There are so many various modes by which this infamous and horrid crime
may be perpetrated, that it would be an almost endless task to enumerate
them. In a legal point of view it is scarcely necessary; for wherever
death ensues from illegal violence[92], with malice _prepense_, it is
felony; yet for the better aid of medical investigation it is expedient
to class them under several heads.
Sir _Matthew Hale_, in his pleas of the Crown, vol. 2, p. 431,
enumerates several ways of killing.
1. By exposing a sick or weak person or infant unto the cold, to the
intent to destroy him, 2 _Ed._ 3, 189, whereof he dieth.
2. By laying an impotent person abroad, so that he may be exposed to and
receive mortal harm, as laying an infant in an orchard, and covering it
with leaves, whereby a kite strikes it and kills it. 6 _Eliz. Compt. de
Pace_; 24 _Dalton_, _cap._ 93, (new edit. 145.)[93]
3. By imprisoning a man so strictly that he dies, and therefore where
any dies in gaol, the coroner ought to be sent for to enquire of the
manner of his death.