ANIL AGGRAWAL'S PAGE OF
FORENSIC QUOTES AND APHORISMS

About Myself

Hi, I am Professor Anil Aggrawal from India. I am working as a Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi-110002, India. I love to exchange ideas on Forensic Medicine, Forensic Pathology and Forensic Toxicology.

I love quotes. There are all kinds of quotation books available in the market, but unfortunately none caters exclusively to Forensic Quotes. This page is a modest effort to fill this gap. It includes quotes which I have collected during the last 25 years of my experience in Forensic Medicine. It also includes quotes submitted by several of the discerning readers. All contributions by the web surfers have been added with due acknowledgements. I hope to put the collective wisdom of all of us on the net for the benefit of all. After all that is why the God invented the internet, isn't it!

So if you remember any of the witty forensic quotes that you heard somewhere, E-mail it to me, and I will put it on the internet with due credits. My E-mail is dr_anil@hotmail.com.

All quotes submitted by readers will be put on the web with due credit. Please don't forget to mention the source of the quotes. That will make my work that much easier.

If you have enjoyed these pages (or even if you haven't), please be good enough to leave your comments in the guestbook. These are my only rewards. It keeps me on track (your criticisms), and keeps my morale high (your appreciations). Thanks!

Guestbook

Statistics

Our Valued Contributors

ABORTION

I will not aid a woman to produce abortion.

- Hippocratic Oath

All your better deeds shall be in water writ.

- Philaster II, IV (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 88, in Chapter 5 entitled "Abortion and its complications")

ACCIDENTS

Now and then there is a person born who is so unlucky that he runs into accidents which started out to happen to somebody else.

- Don Marquis, archys life of mehitabel

AGE ESTIMATION (MEDICOLEGAL ESTIMATION OF AGE)

Attempting to estimate the age of a person from the closure of his skull sutures is no less hazardous than doing so from graying of his hair; the only difference is that the former appears more technical!

- Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

If the first permanent molar hath not protruded, you can have no hesitation in affirming that the culprit has not passed his seventh year.

- A.T. Thomson in his classical paper written as far back as 1836. The full quotation of the paper is "Thomson AT. (1836). Lectures on medical jurisprudence now in course of delivery at London University. Lancet 1:281-286 (This quote is reproduced in "Developmental Juvenile Osteology" by Louise Scheuer and Sue Black, Academic Press 2000 on page 12)

ALCOHOL

Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.

- Don Marquis, archys life of mehitabel

The trouble with liquor is that one drink makes a new man out of you, and then the new man has to have another drink!

- Alvy Moore

Not drunk is he who from the floor

Can rise alone and still drink more,

But drunk is he who prostrate lies

Without the power to drink or rise.

- Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866): English novelist and poet

A drunkard is like a whiskey bottle; all neck and belly and no head!

- Austin O'Malley

In vino veritas (in wine there is truth)

- Old Roman saying

ANAESTHETIC DEATHS

There are many minor operations, but no minor anesthesias.

- Kenneth Heard (1897-1948) (Quoted in "Historical Medical Classics involving new drugs, by John C. Krantz, Jr. Ph.D. on page 112)

Care charming sleep, thou loser of all woes.

- Valentinion V (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 79, in Chapter 4 entitled "Respiration". This quote appears at the top of a sub-chapter entitled "Anaesthesia for dental treatment")

ANALYSIS AND DEDUCTION

I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.

- Sherlock Holmes in "A Scandal in Bohemia", when Dr. Watson asks him what he makes of a mysterious note which had just arrived.

Whenever you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - "The Adventures of the Beryl Coronet" -Quoted on the front page of "An Introduction to Forensic DNA Analysis" by Keith Inman and Norah Rudin)

Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired through long and patient study.

- Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Book of Life" (Quoted in "Hard Evidence" By David Fisher at page 1)

ARSON AND FIRE INVESTIGATION

The person who reports finding an arson is usually the person who set the fire.

- Contributed by Harold J. Porter, Crown Counsel, Newfoundland, Canada (Address: Harold J. Porter, Department of Justice , Civil Division, 4th Floor , East Block,Confederation Building, St. John's Newfoundland A1B 4J6, TEL 709-729-1179, FAX 709-729-2129. Mr. Porter goes on to add "this is not a well-known maxim, but an accurate one, in my limited experience". The quote was sent on 20 December 1999. To me this quote sounds much like "The murderer always returns to the scene of crime". Visitors to this page are welcome to send relevant comments)

Time is an enemy to the fire investigator.

- Paul E. Pritzker, P.E. (quoted on page 37 in Chapter 3 written by him on "fire investigation" in the book "Forensic Engineering" by Kenneth L. Carper (CRC Press 1998)) (Pritzker follows up the quote with this explanation: When one is called late to investigate a fire, physical evidence may have been altered or may have deteriorated)

Wellington once said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eaton. It is important to prepare before arrival at the fire scene!

- Paul E. Pritzker, P.E. (quoted on page 35 in Chapter 3 written by him on "fire investigation" in the book "Forensic Engineering" by Kenneth L. Carper (CRC Press 1998))

ASPHYXIA

The term "Asphyxia" is a partial misnomer, as many of the conditions described under this heading are not truly asphyxial in nature; the term is both inappropriate and inaccurate.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 345)

Anoxia begets anoxia.

- G.K. Dinker

Petechial hemorrhages, congestion and edema, cyanosis, engorgement of the right heart and fluidity of the blood are the obsolete diagnostic quintet of asphyxial deaths.

- Lester Adelson ( Quoted by Bernard Knight in his Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition at page 347)

Traumatic asphyxia provides the most extreme demonstration of the classic signs of asphyxia.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 358)

His face is black and full of blood,
His eye balls farther out than when he lived,
Staring full ghastly, a strangled man,
His hair upreared, his nostrils stretched with struggling,
His hands abroad displayed, as one that grasped,
And tugged for life, and was by strength subdued.

- William Shakespeare

I thought I could not breathe in that fine air,
That pure severity of perfect light.

- Tennyson (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 204)

(N.B. Please also look up quotes under "Hanging")

ASPHYXIA, AUTOEROTIC

Those kids are stupid. They don't know what they're doing.

- A 16 year old boy to his mother, who showed him an article about autoerotic deaths in a newspaper (Reproduced from "Practical Homicide Investigation-Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques", Second Edition, by Vernon J. Geberth, page 278)

(N.B. Interestingly, the boy himself was engaged in such activities, and was found dead two weeks later)

Vladimir: “What do we do now?”
Estragon: “Wait.”
Vladimir: “Yes, but while waiting.”
Estragon: “What about hanging ourselves?”
Vladimir: “Hmm. It’d give us an erection.”
Estragon: (highly excited) “An erection! ... Let’s hang ourselves immediately!”

- Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (reproduced also at page 10 of "Autoerotic Asphyxiation: Forensic, Medical, and Social Aspects" by Sergey Sheleg and Edwin Ehrlich. Wheatmark, Inc. 2006)

ASSAULTS

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

- Luke 10:30 (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 109)

AUTOPSY

The next time I see a doctor, it had better be for an autopsy.

- A.J. Duhe, linebacker for the Miami Dolphins, after his fifth knee operation, 1985 (Quoted in "The Autopsy-Medical Practice and Public Policy" by Rolla B. Hill and Robert E. Anderson; Butterworths 1988, page 157)

In some autopsy laboratories, the most significant breakthrough during the last 100 years has been the introduction of disposable gloves!

- Jan Vincents Johannessen et al. 1979 (Quoted in "The Autopsy-Medical Practice and Public Policy" by Rolla B. Hill and Robert E. Anderson; Butterworths 1988, page 175)

There's nothing like an autopsy for prognosis.

- Anonymous (Contributed by Dean H. Garrison, Jr., Crime Scene Technician.)

Often the autopsy reveals the diseases and lesions that the person lived with, rather than those that killed him!

- Anonymous

If an autopsy is worth doing at all, it is worth doing right the first time.

- LeMoyne Snyder in his book "Homicide Investigation", (Third Edition, May 1977) Published by Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, USA, on page 158, in chapter 7 entitled "Homicide due to Gunshot Wounds"

A good pathologist holds a knife just like a violinist holds a bow.

- Contributed by Dr. Gyan Fernando, Home Office accredited Consultant Forensic Pathologist for Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

We have plenty of post-mortem examinations but often these are useless because the history of the case is not known.

- J. Kerr Love (1897). Some Modern Aspects of Deaf-Mutism, J. Laryngology, 12, 593 (Quoted in Pathology of the Ear by I. Friedmann, 1974, Blackwell Scientific Publications)

(N.B. This short and pithy quote, although more than 100 years old, remains valid even today.)

AUTOPSY RISKS

There is still not a single documented case of a pathologist or a technician getting AIDS from their professional activities.

- Contributed by Dr. Gyan Fernando, Home Office accredited Consultant Forensic Pathologist for Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

The fact that I have never caught anything from an autopsy in 25 years of carving in two different parts of the world should put everyone's mind at ease.

- Contributed by Dr. Gyan Fernando, Home Office accredited Consultant Forensic Pathologist for Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

You are more likely to injure yourself with blunt knives than with sharp ones!

- Contributed by Dr. Gyan Fernando, Home Office accredited Consultant Forensic Pathologist for Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

BATTERED BABY SYNDROME

Spare the rod!

- Title of a paper by James E. George of the Emergency Department, Underwood Memorial Hospital, Woodbury, N.J. (U.S.A.) on Battered Baby Syndrome published in Forensic Science, 2 (1973) 129-167

Hark ye, good parents, to my words true and plain,
When you are shaking your baby, you could be bruising his brain.
So, save the limbs, the brain, even the life of your tot;
By shaking him never; never and not.

- a quatrain from the paper “On the Theory and Practice of Shaking Infants” published in Amer. J. Dis. Chil,. on page 169. Full reference of the article is this: Caffey, John. On the Theory and Practice of Shaking infants. Amer. J. Dis. Child. August 1972, Vol. 124, no. 2, Pp 161-169

Whiplash-shaking is practiced commonly in a wide variety of ways, under a wide variety of circumstances, by a wide variety of persons, for a wide variety of reasons.

- John Caffey of “Caffey’s syndrome” fame in his paper: On the Theory and Practice of Shaking infants. Amer. J. Dis. Child. August 1972, Vol. 124, no. 2, Pp 161-169, on page 161

BLOOD STAINS

Out damned spot! Out, I say
Here's the smell of the blood still,
All the perfumes of Arabia will not
Sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!

- William Shakespeare

Blood though it sleeps a time, yet never dies,
The Gods on murtherers fix revengeful eyes.

- Dryden (The Cock and the Fox)

Any butcher is just as good an expert on that as this witness.

- Commonwealth v. Sturtivant (1875) (Quoted in “Scientific and Legal Applications of Bloodstain Pattern Interpretation” Ed. Stuart H. James, page 122)

(N.B. A little background above the above quote may be appreciated. In this case, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court addressed the admissibility of blood spatter interpretation and the qualifications of an “expert”. The witness, a chemist accustomed to chemical and microscopic examination of blood and bloodstains, testified for the prosecution as to directionality; i.e., “if the force of a stream of liquid, whatever it may be, and especially blood, be from below upward, the heaviest portion of the drop will stop at the further end of the stain; if from above downward, it will stop below.”. Defence counsel objected to this testimony at trial, stating, “That is pure opinion as to a matter of mechanics, not chemistry. Any butcher is just as good an expert on that as this witness.”)

When blood is their argument.

- King Henry V, iv, i (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 161, in Chapter 9 entitled “Immunoserology”)

(N.B. See also under “Disputed paternity”)

BRUISES

It is impossible to comment on the age of a bruise less than 24 hours since infliction.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 143)

It is not practicable to construct an accurate calendar of the color changes of bruises, as was done in older textbooks.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 143)

If anyone thinks that he can accurately tell you the age of a bruise based on its appearance, he needs to have some serious re-education.

- Jo Duflou, in an E-mail to a Forensic Discussion Group on Fri, 27 Oct 2000 NSW Institute of Forensic Medicine

BURNS AND SCALDS

Traditionally most authors claim that differentiation can be made between an ante-mortem and a post-mortem blister by an analysis for protein and chloride in the fluid; but I have yet to meet a pathologist who does this as a routine! One suspects that the test is another of the apocryphal procedures that have been handed down from textbook to textbook without verification.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 310-1)

The exposed skin surface may be reddened in both ante-mortem and post-mortem burns; the classical distinction of a "red flare" or "vital reaction" is unsafe as an index of infliction before death.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 310)

Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burnt?

- Proverbs 6:27 (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 178)

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Don’t hang me too high.... for the sake of decency.

- Mary Blandy, who murdered her father with arsenic to her executioner in 1775 (quoted in “Murder - Whatdunit” by J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, page 40)

CARDIAC AND VASCULAR LESIONS

I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.

