that the greater the contamination of the hospital and its furniture, the more difficulty the surgeon will have in preventing the septic poisoning of his patients. This may be illustrated by a reference to Tyndall's experiments on the cause of the putrefaction of organic liquids, when he found the air of the laboratory of the Eoyal Institution of London in which lie had been for some time worki...

The focus of this article is the application of CO-oximetry in the analysis of blood samples after death. This is largely confined to confirming or excluding carbon monoxide poisoning as a contributory or prime cause of death, by measurement of COHb. Issues addressed will include: the toxicity of carbon monoxide; the causes of lethal carbon monoxide poisoning; and the particular difficulties su...

Armand Gautier, Cornil and Babes, and Bordas show that microbes of different species follow each other in a regular manner in the complex phenomena of putrefaction, and their action is followed in each case bj^ the evolution of gases having various smells. These gases are perceived by the insects which infest corpses often at immense distances. So delicate is their sense of smell that they are ...

Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of four spider monkeys, three squirrel monkeys and three pigtail macaques to four thiols and two indols, substances characteristic of putrefaction processes and faecal odours, was assessed. With all odorants, the animals significantly discriminated concentrations below 1 p.p.m. (part per million) from the odourless solvent, and in several...

Gas embolic lesions linked to military sonar have been described in stranded cetaceans including beaked whales. These descriptions suggest that gas bubbles in marine mammal tissues may be more common than previously thought. In this study we have analyzed gas amount (by gas score) and gas composition within different decomposition codes using a standardized methodology. This broad study has all...

The object of this investigation has been (a) to determine the changes in the chemical composition of the urine and feces due to the ingestion of bakers’ yeast and the relation of these changes to intestinal putrefaction and (b) to determine whether yeast used under controlled conditions has a laxative action. The use of yeast in the treatment of constipation is not a new or unusual practice, f...