_Internally_, the process of putrefaction begins in the trachea and larynx. The brain in children up to the end of the first year, is next attacked. Next the stomach, intestines and spleen, and then the omentum and mesentery. The liver is usually compact and firm, even some weeks after death. Putrefaction commences on its convex surface. The brain of the adult follows next in the succession of putrefying organs. Several months usually elapse before putrefaction of the heart has advanced very far. In the lungs decomposition begins about the same time as in the heart, sometimes earlier. The kidneys, urinary bladder, œsophagus, pancreas, diaphragm and larger arterial trunks then succumb, and last of all the uterus. 4. The Probable Cause of Death. Although in general, a careful examination of a body found dead, will readily reveal the true cause of death, yet instances frequently occur where attempts at concealing it, or peculiar circumstances in connection with the death, may render the task more difficult. We confine ourselves here to a brief notice of some of the more important points to be kept in view, in rightly estimating the relative value of post-mortem appearances, and in guarding against possible mistakes. Rough handling, falls and blows, occurring a short time after death, may produce excoriations and pseudo-ecchymoses, which cannot by sight be distinguished from such as are the result of violence inflicted during life. _Wounds_ inflicted during life are distinguished from those inflicted after death, by the entire absence in the case of the latter, of any signs of vital reaction, as inflammation, hæmorrhage, suppuration, swelling or cicatrization of the edges of the wound, etc. But in the case of very sudden death from wounding of an important organ, these traces of vital reaction may also be wholly wanting. Again, injuries are often produced on dead bodies, by the instruments used to recover them from the places in which they have been discovered. _Contused wounds_ seldom represent the exact dimensions of the weapon employed. Blunt weapons may merely contuse and disfigure, or lacerate, or fracture bones, or produce rupture of internal organs. Healthy organs never rupture spontaneously, and can only be ruptured by external violence. The inspection of the position, direction, depth, breadth, and number of wounds, compared with the weapon with which they have been inflicted, often furnish the means of approximately judging of the position of the perpetrator when he committed the deed, and even his object and bodily strength. In judging whether _fractures_ have been produced before or after death, we must remember that it is very difficult to fracture the bones of a dead body. Hence, for example, considerable injuries of the cranial bones, particularly of the base of the skull, have most probably been produced during life. A fracture of the ribs in the dead body is never splintered.