- Anonymous (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 17, in Chapter 3 entitled "Cardiology and Vascular Lesions")

CAUSE OF DEATH

The causes of death appear, unto our shame, perpetual.

- Winter’s Tale (Quoted in “The Pathology of Trauma” 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 1)

Coronary atherosclerois is the Captain of the Men of Death.

- Partially modified from a statement in Bernard Knight’s “Forensic Pathology”, 2nd Edition, page 488

Never diagnose two diseases when one will account for all the findings.

-A common teaching (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 221, in Chapter 13 entitled “Medico-Legal aspects of Exotic Diseases”)

(N.B. This quote comes with an interesting rider. The author goes on to say,”When dealing with patients who have travelled in the less developed parts of the world this rule should be reversed; never be satisfied that you have made a complete diagnosis when you have only found one abnormality.”)

CHILD ABUSE

Child abuse is the difference between a hand on the bottom and a fist in the face.

- Henry Kempe

COMPUTERS AND FORENSICS

I’ll never write to my mistress using the wife’s PC again!

- A Security Manager in a large company who witnessed computer forensic techniques in action (Quoted in “Computer Evidence: A Forensic Investigations Handbook” by Edward Wilding, page 183, on the last page of chapter 6 entitled “The Forensic Examination of PCs”)

CRIMINAL INTERROGATION

And He said,“Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”

- Genesis 3:11 (Quoted by LeMoyne Snyder in his book “Homicide Investigation”, (Third Edition, May 1977) Published by Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, USA, on page 87, in chapter 6 entitled “Scientific Criminal Interrogation”. This, according to the author, is the earliest example of Criminal Interrogation.)

You are going to have to talk to people.. .. talk to people and make them feel like people.. .. you get a lot of results that way.. .. very smooth, very quiet.

- E.W.Count, Cop Talk, Pocket Books, 1994 (Quoted in “Criminal Investigation - Basic Perspectives” by Paul B. Weston, Charles Lushbaugh and Kenneth M. Wells, eighth edition, 2000, Prentice Hall, page 134)

CUTIS ANSERINA

(See Drowning)

DACTYLOGRAPHY

Fingerprints can not lie, but liars can make fingerprints.

- Paraphrase of a Old Proverb “Figures do not lie, but liars can do figures” (Reproduced in the “Journal of Forensic Sciences” Vol 44, No. 5, September 1999, on page 963, at the top of the Paper “A chronological Review of Fingerprint Forgery” by B. Geller et al.)

Jekyll’s finger patterns remain the same when he transforms himself into Hyde!

- Henry Faulds (1843-1930), one of the founders of the science of dactylography, commenting on the famous story “The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson, stressing that despite a complete change in appearance, the person could still be caught by the science of dactylography. (Quoted in “Suspect Identities - A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification” by Simon A. Cole, Harvard University press, 2001, Page 3)

Every human being carries with him from his cradle to his grave certain physical marks which do not change their character, and by which he can always be identified - and that without shade of doubt or question. These marks are his signature, his physiological autograph, so to speak, and this autograph can not be counterfeited, nor can he disguise it or hide it away, nor can it become illegible by the wear and mutations of time. This signature is not his face - age can change that beyond recognition; it is not his hair, for that can fall out; it is not his height, for duplicates of that exist; it is not his form, for duplicates of that exist also, whereas this signature is this man's very own - there is no duplicate of it among the swarming populations of the globe. This autograph consists of the delicate lines or corrugations with which Nature marks the insides of the hands and the soles of the feet.

- Samuel Clemens, writing as Mark Twain, in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894 (Quoted by Colin Beavan, at the beginning of his book “Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science”, Hyperion, New York, 2001

A fingerprint expert can tell apart the marks of two digits more easily than he can differentiate two people’s faces.

- Colin Beavan, on page 11 of his book “Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science”, Hyperion, New York, 2001

A person’s fingerprint set is like a biological seal which, one impressed, can never be denied.

- Colin Beavan, on page 11 of his book “Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science”, Hyperion, New York, 2001

Fingerprints are like pages from the Recording Angel’s book of deeds.

- Colin Beavan, on page 14 of his book “Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science”, Hyperion, New York, 2001

The glands make each finger like a self-inking rubber stamp, leaving calling cards on every surface it touches.

- Colin Beavan, on page 14 of his book “Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science”, Hyperion, New York, 2001

But by far the most beautiful and characteristic of all superficial marks are the small furrows, with the intervening ridges and their pores that are disposed in a singularly complex yet regular order on the under surfaces of the hands and feet.

- Francis Galton in his lecture “Personal Description and Identification” at the weekly evening meeting of the Royal Institution on May 25, 1888. Quoted by Colin Beavan, in his book “Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science”, Hyperion, New York, 2001, page 105

No scientific basis exists for requiring that a pre-determined minimum number of friction ridge features must be present in two impressions in order to establish a positive identification.

- The “Ne’urim Declaration” 1995 (Quoted in “Suspect Identities - A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification” by Simon A. Cole, Harvard University press, 2001, Page 259)

I at first had little faith in this expert evidence, but after the experiment conducted by Lieutenant Faurot in the court-room, in the presence of the Court and jury….. when he was able to designate the person who made the imprint on the glass, I became satisfied that there is something to this science.

- Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, sentencing hearing, “People of the State of New York v. Carlo Crispi, 1911 (Quoted in “Suspect Identities - A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification” by Simon A. Cole, Harvard University press, 2001, Page 168)

DIATOMS

There is hardly a medicolegal journal that has not taken part in the “war of diatoms” in one way or another.

- Spitz and Fisher in their book “Medicolegal Investigation of Death” 2nd Edition, page 360

The forensic pathology community has been, historically, polarized in its general acceptance of the diatom test as a definitive diagnostic test for drowning.

- Michael S. Pollanen in his excellent book “Forensic Diatomology and drowning”, Elsevier, 1998 at page 6

DISPUTED PATERNITY

A trial of bastardy is a trial of the blood.

- Y.B., 12 Edw. 2, 388 (ed. 1679 from Sergeant Maynard’s MS) (From “Legal Medicine Annual, 1976, page 239, appearing at the top of the article “Paternity Actions - A matter of opinion or a trial of blood?” by Michael J. Beautyman)

DISSECTION AND OBSERVATION

Those who have dissected or inspected many bodies have at least learnt to doubt; while others who are ignorant of anatomy and do not take the trouble to attend it are in no doubt at all.

- Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771); Italian Anatomist and Pathologist

The corpse is a silent witness who never lies.

- Anonymous

Pay attention to the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.

- S. Venston

Oh! Look, the dead teach the living!

- Winternitz

Taceant colloquia. Effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae.
(Let conversation cease. Let laughter flee. This is the place where death delights to help the living)

- Latin Proverb (Quoted in Bernard Knight’s “Forensic Pathology” at the Title Page. This quote is also supposed to have been inscribed on the lobby wall of Milton Helpern’s new office building {Milton Helpern was the third Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York})

Mortui vivos docent - The dead teach the living.

- Anonymous (Quoted in "The Autopsy-Medical Practice and Public Policy" by Rolla B. Hill and Robert E. Anderson; Butterworths 1988, page 191)

Only the living have problems with the dead. Death is a mystery only to the living, and the living look to death for help

- (From the frontpage of a forensic medicine practical notebook prescribed for undergraduate students at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Al-Ameen Medical College, Bijapur, India)

Death comes to the aid of life.

- An inscription in a Paris dissecting room

I see no more than you, but I have trained myself to notice what I see.

- Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" (Quoted in "Forensic Investigation of Explosives" Ed. Alexander Beveridge. Page 101

What the mind knows, the eyes will detect

- (From the frontpage of a forensic medicine practical notebook prescribed for undergraduate students at the Department of Froensic Medicine, Al-Ameen Medical College, Bijapur, India)

Dead body is extremely eloquent and honestly informative, if one exercises patience in listening to it.

- Anonymous

No autopsy should be taken as trivial; even those appearing most routine may throw up unexpected surprises.

- Anil Aggrawal

DNA TECHNOLOGY

We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)….

- James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick in a scientific article published in “Nature” on April 23, 1953

(N.B. This quote is given in the book “DNA Technology - The Awesome skill” by I. Edward Alcamo, at the top of the Preface section. The author goes on to say that this article - with this opening sentence - stimulated a revolution in science and medicine. 31 years later - in 1984 - (Sir) Alec Jeffreys would develop the first DNA profiling test.)

DNA technology could be the greatest single advance in the search for truth, conviction of the guilty, and aquittal of the innocent since the advent of cross-examination.

- Judge Joseph Harris (1988) in People vs Wesley, 140 Misc. 2d 306, 533 N.Y.S. 2d 643 (Co. Ct. 1988) (Quoted in “DNA Fingerprinting- An introduction” by Lorne T. Kirby page xv: Stockton Press, 1990)

DNA technology is the most awesome skill acquired since the splitting of the atom.

- Editorial in a major news magazine (Reproduced on the back jacket of the book “DNA Technology - The Awesome skill” by I. Edward Alcamo)

We have the potential within our grasp of a technology that in routine investigations will identify suspects as reliably as fingerprints.

- Jeremy Travis, Director, National Institute of Justice (quoted in “Blood Trail - True crime mysteries solved by DNA Detectives” by Judge Gerald Sheindlin and Catherine Whitney on page 117)

If we had called this “idiosyncratic Southern blot profiling,” nobody would have taken a blind bit of notice. Call it “DNA fingerprinting,” and the penny dropped.

- Alect Jeffreys, 1996 (Quoted in “Suspect Identities - A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification” by Simon A. Cole, Harvard University press, 2001, Page 287)

Our genetic differences are at the heart of one of the most fascinating paradoxes of the human condition: that we are all different, yet we are all the same.

- Geneticist Mary-Claire King, 1993 (Quoted in “Suspect Identities - A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification” by Simon A. Cole, Harvard University press, 2001, Page 303)

DROWNING

Odysseus bent his knees and sturdy arms, exhausted by his struggle with the sea. All his flesh was swollen and streams of brine gushed from his mouth and nostrils. Winded and speechless he lay there too weak to stir, overwhelmed by his terrible fatigue.

- The Odyessey, Calypso (Book V), Homer (Quoted in the Preface in “Forensic Diatomology and drowning” by Michael S. Pollanen)

Lord, Lord! methought what pain it was to drown,
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes.

- Shakespeare, Richard III (1 iv), (Quoted in “Medicine, Science and the Law” (1980), Vol 20, No. 4, page 254; and also in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 214)

If the man go to the water and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes.

- Hamlet, Act V, Scene I (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 70, in Chapter 4 entitled “Respiration”. This quote appears at the top of a sub-chapter entitled “Immersion in fluids”)

The ability to swim is not an important correlate of drowning since most victims of drowning are able to swim.

- Michael S. Pollanen in his book “Forensic Diatomology and drowning”, Elsevier, 1998 at page 8

Cutis anserina or gooseflesh (is) due to postmortem rigidity of short muscle fibers in the skin.

- Caption to figure II-2, on page 15 in “Medicolegal Investigation of Death”, by W.U. Spitz and Russell S. Fisher, 2nd Edition, 1980, Charles C. Thomas, Springfiled, Illinois, USA

Cutis anserina - or ‘goose flesh’ - is a common finding in immersed bodies.. ..It is often stated that rigor mortis can produce this goose-flesh appearance, but this is doubtful, as rigor does not shorten muscles appreciably.

- Bernard Knight in his “Forensic Pathology” 2nd Edition 1996, page 391

(N.B. Last two quotes are antethetical in nature - and both are from contemporary books - meaning thereby that this controversy is far from over)

DYADIC DEATHS

“I kissed thee ere I killed thee.
No way but this,
Killing myself to die upon a kiss.”
(He falls over her and dies)

- Othello exclaiming after killing Desdemona and stabbing himself. Othello, Act 5, Scene 2, William Shakespeare (Quoted in “Combined Homicide-Suicide in Galveston County” by Alan R. Felthouse et.al. J. Forens. Sci. 2001, 46(3) 586-592”. This quote appears on page 586)

EMBOLISM

BULLET

Missiles often attain more curious places by accident than they could by design.

- Sir John Bland-Sutton in his classic paper “A lecture on missiles as emboli”. Lancet, i:773, 1919 (This interesting quote is reproduced in the paper“Rich N.M. et. al. Missile Emboli. The Journal of Trauma, 1978, Vol 18. No. 4, on page 237)

The occurrence of free projectiles in the bloodstream, although doubtless very rare, has already become something more than a surgical curiosity, and its possibility may well be borne in mind by those who observe anomalous symptoms after gunshot wounds, especially when the projectile is not found.

