Injuries of the neck produced when persons are legally executed by hanging with the "drop," or "fall," as is the practice in the British Empire and some of our states, are rarely duplicated in other forms of hanging. Just what these injuries are is not altogether clear, and apparently their pattern is not uniform. Dislocations and fractures of some of the upper two or three cervical vertebrae, bruising of the medulla spinalis, lacerations of the inner coats of some of the large arteries, and contusions of the cervical muscles have been noted. It is known that fracture of the tooth-shaped upright process of the epistropheus, or its dislocation with rupture of the strong ligament that binds it close to the dorsal arch of the atlas, does not take place as frequently as was formerly believed.
The bibliography of suicidal, accidental or homicidal hanging, in which, as a rule, no "drop"