Remarks on the trial of Robert Reid, for the murder of his wife : before the High Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh, on the 29th of June 1835 / by John Fletcher.

  • Fletcher, John, 1792-1836.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the trial of Robert Reid, for the murder of his wife : before the High Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh, on the 29th of June 1835 / by John Fletcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/78 (page 25)
    minds ot Professors Christison and Traill, that this mark was the result of an injury inflicted during life. But admitting that it would have been so had the fact been established, what evidence have we that the blood which issued from this part was really coa- gulated, except the ipse dixit of a person, who, from the display which he made with respect to the solid parts, may be fairly presumed to be quite incompe- tent to make any nice distinctions in this respect ? And indeed there is strong presumptive evidence that the blood found in this part was in fact in a liquid state. Bailie Walker expressly says that, at this time, Williams did not cut under the right ear — did not cut nearer to the right ear than the centre of the back, and Dr Forbes equally ex- plicitly states that the skin was not cut away at all, so that the blood in this part could find an exit only indirectly by some one or other of the wounds in the neighbouring parts ; and yet this blood is de- scribed, both by Bailie Walker and by James Fife, as flowing from this spot below the right ear, leaving the part which had previously been as black as their hat without the least appearance of discoloration. Now can this be true of really coagulated blood, closely incorporated with the substance of the cellu- lar tissue and skin, and that at a distance from the part in which the incision was made, or does it imply that the blood was still in a liquid state, and only loosely diffused through the substance of the latter? It is obvious to common sense that whatever blood came thus from the discoloured parts could not have been coagulated. It was thick says Bailie Walker, but it still flowed; and Professor