- Editorial: Migration of projectiles in the blood stream. Lancet, ii: 395, 1917 (This interesting quote is reproduced in the paper “Rich N.M. et. al. Missile Emboli. The Journal of Trauma, 1978, Vol 18. No. 4, on page 237)

Understandably, the literature on bullet embolism consists of a number of single case reports.

- Lam, C.R. and McIntyre, R. Air pistol injury of pulmonary artery and aorta: Report of a case with peripheral embolization and pellet and residual aorticopulmonary fistula. J. Thorac. Cardiovascular Surg., 59: 729, 1970 (This interesting quote is reproduced in the paper “Rich N.M. et. al. Missile Emboli. The Journal of Trauma, 1978, Vol 18. No. 4, on page 236)

An aura of mystery and intrigue often surrounds these unusual lesions.

- Norman M. Rich, in his paper “Rich N.M. et. al. Missile Emboli. The Journal of Trauma, 1978, Vol 18. No. 4, on page 236”

PULMONARY

Pulmonary embolism is the most underdiagnosed cause of death, where no autopsy is performed.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 334)

EXHUMATION

Those who arrange exhumations, and doubtless sleep through them, have always assumed that if timed at the crack of dawn an exhumation will be quiet, private affair.

- Professor Keith Simpson, in his autobiography “Forty Years of Murder”, Grafton Books 1978, at page 234)

EXPERT TESTIMONY

The role of the expert witness is not to provide the evidence which supports the case for the Crown nor for the defence, unless that opinion is objectively reached and has scientific vailidity.

- Practice Guidelines of the Police Advisory Board in Forensic Pathology of the British Home Office (Quoted in Bernard Knight's Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, Preface)

A good medical expert must serve but one client, and that client should be truth.

- Erle Stanley Gardner

If the law has made you a witness, remain a man of science; you have no victim to avenge or guilty or innocent person to ruin or save. You must bear testimony within the limits of science.

- Dr. P.C.H. Brouardel( Late 19th century French Medico-Legist)(Reproduced in “Forensic Radiology” by B.G. Brogdon, at page 364. Also quoted in “The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology”, Vol 20, Number 1, March 1999 at page 17, where it is attributed to Paul H. Broussard, Chair of Forensic Medicine, Sorbonne, 1897)

The conscience is a thousand witnesses.

- Richard Taverner

Let no man swear on oath falsely, even in a trifling matter, for he who swears on oath falsely, is lost in this world and after death.

- Manu (Ancient Hindu Law giver)

You can lead a jury to the truth, but you can’t make them believe it.

- Herbert Leon Macdonell (Quoted at the opening page in his book “The Evidence never lies”)

An expert, as the word imports, is one having had experience. No clearly defined rule is to be found in the books what constitutes an expert. Much depends upon the nature of the question in regard to which an opinion is asked.

- Oil Co. v. Gilson, 63 Pa. St. 146, 150 (1869) (Quoted in “Scientific and Legal Applications of Bloodstain Pattern Interpretation” Ed. Stuart H. James, page 131)

"..the thing from which the deduction is made must be sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs"

- (Frye v. United States (1923), often known as "The Frye Standard". In this case, the scientific evidence being presented was the theory underlying lie-detector testing. It ultimately was not admitted and remains inadmissible to this day in law courts)

"For gauging the scientific validity of evidence, it should be seen whether the technique in question can be or has been tested; whether the technique has been subjected to peer review and publication; its known or potential error rate; the existence of standards controlling its operation and whether the methodology in question has attracted widespread acceptance within the relevant scientific community."

- US Supreme Court in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.C.T. 2786 (1993); popularly referred to as the “Daubert Standard”

There is nothing worse than a pompous expert.

- Judge Haskell M. Pitluck (Reproduced in “Forensic Radiology” by B.G. Brogdon, at page 372)

Expert witnesses should refrain from conducting themselves as though their service is a contest between themselves and some other party.

- Reproduced from the document entitled “Recommended Practices for Design Professionals Engaged as Experts in the Resolution of Construction Industry Disputes” prepared by The Association of Soil and Foundation Engineers (ASFE) (quoted on page 353 in the book “Forensic Engineering” by Kenneth L. Carper (CRC Press 1998))

The witness must never be considered an advocate, and should always “call the shots as they are”.

- Joseph S. Ward, P.E. (quoted on page 336 in Chapter 12 written by him on “The Engineer as Expert Witness” in the book “Forensic Engineering” by Kenneth L. Carper (CRC Press 1998))

For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.

- Contributed by Mike Duxbury

Direct questioning in the initial stages of a trial is like a walk in the park when compared with the antagonistic manner evident in cross examination.

- Tom Bevel and Ross M. Gardner in “Bloodstain pattern analysis” CRC Press, 1997, page 271

What the doctor puts into his report at the time of examination must be of sufficient resilience to survive intense cross-examination in the court room many months later.

- Bernard Knight in “The Estimation of the Time Since Death in the Early Postmortem Period”, Edward Arnold, 1995, page 2

FALL FROM HEIGHTS

Falls from heights represent the third most common cause of accidental death in the United States.

- National Safety Council. Accidental Facts, 1985 Chicago. National Safety Council, 1985 (Quoted in the paper "The Investigation of Fatal Falls and Jumps from Heights in Maryland (1987-1992)" by Ling Li and John E. Smialek. American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 15(4):295-299, 1994)

FOETUS, AGE OF

Morphological measurements are by no means infallible indicators of chronological age.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 444)

The time of appearance of ossification centers (in a foetus) is no longer as uniform as once thought.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 444)

FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY

That's how I feel about the skeletons in my laboratory. These have tales to tell us, even though they are dead. It is up to me, the forensic anthropologist, to catch their mute cries and whispers, and to interpret them for the living, as long as I am able.

- William R. Maples (1937-1997), the famous Forensic Anthropologist, in his book "Dead Men do tell tales" at page 280 (published by Doubleday, New York, 1994)

For me, every day is Halloween.

- William R. Maples in his book "Dead Men do tell tales" at page 2

FORENSIC ART AND ILLUSTRATION

It has been said that pen is mightier than the sword.. .. if used correctly, so is the pencil.. .

- Karen T. Taylor in her book "Forensic Art and Illustration", CRC Press 2001, at page 561

FORENSIC BALLISTICS

A cartridge case at the scene of offence could prove as incriminating as if the murderer had left his visiting card!

- Sir Sydney Smith

Second only to motor vehicles as instruments of death, firearms will kill more than 32,000 Americans this year.

- (National Research Council 1985: Reproduced in "Gunshot Wounds - Pathophysiology and Management" by Kenneth G. Swan & Roy C. Swan. 2nd Edition, 1989, Yearbook Medical Publishers Inc. Chicago, at page ix)

Gunshot wounds are now becoming almost a distinct branch of surgery

- (J.A. Hunter in "Treatise on the Blood, inflammation and Gunshot wounds: London, G. Nicol, 1794: Reproduced in "Gunshot Wounds - Pathophysiology and Management" by Kenneth G. Swan & Roy C. Swan. 2nd Edition, 1989, Yearbook Medical Publishers Inc. Chicago, at page 1)

We are aware of no report of a penetrating wound of the abdomen, during pregnancy, not involving the uterus

- (Dyer I, Barclay D: Accidental Trauma complicating pregnancy and delivery. Am. J. Obstet. Gynec. 1962; 83: 907)

Only a man who has a pistol needs it.

- An old saying

My wife yes; My dog maybe; My gun never!

- Bumper Sticker (Quoted in "Gunshot Wounds", 2nd Edition, by Vincent J. M. Di Maio, on page 1)

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.

- Winston Churchill (Quoted in "Gunshot Wounds", 2nd Edition, by Vincent J. M. Di Maio, on page 65)

God created men equal. Sam Colt made 'em equal.

- Anonymous (Quoted in "Gunshot Wounds", 2nd Edition, by Vincent J. M. Di Maio, on page 123)

The U.S. Exports Coca Cola; Japan exports Sony; Russia exports Kalashnikovs.

- Anonymous (Quoted in "Gunshot Wounds", 2nd Edition, by Vincent J. M. Di Maio, on page 167)

Is there life after death? Trespass and find out.

- Bumper Sticker (Quoted in "Gunshot Wounds", 2nd Edition, by Vincent J. M. Di Maio, on page 253)

This property is protected by Smith & Wesson.

- Bumper Sticker (Quoted in "Gunshot Wounds", 2nd Edition, by Vincent J. M. Di Maio, on page 253)

It is always hazardous to conclude that a person could not have done some rational act after receiving gunshot wounds in vital organs.

- LeMoyne Snyder in his book "Homicide Investigation", (Third Edition, May 1977) Published by Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, USA, on page 139, in chapter 7 entitled "Homicide due to Gunshot Wounds"

You will acquire a deep understanding of that ancient Christian moral principle, as applied to aimed fire,"It is better to give than to receive"

- George Prosser, Black Politics, 1968 (quoted at the beginning of the book "Armed and Dangerous - A writer's guide to weapons" by Michael Newton, Writer's Digest Books, Ohio, 1990)

There is nothing wrong with shooting, as long as the right people get shot.

- "Dirty Harry" Callahan (quoted at the beginning of the book "Armed and Dangerous - A writer's guide to weapons" by Michael Newton, Writer's Digest Books, Ohio, 1990)

Whatever happens, we have got,
The Maxim gun and they have not.

- A popular jingle quite popular with the imperialists in the late 19th and early 20th Century. (Quoted by Isaac Asimov in "Asimov's New Guide to Science", Penguin Books 1987, page 495)

(N.B. In the 1860s the American Inventor Richard Gatling produced the first machine gun. This was improved upon in the 1880s by another American inventor Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1880s. These guns were respectively called the Gatling gun and the Maxim gun. The Gatling gun also gave rise to the slang gat for gun. These guns gave tremendous advantage to the Imperialists over Africans and Asians. The word "they" in the jingle refers to these Africans and Asians.)

FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGY

'Who saw him die?'
'I', said the fly
'With my little eye,
I saw him die.'

- Anon., 'Who killed Cock Robin' (quoted by Zakaria Erzinçlioglu in his book "Maggots, Murder and Men - Memories and Reflections of a Forensic Entomologist" Harley Books, England 2000, on page 13)

In the midst of all this decay, death calls in reinforcements.

- Heather Pringle in her book "The Mummy Congress - Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead", Theia, New York, 2001, page 39

FORENSIC MYTHOLOGY

Descriptions of an abnormal fluidity of blood seen at autopsy in asphyxial deaths are part of forensic mythology and can be dismissed with little discussion.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, 1996, page 350)

Persistent fluidity of the blood likely relates to inhibition of the coagulation process due to some unknown mechanism.

- Michael S. Pollanen in his book "Forensic Diatomology and drowning", Elsevier, 1998 at page 26

(N.B. Quotes 1 and 2 are antethetical in nature - and both are from contemporary books - meaning thereby that this controversy is far from over. For other similar forensic controversies, see quotes on "Petechial haemorrhages" and "Hydrostatic Test")

Descriptions and photographs of air segments in the cerebral veins are part of the mythology of forensic pathology, handed on uncritically from one book and one author to another.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 342 and 433)

(N.B. Knight tells us through this pithy quote that air-embolism can not be, and should not, be diagnosed by seeing air bubbles in cortical veins, because there is simply no way, air bubbles could travel upstream!)

FORENSIC ODONTOSTOMATOLOGY

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

- Through the Looking Glass (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 137, in Chapter 7 entitled "Odontology: its Forensic Applications")

Dormouse to the expanding Alice : "I wish you wouldn't squeeze so" said the Dormouse who was sitting next to her. "I can hardly breathe." "I can't help it" said Alice very meekly, "I'm growing." "You've no right to grow here" said the Dormouse.
"Don't talk nonsense," said Alice more boldly: "you know you're growing too."Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace," said the Dormouse. "Not in that ridiculous fashion."

- Cited in Lovat LS. The prosecution view of dental evidence. J Forensic Sci Soc. 1974 Jul;14(3):253-8. This quote – my favorite – is very cleverly cited by Lovat to show how sometimes science can grow at a much faster rate that associated law. In this very pertinent allegory, while Alice refers to the fast growing science of forensic odontostomatology, the Dormouse refers to “not so fast growing” law, which may have difficulties accepting dental evidence.

FORENSIC OSTEOLOGY

The skin and bones tell a story which the child is either too young or too frightened to tell.

- Johnson, Cameron and Camps (Quoted in Bernard Knight's Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 458)

It is difficult for me to evaluate how a single skull is classified as white, or Negro, or Mongoloid.

- W.M.Krogman, in his "The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine" (1962), at page 195

As those who study them have come to learn, bones make good witnesses - although they speak softly, they never lie and they never forget.

