Forensic Science Fiction The mystery of the electrocuted man When I was called at the factory, Kanti had already died. Well, I didn’t expect anything better. I am called only at such unfortunate moments. To be sure, I was called neither by the factory owner, nor the dead man’s colleagues, but by the police! As you can perhaps understand, forensic pathologists are mostly called by the police, who want them to decipher the language of the dead. Let me tell you the story. Kanti was a 36 year old technician, who worked as an electrician in a relatively small setup "DC Industries". The factory as well as the administrative office was located in Ghaziabad. The group comprised of about 100 people and was engaged in making some industrial gadgets. The management was not responsive to the workers’ genuine needs, to say the least. There were many safety hazards in the factory, which were dangerous to the life of the workers. The workers had raised this issue several times before the management, but it always turned a deaf ear towards their genuine demands. One of their genuine demands was to get the electrical installations renovated. Several points in the electrical installations were corroded and posed a serious threat of short-circuiting. The management had not shown any interest whatsoever in renovating the installations. It was perhaps understandable that the management didn’t worry about the lives of the workers, but what was most surprising was that such a defective and outdated electrical installation could lead to fires resulting in destruction of their own property too, and yet the management had not shown any interest. Well, that shouldn’t worry us for the moment. There are all types of people in this world, and we have got to learn to live with them. But let us get on with the story. On 13th March, one day after Holi (an important festival of Hindus, during which people throw colors at one another. Also known as the "festival of colors", it is usually celebrated in March every year), Kanti came to work as usual. He started work on a heavy duty electrical appliance. I was shown that electrical appliance. It looked like a giant dinosaur but more than that, I couldn’t make any head or tail of it. But what was important for me as a forensic pathologist was that it worked on heavy tension- I was told, it required 20,000 volts to work. Kanti started work at about 10 am. He was working on that appliance standing on a shaft, about 15 feet above the floor. At about 11 am, some labourers heard a heavy thud. When they rushed to the spot, they found Kanti dead. There was no doubt about that. Thus nobody felt the need to call the doctor. They called the police instead. Meanwhile the factory was agog with rumours. The management had killed him, because he stood for workers’ demands...he got electrocuted while working on that defective gagdet...some stooge of the management had pushed him down....and so on. But the story that was doing the rounds most vigorously and with most conviction was that he had got electrocuted while working on that defective gadget. By the time, I had arrived, some labourers had even started shouting slogans against the management. One representative of the management, quite nervously was showing the police around. Most others were sitting like frightened does in their offices. Some were probably even contacting their lawyers. The management’s version was that the gadget was fully safe, and Kanti had died because of a fall from the height. According to them, he was a very careless worker and was always prone to accident because of this carelessness. He probably fell from that lofty shaft because he was not working carefully. By the time, I arrived at the factory, two major conjectures regarding Kanti's cause of death had emerged. One, floated by the workers was that Kanti had been electrocuted by that defective gadget. The other floated by the management, who undoutedly had been doctored by their lawyers by that time, was that Kanti had fallen from height due to carelessness and had died. What the police wanted to know from me naturally was how Kanti had died actually. Did he die of electrocution or did he die of fall from height? We pathologists have a way –if not foolproof- of knowing if a person had died from either. If he had died due to electrocution, he must show an electric entry and exit mark. And if he died due to fall from height, he must show fractures, head injury and so on. I immediately got to work, and started postmortem on Kanti’s body. But try as hard as I would, I could not see a single electrocution mark on his body. Now don’t begin to think that this excluded electrocution. In fact electrocution deaths are quite tricky. If you find electric entry mark (for the more technically minded, it is commonly known as the Joule burn), you could perhaps say with certainty that the person died of electrocution, but if you don’t find any electrocution mark, you can not exclude electrocution. One of the situations in which you don’t get electrocution mark despite having been electrocuted is if the body’s area of contact with the electricity was very wide. There are a number of other situations too, in which you don’t get electrocution mark, but let us not go in unnecessary details. What is important to appreciate here is that the absence of electrocution mark didn’t rule out electrocution. A word about the other post-mortem findings on the body. Kanti showed a long linear fracture of the left parietal bone and there was an underlying extradural hematoma. You might think that this clearly indicated that he died of fall from height. But to opine on such matters is quite tricky, especially when such matters as compensation and criminal negligence on the part of administration are in question. If a person gets electrocuted and falls immediately thereafter, he would get injuries as shown by Kanti, yet it would be fallacious to say that he died due to fall from height. The fall occurred in the first place because of the electrocution, and if you don’t mention that in the post mortem report, the management could get undue advantage of that report. So you can quite easily understand that I was keen on knowing how he actually fell- from his own carelessness or due to sudden jolt from the electrocution. The workers were obviously very agitated and they wanted to see the word "electrocution" somewhere in the postmortem report. Well, if one would change the report merely from workers’ pressure, he wouldn’t be doing justice, but in this case I was myself very much convinced that Kanti had indeed been electrocuted. My belief was substantiated when I called an expert electrician on my own and had that equipment checked on which Kanti was working. The electrician gave me the report that the equipment was indeed faulty and it was very liable to give shocks to people working on it. In fact he said, that it should have been replaced years ago. I didn’t hand over the dead body to the relatives for cremation, because I wanted to think more about the problem. When his wife, brother and other relatives came to me for the dead body, I requested them to let me have the body for a couple of days more, so I could think about the problem in detail. Since finding out the true cause of death was in their own interest, they understood and let me keep the body. I placed the body in the cold room, came home and kept thinking about the problem in the