If wounds and other injuries be found on the body, the question arises as to whether the injuries were sufficient in themselves to cause death, and then as to whether they were caused during life. A person jumping from a height into the water may sustain severe injuries--dislocation of both arms, fracture of the skull and of the vertebræ, or even lacerated wounds of more or less severity. The absence of the signs proper to death by drowning, coupled with the presence of external injuries, would point to death by violence prior to immersion. The presence of signs of drowning, and injuries, sufficient to have caused death in themselves, would indicate that they had occurred after death. The following considerations may assist in forming an opinion: 1. Previous history of person found in the water. (_a_) Any history of suicidal tendency. (_b_) Any motive that would render suicide probable. 2. Height from which the person fell. 3. Absence or presence of signs of death by drowning. 4. Absence of stakes or other objects in the water that might have caused injuries to anyone falling against them. The time required to cause death by drowning is so short that persons seldom recover after submersion for three or four minutes; but the cessation of respiration is no guide to the extinction of life, and an attempt at resuscitation should always be made, for if the respiration be fairly restored the heart will soon act. Nay more, as pointed out before, in cases of so-called asphyxia, the heart may continue to act for several minutes after the entrance of air to the lungs has been arrested, and in judicial hanging it frequently happens that the pulse at the wrist can be felt for ten or twelve minutes after suspension. (See Figs. 16, 17, 18.) Recapitulation of the Post-mortem Appearances in the Drowned I. External 1. _In the Skin._--Rose-coloured patches may be present on the face and neck. The condition of _goose skin_--_cutis anserina_--is hardly ever absent even in summer. The _cutis anserina_ is not, however, characteristic of drowning, as it may be present in other forms of violent death, and also in some persons during life. It is a vital act, the result of nervous shock, and does not depend upon the temperature of the water for its production; still, it points to recent vitality. 2. _The Tongue._--The tongue is just as often found behind the jaws as between them (Casper).