There are so many various modes by which this infamous and horrid crime may be perpetrated, that it would be an almost endless task to enumerate them. In a legal point of view it is scarcely necessary; for wherever death ensues from illegal violence[92], with malice _prepense_, it is felony; yet for the better aid of medical investigation it is expedient to class them under several heads.
Sir _Matthew Hale_, in his pleas of the Crown, vol. 2, p. 431, enumerates several ways of killing.
1. By exposing a sick or weak person or infant unto the cold, to the intent to destroy him, 2 _Ed._ 3, 189, whereof he dieth.
2. By laying an impotent person abroad, so that he may be exposed to and receive mortal harm, as laying an infant in an orchard, and covering it with leaves, whereby a kite strikes it and kills it. 6 _Eliz. Compt. de Pace_; 24 _Dalton_, _cap._ 93, (new edit. 145.)[93]
3. By imprisoning a man so strictly that he dies, and therefore where any dies in gaol, the coroner ought to be sent for to enquire of the manner of his death.
7. By laying noisome and poisonous filth at a man’s door, to the intent by a poisonous air to poison him. _Mr. Dalton_, _cap._ 93, out of _Mr. Cook’s_ reading.[94]
The two first of these modes frequently occur in cases of infanticide, and to that head, which requires separate consideration on account of its intricacy, we shall therefore refer it. Adults can seldom, if ever, be exposed to destruction in this manner; though, as in —— _Brownrigg’s_ case, and others of the same class, it may constitute a part of the crime of murdering children, even of an advanced age, by duress and starvation; where it is by a combination of cruel injuries, and not by one specific blow or wound, that death is produced. These cases we shall include under a general head, having first disposed of those which require more specific notice.
“_By imprisoning a man so strictly that he dies, and therefore where any dies in gaol[95] the coroner ought to be sent for to enquire of the manner of his death._”[96]
Death by duress of imprisonment was in all probability a very frequent occurrence in the earlier periods of our history, we know that it has often been inflicted by the individual tyranny of the nobles on their vassals; and we have every reason to suppose, that even the keepers of our public prisons were not free from the imputation of cruelty to their unfortunate inmates; many have died by violence, more by neglect; it was therefore a wise and humane precaution that the circumstances of every death of a prisoner should be made the subject of minute enquiry; it is also desirable that such enquiry should be carried on by persons of competent skill, and with every possible and proper publicity. Our own times we will hope are entirely free from the crime of premeditated murder on the body of a prisoner; but we must not allow our confidence in the modern improvements of prison discipline to lull us into a false security as to the conduct of gaolers and their underlings many of these may be men of mild and humane disposition, but as their daily occupation must tend to blunt the finer feelings of humanity, it is well that every charge of misconduct should be met by immediate and rigorous enquiry. On this subject see _Rex_ v. _Huggins_, warden of the Fleet, 2 _Lord Raym._ 1578; 2 _Str._ 882; 9 _Harg. St. Tri._ 107; _Bambridge’s_ case, 9 _Harg. St. Tri._ 146, 151; _Acton’s_ case, 9 _Harg. St. Tri._ 182, 210, 218; see also the several Parliamentary Reports on Coldbath-fields, Ilchester, &c.