night. When I slept, I kept dreaming of the metallic gray hue of the skin of Kanti’s brother who had come to collect his dead body. There was no doubt that his skin was of a distinct metallic gray hue, but I didn’t know why that color should trouble me in my dreams. It was so disturbing that finally I got up from my bed, had a stroll in the park outside my house and then after about half an hour came back and slept. I had much better sleep after that. Next day I called Kanti’s brother to my office. His name was Shashi and he was about 44 years of age. I looked at his skin more closely and found that it did have a distinct metallic gray hue. I couldn’t make much of it. Without having the faintest idea of what I was doing, I started questioning him of his past life. What caught my fancy was that Shashi was suffering from diabetes for the past 7-8 years of his life. A vague idea began emerging in my mind. I took him to my examination table and palpated his liver. As I had expected, it was enlarged. Things began becoming clearer in my mind now. I wouldn’t insult your intelligence by telling that a person who has skin with a metallic gray hue, an enlarged liver and diabetes is most probably suffering from a peculiar disease. They used to call it bronzed diabetes at a time, but now it is more commonly known as Hemochromatosis. It is about 5-10 times more common in the males than females, and may be both genetic and acquired. Kanti was living in a joint family, and most males of his family showed one or the other symptom of hemochromatosis. Some had testicular atrophy, some arthropathies, some cardiac involvements and still some others such symptoms as loss of body hair. In short every male of Kanti’s family was suffering from hemochromatosis. I wanted to be doubly sure and had their serum ferritin levels done. Now as you know, in normal males, the serum ferritin levels should be of the range of 10-200 micrograms per litre, but these individuals all had more than 4000 micrograms per litre! Some even had as high as 6000 micrograms per Litre of serum. There was no doubt now that they were all suffering from hemochromatosis. I went to Kanti’s house and looked at their cooking utensils. As I had expected, they were all made of raw iron, and that is where they were getting their excess iron from. You might wonder why the females do not suffer from hemochromatosis. As far as I know, no one knows about it, but there are various conjectures, not the least impressive of which is the one which holds womens’ regular menstruation responsible for this. But let us not digress from the main story. Now I think I am a reasonably good forensic pathologist, and I know how a person’s internal organs should look like, if he were suffering from hemochromatosis. It was only reasonable to think that Kanti was also suffering from hemochromatosis. If this were so, he should have had an enlarged nodular liver and it should have had a strong ochre color. But it showed neither of the two features! That is what surprised me. To be sure, even his pancreas should be showing an ochre color, but I didn’t remember his internal organs having any color other than normal. But I could reverify as I had his body in my mortuary. I went to the mortuary once again, took out Kanti’s body which I had preserved and had a look at his organs once again...No. There was no abnormality at all of the liver or of the pancreas. You might think that I should not have worried about that at that moment, as my primary aim was to find out the correct cause of his death. Whether he showed signs of hemochromatosis or not wouldn’t have helped me one way or the other. You are perhaps right, but I have this silly habit of getting to the root of all such peculiar problems, even if they have no bearing. To me they are like solving a crossword puzzle, and that’s why I kept racking my brains about it. I was not sure why he was not showing any of the classical findings of hemochromatosis. As we all know, in hemochromatosis, the excess iron is deposited in the liver, pancreas and the heart. In the spleen, kidney and skin the iron levels increase to about 5 times normal, in the heart 25 times, and in liver and pancreas, as much as 50-100 times than normal! I had his whole organs in my custody and I got down to work immediately. To my utter frustration, the iron levels in all his organs were completely normal. You can imagine my frustration at this point. I went to Kanti’s house and asked his wife if he was eating food along with the rest of his family, and she said yes. That broke my last hope of solving the puzzle. If he was having food from the same source, undoubtedly he was ingesting extra iron along with the rest of his family. But while all his family members –especially males- were showing signs of hemochromatosis, Kanti was cocking a snook at me even after his death by not showing the minimal signs of that disease. Where was his extra iron going? I was so frustrated by this time, that I began having the wildest ideas. What about getting his total body iron done? There is a costly technique- Neutron Activation Analysis or NAA in short- by which the total body iron can be estimated. Now if you love me, don’t ask me what this technique is all about. But I can assure you it is a genuine technique by which total body iron can be estimated. You would have to take my word for it, or if you don’t believe me go to any physicist and ask him about this technique. He will tell you the mechanics of this in great detail. NAA is obviously not available in our college and for this I had to take the help of National Physical Laboratory. When I approached the Director of NPL with this strange request, he thought I had gone mad. Perhaps I had, but at that time, my biggest concern was to have his total body iron done by whatever means. When he didn’t agree to my request, I approached Dr. Bal Phondke, Director of the National Institute of Science Communication (NISCOM in short). I am doing a little monthly series called "Poison Sleuths"; for their magazine "Science Reporter" for quite some time now and have good rapport with him. Before this I was doing yet another series "Crime Busters" for the same magazine and obviously had developed great ties with him. I asked Dr. Phondke to phone the director of NPL and do this little favour for me. To tell you the truth even Dr. Phondke thought I was getting senile, but as a small favour to an old friend he somehow inveigled the director of NPL into doing this little test for me. When the tests for the total body iron of Kanti came to me, I was in for a big surprise. His total body iron was about 25 g, - almost the same what a patient of hemochromatosis must have. A normal man doesn’t have more than 5 g of iron in his body. Levels as high as 25 g are found only in patients of hemochromatosis. So here was Kanti’s body not showing an iota of hemochromatosis and yet his total body iron was at the same level as that of any hemochromatosis patient. Where was his extra iron hiding? Now things had started becoming really complicated. Then suddenly I thought of a peculiar finding in such patients. They show very little iron in the testes (this is despite the fact that they all show loss of libido and testicular atrophy). Since Kanti was throwing surprise after surprises, I decided to have one more shock, and did his testes iron levels. As I had expected, it was unusually high. Are you getting