- Dr. Clyde Collins Snow, forensic anthropologist (Quoted in "The Bone Detectives" by Donna M. Jackson at the front page)

FORENSIC PATHOLOGY AND FORENSIC PATHOLOGISTS

Professor John Glaister II (1892-1971)

He is the man who furnishes Perry Mason with so many authentic facts.

- Erle Stanley Gardner on Professor John Glaister II (1892-1971), Professor of Forensic Medicine at Glasgow University, Scotland (Quoted in "The Bedside Book of Murder" by Richard & Molly Whittington-Egan, at page 171)

Edward O. Heinrich (1881-1953)

Just the mention of his name was enough to send shudders through opposing counsel.

-Colin Evans on Edward O. Heinrich (1881-1953) in his book "The Casebook of Forensic Detection" John Wiley & Sons 1996, page 301

(N.B. Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of the most remarkable figures in the history of US Jurisprudence. Epithets commonly ascribed to him are "The American Sherlock Holmes" and "The Edison of Crime Detection")

Henry C. Lee (1938-)

How the hell did he know?

- A defendant heard to whisper, after Lee had methodically walked the court through each step the killer took during the murders.

(N.B. Lee used blood spatter and other other evidence to do this. This anecdote appears in "Cracking Cases" by Henry C. Lee with Thomas W. O'Neil, Prometheus books, 2002, page 9)

Thomas T. Noguchi (1927- )

I love to enter the crime scene from the kitchen.

- This is what Noguchi said, when interviewed in November 1986 by Douglas Stein. For full story please visit http://www.omnimag.com/index.html

(Readers may want to know why. He follows up the above statement with this: People's minute-to-minute movements are registered here. I routinely open the refrigerator to get people's life-styles: the type of food they like, where they buy, how much they pay, how they wrap. In one homicide I investigated, the homeowner returned early, surprising the burglar, so the burglary ended in murder. But the burglar was hungry, so he had a bite to eat before leaving. We found distinct teeth marks in the cheese!")

Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury (1877-1947)

~ His Adulation

He stood for forensic pathology as Hobbs stood for cricket or Dempsey for boxing or Capablanca for chess.

- Edgar Lustgarten on Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury (1877-1947), probably the greatest Forensic Pathologist, the English world has seen (Quoted in "The Bedside Book of Murder" by Richard & Molly Whittington-Egan, at page 164)

He could achieve single-handed all the legal consequences of homicide - arrest, prosecution, conviction and final post-mortem - requiring only the brief assistance of the hangman.

- Dr. Richard Gordon on Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury (1877-1947) (Quoted in "The Bedside Book of Murder" by Richard & Molly Whittington-Egan, at page 164)

A simple newspaper report of Sir Bernard's attendance at a mortuary or churchyard is enough to condemn an accused man to death, even before committal proceedings have begun.

- Dr. Patrick Brontë, Spilsbury's bitter professional rival (this quote appears on page 25 in the article "Is Sir Bernard Spilsbury Dead?" in "Crime Investigation: Art or Science?", edited by Alistair R. Brownlie. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1984)

~ His Criticism

When did you last examine a live patient Sir Bernard?

- A young chirrupy young barrister to Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury in the court room (Quoted in "The Bedside Book of Murder" by Richard & Molly Whittington-Egan, at page 164)

Spilsbury's statements in the witness box were often based upon insufficient material, and a lack of clinical experience.

- Professor Michael A. Green on page 24 in the article "Is Sir Bernard Spilsbury Dead?" in "Crime Investigation: Art or Science?", edited by Alistair R. Brownlie. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1984

When Sir Bernard speaks as a pathologist, I respect his opinion. When he gives a view on an obstetric matter, I hold him in contempt.

- Alec Boune, the distinguished gynaecologist called by the defence in a case in which Spilsbury appeared from the other side (this quote appears on page 24 in the article "Is Sir Bernard Spilsbury Dead?" in "Crime Investigation: Art or Science?", edited by Alistair R. Brownlie. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1984)

~ His Conceit

I have never claimed to be God - but merely his locum on his weekends off.

- Bernard Spilsbury (this quote appears on page 25 in the article "Is Sir Bernard Spilsbury Dead?" in "Crime Investigation: Art or Science?", edited by Alistair R. Brownlie. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1984)

Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902)

Rudolph Ludwig Karl Virchow, where are you now that we need you?

- Leon Eisenberg, 1984 (Quoted in "The Autopsy-Medical Practice and Public Policy" by Rolla B. Hill and Robert E. Anderson; Butterworths 1988, page 251)

General

The commonest causes of death amongst forensic pathologists are alcohol related!

- Contributed by Dr. Gyan Fernando

So why the dead body, the often smelly morgue, exhumation, lust and violence, the inconvenience of calls to derelict premises, dells in Epping Forest, ponds, prostitutes' bedrooms at odd hours; of sudden challenge, hard duels with lawyers, pompous old judges and obtuse juries? Why?

- Professor Keith Simpson, asking himself the question "Why he chose Forensic Pathology despite being the best student in his medical career" (This interesting quote appears in his autobiography "Forty Years of Murder", Grafton Books 1978, at page 9)

(N.B. Professor Keith Simpson follows it up with this answer: Well, few doctors can enjoy a more exciting life, such a challenge to be constantly on the qui vive, or should it be the qui meure?)

As Stethoscope and BP Instruments are status symbols of a physician and Surgeon, so are Lens and Measuring tape to an Autopsy Surgeon.

- Professor Heeresh Chandra (Quoted in his site)

An operation during life is attended by pain and is for the benefit of the individuals. An operation after death is free from pain and is for the benefit of humanity.

- Braouardel & Jasolin (Quoted by Professor Heeresh Chandra in his site)

FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY

A picture tells a thousand words.

- An old adage (quoted in Chapter 9 of the book "Craniofacial Identification in Forensic Medicine". The chapter is on "Crime Scene Photography")

A picture is worth a thousand words. However, few investigators may realize that 'a picture may also contain a thousand measurements'.

- John H. Garstang, in chapter 6 entitled "Aircraft Explosive Sabotage Investigation" page 153, in the book "Forensic Investigation of Explosions" edited by Alexander Beveridge, Taylaor & Francis, 1998

(N.B. There is a veiled reference here to photogrammetry, a technique which is increasingly being used in forensic investigations now. Photogrammetry is the art, science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through processes of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant energy and other phenomena.)

A good photograph is tantamount to stopping the clock.

- unknown (quoted on page 35 in Chapter 3 (fire investigation) of the book "Forensic Engineering" by Kenneth L. Carper (CRC Press 1998))

FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY

".. . the Tories have compelled me to do this. They follow and persecute me wherever I go and have entirely destroyed my peace of mind.. .,"

- Daniel M'Naughten 1843 (quoted in "Forensic pharmacology - Medicines, Mayhem, and Malpractice" by R.E. Ferner, Oxford University Press, 1996, page 66)

(N.B. Daniel M'Naughten was a mentally disturbed person - a Scotsman from Glasgow. He had a delusion of persecution, that Tories were trying to kill him. In his time Sir Robert Peel was the Prime Minister of Britain - from December 1834 till March 1835, and then again from September 1841 till July 1846. On 20th January 1843, Daniel was seen loitering in Whitehall Gardens, and followed Mr. Edward Drummond, the private secretary of Sir Robert Peel, from Sir Robert Peel's house till a street in Charing Cross, where he shot him. He believed that Mr. Edward Drummond was the Prime Minister himself. Mr. Drummond lingered, in great pain, until January 25th, when he died. M'Naughten was brought to trial on 3rd March, 1843 at the Old Bailey before Chief Justice Tindal, and two other Queen's bench judges, Williams and Coleridge. It was at this historic trial that the famous "insanity defense" emerged, known to this day as the "M'Naughten rule".)

We do not believe that anyone could be insane who wanted to murder a Conservative Prime Minister.

- A young Queen Victoria (1840-1901) referring to Daniel M'Naughten (see above for details). The quote appears in "If A Man Be Mad - A scientist testifies against the insanity defense" by David T. Lykken. Lykken, who is a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Minnesota, says that this was an immortal quip by Queen Victoria, not otherwise known for her wit.

When you speak to God it's called praying; but when God speaks to you it's called schizophrenia.

- A West German observer comment on the psychiatric evidence given during the Yorkshire Ripper's Trial (quoted in "Science Against Crime", Published by Marshall Cavendish, 1982, on page 175)

(N. B. A brief note may be appropriate here. The Yorkshire Ripper or Peter Sutcliffe killed 13 women in Leeds and adjoining areas between October 1975 and November 1980. At his trial, which began May 1981, he said he had heard the voice of God instructing him to kill.)

Such terms as 'mental disease and mental defect' give expert pyshiatric witnesses a blank check.

- Justice Kaufman criticizing the Durham test

(N. B. A brief note might well be in order here. In Durham vs. United States, 1954, Justice David L. Bazelon abandoned the M'Naghten criteria, and used a new criterion known as the Durham test, which was perpetually in criticism. It was finally overturned by Justice Bazelon himself in 1972 in United States vs. Brawner. The Durham rule stated that "an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect".)

The psychiatrists spun sticky webs of pseudoscientific jargon, and in those webs the concept of justice, like a moth, fluttered feebly and was trapped.

- A prominent columinst, after the 1982 verdict of a District of Columbia jury, which found John W. Hinckley, Jr., the would-be assassin of President Ronald Reagan, not guilty by reason of insanity (quoted in Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry - Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry, eighth edition 1998, by Harold I. Kaplan, M.D. and Benjamin J. Sadock, M.D. Page 1316)

Had M'Naghten been tried under M'Naghten's rules in any American court, there would have been a battle of the "experts" and M'Naghten would surely have been found legally sane and would have been found guilty as charged.

- Matthew Brody, M.D., Acting Chief, Psychiatry, Brooklyn Jewish Hospital and Medical Center, testifying in 1965, before a joint legislative commission of the penal law and criminal code. This commission recommended some alteration of the M'Naghten Rule. This quote is reproduced by Matthew Brody himself in his paper entitled "Trial of Daniel M'Naghten" published in March 1982 issue of "New York State Journal of Medicine". This quote appears on page 381

A man might say that he picked a pocket from some uncontrollable impulse, and in that case the law would have an uncontrollable impulse to punish him for it.

- Baron Alderson, the presiding judge deciding on the fate of Robert Pate, who went on trial in 1850 for the high misdemeanor of striking Queen Victoria with his walking stick. Pate's counsel had claimed irresistible impulse as a defence. The quote appears in "If A Man Be Mad - A scientist testifies against the insanity defense" by David T. Lykken.

FORENSIC RADIOLOGY

Now we see through a glass darkly.
-I Corinthians 13 (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 149, in Chapter 8 entitled "Radiology and its forensic application")

FORENSIC SCIENCE AND FORENSIC MEDICINE

Forensic Science is the link between the criminal and the crime.

- Ken Goddard, Wildlife Forensics, (quoted in Natur (German) Nov. 1990)

Forensic Science can be defined as the application of the laws of nature to the laws of man.

- Michael J. Camp, (quoted by P. ChandraSekharan in "Indian Journal of Forensic Sciences" Vol 5, April 1991, No. 2, p. 37)

Forensic Science is used to predict not the future but the past.

- Henry C. Lee (Reproduced in "Forensic Radiology" by B.G. Brogdon, at page 279)

(N.B. The book goes on to say,"Nowhere in Forensic Radiology is Dr. Lee's provocative aphorism less applicable than in the field of abuse. Here lies the opportunity to go beyond the limits of the necropsy 'where death delights to help the living'.")

Legal medicine has been described as the key to the past, the explanation to the present, and, in some measure, as a signpost to the future.

- Professor J. Malcolm Cameron, in his Presidential address to the British Academy of Forensic Sciences, also published in "Medicine, Science and the Law" (1980), Vol 20, No. 1, in the paper entitled "The Medico-legal Expert - Past, Present and Future" page 3

There is only one path to the mastery of Forensic Medicine, and that is an extensive practical experience.

- Harvey LittleJohn

She's cold
Her blood is settled and her joints are stiff,
Life and these lips have long been separated,
Death lies on her like an untimely frost,
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field

- William Shakespeare

Most sudden deaths are of cardiac origin.

- Fortunatus Fidelis (1598)

It will never be possible to eliminate all chance of error or misjudgement, but the Forensic Science Service strives to do the greatest good for the greatest number, for the greatest part of time.

- Professor Michael Green, University of Sheffield (quoted in "The Modern Sherlock Holmes- An Introduction to Forensic Science Today" by Judy Williams, at page 12)

The science of Forensic Medicine turns the clock back. It relivens the dead.

