Asphyxiation
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The facts about Asphyxia
Suffocation; a lack of oxygen that produces a build-up of carbon dioxide
waste in the tissues.
Asphyxia may arise from any one of a number of causes, including inhalation
of smoke or poisonous gases, obstruction of the windpipe (by water, food,
vomit, or foreign object), strangulation, or smothering.
If it is not quickly relieved, brain damage or death ensues. One very
important case in which the victims were suffocated involved the body snatchers
Burke & Hare.
There was a thriving trade in corpes in nineteenth-century Britain.
Medical schools required them for anatomy classes and the demand always
outstripped the supply. Bodies were invariably accepted by schools without
any questions being asked. Like any other entrepreneurs in a buyer's market
they knew when they were onto a good thing. The unfortunate part about
the business was the lack of stock. They decided instead of waiting for
someone to die and provide them with their stock they would speed up the
process and create their own. Most of these corpses were of drunken down-and-outs
who they suffocated when their victims fell into an alcoholic stupour.
Another case was that of Raymond
Leslie Morris. What happened on 19th August 1967 must be every parents
nightmare. Seven year old Christine
Ann Darbywas abducted in broad daylight from Coronation Street, Walsall.
Any hopes her family had of her being found alive and well were dashed
when her suffocated and almost naked body was found three days later buried
in undergrowth on Cannock Chase.
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For more information contact:
Gregg Manning
