We ought not to quit the examination of the head, until we have examined the base of the cranium, in order to determine whether any fracture exists in that part; a curious case is related by _Mr. Charles Bell_,[29] of a person who died suddenly some weeks after having received an injury of the head, when it appeared, on dissection, that the base of the skull had been fractured, and that the _foramen magnum_ having been thus roughened, a sudden turn of the head had forced a spiculum of bone into the spinal marrow. The brain has also received fatal injuries from the introduction of pointed instruments through the orbits; _Macklin_, the comedian, was tried for killing a brother actor by the thrust of his cane. _Thomas Dangerfield_, one of the celebrated and perjured witnesses on the Popish plot, in the reign of Charles II, was killed by _Mr. Robert Francis_, by the blow of a cane, the end of which penetrated the orbit.[30] The author also well remembers the case of an old woman, who, in a fit of intoxication, fell to the ground upon the stem of the tobacco-pipe with which she was smoking, when it penetrated the orbit, and occasioned immediate death; the cause of her dissolution was never suspected until after dissection, as no external wound was visible. In some cases it may be considered expedient to extend our anatomical researches into the spinal column, which may be effected by sawing off the transverse processes. The cervical vertebræ should always be examined where dislocation of the neck can be suspected; for in such cases death may be produced without leaving any external vestige of the injury. This has frequently occurred to coachmen and others, who have been crushed while driving under low archways, by which the nerves, necessary for the support of the vital organs have been compressed or lacerated, and death has in consequence ensued. If the cervical vertebræ should be dislocated, a general paralysis will follow, and life can no longer be maintained. _M. Petit_ relates the case of a boy suspended by the head, who striving to disengage himself dropped down dead; and _Dr. Monro_ saw a case where four of the cervical vertebræ were dislocated by a fall, which ended fatally in a few hours.