the picture now? Kanti’s body was somehow a mirror image of a normal hemochromatosis patient. All his organs which should have shown an increased iron level were showing the normal level, and all those organs which should show a normal iron level were showing increased levels. And this brings us back to our original question- death by electrocution. What about Kanti’s nerves? Were they having extra iron too? You can well imagine, I couldn’t resist myself at that level. I immediately cut a big chunk of Kanti’s sciatic nerve and put it to test. Expectedly it was very high in iron! In fact when I examined its sections in a microscope, its external sheath was so heavily laden with iron that I might as well have been looking at an iron wire! I took a longer piece of his sciatic nerve and connected it to a simple electric circuit. Strangely (well, not so strangely after what we have read now), it could keep the circuit going. There was so much iron in it, that the piece of sciatic nerve almost acted as an iron wire! Things began emerging clearly in my mind now. Kanti had indeed been electrocuted. But his nerves were such good conductors of electricity that they hardly offered any resistance to it. Electric entry mark, or Joule burn as we call it, is caused by the generation of heat in the body by the flow of electricity through it. But if the body were not to offer any resistance to its flow, no heat is going to generate in the body and there would be no burn or electric entry mark. That was the reason Kanti was not showing any electric entry mark despite the fact he was electrocuted. And now I had rigorous scientific proof to show it. But you may ask why Kanti died if the current safely got earthed via his superconducting nerves. Well, most of the current did find its way into the earth, but some also travelled –via his superconducting nerves again- to such sensitive areas as the heart and brain stem. These little organs as you know, work by little currents of body electricity. Such large currents as industrial electricity are going to play havoc with their normal functioning, and the person is going to die very quicky. The mode of death could be cardiac fibrillation if the heart was affected more or stoppage of respiration if the brain stem were affected more. You may also ask why Kanti’s body behaved in this particular way, i.e why it showed a reverse pattern of iron deposition. To be honest with you, I don’t know the answer. But what I do know is that there is an entity called genetic hemochromatosis too. In this disease there is an abnormal gene sitting on chromosome 6. Many cases of acquired hemochromatosis (the one shown by Kanti’s family) are having an associated genetic disorder too. I am personally aware of several people taking medicinal iron for years, who start showing symptoms of hemochromatosis after some time. But all their symptoms can not be explained by the excessive intake of iron. Many of them have an associated genetic abnormality too. It is quite likely that Kanti’s family also had that abnormal gene on chromosome 6. But Kanti's gene had an additional anomaly. Somehow it coded for excess iron deposition not in the normal organs but in the ones which are normally saved. It was a kind of mirror gene, so to say. Well, I am no geneticist, and I can not comment on it more than that. Kanti’s family was pestering me for his body- I had already kept it for more than a week, so ultimately I handed the body over to them. But I made it a point to preserve large pieces of his various body tissues in my custody. I have submitted them to Mr. Lalji Singh, a senior scientist at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad, and am waiting for his report. He is reportedly preparing his genetic profile, and as soon as his report comes to me, I will inform you regarding it. Meanwhile don’t forget to look at the latest (June 1998) issue of the Journal of American Medical Association for a brief scientific report of this strange case. One last question that may be lingering in your mind. Finding "nerves of iron" does not in itself prove that electricity had passed through Kanti’s body. No doubt if electricity were made to pass through his body, it would not show Joule burn, but what if it hadn’t passed through the body in the first place. In that case too, Kanti’s body wouldn’t show any Joule burn. I solved this problem in another way. If electricity passed through those nerves, body chloride would be attracted to it, and would form iron chloride. On the contrary, if no current passed through those nerves no iron chloride would form. Obviously the easiest way to test for this was to test for a thin film of iron chloride over the nerves. Yes, you got it. When I examined the nerves in detail, I found a thin film of iron chloride over the nerves while the core was mostly pure iron. What pleased me was that the court accepted my findings and awarded damages to Kanti’s wife. The management of DC industries was asked to cough up Rs 20 Lakhs to Kanti’s wife as damages. Obviously DC industries was not happy with me. Well, who cares as long as I have more dead bodies to look after! ------- xxx ------- This story appeared in Spandan'98 (1997-98) , (a Maulana Azad Medical College inhouse magazine) on pages 27-33. Questions on this story asked by readers, (and other reactions) Discerning readers have asked a lot of questions on this story. I will continue to post some select questions on this page. I have answers to these questions, but they may not be very convincing to all. Readers who come up with answers may want to send me E-mail.Many experts keep sending me their comments about stories. I am putting some select comments here too for the benefit of all. I am afraid most comments I will be putting here would be of a critical nature. 1. Asked on September 24, 1999 by Mr Jan Hjelm, Kramfors, Sweden Hello, I read your story with great pleasure. One thing struck me and I hope to get your input on this. Kanti showed a different distribution of iron in his organs compared to the members of his family. Could this be caused by him being exposed to strong electric/magnetic fields in his work as he presumably was the only one working in this kind of environment? Friendly greetings, Mr Jan Hjelm Kramfors Sweden 2. The following comment was sent on October 28, 1999 by R.K. Wright MD JD I read your story with interest.I disagree with a number of points. First, the presence of electrical burns does not mean electrocution. Dead bodies have identical electrical burns as live persons. These are not vital reactions. You can test this yourself in the morgue with ordinary household current applied to a deceased person. (do be careful) As to the hemachromatosis and super conductivity of the body, I must respectfully disagree. The skin is the most unconductive and therefore most heated of the body parts. Here Kanti's skin was not a site of ferrous deposition and thus irrespective of the condition of his nerves, his skin would not conduct more than others. As to whether ferrous metal increase does reduce resistance of organs, I do not know with certainty, having not tested it. However, I would doubt it based upon what I know of these things.Nice story thoug

