion covcred by some fibres of the large dorsal muscles. On the left side of the dorsal
charred
The ribs
were
charred in front.
The walls of the chest and abdomen
were almost entirely destroyed, particularly on the right side. The heart, left lung, and superficial portion of the intestines were more or less charred, and the remainder dried up. There were traces of five distinct cuts at least: one along the right side, the second on the left, the third from the occiput to the apex of the triangular piece of skin abovementioned, the fourth for tho right, the fifth for the left femur. The stomach contained food and the heart coagulated blood. Tho muscles of the neck were burnt and shrivelled; the bronchocele, for which this old woman was au out-patient of the dispensary, could be distinctly traced.
The child's corpso, as seen in the photograph, presented a shrivelled up mass?head and extremities absent;
shapeless
there seemed liko
a cut along tho back, but it could not be satisfactorily traced, as the llro had greater effect on this than on the adult body. The next morning I accompanied the District Superintendent of Police to the spot; we found some of tho bedding suturated with blood, which was charred, alsosomo burnt bones, especially ribs, and those of tho cranium, one (a part of tho parietal) distinctly marked with a cut; at a distance of a few yards to the south, a lock of the old woman's hair matted together with dry blood was discovered. From the investigation it appears that tliero aro two accomplices to this deed, botli Booteeahs ; one of whom has turned Queen's evidence. Some rupees and ornaments were in possession of the deceased. Tho accused stands committed to tho sessions on tho charge of murder, but he pretends to know nothing about it. In Chevers'great work on the Medical Jurisprudence of India, I can find no account of a case which bears comparison?as regards atrocity and tho determined, though as it turned out unsuccessful, attempts at concealment and destruction of the
corpora delictorum?to this.
Daejeeling, 20th December, 1872.