In the February issue of the Indian Medical Gazette, 1889, S. Coull Mackenzie, Police Surgeon of Calcutta, published an account of eight cases of saponification observed by him during his nine years of medico-legal work in that city. In the April issue of the same journal for 1897 Dr. George H. F. Nutall published a paper under the title " Has adipocere been observed in India?" in which he poin...

The view that Joseph Lister's introduction of antisepsis was a revolutionary act is an old one. Thus John Tyndall wrote in 1881 "Living germs . . . as Schwann was the first to prove, are the causes of putrefaction. Lister extended the generalization of Schwann from dead matter to living matter, and by this apparently simple step revolutionized the art of surgery. He changed it, in fact, from an...

Indican is derived from indol, and unlike the other ethereal sulphates which are derived in part from metabolism, originates practically wholly from putrefactive processes. It, alone, therefore, and not the total ethereal sulphates, has been taken as an index of such putrefaction (1). The determination of indican depends upon its decomposition and oxidation of the liberated indoxyl into indigo-...

Halitosis is known as unpleasant oral odor affecting large proportion of population and may be the cause of a significant social and psychological handicap. People who are not aware of their bad breath may encounter romantic, social and professional rejection without knowing the reason. 85% cases of halitosis originate from microbial putrefaction within the oral cavity itself. Modern analytical...

The chromatographic and spectroscopic properties of several unusual substances which have been detected in the "alkaloidal" chloroform extract from racehorse urine and saliva samples are reported. Some of these substances have been identified by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and the source of the substance is stated where this is known. Other substances whose identity is not kno...

Introduction: In the forensic identification of unidentifed corpses, several technological clinical tools are used in order to obtain data that may be relevant judicial investigation. One them is registration and documentation tattoos. Tattoos body modifications with marks on skin made by impregnating epidermis various pigments forming diverse figures. Their presence plays a very important role...

Many food products are claimed to be effective in controlling halitosis. Halitosis is caused mainly by volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) such as H(2)S and CH(3)SH produced in the oral cavity. Oral microorganisms degrade proteinaceous substrates to cysteine and methionine, which are then converted to VSCs. Most treatments for halitosis focus on controlling the number of microorganisms in the oral...