Forensic Science Fiction The New Antibiotic AIDS had struck planet Akashgriha too! It was AD 2073. Man had colonized about 500 odd planets of the Milky Way and more than 200 planets belonging to other galaxies of the universe. Planet Akashgriha was one of the farthest planets man had colonized. It was at a distance of 15 million light-years, located in a galaxy named Doosra Akash. Such a large distance meant that light with its fantastic velocity of about 2 lakh kilometres per second would have taken about 15 million years to reach that galaxy! Population on earth had increased beyond all projections. In late 1990s, the world population was increasing at a rate of 170 people a minute. According to these figures, scientists in 1990s calculated that the world population would reach about 12.5 billion in AD 2050. But the population increased much beyond those levels, thanks to the advent of interplanetary travel and colonization. In AD 2050, the total number of human beings anywhere in the universe were a staggering 125 billion! Of these, less than 4 billion were living on earth, meaning thereby that there were lesser number of human beings on earth in AD 2050, than there were in AD 1990! No scientist in 1990s could have imagined that. Effective antibiotics for AIDS had been discovered by an Indian scientist Dr. Shekhar in AD 2001. It had rightly been named Amrit Jal. Mankind on earth was free from AIDS by AD 2010. No one going to other planets used to carry Amrit Jal with him, because it was considered a useless accompaniment. But now the denizens of Akashgriha were in real trouble. They had no supply of Amrit Jal and AIDS was spreading fast on their planet. The disease must have entered the planet through interplanetary human travellers from other planets, where the disease was not yet extinct. An emergency message was sent to earth. Urgent supplies of Amrit Jal were requested on an urgent basis. The authorities on earth acted fast. There was one problem though. How to trasport Amrit Jal to Akashgriha? The enormous distance of that planet meant that even light at its fantastic speed would take 15 million years to reach that planet. Will this remedy be of any use at that time? Of course there was a way out. The medicine would be sent through the same route, through which humans had gone there to colonize those planets - through Black Holes. As we all know, Black holes are supercompressed stars, which distort the time and space around them to an unimaginable degree. If someone could enter a black hole and somehow manage to keep him intact, he would enter the so-called 4th dimension. Thus his travelling distance would be greatly shortened. An analogy could perhaps make things easier to understand. Cosider an ant resting of a big piece of paper, who wants to travel to the other side of the paper. The only way it can do so is to travel to the edge of the paper first and then travel all the way back to where it was stationed, but on the opposite side of the paper. All this involves useless travel. If the ant could somehow pierce the paper, which is equivalent to travelling in the 3rd dimension, it would not have to take all that useless journey. All it would do would be to pierce the paper and voilà, it would be on to its destination! Amrit Jal was sent to Akashgriha through the Black hole Maha Chakra, which was stationed just on the fringe of Milky Way. The inhabitants of Akashgriha were very grateful to earth and its authorities. However to the astonishment of all, the antibiotic failed to work. No matter how much antibiotic was given to the patient, it would have no effect on the virus. Nobody knew why the antibiotic was not working. All communications with earth, failed to find an answer. The batch was fresh, and had been tested in the laboratory on lab-cultivated viruses, before being dispatched to Akashgriha. Dr. Ghosh, who was in-charge of the whole operation contacted Tarun, the space chemist, to solve this riddle. Tarun heard the whole problem patiently, and then tested the antibiotic in his lab. Finally he smiled as he seemed to have found an answer. "Dr. Ghosh, a strange thing has happened during the transportation of Amrit Jal to this planet. We should have guessed it earlier actually. We transported the antibiotic through the black hole-isn't it? When you enter into a black hole you enter the forth dimension, right. Now when a particular thing is stationed in four dimensions, it can accidentally take a turn in the forth dimension and become a mirror image of itself. It is just as if you flipped an 8-anna coin on your table, so that it shows tails instead of heads. It is surely the same coin, but it shows a differet face to you. You could flip it back anytime. But imagine what would happen if you were prevented to flip it back. It would be an entirely new coin. A shopkeeper who has only seen the "heads" surface of the coin, may refuse to accept it when he sees a new surface - the "tails". Something similar has happened to Amrit Jal. It is a giant molecule, having more than 10,000 atoms of various kinds. It has its own 3-dimensional structure. When it is stationed in a 3-dimensional world, no matter how you rotate it, it remains the same molecule, because it can be rotated back to its original configuration. While it was being transported through the black hole, it made an accidental turn in the forth dimension. When it landed on our planet, it was in its new configuration. Since it is now in a 3-dimensional world again, it can not flip itself back to regain its original configuration. The result is that it is an entirely new molecule now, with entirely new physical and chemical properties. That is why it has failed to act against the AIDS virus." "Ingenious!", said Dr. Ghosh, " but what do we do now"? "I will have it sent to my space lab, orbiting round this planet. It is very close to a mini-black hole. We are actually using that mini-black hole to investigate the various properties of the forth dimension. The drug would be recycled through that mini-black hole. Once the antibiotic is in the mini-black hole, we will instruct our computer to give it a command to flip it back to its original configuration. That way when the drug emerges from the black hole, it should be its original self." Sure enough, the trick worked and the antibiotic started working on AIDS patients as effectively as it was supposed to. To prevent the recurrence of such an occurrence later on, Dr. Ghosh advised the authorities on earth to put this label on all future batches of the drug. " Warning! Transport carefully, if using a black hole as a short-cut to destination. The drug may alter during travel in the forth dimension. Preferably check for chemical properties at the destination. The authorities on earth assume no responsibility for damage, if the drug is accidentally altered during transportation due to carelessness." *** This story was originally published in Hindi as Black Hole ke us paar in the newspaper Aaj on 3 February 1996 on page 12

