=Was the suffocation homicidal, suicidal, or accidental?=--Suffocation may occur accidentally during the act of swallowing, and by foreign bodies placed carelessly in the mouth and then drawn suddenly into the windpipe, or by blocking the pharynx or œsophagus, also from being smothered by sinking into sand, grain, mud, and such-like, or by the bed-clothes in cases of epilepsy during a fit. Examine the lips for the presence of ecchymosis and other marks of violence. A man, some years ago, was accused of having caused the death of his wife by strangulation, for which he was indicted, and tried before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland. The _post-mortem_ examination revealed the cause of death as due to suffocation, and the following injuries were found on dividing the windpipe, which contained a quantity of frothy mucus: in the interior of the larynx there was a considerable extravasation of blood lying beneath the investing membrane, and passing up on both sides and behind, as far as the chink of the glottis, and above that opening into the ventricles of the larynx. There was here, also, a fracture of the right wing of the thyroid cartilage, by which its lowest horn was wholly detached, and the cricoid cartilage was broken in two places at opposite sides of its ring. The defence was that she had fallen accidentally while in a state of drunkenness, and had thus produced the fatal injuries. The man was acquitted, the legal opinion in favour outweighing the medical opinion against the theory of accident. The above case created some discussion at the time, and induced Dr. Keiller to make several experiments as to the possibility of fracturing the cartilages of the larynx. The following are his conclusions: 1. That _ordinary_ falls on the human larynx are apparently not capable of producing fractures of its cartilages, and even _falls from a height with superadded force_ appear to be unlikely to do so. 2. That _severe pressure applied from before backwards_, so as strongly to compress the larynx against the vertebral column, or _violent blows inflicted over the larynx by means of a heavy body_, are sufficient to cause fractures of the larynx. Fractures so produced, however, will be most discernible on the _internal_ surface, and generally _in or near the mesial line_. 3. _Violent compression_ applied to the _sides of the larynx_ (as in ordinary _manual throttling or strangulation by grasping_), is, of all applied forces, the most likely to produce fractures of the alæ of the thyroid cartilage, or even of the cricoid cartilage, and fractures so produced are most perceptible, as well as most extensive, on the _external_ surface of the larynx. By this _lateral_ mode of applying force, the _hyoid bone_ is almost most readily broken.