- R.D. Rikhari (Editor "Invention Intelligence". Sent on July 14, 2000. His original quote was "Your profession turns the clock back. It relivens the dead")

Forensic medicine is like an illegitimate child of health and home departments. We belong to both, but none belong to us. We offer our services to both, we are answerable to both, but we receive nothing from either. I feel that it is high time that our paternity be ascertained and we be adopted by our rightful parentage.

- Professor L. Fimate, President of the Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine (IAFM), in his inaugural speech on the occasion of XXII Annual Conference of The Indian Academy Of Forensic Medicine, Jaipur, India, 5 - 7 January 2001

Many people ask me why I chose Forensic Medicine as a career, and I tell them that it is because a forensic man gets the honor of being called when the top doctors have failed!

- Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi-110002, India

There is no such thing as 'forensic science'; instead it is a collection of scientific techniques and principles that are begged and borrowed from 'real' sciences such as chemistry, biology, physics, medicine and mathematics.

- A general saying by some experts (cited in the Introduction to "Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences" edited by Jay A. Siegel, Pekka J. Saukko and Geoffrey C. Knupfer. 2000 Academic Press.)

The 'sciences' of fingerprints, firearms and toolmarks and questioned documents are the only real forensic sciences; all the rest of it is on loan from the classical hard sciences.

- Another general saying (cited in the Introduction of "Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences" edited by Jay A. Siegel, Pekka J. Saukko and Geoffrey C. Knupfer. 2000 Academic Press.)

It has always been a source of amazement to me, how a subject as inherently fascinating as Forensic Medicine, can be presented in a dull and uninteresting manner as is the case with some of the existing books on the subject.

- Dr. V.V.Pillay, in the preface of the book "MKR Krishnan's Handbook of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology", Paras Publishing, 12th Edition, 2001

FORENSIC SCIENTISTS

Francis Galton (Feb 16, 1822 - Jan 17, 1911)

~ General

Francis Galton's arrival on Henry Fauld's stage was like the antihero's entrance in a tragically ending play.

- Colin Beavan, in "Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science", Hyperion, New York, 2001, page 94

~ His Criticism

He was notorious for using his status against those with fewer advantages.

- Colin Beavan, in "Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science", Hyperion, New York, 2001, page 94

Those who dared to oppose him learned that he was, by all accounts, that dangerous breed of dog who bites before even bothering to growl.

- Colin Beavan, in "Fingerprints - The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science", Hyperion, New York, 2001, page 94

GENERAL

Satyameva Jayate (Truth alone triumphs)

- An Old Sanskrit saying, very popular in India, often written on plaques in Judges’ rooms

If you can't prove it, don't claim it.

- Bernard Knight, (Quoted in Bernard Knight's “Forensic Pathology”, 2nd Edition, Preface)

I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who

- Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) Indian born British writer, in “Just so stories” (Cited in “Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology” edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 216, in Chapter 13 entitled "Medico-Legal aspects of Exotic Diseases")

(N.B. The author at the end of this chapter stresses on Population explosion and advises the doctors to think in terms of global medicine. On page 221, he modifies Kipling’s quote like this:
..She keeps ten million serving men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends ‘em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes-
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!)

Truth is incontrovertible
Panic may resent it
Ignorance may deride it
Malice may distort it
But here it is.

- Winston Churchill

In a sense, the victim shapes and moulds the criminal.

- Hans von Hentig

"Excellent," I cried. "Elementary", said he.

- Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930): ("The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (1894) 'The Crooked Man'. The oft quoted "Elementary, my dear Watson" is not found in any book by Conan Doyle)

Seldom say never- seldom say always!

- Forensic Proverb (Quoted in Bernard Knight's “Forensic Pathology”, 2nd Edition, at the Title page)

In God we trust......All others are suspects

- (Contributed by Signal45@aol.com who picked this quote from a homicide investigators school in Southern Louisiana)

In Forensic Medicine, eye the most, hand the next and tongue the least.

- (From the frontpage of a forensic medicine practical notebook prescribed for undergraduate students at the Department of Froensic Medicine, Al-Ameen Medical College, Bijapur, India)

Well now; there’s a remedy for everything except death.

- Sancho Panza in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1615) (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 30)

He that digeth a pit shall fall into it.

- Ecclesiastes 8 (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 269)

The problem isn’t with what we don’t know. The problem is with what we do know that isn’t so.

- Will Rogers. (Quoted at the beginning of the article “Shaken Baby Syndrome and Death of Matthew Eappen” by John Plunkett, M.D., in The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology”, Vol 20, Number 1, March 1999 at page 17)

You do the work in the daytime and cry at night!

- Clyde Snow (1928- ), forensic anthropologist, on his philosophy of life

I guess you can say law enforcement officials have come a long way since the days of Sherlock Holmes and his magnifying glass.

- Northumberland County District Attorney Robert Sacavage, at the conclusion of the Robert Auker murder trial (Quoted in “Hard Evidence” By David Fisher at page 381)

Dead Men tell tales!

- The title of Juergen Thorwald’s book (Published by Thames and Hudson, London, 1965)

Dead Men tell no tales!

- LeMoyne Snyder in his book “Homicide Investigation”, (Third Edition, May 1977) Published by Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, USA, on page 376, in chapter 20 entitled “Popular Fallacies in Homicide Investigation”

(N.B. This interesting quote, although outwardly appearing as an antithesis to the quote preceding it, must be read in the proper context. Snyder follows up this interesting quote with the following qualifying remark: “How much they tell may be in direct proportion to the care, diligence and conscientious effort that the investigators and the laboratory technicians apply to the investigation. Sometimes the dead man actually becomes eloquent. As the science of homicide investigation advances, dead men will tell more and more.”)

Dead Men do tell tales!

- The title of William R. Maple’s (1937-1997), book (published by Doubleday, New York, 1994)

(N.B. Quite appropriately, this quote sets the matter right once again, by reiterating the earlier quote! Thus the wheel seems to have turned one full circle.)

Take nothing for granted because things are not always what they seem.

- LeMoyne Snyder in his book “Homicide Investigation”, (Third Edition, May 1977) Published by Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, USA, on page 141, in chapter 7 entitled “Homicide due to Gunshot Wounds”

A medicolegist must avoid talking too much, talking too soon and talking to the wrong persons.

- Anonymous

Fools and Wise men are equally harmless. Dangerous are those who are half foolish and half wise, and only see half of everything..

- General saying (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 8, in Chapter 2 entitled “Thanatology”)

A Corpus Delicti is not a corpse.

- Title of chapter 6 (at page 177) in Herbert Leon Macdonell's book “The Evidence never lies", published by Dell Publishing, 1984

Life is like an autopsy -- one piece at a time.

- Anonymous

(I found the above interesting quote as an attachment from an E-mail I received from clemency@innocent.com)

One can not expect a quality investigation if the technical consultant is given inadequate time for preparation and analysis.

- Genck 1987 (Quoted in “Tire Imprint Evidence” by Peter McDonald, 1989 Elsevier, page 185)

The truth - the whole truth - and nothing but the truth.

- General saying (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 1, in Chapter 1 entitled “General advances in Forensic Medicine”)

HAIR

The drug test is moving from the bathroom to the barber shop.

- U.S. News and World Report (Quoted by Heather Pringle in her book “The Mummy Congress - Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead”, Theia, New York, 2001, page 86)

(N.B. A two-inch-long strand can tell almost five months of personal drug history, as almost all drugs of abuse find their way into hair. Urine test on the other hand can tell only a few days’ drug history. Hence it is much more useful to take samples from the barber’s shop (hair) than from bathroom (urine), especially for employers to screen applicants.)

HANGING, JUDICIAL

They hanged ‘em; I execute ‘em.

- William Marwood

(N.B. Marwood was the famous Lincolnshire executioner from 1875 till 1883. Before Marwood’s time, executioners simply allowed the victims to suspend from a rope till they asphyxiated slowly over a period of several minutes. For the first time in history Marwood introduced a long drop, breaking victim’s neck, killing him instantaneously, thus lessening his agony. (This quote appears in “The Book of Victorian Heroes” by Adam Hart-Davis and Paul Bader, Sutton Publishing 2001, at page 96)

Question: “If pa killed ma, who’d kill pa?” Answer:”Marwood”.

- a famous jingle about Marwood in his time. (From “The Book of Victorian Heroes” by Adam Hart-Davis and Paul Bader, Sutton Publishing2001, page 95)

HYDROSTATIC TEST

Hydrostatic test smatters of black magic and is a complete waste of time.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition 1996, page 442-3)

Whatever its fallacies it was a welcome substitute for the torture which had preceded it in questions of alleged infanticide.

IDENTIFICATION

To write the history of identification is to write the history of criminology

- Edmond Locard (1877-1966), French Criminologist

INFANTICIDE

Breathing is living; the onset of respiration is the beginning of life.

- J. Barcroft

The best way of seeking proof of respiration is to look at, to feel and to listen to the lungs.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 442-3)

(For related quotes, see also "Hydrostatic Test")

INJURIES

Antistius, the physian examined the dead body of Julius Caesar after he was murdered, and opined that only one of the twenty three wounds present on his body was mortal, namely that which had penetrated his chest between the first and second ribs.

- (The first ever autopsy recorded in history, 44 B.C.)

Meanwhile, I will keep on treating the injuries, not the weapon.

- D. Lindsey (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 86)

Come, thick night,… that my keen knife see not the wound it makes.

- Macbeth, Shakespeare (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 97)

INQUEST

At an inquest, regard nothing as unimportant. A difference of a hair will be the difference of a thousand li.

- Hsi Yuan Lu ("Instructions to Coroners" published in China in A.D. 1248)

(N.B. Li is a Chinese Linear measure equivalent to about one third of a mile.)

As a hunter traces the lair of a wounded deer by the drops of blood, even so the king shall discover on which side the right lies by inferences from the facts.

- Manu Dharma Shastra (Ancient Hindu Law book written by Manu)

Having searched the dead body, we find not any blows, or wounds, or any other bodily hurt. We find that bodily weakness caused by long fasting and weariness, by going to and fro, with the extreme cold of the season were the causes of his death.

- First record of an inquest from the Colony of New Plymouth, New England, 1635

We must have the courage to know the causes of death.

- Ramsey Clark, 1972 (Quoted in "The Autopsy-Medical Practice and Public Policy" by Rolla B. Hill and Robert E. Anderson; Butterworths 1988, page 107)

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

- Herbert Spencer (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 192)

There is no such thing as a “born investigator”.

- (Quoted in “Computer Evidence: A Forensic Investigations Handbook” by Edward Wilding, page 33, on the first page of chapter 3 entitled “A guide to Investigative methods”)

INVESTIGATION OF CRIME

Just as life depends on the equal functioning of the tripod of life i.e., heart, lung and brain, so also a successful investigation of crime depends on equal functioning of forensic medicine, forensic science and police investigation.

"I think we have a murderer on board".

- Wireless message sent by Captain Henry Kendal of SS Montrose, to London, informing Walter Dew, Chief Inspector of the CID, Scotland Yard, London, that Dr. Crippen, who was suspected of having murdered his wife Cora Crippen, could be on board.)

(N.B. A short note on this interesting quote would be in order. Dr. Crippen was an American who lived in London, where he murdered his wife at their house at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden Town with an excessive dose of Hyoscine. He bought about 17 grains of hyoscine on 17 January 1910, and killed his wife in the early hours of 1 February. Shortly afterwards, along with his lover Ethel le Neve, he took the ship SS Montrose from Antwerp and tried to flee to Canada. However Captain Henry Kendal recognized him on board and sent the above message back to London. Dew boarded a faster ship and confronted the pair on the morning of 31 July 1910 (as the ship lay off the mouth of the St Lawrence river) with the words,” Good morning, Dr. Crippen” (which is yet another good quote!). Dr. Crippen was tried at the Old Bailey on 18 October, found guilty and hanged at Pentonville on 23 November 1910. This quote is important because Crippen was the first murderer to be caught using the newly discovered wireless technology. Marconi had received the Nobel Prize for wireless telegraphy only the previous year. The first UK demonstration of wireless telegraphy was in 1896, and when in 1996, wireless telegraphy completed 100 years, British Telecom celebrated the occasion by issuing six special BT phone cards. Number 3 of these cards celebrated Crippen’s arrest by showing Crippen’s photograph on the front, and the wireless message on the back. Surprisingly British Telecom got the date of this message wrong. According to the card, the message was sent in 1911, while actually it was 1910. In fact Crippen never lived to see the year 1911. Click below to see the front and back of this phone card.)

MASS DISASTERS

With the exception of the more dramatic murders, the activity which focuses most public attention on the work of forensic pathologists is the mass disaster.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 43)

The (Mass Disaster) plans are clinically oriented, but often completely ignore provision for the dead.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 43)

MICROSCOPY

Microscopes of hextra power.

- Pickwick Papers (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 178, in Chapter 10 entitled “Microbiology and Parasitology”)

MURDER

Thou shalt not kill.