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SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-28 DROWNING DEATHS Rama and Suresh, a young courting couple, were doing pleasure boating in the famous Badkhal Lake of Faridabad district on 6th Feb 1992. The time was around 4 pm. Fishing is not allowed there, but Suresh had surreptitiously brought a fishing rod with him, and when the boat was quite far away from everyone's gaze, he threw the line in the water. Little did he realize that he would come up against a most horrific and revolting catch. After some time he felt as if the line had got hooked to a great resistance. Anticipating a rich catch he tried to pull the line, but the line would not budge. However when both Rama and Suresh pulled the line, they were able to drag their `catch' up. The catch however caused Rama to faint immediately. It was not a super sized fish, as both of them had been contemplating. Surprise of all surprises: at the end of the line was dangling the decomposed body of a young woman! A preliminary investigation revealed that the body was of a woman named Gulabo, who was a resident of Hissar. She was married to a 35 year old man Birju, who was a farmer. They had been married for almost 10 years, and had a happy married life, but lately there had been some tension in the house. On a couple of occasions Birju had even beaten Gulabo in a fit of anger. Gulabo had threatened many times to commit suicide, if he did not stop suspecting her. On 3rd of Feb they had come to Faridabad to visit a relative. Their intention was to stay there for a day. Next day Birju returned to his native place, but Gulabo was not there with him. When the relatives and neighbors asked about her, he casually replied that she had run away with her paramour. He did not bother to report to the police even. This was the story that was given to me when the body was brought to me for post mortem. The primary question of course was to find out if Gulabo had really died of drowning. Many readers may tend to believe that it is a superfluous question, as the mere finding of the dead body in the lake is sufficient to prove drowning. However this is not so. In our country it is usual for a murderer to first kill his victim and then throw the dead body in the water in the hope that the death would be passed off as a case of drowning. In all cases of apparent drowning, the three most frequently asked questions are (i) whether the death was indeed caused by drowning? (ii) Whether the drowning was suicidal, homicidal, or accidental in nature, and (iii) What was the length of time for which the body was lying in the water? The order of these questions roughly reflects their importance as well. The first question is a very vital question. If the person was first killed by someone and then thrown in water, the cause of death will obviously not be drowning. Autopsy findings are very helpful in resolving this question. If a person was alive when he entered water, water would enter the air passages along with the inspired air. Within the air passages, this water gets mixed with the various sticky secretions present there. As the air gets in and out of the windpipe along with the respiratory efforts, this water gets churned in the windpipe, along with the sticky secretions. These secretions decrease the surface tension of water, much like soap, with the result that a lot of foam is generated. This foam is found at the mouth in almost all cases of true drowning (please reproduce fig. 16.10 on page 368 here). When we see this type of foam at the mouth of a dead person, the first presumption is that the death could be due to drowning. However if certain precautions are not observed, this test can cause one to arrive at wrong conclusions. For one thing, drowning is not the only cause of appearance of foam at the mouth. Foam is also seen in certain cases of death due to electrocution, epilepsy and in certain poisonings such as morphine, cocaine, barbiturates and organophosphorus poisoning. It is also seen in certain natural diseases, where due to certain abnormality of function, the lungs get loaded with water, a condition technically known as oedema of the lungs. One of these natural diseases is heart failure. In this condition, oedema of the lungs is very commonly seen, and this causes the froth to appear at the mouth (Please reproduce fig. 16.9 on page 368 here). Such a situation can easily cause confusion. However in all such cases the foam is not so fine as in cases of drowning. There is one more important difference. If the foam is cleared from the mouth, and then the chest is pressed, the foam reappears at the mouth only in cases of true drowning. In other cases the foam does not reappear at the mouth. The reason is that in cases of drowning, the whole respiratory passage is filled with foam, which results from the massive churning that goes on during the process of drowning. When advanced putrefaction occurs, such as when the body was recovered from the water after a large gap of time, the foam is no more seen at the mouth, even in cases of true drowning. In such cases a very interesting test is conducted, which often tells correctly whether the death occurred due to drowning or not. This test depends upon the presence of certain microscopic unicellular plants in all bodies of water, known as diatoms. Diatoms belong to the class of plants known as Diatomaceae and consist of a box or `frustule' composed of two valves which fit together to enclose the cytoplasmic contents. Diatoms are so minute that they are visible under the microscope only. Under the microscope they appear as bright silvery symmetrical shaped bodies (Please reproduce fig. 16.14 on page 373 here). The valves are highly complex in shape and are extremely resistant to decay. The principle involved in the diatom test is simple. If the person was alive at the time of entry in the water, he must be respiring. This will cause millions of diatoms to enter his lungs along with water. To be sure, they will also enter the lungs of an already dead person by sheer mechanical pressure of water. But if the person was respiring, the force of inspiration may rupture some capillaries and some diatoms may gain entry in the blood stream. In an alive person, the beating heart would then pump these diatoms to far away places such as liver, brain, bone marrow, or kidney (Please reproduce fig.16.13 on page 372 here). If a dead person was thrown in water, diatoms can go only upto the level of lungs but no further, for obvious reasons. So one of the reasonable things to do would be to test microscopically for diatoms in such organs. If the diatoms are seen, the death is presumed to be due to drowning. Another important sign which tells us that the death occurred indeed due to drowning, is the presence of what we call cadaveric spasm (Please reproduce fig. 2.6 on page 57 here). It is the persistence after death of the last action of the deceased. It generally occurs when the deceased was quite agitated during the last moments of his life. For instance, if the deceased was struggling with the killer just before death, and he pulled, say, some hair of the assailant, the hair would remain gripped in his fist. The last action of the deceased in this case was the clenching of the fist, and this action is preserved, as the muscles of the hand go in cadaveric spasm. In cases of drowning, the deceased makes frantic efforts to save himself, and tries to hold on to whatever is available, such as the proverbial weed, or even gravel. The presence of weeds in the hand tells positively that the person was alive when he entered water. The question whether the drowning was suicidal, homicidal or accidental in nature is not always easy to answer. Much depends of the evaluation of circumstances. In India, drowning is a fairly common mode of committing suicide. Homicidal drowning is a rare entity, except in cases of infants and children. Abducted children are sometimes stripped of their ornaments and other costly possessions and then