_Has there been any thunder storm?_—For an account of the appearances in the body of a person, who has been thus suddenly deprived of life, we must refer the reader to our chapter on “Death by Lightning,” vol. ii, p. 63. It will, at the same time, be right to consider, whether the death of the person in question can have arisen from an exposure to the rays of the sun, which has occasionally happened in the harvest field—“And Manasses was her husband, of her tribe and kindred, who died in the barley harvest. For as he stood overseeing them that bound sheaves in the field, the heat came upon his head, and he fell on his bed, and died in the city of Bethulia.” _Judith_, _chap._ viii, _v._ 2, 3. _Sauvage_ relates the case of several young persons, who suffered an asphyxia from sleeping in an open field, exposed to the rays of the sun; and it may deserve notice in this place, that in such cases, hemorrhage from the nose is not an uncommon occurrence; the appearance of blood will thus receive an explanation which might otherwise excite unjust suspicions of violence.
_Whether any, and what weapons are lying near the body; and what is their position in relation to it?_—Much light may be thrown upon the inquiry by an attentive examination of the weapons found near the deceased; and some interesting cases are recorded, wherein this circumstance alone led to their developement. In the year 1764, a citizen of Liege was found shot, and his own pistol was discovered lying near him; from which circumstance, together with that of no person having been seen to enter or leave the house of the deceased, it was concluded that he had destroyed himself; but on examining the ball, by which he had been killed, it was found to be too large ever to have entered that pistol; in consequence of which, suspicion fell upon the real murderers. The wadding of the pistol has also in several instances offered the means of affixing the accusation on the guilty. The Lord Chancellor, in a debate in the House of Lords, in November 1820, quoted a very curious case in which the wadding of the pistol was found to correspond with a torn letter in the possession of the murderer.