- Old Testament, Exodus 20:13

Clarissa: Oh dear, I never realized what a terrible lot of explaining one has to do in a murder!

- Agatha Christie (Spider's Web, 1956) )

Murder is a serious business.

- Francis Iles 1893-1970, in “Malice Aforethought (1931)

Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out.

- Anne Hocking, British mystery writer (Death Loves a Shining Mark, 1943)

For murder though it has no tongue,
Will speak with the most miraculous organ.

- William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

Up the close and down the stair,
But and ben with Burke and Hare,
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the boy that buys the beef.

- A song commemorating murders by William Burke and William Hare in 1820's, who allegedly killed as many as 32 persons, to supply their bodies for dissection to the anatomist Dr. Robert Knox of Edinburgh. This song is still sung on macabre occasions in England today (quoted in "Almanac of World Crime" by Jay Robert Nash at page 271)

Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

- A song sung about Lizzie Borden, who allegedly killed her parents (father and step mother) at Fall River, Massachusetts on 4 August 1892, but was acquitted by the jury in June 1893 (quoted in "Almanac of World Crime" by Jay Robert Nash at page 194)

You have borne up under all, Lizzie Borden,
With a mighty show of gall, Lizze Borden,
But because your nerve is stout,
Does not prove beyond a doubt,
That you knocked the old folks out, Lizzie Borden.

- Another song sung about Lizzie Borden, this one giving her benefit of doubt: composed by A.L. Bixby (quoted in "Almanac of World Crime" by Jay Robert Nash at page 194)

You can’t chop your poppa up in Massachusetts,
Not even if it’s planned as a surprise
No you can’t chop your poppa up in Massachusetts
You know how neighbours love to criticize.

- Yet another song sung about Lizzie Borden:. Composed by Michael Brown in “Lizzie Borden” (1952)

Sometimes Playmates get killed.

- Paul Snider (1980) to his friend shortly before killing his wife Dorothy Stratten, who had been Playboy’s Playmate of August 1979 (quoted in “Murder - Whereabouts” by J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, page 82)

NARCOTICS

If you are smoking ganja, you first watch the curls of smoke. In other moment, you feel yourself crouched together in the bowl of your pipe smoked by yourself at the other end.

- M. Baudelaire

Cocaine isn't habit forming. I should know- I have been taking it for years.

- Tallulah Bankhead (1903-1968), US stage and screen actress

Thou hast the keys of Paradise,
Oh, just, subtle and mighty Opium!

- Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859): English essayist and critic

"H" is for heaven: "H" is for hell: "H" is for heroin. In the life of the addict, these three meanings of "H" seem inextricably intertwined.

- Isador Chein, 1964 (Reproduced in "Historical Medical Classics involving new drugs, by John C. Krantz, Jr. Ph.D. on page 121)

That is the nectar, you call it a gum.
Ah! The lean tree whence such gold oozings come.

- R. Browning (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 204, in Chapter 12 entitled "Drugs of Dependence")

NEGATIVE AUTOPSY

A higher rate of negative conclusions will originate from older and more experienced pathologists than from juniors.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 47)

(N.B. Knight follows up this “ paradoxical quote” with this interesting statement: The younger pathologist is often uneasy about failing to provide a cause of death, feeling that it reflects upon his ability, whereas the more grizzled doctor, enjoying the security of tenure and equality with - or even seniority over - his clinical and legal colleagues, is less inhibited in his admissions of ignorance when the cause of death remains obscure.

I have a different opinion - and experience - though ( I am bald, not grizzled however). Frequently when I fail to find a cause of death, with my students standing over my head, I feel very embarrassed, and tend to offer a cause of death, knowing it to be wrong. On the contrary a younger pathologist - certainly in my hospital - is very comfortable - even happy - in facing an obscure death. Because he has the facility of rushing to his senior colleagues and asking for their opinion. An added pleasure for him might be the possible confusion causing to the senior in the process! Readers' opinions on this subject are welcome.

PETECHIAL HEMORRHAGES

La seule présence… de extravasations sanguines disséminées… suffit pour démontrer… que la suffication est bien, en réalité la cause de la morte.

- Ambroise Tardieu, 1855 (The full citation of the paper in which he made this assertion is: Tardieu A. Ann Hyg Pub et de med Legale (series II) 1855;(6):371-82. This paper is quoted in the paper “Petechial Hemorrhages - A review of Pathogenesis” by Frederick A. Jaffe. American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 15(3):203-207, 1994)

Petechiae arise at the capillary level.

- Frederick A. Jaffe, Forensic Pathology Branch, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (in his paper entitled “Petechial Hemorrhages - A review of Pathogenesis”. American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 15(3):203-207, 1994. This quote appears on page 204, column 2, top line)

A common error is to attribute the petechiae to the rupture of capillaries, whereas they actually emanate from small venules - capillary bleeding would be invisible to the naked eye.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, 1996, page 348)

(N.B. Note the contradiction between quotes 2 and 3 - both from contemporary books and journals. This is another important forensic controversy that is far from over. For other similar forensic controversies, see quotes on "Forensic Mythology" and "Hydrostatic Test". Interestingly, Bernard Knight, writing under the pseudonym of Bernard Picton in his book "Murder, Suicide or Accident - The Forensic Pathologist at Work", (Robert Hale & Company, London, 1971), has this to say on page 102: "The lining of the smallest blood vessels - the capillaries - is very sensitive to both increased pressure and oxygen lack. When these become deranged, the capillaries become fragile and burst at many points, causing small haemorrhages into the tissues, called 'petechiae'."
One would tend to believe that while Knight changed his view between 1971 and 1996, others stuck to the traditional view.)

PHILOSOPHICAL

Sometimes life is like an autopsy - gutted & emptied. An autopsy reveals the cause of death; whereas, being gutted & emptied can reveal a new beginning in life.

- Found as an attachment to the E-mail received from e. catherine on Fri, 22 Sep 2000

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Physical evidence can not be intimidated. It does not forget. It sits there and waits to be detected, preserved, evaluated, and explained.

- Herbert Leon Macdonell (Quoted at the opening page in his book “The Evidence never lies”)

Physical evidence does not get excited, like people do.

- Herbert Leon Macdonell (Quoted at the opening page in his book “The Evidence never lies”)

Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves even unconsciously, will serve as silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or his footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool marks he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects - all of these and more bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It cannot perjure itself. It cannot be wholly absent. Only its interpretation can err. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value.

- Crime Investigation, second edition, Paul L. Kirk (deceased), edited by John I. Thornton (1974), p. 2. (Quoted also in “Footwear Impression Evidence” by William J. Bodziak, at page 1)

In the course of a trial, defense and prosecuting attorneys may lie, witnesses may lie, the defendant may certainly lie. Even the judge may lie. Only the evidence never lies!

- Herbert Leon Macdonell (Quoted at the opening page in his book “The Evidence never lies”)

Absence of Evidence is not the same as Evidence of Absence.

- Howard Frumkin, M.D. Emory University School of Public Health, Chairmain, Dept: of Environmental & Occupational Health (Quoted in Jornal of Forensic Sciences, March 2000 at page 510)

POISON, DEFINITION OF

Poison is any substance, which introduced into the system, either directly or by absorption, produces violent, morbid or fatal changes, or which destroys living tissue with which it comes in contact.

- Watkins v. National Elec. Products Corp., C.C.A. Pa., 165, F. 2d 980, 982

Poison: Any substance which, when relatively small amounts are ingested, inhaled, or absorbed, or applied to, injected to, or developed within the body, has chemical action that may cause damage to structure or disturbance of function producing symptomology, illness or death.

- Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, 26th Edition, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore MD, 1995

Poison: Any substance which, when ingested, inhaled or absorbed, or when applied to, injected into, or developed within the body, in relatively small amounts, by its chemical action may cause damage to structure or disturbance of function.

- The Sloane-Dorland Annotated Medical-Legal Dictionary, West Publishing Company, New York, NY, 1987

Poison is any substance in relatively small quantities that can cause death or illness in living organisms by chemical action. The qualification “by chemical action”, is necessary because it rules out such effects as those produced by a small quantity of lead entering the body at high velocity.

- Scientific American

(N. B. It may be interesting to note that the usual fatal dose of a lead salt such as lead acetate is considered to be about 20 g. A lead bullet weighing 20 g can also kill a person, but in that case, the death would not be by chemical action, and thus lead in the second case, would not be supposed to kill as a poison!)

POISONS AND TOXINS

All substances are poisons. There is none, which is not. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.

- Paracelsus (1495-1541), Swiss physician and Chemist

(N. B. There are several versions of this quote, which differ. This is understandable as this quote has been translated in English from a different language. The real quote in the original language is given in “Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology, Vol. 1 (Principles), page xxvii, 2nd Edition, Edited by Robert I. Krieger, (Academic Press, 2001)”. The quote -in German- goes like this, “Alle Ding sind Gift und nichts ohn Gift; alein die Dosis macht das ein Ding kein Gift ist”. Krieger in his Foreword goes on to say, “With the exception of E=mc2, perhaps no other single statement has wielded such force in establishing the popular notoriety and the professional stature of an individual in the history of science as the words just quoted”. This in itself appears a very fine quote to me!).

Other similar quotes attributed to him are-

What is there that is not poison. All things are poison and nothing (is) without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison.)

---

Even nectar is poison if taken in excess.

- Hindu Proverb (Quoted in “Encyclopedia of Clinical Toxicology” by Irving S. Rossoff, 2002, “The Parthenon Publishing Group”, a CRC Press Company, page vi)

Give me a decent bottle of poison and I’ll construct the perfect Crime.

- Agatha Christie (Quoted in “Dame Agatha’s poisonous pharmacopoeia”. The Pharmaceutical Journal. Dec 23 & 30, 1978, Page 573)

Alcohol, Hashish, Prussic acid, strychnine are all weak dilutions; the surest poison is time.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): American poet, essayist, philosopher

The gnat that sings his summer song
Poison gets from slander's tongue,
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the seat of envy's foot.
The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist's jealousy.

- Blake, (Auguries of Innocence)

There is no such thing as a safe drug - only safe doses.

- C. Pippenger

There are no safe drugs, only safe ways of using them.

- Voltaire (quoted in “Introduction to Toxicology” 2nd Edition by J. A. Timbrell, 1995, Taylor & Francis Ltd, at page 61)

The dose is the difference between the victim and the patient.

- M. Gerald

Plants are the most overrated poisons of childhood.

- N.C. Fraser in “ Accidental poisoning deaths in British children 1958-77”. Br Med J 1980; 280: 1595-1598 (In a survey of deaths due to accidental poisoning in British children, out of 598 registered deaths over 20 years, Fraser found that only three were attributable to the ingestion of plant poisons!)

Having sniffed the dead man’s lips, I detected a slightly sour smell, and I came to the conclusion that he had poison forced upon him.

- Sherlock Holmes, in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet” (Quoted in “Hard Evidence” By David Fisher at page 23)

Poisons and medicines are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents.

- Peter Mere Latham

Passion (poison) often makes fools of clever men; sometimes even makes clever men of fools.

- La Rochefoucauld

I maintain that though you would often in the fifteenth century have heard the snobbish Roman say, in a would-be-off-hand tone, “I am dining with the Borgias tonight”, no Roman was ever able to say, “I dined last night with the Borgias.”

- “And Even Now”, Max Beerbohm

When you consider what a chance women have to poison their husbands, it’s a wonder there isn’t more of it done.

- Kim Hubbard

Most signs and symptoms associated with natural disease can be produced by some poison, and practically every sign and symptom observed in poisoning can be mimicked by those associated with natural diseases.

- L. Adelson

Poison is a chemical bomb.

- John Harris Trestrail III, on page 30 of his book “Criminal Poisoning”, Humana Press, 2000

If you poison us, do we not die?

- The Merchant of Venice. III.i.69 (quoted on the front page in “Curare -Its history and usage” by K. Bryn Thomas, Pitman Medical Publishing Co. Ltd. London, 1964. I found this book while leisurely scanning the S.M.S. Medical College library at Jaipur on 14 June 2001, when I had gone there as a post-graduate examiner)

Poison is a silent weapon.

- John Harris Trestrail III, on page 31 of his book “Criminal Poisoning”, Humana Press, 2000

Revolted by the odious crime of homicide, the chemist’s aim is to perfect the means of establishing proof of poisoning so that the heinous crime will be brought to light and proved to the magistrate who must punish the criminal.

- “Traite de Poison”, M.J.B. Orfila (1814)

MARTHA: “Well, dear, for a gallon of elderberry wine, I take one teaspoonful of arsenic, and add a half a teaspoonful of strychnine, and then just a pinch of cyanide.