thrown in water. It is generally difficult to do the same with an adult, until and unless he is attacked unawares or was first stupefied by administering some narcotic drug. One feature which helps us to determine whether the drowning was suicidal or homicidal is to note whether the legs were tied or not (Please reproduce fig. 16.6 on page 364 here). If the legs are tied, generally the presumption is that the person was killed by drowning, or in other words, we can take drowning to be a homicidal one. However cases are not unknown when expert swimmers tied their own legs, before committing suicide by drowning to avoid instinctive self preservation by trying to swim out. Sometimes injuries may be found on hands or legs (Please reproduce fig. 16.7 on page 365 here). An inexperienced swimmer would tend to believe that such cases are homicidal in nature. It is quite logical to conclude that the injuries were as a result of beating before death. However many of these injuries may be post mortem in nature, i.e. produced after death, by marine animals or by post mortem dragging of the body along the river bed by the currents of water. Estimation of the duration of immersion is a problem which is answered relatively easily. If there is no wrinkling of the finger pads, the duration is less than few hours. Wrinkled fingers a condition also known by the catchy term washerwoman's hands (please reproduce fig. 16.3 on page 362 here) indicate a duration of about half a day. Wrinkled palms and feet suggest a duration of two and three days respectively. After about a week or more of submersion, the skin of the hands and feet comes off rather like a glove. This is known technically as degloving (Please reproduce fig 16.2 on page 362 here). In the case of Gulabo I had to conduct the diatom test. Diatoms were present in the bone marrow, so I was almost sure that Gulabo was alive when she entered water. The feet had wrinkled appearance, but there was no degloving, so I guessed that she must be lying in water for a period of about 3 days. The body was recovered on 6th Feb. so I put the tentative date of drowning at 3rd Feb. This fit in with the statement of Birju too. There was no particular finding in favour of homicidal drowning, such as the presence of a narcotic drug in the stomach, the tying of the feet, or the presence of a disabling wound on the head. Gulabo was a woman of sturdy built, so it was rather difficult for someone to push her over. Most probably Gulabo and Birju had had some fight on 3rd Feb. Tired of the repeated fights, Gulabo had committed suicide by drowning. Birju did not know this, but since he cared two hoots for his wife,he returned in anger, genuinely thinking that she had eloped with her lover. He was perhaps guilty of causing mental harassment to Gulabo, but he was certainly not guilty of murder, and forensic science ensured justice to him.

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Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE JUNE 1999 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY NITRIC ACID -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a middle aged man today. He has these strange yellowish stains over his face and chest. What has happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this middle aged man is Radhey Shyam, and he was living alone in this house for the last five years. His dead body has been found today morning from his house. His wife and son died long ago, and since then he is living in a very depressed state of mind. He had become alcoholic and had taken to gambling too. He had taken lot of loans from various sources. It is said that from one person Munna, he took as much as one lakh of rupees. Munna was actually a professional money lender and he used to give money at a very exorbitant rate of interest..." "Oh, I see. But what has all this to do with his death?" "I am coming to that Tarun. Munna was pressing Radhey Shyam for his money for quite some time. Last week Munna had visited Radhey Shyam's house, along with some of his goons for his money, and when Radhey expressed his inability to return the money for about six more months, Munna had threatened him with grave consequences." "So Munna has killed Radhey for retaliation?" "This is what the police thinks. Actually Munna had visited Radhey's house yesterday night too, and had threatened him with grave consequences once again. Today morning they have found the dead body of Radhey. So it is very natural to assume that Munna and his goons have killed Radhey." "What does Munna say?" "The police has arrested him. He looks terrified. He is swearing that he has nothing to do with this killing. He does admit that he had visited Radhey yesterday night, and that he indeed was with two of his goons. He also admits that he had threatened Radhey with grave consequences, but he swears he gave those threats merely to terrify Radhey into returning his money as soon as possible. He never intended to kill Radhey. He has also come out with an interesting argument. He says that he would not have got his money anyway by killing Radhey. So killing Radhey was not in his interest anyway." "Sounds like a valid argument. What do you think doctor?" "Tarun, as you know, I deal every case from a scientific angle. Are you looking at the yellowish stains over his face and chest and over his clothes?" "Yeah, they are very prominent. In fact that is the first thing I noticed, when I came here." "I have looked at his teeth and tongue too. Even they are stained yellow. Come, you also have a look" "Yes, indeed. But what are you trying to arrive at?" "Tarun, it seems to me, that Radhey has died because of Nitric Acid" "Nitric Acid? Never heard of this poison being used to kill anyone." "Nitric acid is not a homicidal poison. It can not be given homicidally to anyone, because it has such a pungent taste. It is in fact a suicidal poison." "Looks like we are on to another of your rare and exotic poisons. Doctor please tell me about nitric acid from the beginning." "Tarun, Nitric acid is a colorless or yellow fuming liquid with an acrid odour. It is a powerful oxidizing agent and reacts with organic matter such as with proteins to produce trinitrophenol or picric acid with the liberation of nitrogen monoxide. This is known as xanthoproteic reaction. Organic matter is thus turned yellow. Stains of this acid on clothing are also yellow, which is a distinctive feature of poisoning by nitric acid. In fact this is how I first suspected that this could be nitric acid poisoning." "Oh, I see. Can you tell me, what are the symptoms a person experiences when he consumes nitric acid?" "Sure. The person gets eructations and abdominal distension. Actually this symptom is also seen with other acids such as sulphuric acid, but eructations and abdominal distension are more severe in nitric acid than with sulphuric acid, because with nitric acid more gas is formed. Then, as you know by now, there is yellowish staining of the teeth as well as of the skin around the mouth, cheeks, and neck, which is very characteristic. Yellow stains may also be found on hands, forearms, and the chest because of splashing. In severe cases, the stomach may perforate, but this is unusual." "Doctor, what is the usual fatal dose of nitric acid?" "It is around 10-15 ml. Actually one tablespoonful contains about 5 ml of liquid. So about two to three table spoonfuls of nitric acid are enough to