Of the external signs, the presence of sand, gravel, or mud under the nails may or may not be an important sign, for sand or mud may collect under the nails during the efforts to drag the body from the water; but weeds, &c., grasped in the hands show that there has been a struggle, and point to death from drowning. The _cutis anserina_--goose skin--present generally on the anterior surface of the body, and not, however, peculiar to death from drowning, is important as a sign of recent vitality. The face of those who have been drowned, and then quickly removed from the water, is pale, and in most cases not swollen; the eyes may or may not be closed; and not infrequently round the mouth there is more or less froth, especially when death is due to apnœa. In summer, however, after two or three days, and longer in winter, the face assumes a reddish or bluish-red coloration, putrefaction taking place about the head and upper extremities earlier than in other forms of death. The _contraction or retraction of the penis_ is a well-marked sign of death by drowning, and Casper asserts that he has “not observed anything similar so constantly after any other kind of death.” Ogston states that he has met with two cases of erection of the penis in the drowned. The question as to how long a body may remain in the water before it floats has given rise to considerable discussion, without, however, arriving at any very definite conclusion. It may be stated in general terms that, as floating depends to some extent on the rapidity in which putrefaction supervenes on submersion, bodies float earlier in summer than in winter, in salt than fresh water, clothed than naked. In India bodies have floated in twenty-four hours after immersion. Females and children float more readily than males. A body from various causes may float within a few hours of its submersion, especially if the body be that of a female, fat and clothed. The old idea that the body of a person thrown into water during life sinks, but that a dead body under like conditions floats, is a fiction now exploded. =Suicide or Homicide?=--Homicide by drowning is rare, except in children. Accidental and suicidal drowning are common enough. The signs to be sought for in the drowned are--(1) Absence of any injury. (2) _Cutis anserina_ and retracted penis. (3) Water and mud in the stomach. (4) Froth in the air-passages. (5) Distended lungs. (6) General signs of death by asphyxia. It should be remembered that the fact of the hands being tied together, or to the feet, does not militate against suicide by drowning.