- “Arsenic and Old Lace” by Joseph Kasserling, New York Pocket Books, New York, NY, 1944 (quoted by John Harris Trestrail III in his book “Criminal Poisoning” on page 93. Also by Serita Deborah Stevens and Anne Klarner in their book “Deadly Doses - A writer’s guide to poisons”, Writer’s Digest Books, Ohio, 1990 on page 10)

If all those buried in our cemeteries who were poisoned could raise their hand, we would probably be shocked by the numbers!

- John Harris Trestrail III, in this book “Criminal Poisoning” on page 99

And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue
Sure to taste sweetly - is that poison too?

- R. Browning (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 191, in Chapter 11 entitled "Forensic Chemistry")

It would be nice if someday, like Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy, we could pass a “Tricorder” over the body in question and thereby scan for over a million different chemical entities.

- John Harris Trestrail III, in this book “Criminal Poisoning” on page 71, stressing the fact that when an analytical result for toxicology comes negative, it does not necessarily mean that the specimen was free of all chemical substances. It only means that none of the substances tested for were present in detectable quantities.

Every death with no visible signs of trauma must be considered a poisoning until the facts prove otherwise.

- John Harris Trestrail III, in this book “Criminal Poisoning” on page 99

Doctors put drugs of which they know little, into our bodies of which they know less, to cure diseases of which they know nothing at all.

- Voltaire (quoted in “Introduction to Toxicology” 2nd Edition by J. A. Timbrell, 1995, Taylor & Francis Ltd, at page 61)

POISONS (INDIVIDUAL)

ACETAMINOPHEN

APAP - induced heart injury? May be yes, may be no. Next question?

- Title of a paper by Martin J. Smilkstein in Clinical Toxicology, 34(2), 155-156 (1996)

I have just taken Tylenol, will I die?

- A frantic call made by several Americans in September - October 1982 to poison centres, following unfortunate deaths of 7 people, who took Tylenol Capsules, which all turned out to be laced with cyanide. Such a panic spread among the Americans that many reported that their toothpaste smelt oddly or their antacids tasted strangely. Many pharmacists described this reaction as “Tylenol Syndrome”. (Taken from “Dunea G. Death over the Counter. British Medical Journal, Vol, 286, 15 January 1983, pages 211-212”. This incident is also reported in “Forensic Pharmacology - Medicines, Mayhem, and Malpractice” by R.E. Ferner, Oxford University Press, 1996, at page 15)

ARSENIC

Arsenic was a popular homicidal poison; women purchased it with the ostensible excuse of destroying rats. The rat in this context was usually the husband!

- Anonymous

The history of arsenic poisoning is, at the same time, the history of murder by means of poisoning.

- Leschke (quoted in “The Power of Poison” by John Glaister, Chritopher Johnson, London, 1954, page 78)

ACONITE

Aconite is useful to hunters for destroying tigers and elephants, useful to the rich for putting troublesome relatives out of the way, and useful to jealous husbands for destroying faithless wives.

- saying common among Lepchas of Sikkim, India

CHLOROFORM

Now she's acquitted, she should tell us in the interests of science how she did it!

- Sir James Piaget, a distinguished Victorian surgeon, exhorting Adelaide Bartlett, when she was acquitted, to tell how she killed her husband by giving him chloroform (quoted in "Murder - What dunit" by J.H.H. Gaute & Robin Odell, at page 93)

DATURA

Datura makes you hot as a hare, blind as a bat, dry as a bone, red as a beet and mad as a hen.

- H.G. Morton

And some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant Comedy; for they turned natural Fools upon it for several Days. One would blow a Feather in the Air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another stark naked was sitting up in a Corner, like a Monkey grinning and making Mows at them; a Fourth would fondly kiss and paw his Companions, and sneer in their Faces with a Countenance more antik than any in a Dutch Droll.

- Robert Beverly, describing the condition of some soldiers who accidentally ate Datura stramonium (Jimson weed) leaves in their salad. This description appears in the book “History and Present State of Virginia”, Book 2 (1705 A.D.), p 24

(N.B. This is one of the most widely quoted quotes on Datura stramonium by medical and lay authorities alike. It has appeared in (i) JAMA 1939; 112:2500-2 in a paper by JD Hughes and JA Clark Jr. (ii) Editorial, Lancet 1948;i:649-50 (iii) Clinical Toxicology by CJ Polson, MA Green, MR Lee, 3rd Edition, page 393 (iv)The Medical Detectives by Berton Roueché, Washington Square Press 1980, page 184)

DDT

I hate Bosco,
It's full of DDT.
Mommy put it in my milk to try to poison me.
But I fooled Mommy, I put some in her tea.
Now there's no more Mommy to try to poison me.

- Children's rhyme (Quoted in "The New England Journal of Medicine" Volume 330:1095, April 14, 1994, Number 15, (in the Review of the book "The Poisonous Pen of Agatha Christie" By Michael C. Gerald. 275 pp. Austin, Tex., University of Texas Press, 1993. $32.50. ISBN 0-292-76535-5). Review by Orah S. Platt, M.D. and Richard Platt, M.D.,Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215. Available on the net at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/330/15/1095)

HELLEBORE

Besides, hellebore is rank poison to us, but given to goats and quails makes them fat.

- Lucretius: “De Rerum Natura” Book 4, lines 640-641, Translated by W.H.D. Rouse (This quote appears in “Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology, Vol. 1 (Principles), page 109, 2nd Edition, Edited by Robert I. Krieger, (Academic Press, 2001)”

HYOSCINE

‘.. .Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leprous distilment.. .’

- Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5 (Quoted in “The Encyclopedia of Forensic Science” by Brian Lane, Headline 1992, at page 375

MERCURY

Mercury is ‘the hottest, the coldest, a true healer, a wicked murderer, a precious medicine, and a deadly poison, a friend that can flatter and lie’.

- Woodall J. (1639), The Surgeon’s Mate or Military & Domestic Surgery, London, p256 (quoted from Cassarett and Doull’s Toxicology. Also quoted in “Introduction to Toxicology” 2nd Edition by J. A. Timbrell, 1995, Taylor & Francis Ltd, at page 118)

MUSHROOMS

There are old Mushroom Hunters and Bold Mushroom Hunters, but no Old Bold Mushroom Hunters.

- Anonymous

Had nature any outcast face?
Could she a son condemn?
Had nature an Iscariot
That mushroom - it is him

- Emily Dickinson (Quoted in “Wilderness Medicine”, 4th edition, by Paul S. Auerbach, Mosby, 2001; chapter 49 entitled “Mushroom Toxicity” by Sandra Schneider and Mark Donnelly, page 1141)

PHOSPHORUS

Keep any cakes and sandwiches over, for the funeral.

- Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Wilson of Durham, who poisoned her two husbands with phophorus, jokingly at her wedding feast in 1958 (Quoted in “The Bedside Book of Murder” by Richard & Molly Whittington-Egan, at page 81)

STRYCHNINE

We’ll murder them all amid laughter and merriment,
Except for a few we’ll take home to experiment.
My pulse will be quickenin’ with each drop of strychnine we feed to a pigeon.
(It just takes a smidgin!)
To poison a pigeon in the park.

- Tom Lehrer (1928- ): in “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” (1953)

TOADS (POISONOUS)

Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights went thirty-one,
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

- Shakespeare alluding to the evil reputation of the toad in Macbeth (Reproduced from “Poisons and Poisoners” by C.J.S. Thompson, page 103)

POLICE AND POLICING

The more technical knowledge a police officer possesses, the greater the probability of securing not only a criminal arrest but also a guilty verdict from the jury.

- Howell 1988 (Quoted in “Tire Imprint Evidence” by Peter McDonald, 1989 Elsevier, page 189)

The police are the public and the public are the police.

- Sir Robert Peel (Quoted in “Criminal Investigation - Basic Perspectives” by Paul B. Weston, Charles Lushbaugh and Kenneth M. Wells, eighth edition, 2000, Prentice Hall, page 396)

You become a cop so you can watch the parade from the front. Detective is even better because you don’t have to be in uniform to watch the parade.

- Detective Captain Frank Bolz (quoted in “Cop Talk” by E.W.Count, Pocket Books, 1994. The quote appears at the beginning of the book)

POST MORTEM CHANGES

PUTREFACTION

The process of putrefaction is simple in its complexity and complex in its simplicity, resting upon the variables operating in a particular case.

- Dr. Krishan Vij, Professor and Head, Department of Forensic Medicine, Government Medical College, Chandigarh, India, in his book “Textbook of Forensic Medicine - Principles and Practice”, B.I. Churchill Livingstone, 2001, page 186

QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS

It is a compliment to monetary stability when currency is forged.

- Jay Levinson in his book “Questioned Documents - A Lawyer’s Handbook”, Academic Press 2001, page 165

It is competent for a judge and jury to compare the handwriting of a disputed document.

- A Canadian Court in 1918, in the case Rohoel v. Darwish, 1 WWR 627; 13 Altn LR 180 (Quoted by Jay Levinson in his book “Questioned Documents - A Lawyer’s Handbook”, Academic Press 2001, page 1)

No matter how extensive his background may be, no document examiner can know all the answers to all the questions.

- Jay Levinson in his book “Questioned Documents - A Lawyer’s Handbook”, Academic Press 2001, page 24

“Handwriting” is not hand writing.

- Ron N. Morris in his book “Forensic Handwriting Identification: Fundamental concepts and principles”, Academic Press 2000, page 1

(N.B. To those who find this interesting little quote confounding, the following lines from the same page may be quoted. Morris follows up this quote with this: There are a substantial number of people who are not able to use their hand so they write with their foot, mouth etc. Writing is actually a brain function and the hand, foot, mouth etc are merely the devices which carry out brain orders.)

ROAD SIDE VEHICULAR ACCIDENTS

There are only two classes of pedestrians these days - the quick and the dead.

- Lord Dewar (1864-1930) (Quoted in “The Pathology of Trauma” 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 17)

Drive slowly, reach safely,
And not race with the devil,
To reach the tomb prematurely.

- S.C. Mestri (Professor and Head, Dept. of Forensic Medicine, KIMS, Hubli-580022, India), in “Preventive and safety measures to be adopted in road traffic accidents”, Journal of Karnataka Medicolegal Society; 9(2): December 2000, pages 28-30 (this quote appears on page 30)

I wasn’t the driver.

- Statement often made by occupants of an automobile which has been involved in a fatal collision. (cited on page 24 of “Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences” edited by Jay A. Siegel, Pekka J. Saukko and Geoffrey C. Knupfer. 2000 Academic Press.)

SCENE OF CRIME

“Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which the body had been found, and indeed, so moist was the ground, that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read upon the trampled grass.”

- Dr. Watson, the companion of the Legendary Sherlock Holmes in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” by Arthur Conan Doyle

Scenes as well as suspects often conceal the truth.

- Jon J. Nordby, forensic science investigative consultant, in his book “Dead Reckoning - The Art of Forensic Detection”, CRC Press 2000, on page 23

SERIAL KILLERS

They are the waste product of our frustrated, bored, over-stressed Western industrialized society.

- Sean Mactire in his book “Malicious Intent-A writer’s guide to how murderers, robbers, rapists and other criminals think”. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1995. This quote appears in on page 67, in 5th chapter entitled “Serial Murder”)

SEXUAL OFFENCES

No man shall have sexual intercourse with any woman against her will.

- Charaka Samhita (Book of Medicine written in the 4rth Century B.C. by the Ancient Hindu writer Charaka)

In no state can a man be accused of raping his wife. How can any man steal what already belongs to him?

- Susan Griffin, American Poet (Ramparts, September 1971)

… marriage [is] in modern times regarded as a partnership of equals and no longer one in which the wife [is] the subservient chattel of the husband.

- Lord Keith in Regina v R. 23 October 1991 (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 138)

Rape is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused and, in reality, it is she who must prove her good reputation, her mental soundness, and her impeccable propriety.

- Freda Adler, American Educator (Sisters in Crime, 1975)

Insertion or thrust of male organ between the thighs kept tight amounts to penetration sufficient to constitute rape.

- In the Indian case of State v Gobindan, 1969 Cr LJ 818

Rape is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved and yet harder to be defended by the party concerned though never so innocent.

- Khelleher v Queen, 1974 (131) Commonwealth Law Reporter 534

The act of actus reus is complete with penetration and emission is not essential or relevant.

- Queen v Marsden, 1821 QBD 149

If his bones in general, and his shoulders are strongly made, if his gait and voice are vigorous, by these tokens may a potent man be known; and one impotent by the opposite characteristics.

- Narada Smriti (Ancient Hindu text)

There is no difference between being raped and being bit on the ankle by a rattlesnake except that people ask if your skirt was short and why you were out alone anyhow.

