Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Science
Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1
Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Medical jurisprudence; Poisons; Toxicology
Besides the above instruments, some basins containing water; sponges,
bottle of flexible collodion, Lugol’s solution of iodine for the
amyloid test, will be needed.
=Post-Mortem Wounds.=—Various plans have been proposed to protect
the operator’s hands from the post-mortem wounds which are often so
dangerous, such as wearing rubber gloves, smearing the hands with
carbolized vaselin, both of which have their disadvantages: the gloves
being too clumsy, and the vaselin rendering it almost impossible to
hold the knife steady. Gloves should always be worn, however, where the
body has undergone much decomposition, or where the person may have
died from any septic disease. A method which I have found satisfactory
is to cover all cuts and hangnails with flexible collodion, and then
to have a basin of clean water at hand, and from time to time to rinse
one’s hands in the water. It is from bathing the hands in the cadaveric
fluids and not from cuts that most of the danger comes. If possible an
absolutely new board, large enough upon which to examine the organs,
should be at hand, for it may be claimed at a trial that the organs and
tissues, if placed and examined on surrounding objects, have become
contaminated.
=Toxicological.=—If a chemical analysis of the various organs and
tissues is to be made, and it is impossible to have the chemist
present, the medical examiner should obtain some new glass jars of
suitable size, with close-fitting glass covers. These jars should
be rinsed with distilled water, and in them the various organs are
to be placed; if possible with no preserving fluid on them. But if
it is found impossible to deliver the jars to the chemist at once,
alcohol may be poured over the organs in the jars, but it is specially
important that a sample of this alcohol should be retained, that a
chemist may at a future date test the same for any impurities. After
the organs and tissues have been placed in the jars, the mouths should
be closed and sealed, and the seal remain in the custody of the
examiner until the jars are delivered to the chemist.
=Parts to be Preserved for the Chemist.=—In cases of suspected
poisoning, it is not sufficient that the stomach and intestines alone
should be preserved for the chemist as has been indicated, each part
by itself; for it should be remembered that the portion of poison
remaining in the alimentary tract is but the residue of the dose
which had been sufficient to destroy life, and if the processes of
elimination have been rapid no trace of the poison will be found in the
alimentary canal but can readily be detected in other organs. Again,
the poison may not have been introduced by the mouth, in which case
none may be found in the digestive tract.
The chemist should receive, besides the stomach and entire intestinal
canal, the liver, one or both kidneys, the spleen, a piece of muscle
from the leg, the brain, and any urine found in the bladder.
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