“If there are several dark-coloured marks on the body, take some water and let it fall drop by drop on to them.  If they are wounds the water will remain without trickling away; if they are not wounds, the water will run off.  In examining wounds, the finger must be used to press down any livid or red spot.  If it is a wound it will be hard, and on raising the finger will be found of the same colour as before.

“Wounds inflicted on the bone leave a red mark and a slight appearance of saturation, and where the bone is broken there will be at either end a halo-like trace of blood.  Take a bone on which there are marks of a wound and hold it up to the light; if these are of a fresh-looking red, the wound was afflicted before death and penetrated to the bone; but if there is no trace of saturation from blood, although there is a wound, if was inflicted after death.”

In a chapter on wounds from kicks, the following curious instructions are given regarding a “bone-method” of examination:—­

“To depend on the evidence of the bone immediately below the wound would be to let many criminals slip through the meshes of the law.  Where wounds have been thus inflicted, no matter on man or woman, the wounds will be visible on the upper half of the body, and not on the lower.  For instance, they will appear in a male at the roots of either the top or bottom teeth, inside; on the right hand if the wound was on the left, and vice versa; in the middle of the wound was central.  In women, the wounds will appear on the gums right or left as above.”

The next extract needs no comment, except perhaps that it forms the most cherished of all beliefs in the whole range of Chinese medical jurisprudence:—­

“The bones of parents may be identified by their children in the following manner.  Let the experimenter cut himself or herself with a knife and cause the blood to drip on to the bones; then, if the relationship is an actual fact the blood will sink into the bone, otherwise it will not.  N.B.  Should the bones have been washed with salt water, even though the relationship exists, yet the blood will not soak in.  This is a trick to be guarded against beforehand.

“It is also said that if parent and child, or husband and wife, each cut themselves and let the blood drip into a basin of water the two bloods will mix, whereas that of two people not thus related will not mix.

“Where two brothers who may have been separated since childhood are desirous of establishing their identity as such, but are unable to do so by ordinary means, bid each one cut himself and let the blood drip into a basin.  If they are really brothers, the two bloods will congeal into one; otherwise not.  But because fresh blood will always congeal with the aid of a little salt or vinegar, people often smear the basin over with these to attain