- (Mary Piercy, excerpt from 'Rape Poem': Reproduced in "Clinical Approaches to sex offenders and their victims" edited by Clive R. Hollin and Kevin Howells, at page 261

The worst myth that has to be busted is that rape and sex crimes are about sex. They are only about power and anger.

Not enough people understand what rape is, and, until they do.. .., not enough will be done to stop it.

- rape victim (quoted in “Men Who Rape” by N. Groth 1979, Plenum p.87, also quoted in “A Natural History of Rape” by Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer, 2000, MIT Press, on page 1)

SUDDEN DEATH

The fact that an AV or SA node, or the bundle of His or its branches shows fibrosis or some other lesion, does not necessarily mean that this played any part in the death.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 498)

SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS)

..there has developed a “maxim in Forensic pathology: one unexplained infant death in a family is SIDS. Two is very suspicious. Three is homicide.” This is dangerous and scientifically shaky dogma.

- (Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD , Coroner of Allegheny County , Pittsburgh, in JAMA Jan 7, 1996, Vol. 279, No. 1, page 85)

(N.B. A little background above the above quote may be appreciated. This above maxim developed following Van Der Sluys case in 1986, Tinning case in 1987 and Wanda Hoyt case in 1995, each of which involved three dead infants. Wanda Hoyt was convicted of murder in 1995)

Elevated T3 levels in SIDS can be considered as a post-mortem artifact.

- J.I.Coe (in “Postmortem chemistry update. Emphasis on Forensic Application". Am. J. Forensic Med Pathol, 1993, 14, 91-117; cited in “de Letter EA, Piette MHA, Lambert WE, De Leenheer AP. Medico-Legal Implications of Hidden Thyroid Dysfunction: A study of two cases. Med. Sci. Law (2000)Vol. 40, No. 3, Pp 251-257, on page 255)

SIDS is perhaps the greatest single medical mystery confronting scientists.

- (Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD , Coroner of Allegheny County , Pittsburgh, in JAMA Jan 7, 1996, Vol. 279, No. 1, page 86)

SUICIDE

If one wants to get away with murder, one has to jolly well keep one’s wits about one. It’s the same way with suicide.

- Starr Faithful (1931) (quoted in “Murder - Whereabouts” by J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, page 78)

Every homicide is also unconsciously a suicide and every suicide in a sense a psychological homicide.

- Stephen Nordlicht, MD, Clinical Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, in his paper entitled “Medical Deterrents” published in Bull. N.Y.Acad. Med. Vol. 62, No. 5, June 1986. This quote appears on page 584

TERRORISM

“Terrorism” means the use of violence for political ends, and includes any use of violence for the purpose of putting the public or any section of the public in fear.

- Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989, s.20(1) (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 71)

THROMBOSIS, DEEP VEIN

Deep vein thrombosis is a hazard of long air flights.

- Bernard Knight (Forensic Pathology, 2nd Edition, page 507)

TIME SINCE DEATH

Estimating the time of death is one of the most difficult and inaccurate techniques in forensic pathology.

- Milton Helpern in his book “Autopsy - The Memoirs of Milton Helpern, the World’s greatest medical detective”, published by St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1977, on page 116

The time of death is sometimes extremely important. It is a question almost invariably asked by police officers, sometimes with a touching faith in the accuracy of the estimate. Determining the time of death is extremely difficult, and accuracy is impossible.

- Bernard Knight, Legal Aspects of Medical Practice, 4th edition, 1987, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh page 115

I will be the first to admit that if any physical or even mental disturbance occurs soon after the food is swallowed, the whole digestive process can be drastically altered.

- Milton Helpern in his book “Autopsy - The Memoirs of Milton Helpern, the World’s greatest medical detective”, published by St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1977, on page 118

Considering the variables which influence the rate of body heat loss, the best one can say about the reliability of algor mortis as a post mortem clock is that it permits a rough approximation of the time of death. Errors in over-estimating and under-estimating the post mortem interval based on body cooling are common, even in the face of considerable experience by those making the estimate. Body temperature as an indicator of the post mortem interval should be correlated with all other phenomenon and observations utilised in establishing the time of death.

- Adelson, The Pathology of Homicide, 1974, Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, page 164

To offer an unreasonably accurate time of death is worse than providing such a wide range on times that the police derive no help from it.

- Bernard Knight in “The Estimation of the Time Since Death in the Early Postmortem Period”, Edward Arnold, 1995, page 2

A medical witness who attempts to determine the time of death from temperature estimation in minutes or fractions of hours is exposing himself to a severe challenge to his expertise which may well amount to near ridicule, thus denegrating the rest of his evidence.

- Polson, Gee and Knight, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine, 4th edition, 1985, Pergamon Press, Oxford, page 12

It is often the least experienced medical witness who tends to offer the most accurate estimate of time since death.

- Bernard Knight in “The Estimation of the Time Since Death in the Early Postmortem Period”, Edward Arnold, 1995, page 2

Livor mortis, rigor mortis and algor mortis … provide, at best, “postmortem windows”.

- Stephen J. Cina, Charleston County Medical Examiner’s Office, Charleston, SC 29425, USA (Quoted by him in his paper “Flow Cytometric Evaluation of DNA Degradation: A predictor of Postmortem Interval?”. American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 15(4):300-302, 1994)

The opinion of any doctor who offers a single time of death, instead of a range, must be viewed with suspicion.

- Bernard Knight in “The Estimation of the Time Since Death in the Early Postmortem Period”, Edward Arnold, 1995, page 2

No problem in forensic medicine has been investigated as thoroughly as that of determining the time of death on the basis of post mortem findings. Apart from its obvious legal importance, its solution has been so elusive as to provide a constant intellectual challenge to workers in many sciences. In spite of the great effort and ingenuity expended, the results have been meagre

- Jaffe, A Guide to Pathological Evidence : For Lawyers and Police Officers, 2nd edition, 1983, Carswell Criminal Law Series, Carswell Ltd., Toronto, page 33

Repeated experience teaches the investigator to be wary of relying on any single observation for estimating the time of death (or "duration of the post mortem interval"), and he wisely avoids making dogmatic statements based on an isolated observation.

- Adelson, The Pathology of Homicide, 1974, Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, page 151

Formerly, it was a hallowed "rule of thumb" that the rectal temperature dropped at an average of 1.5oF per hour, rather faster during the first few hours. This method was a guarantee of inaccuracy, but little has been found to replace it.

- Bernard Knight, Legal Aspects of Medical Practice, 4th edition, 1987, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, page 119-120

Some difference of opinion exists over the use of a thermometer at the scene of a suspicious death. Considerable caution must be employed when considering the taking of a rectal temperature with the body in situ. If there is any possibility at all of some sexual interference, whether homosexual or heterosexual, no intereference with the clothing or perineum must be made until all forensic examinations have been completed. Certainly, no instrument should be inserted into the rectum before trace evidence has been sought.

- Polson, Gee and Knight, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine, 4th edition, 1985, Pergamon Press, Oxford, page 9-10

The timing of the sequence of events concerned in the dissolution of the body cannot be done with accuracy and one must be cautious never to pronounce too readily that the decomposed state of the body is inconsistent with the time interval alleged.

- Camps, Lucas, Robinson, Gradwohl's Legal Medicine, 3rd edition, 1976, John Wright & Sons, Bristol, page 91

TIRE IMPRINT EVIDENCE

I am familiar with forty-two different impressions left by tyres.

- Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson in “The Adventure of the Priory School” 1901

A motor vehicle is used in 75 percent of all the major crimes reported today.

- Given, Nehrich and Shields 1977 (Quoted in “Tire Imprint Evidence” by Peter McDonald, 1989 Elsevier, page 37)

The ultimate goal of the tire track investigation is the identification of the vehicle producing the track.

- Given, Nehrich and Shields 1977 (Quoted in “Tire Imprint Evidence” by Peter McDonald, 1989 Elsevier, page 67)

Tire “Footprints” help solve Homicide cases (Title of article in Law and Order 1981)

- Quoted in “Tire Imprint Evidence” by Peter McDonald, 1989 Elsevier, page 111

TONGUES OF SLIP

“They told me you could help me, Dr. Zak… the people at the Funny Society.. .er.. . I mean the Forensic Society".

- A patient (Henry Nash) over phone to forensic entomologist Zakaria Erzinçlioglu (quoted by Zakaria Erzinçlioglu in his biographical book “Maggots, Murder and Men - Memories and Reflections of a Forensic Entomologist” Harley Books, England 2000, on page 138)

TRACE EVIDENCE

Every contact leaves a trace.

- Edmond Locard (1877-1966), Pioneering French Criminologist

(This is often touted as the “Locard’s Exchange Principle”. Although nothing is wrong in this statement, the true principle goes like this: “The dust and debris that cover our clothing and bodies are the mute witnesses, sure and faithful, of all our movements and all our encounters.” It is quoted on page 299 of “Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences” edited by Jay A. Siegel, Pekka J. Saukko and Geoffrey C. Knupfer. 2000 Academic Press.)

For a long time he remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, gathering what seemed to me to be dust into an envelop and examining with his lens not only the ground, but even the bark of the tree as far as he could reach.

- Dr. Watson recalling the actions of Sherlock Holmes in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”

If evidence has been properly gathered and preserved, a mistake in interpretation may always be corrected. If the facts required for a correct interpretation are not preserved, the mistake is irreversible.

- Alan R. Moritz, MD (Quoted in "The Pathology of Trauma" 2nd Edition, Edited by J.K.Mason, page 227)

What is not looked for will not be found!

- William J. Bodziak in his book “Footwear Impression Evidence” at page 2

The best evidence in the world will not stand up in court if the jurors have doubts about its integrity.

- Los Angeles Times (Quoted in “Criminal Investigation - Basic Perspectives” by Paul B. Weston, Charles Lushbaugh and Kenneth M. Wells, eighth edition, 2000, Prentice Hall, page 6)

Trace evidence is one of the most valuable, misunderstood, misused and underutilised forms of physical evidence.

- Peter R. De Forest in his chapter "What is trace evidence" in the book "Forensic Examination of Glass and Paint" edited by Brian Caddy, Taylor & Francis, 2001, page 23

WITTICISMS

Well folks, you’ll soon see a baked Appel.

- George Appel, as he was being strapped into the electric chair in 1952 (Quoted in “Witticisms of 7 condemned criminals” on page 87 in “The Book of Lists #3” by Amy Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace)

Nothing will happen until I get there.

- Guy Clark (1832) on the way to gallows to the sheriff, when he asked him to speed up the pace (Quoted in “Witticisms of 7 condemned criminals” on page 87 in “The Book of Lists #3” by Amy Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace)

You work in forensics and you don't know what FUBAR means????

- Contributed by James (Jamie) Crippin , Colorado Bureau of Inv., 3416 N Elizabeth St., Pueblo, CO 81008. Phone: 719-542-1133

(N.B. Anyone, who wants to know more about this interesting quote, or wants to know what FUBAR means, may want to get with touch with Mr. Crippin himself. He can be contacted by clicking on his name)

When in doubt, think dirty. You’ll be right ninety percent of the time.

- An old pathologist to Dr. William R. Maples

(N.B. Dr. William R. Maples gives this quote in his book “Dead Men do tell tales” at page 11. Dr. Maples goes on to say, that it was good advice and that he put it to good use on many occasions.)

Better save that. We'll need it for the autopsy.

- A surgeons’ conversation overheard during a life saving surgery - sent by Dr. Vivek Jain, MD (Skin & VD)

Forensic medicine in most of the countries is some kind of an unwanted Cinderella.

- Dr. Peter Kovac, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Comenius University, Bratislava, Sasinkova 4, 81103 Slovakia (In an informal E-mail sent to this webmaster on 23 November 2000)

To treat is human, to dissect divine.

- This is the answer I frequently give to people who ask me why I left a lucrative career in medicine (way back in 1979) to take up forensic pathology

Those who can, dissect; those who can’t, dissent.

- Another perfectly valid answer to the same question, although I don’t remember having said this to anyone

WOUNDS

INCISED

Incise the abdomen and conceal the jewel.

- An old Chinese Proverb (Quoted in “Forensic Science”, 2(1973) 191-199 at page 191)

PENETRATING

Makes such a wound the knife is lost in it.

- Shelley (Cited in "Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology" edited by Francis E. Camps, J.& A. Churchill Ltd., 1969, on page 101, in Chapter 6 entitled "The interpretation of wounds (Penetrating)")

Know a forensic quote which does not appear here? Well why not share it with us, and add to this growing pool of forensic quotes. Your contribution would appear with due credit to you. For submitting your quote, mail me.

Contact

ANIL AGGRAWAL'S PAGE OF FORENSIC QUOTES AND APHORISMS

About Myself

ANIL AGGRAWAL'S PAGE OF
FORENSIC QUOTES AND APHORISMS