on the ground, head and trunk somewhat inclined to the left; legs
stretched out; clothing not disordered; the part of the cord which
was around the neck was applied to the neck of the waistcoat and
shirt; on his head a woollen cap. The ground had been recently swept.
Necroscopy twenty-four hours afterward. Face pale; right eye open and
prominent, left closed; mouth closed, contained food apparently from
the stomach; tongue retracted; slight mark on neck under which the
tissue was normal: atlas dislocated on axis, but tissues around were
normal; no lesion in spinal canal; penis not erect; moisture having the
odor of urine on the shirt; large ecchymosis and infiltration of left
cheek; extensive contusions on scrotum, with hemorrhagic infiltration,
especially around right testicle. Veins of head engorged with black
fluid blood. Brain normal. Some black fluid blood in right cavities of
heart, left side empty. Lungs black. Other organs normal. Causse and
Orfila concluded that the man had been suffocated and then hung. The
wife and son confessed that they had injured the testicle through the
pantaloons; he then fainted; they then suffocated him with the woollen
cap placed over the mouth and nose; the son kneeled on the man’s belly,
the body was then hung up and the head violently twisted.