Wound

Within the meaning of 9 Geo. IV (1828), c.

31, s.

12, an injury to the person by which the skin is broken — the whole skin, not the cuticle merely. Breaking a limb was not, then, a wounding; nor was biting off a finger, or the nose; nor was throwing acid in the face — because, in such cases, no instrument inflicting at least a skin wound was used.

Statute of 24 and 25 Vict. (1861), c. 97, s.

47, makes it an offense to kill, maim, or wound any cattle. "Wound" is distinguishable from "maim," which implies a permanent injury, whereas a wound is any mutilation or laceration which breaks the continuity of the outer skin. The injury may be as great when produced by manual power as by an instrument, though in the former case it is not evidence of so much malice. In many cases there is great difficulty in determining what constitutes a wound. A scratch on the face, by rupturing the cuticle only, without separating the whole skin, is not a wound. The words "mortal wound," in an indictment for murder by felonious wounding, are superfluous when the indictment alleges a wounding which produces death.

Wounding.

As an injury to the limbs or body, consists in giving another some dangerous hurt; an aggravated species of battery. If death ensues from a wound given in malice, not in its nature fatal, but which, being neglected or improperly treated, causes death, the assailant may be held guilty of murder, unless it clearly appears that the neglect or treatment was the sole cause of the death. See Mayhem; Stab.