Chapter III

Dr. Charles A. Elsberg, of New York City, distinguished consulting neurological surgeon, wrote me on March 19, 1928, as follows:

_You are quite right in the assumption that it would be very unusual
for a "dagger wound just above the right eye, two inches deep and one
inch wide," to have caused instant death, altho it is possible that
if Marlowe had a very thin skull and short frontal region that the
dagger might have penetrated the cavernous sinus. This seems to me,
however, very improbable. On the other hand, if Marlowe was suffering
from a cardiac disease, a sudden shock might have caused instant
death, altho it was not the actual trauma._

* * * * *

Dr. James Ewing, professor of pathology at Cornell University Medical College (New York City), sent me the following reply to my letter to him regarding Marlowe's death:

_I do not see how the wound that you describe by a dagger entering
the orbit above the right eye could cause instant death. Yet it
seems possible that if the dagger went deeply into the brain, it
might sever blood vessels and cause hemorrhage which would lead to
almost immediate unconsciousness and death in a short time, without
recovering consciousness._

* * * * *

Professor W.G. MacCallum, head of the department of pathology at Johns Hopkins University, wrote me as follows:

_I should think that a wound such as you described ... would hardly
have gone further than through the frontal sinus and into the frontal
lobe of the cerebrum and I don't see either how it caused instant
death._

_Of course, one might imagine that the force of the blow was such as
to stun him and allow time for fatal haemorrhage in that position.
The only other thing one could think of would be perhaps that with
extreme violence some further injury might have been produced in
a more vital part of the brain, but on the whole it seems to me
questionable that instant death would follow such a blow._

* * * * *

Dr. Otto H. Schultze, professor of pathology and medical jurisprudence, Coroner's physician in New York from 1896 to 1914, medical assistant District Attorney of New York County from 1914 to date, and the author of several works on the medico-legal aspects of homicide, wrote as follows in reply to my inquiry:

_A stab wound of the skin or even puncturing the orbit could not
cause instant death, nor would be likely to cause a fatal hemorrhage.
A stab wound above the eye, penetrating the orbital plate and
frontal lobe of brain, may cause death, but hardly would account for
"instant" death._

IV

Appendix B

THE CORONER'S REPORT