Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1 by R. A. Witthaus et al.

inflicted during life may be inverted, instead of everted, if a thin layer of muscular fibres is attached directly to the deep surface of the skin, as is the case in the scrotum. The eversion of the edges of the skin is due to their elasticity, and ceases to occur as soon as the skin loses its vitality. Consequently eversion ceases to occur soon after death, within a very few hours. A wound in which the edges are neither inverted or everted was therefore inflicted after death. If this sign is present and marked, the wound was inflicted during life or within two or three hours or less after death. If this sign is present but very slightly marked, the wound may have been made even somewhat longer after death.