Drowning means death by the air being prevented entering the lungs owing to the month and nostrils being immersed in a liquid, the liquid being commonly water. Death may, therefore, occur by drowning in a small quantity of water. Thus a child may fall head downwards into a tub and be drowned, though the tub is not half full of water, sufficient to cover the mouth and nostrils being all that is necessary, and an adult overcome by a fit or by drunkenness may fall on a road with their head in a ditch or pool of water, and drown. Death is thus due to suffocation, to the stoppage of breathing, and to the entrance of water into the lungs. When death has been caused by drowning, the skin presents the appearance called goose-skin (cutis anserina), the face and surface of the body generally are usually pale, a frothy liquid is found in the lungs and air-passages, and about the lips and nostrils; water may be found in the stomach, and clenched fingers, holding substances grasped at, may serve to show that a struggle has taken place in the water, and that the body was alive at the time of immersion.
Drowning was formerly a mode of capital punishment in Europe. The last person executed by drowning in Scotland was executed in 1685. In Ireland there was an execution by drowning so lately as 1777. Research Drowning
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Abbreviations
General Information
Research Drowning