kill a person." "And what is the usual fatal period?" "It is around 18-24 hours" "How can a person obtain nitric acid to kill himself?" "Tarun, nitric acid is widely used in the art and manufacturing industry. It is used for cleansing nickel ornaments and separating gold from other metals. It is also used in the preparation of gun cotton, nitroglycerin, picric acid, and colouring matters. Because of its wide use in industry, and even in domestic affairs, it is commonly available in the market. And because of its easy availability, suicidal and accidental poisoning is quite likely." "Can a person commit murder with nitric acid?" "Majority of cases of poisoning by nitric acid are either suicidal or accidental. Homicide with nitric acid is extremely difficult, and perhaps even impossible. Because of the corrosive nature of the acid, it can not be given to an unsuspecting individual, who would immediately discard it on tasting. However forcible administration of this acid in drunk patients has been reported. A forensic expert by the name of Christison describes a case where nitric acid was forcibly poured down the throat of a woman when she was drunk. Nitric acid has also been used in vitriolage, although the use of sulphuric acid is more common for this purpose." "Excuse me doctor, you have used a new word. I am not quite familiar with this. What is vitriolage?" "Tarun, vitriolage is intentional throwing of a corrosive substance over the face of an enemy. Often the corrosive substance such as sulphuric or nitric acid is filled up in an old used bulb, and this bulb is then thrown over the face of the victim. A person who commits vitriolage generally does not intend to kill his victim. He merely wants to disfigure him or her. When this bulb smashes on the victim's face, the corrosive substance is released and corrodes the face of the individual. This method is usually employed by disgruntled youths to disfigure the face of beautiful girls who have spurned their love offers." "Oh, that is really sad. Now in the current case of Radhey, how did you reach the conclusion that he had died of nitric acid poisoning?" "By his peculiar post-mortem findings. I have already talked to you about his yellowish stains. These yellowish stains have to be differentiated from those of the iodine stains, because they can cause similar stains. However if ammonia or some other alkali is applied to the stains, the ones due to nitric acid deepen in colour to become orange, whereas those by iodine are decolorized. I did this test in this case, and found that these stains were indeed caused by nitric acid only. In addition, I found that his stomach was perforated. This can only happen if the acid has corroded the stomach wall. But I did not stop at that. I took some material from his stomach and chemically tested it in my lab. I have confirmed chemically that the substance which Radhey ingested was indeed nitric acid. Subsequent to this, I asked the police to search his house and look for some suspicious looking half filled bottle. And sure enough they found a bottle of nitric acid in his almirah which was half filled. Now I will tell you what must have happened. Munna indeed visited Radhey's house yesterday along with his goons, and he also threatened Radhey. But he did not kill him. After Munna had left, Radhey got depressed. He anyway was living alone and no meaning to life was left to him. He wanted to commit suicide and the only thing available to him was nitric acid. He consumed this acid and died. Come let us tell the police that Munna has not killed Radhey. He has actually committed suicide." "Very clever indeed. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Without your masterly deduction, police could have unnecessarily went on harassing Munna. Everyone might have thought, it was a case of killing by Radhey. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison. It is oxalic acid. "

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE MAY 1999 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY AFLATOXINS -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a young man today. What has happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this young man is Suman Dubey. He is 25 years old and unmarried. He died this morning in his rented house. He was living alone in this house. He was basically a farmer, but had recently shifted from his village to live in a suburb of Delhi. He was doing some odd jobs for carrying out his livelihood. But he was also getting assistance from his family in his village. I mean, he used to get most of his food supplies from his village." "That's alright doctor. But how exactly did he die?" "Tarun, I am coming to that. For quite some time he was complaining of some vague symptoms. For instance, he was having pain in the abdomen and loss of appetite. He also noted some loss in weight, and a vague swelling of the abdomen. Since he was from a rural background, he did not believe in modern medicine. He was a staunch believer in traditional medicine only. He kept on ignoring his symptoms for quite some time. Last week he visited his village, where he consulted a local doctor. The doctor, after examination told him, that he was getting slow poisoning from some source. He believed that some of his foe was administering poison to him." "Oh, really? And who was he?" "We don't know yet. But the moment Dubey was told about it, he believed it. In fact, he told his family that his milkman wanted to poison him, and was probably poisoning him by giving him a daily supply of poisoned milk. He was daily taking one liter of milk from a milkman called Ramnath." "But why would Ramnath want to kill him?" "That is exactly the question, Dubey's parents asked him. We know this, because we have now interrogated Dubey's parents. Suman Dubey was unmarried as I have already told you. One day, Ramnath came to Dubey's house to deliver the milk along with his young and nubile sister Sita. Immediately Dubey fell in love with her. Once or twice, when she came alone to deliver the milk to Dubey, he even made attempts to make passes at her. Sita immediately complained about this matter to her brother, who came to his house to resolve the matter. There was a big fight between the two. The whole neighborhood knew about it. After this Ramnath stopped delivering milk to Dubey. This was quite expected. But then quite unexpectedly Ramnath again started delivering milk to Dubey. Dubey was initially quite surprised, but he agreed because in this way, at least he could be in touch with Sita." "Oh, I see" "But when the village doctor told Dubey that someone was trying to poison him, he immediately realized why Ramnath had started delivering the milk to him again. Probably Ramnath wanted to get even with him by killing him. He thought that the best way would be to kill Dubey was by giving him small quantities of poison through the daily supply of milk. So he resumed the milk supply to him." "Oh, it indeed appears to me that Ramnath killed him through slow poisoning. Is slow poisoning possible doctor?" "Oh yes. Arsenic is notorious for this. One could give this poison in very small amounts over a long period of time, and the victim would die of slow poisoning. There are several other poisons which could be used for slow poisoning. Dubey's parents have lodged a strong complaint against Ramnath, and the police has apprehended him. He however is asserting that