We should next proceed to a more minute and particular inspection of the external appearances; for which purpose the body should be cleansed from the dirt and impurities with which it may be invested, taking care to notice upon this occasion, whether the surface be covered with that sebaceous matter usually present on the skin of newly-born infants, and whether any mud or other matter, capable of stopping the mouth and nostrils be found about them. The head should also be shaved, in order that the fontanelles and sutures may be carefully examined with a view to ascertain whether any injury had been committed on the brain through these avenues. A midwife was executed at Paris for having introduced fine and sharp wires into these parts, before the heads of the unfortunate infants were expelled from the vagina, and consequently before respiration could have taken place. Every appearance of ecchymosis, or wound, should be inspected with attention, in order that its true character may be verified; and upon this occasion it will be important to bear in mind that on the surface of dead bodies, especially on those parts on which they have lain, superficial livid marks, arising from stagnation of blood in the small vessels of the skin will very generally present themselves, and which have received the name of _sugillations_, in contradistinction to that of _ecchymoses_, which are produced during the life of the individual. As the people, observes _Dr. Hutchinson_, are apt to regard the former of these discolourations as signs of violence, and as such propositions have even been maintained in courts of judicature, it is highly essential to obviate the possibility of litigation on this point, by removing a layer of the skin where such lividness is present, to shew that it is confined to this organ, and is not attended with infiltration of blood in the cellular tissue.