he is innocent and that the police should release him immediately." "What is your opinion in this case doctor?" "Tarun, I am a scientist, and I believe in hard facts. I have done an autopsy on this man, and have come forward with some amazing findings..." "Like what?" "The thing that caught my attention immediately was that his liver was enlarged. I took some liver cells from there and looked them under the microscope. I was surprised to find that Suman Dubey was suffering from a form of liver cancer, known as hepatoma. This finding set me thinking and I did certain other tests. I measured his blood glucose, and I found that it was much less than what it should have been. In technical terms, he was suffering from hypoglycemia, which in plain and simple words means "low sugar in the blood". I also found a chemical known as alpha fetoprotein in his plasma..." "Doctor, these symptoms don't appear like that of a poison to me. It rather appears to me that he died of liver cancer. Where is the criminality involved?" "Tarun, he indeed died of liver cancer. But the problem with me is that a serious allegation has been made by Dubey's parents against Ramnath." "That's right. And now you can tell the police that Ramnath is not guilty. And you can tell them that he died of liver cancer." "Tarun, you may be surprised to know that hepatoma can be induced by a poison, especially if low quantities of it are administered to someone over a long period of time" "Really? That is most preposterous. I wouldn't believe it, if it were not coming from your mouth. Well, anyway what is that poison?" "Tarun that is a very rare poison. It is called Aflatoxin" "Aflatoxin? Never heard of that." "Really. In fact, it is one of the most talked about poisons today. Some people believe that this poison is being used by certain nations in biological warfare." "Come on doctor. It looks like we are again on to some interesting tales about poisons. Tell me about aflatoxins from the beginning" "Tarun, our story of Aflatoxin starts at the most unusual place- the church..." "The church? Come on doctor. How can the story of a poison start from such a holy place as a church?" "In churches, a device if often used for sprinkling holy water. It is swollen at one end, and this swollen end has several tiny holes in it, through which holy water can be sprinkled. This little device is called aspergillum, after the Latin word for sprinkling, which is aspergo." "I still can't make any head or tail of how this will lead us to such a deadly poison as Aflatoxin." "It so happens that there is a particular species of fungus, which under the microscope looks exactly like the aspergillum. Its strands have a tiny end and a swollen end. To many mycologists - scientists who study fungi - this appeared rather like the aspergillum used in churches, so they named it Aspergillus. Since this fungus was yellow in color, and the Latin word for yellow is flavus, they preferred to call this fungus Aspergillus flavus, which became its botanical name. In 1960, an epidemic of serious liver disease was traced to the eating of moldy peanuts. Incidentally it was nothing but Aspergillus flavus, which had affected the peanuts. It was later realized that this fungus released a poison which actually caused the serious liver disease. The toxicologists were looking for a name for this newly discovered poison, and they resorted to the botanical name of the fungus from which the poison was coming. They took the first letter from the name of the genus (i.e. "A") and the first three letters from the name of the species (i.e. "fla"). Together the four letters form the word "Afla". Since toxin is another name for poisons, they added this world to "Afla", and the name of the new poison became Aflatoxin." "Oh, that is most interesting. Doctor, you are incredible. You make things so interesting." "Tarun, Aflatoxins are powerful, tasteless, odorless and colorless mycotoxins that are chemical metabolites produced not only by Aspergillus flavus, but by certain other species of Aspergillus as well such as Aspergillus parasiticus. It is also produced by certain other fungi such as Penicillum and Rhizopus. These are all soil based fungi. Several varieties of aflatoxins are known, but the most dangerous is Aflatoxin B1, with Aflatoxin G1, coming a close second. In fact, Aflatoxin B1 is thought to be the most potent liver cancer producing chemical. Aflatoxins are mutagenic (i.e. they cause mutations), carcinogenic (i.e. they produce cancers), teratogenic (i.e. they cause deformities in the fetus, if pregnant mothers take them), and acutely toxic to most animals and humans. They can cause animals, including humans, to lose their appetites, decrease their feed efficiency and/or cause death. Aflatoxins inhibit the body's immune system and reduce the effects of vaccines. In the U.S., the aflatoxins are the only mycotoxins that are specifically regulated by the Food and Drug Administration or FDA." "Oh, I see" "Human exposure to aflatoxins may occur accidentally by the consumption of foods that have been contaminated by Aspergillus during growth, harvest or storage. Nearly all agricultural products are potentially subject to contamination with aflatoxins. Common sources include grains (e.g., corn, rice, sorghum), peanuts, oilseeds (e.g., cottonseed oil, copra), legumes (soybeans, other beans), and tree nuts (e.g., almonds, pecans, walnuts). The use of Aflatoxin-contaminated feed for domestic animals may result in secondary exposure to humans by the consumption of products such as meat, milk and cheese, and eggs that contain residues of the aflatoxins or their toxic metabolites. The FDA has established enforcement levels of 0.5 part per billion (ppb) in milk and 20 parts per billion for other food products. This means that in the United States, concentrations of up to 20 ppb are permitted in human foods and only upto 0.5 ppb in the milk. Levels of up to 200 ppb are permitted in animal feeds, although there is now a serious concern for secondary exposure to aflatoxins from the use of animal products. As I told you, Aflatoxin B1 is a potent hepatocarcinogen in experimental animals, but tumors may also occur in the colon and kidneys. In rats, tumors develop after the administration of 0.2 micrograms per day or a single dose of 0.5 mg of Aflatoxin B1; the tumor incidence is 50 per cent at 26 months after the latter treatment. There are marked differences in the susceptibility of various species to carcinogenesis by Aflatoxin B1; rats are much more susceptible than mice." "Oh, that is interesting." "Tarun, very high levels of aflatoxins occur in foods in certain regions of Africa and Asia, and people in these regions suffer a high incidence of liver cancer. Within Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda, and Thailand, where epidemiological studies have been conducted, in certain areas the climatic conditions (i.e., high temperatures and high humidity) are favorable for fungal growth; the food supply from these regions shows a relatively high Aflatoxin contamination, and the average Aflatoxin consumption exceeds 10 micrograms per kg of body weight per day. In other areas of the same countries where lower temperatures and lower humidity prevail, the food supply shows a relatively lower Aflatoxin contamination and the average human Aflatoxin consumption is less. In these areas, the incidence of liver cancer is also less. This is a fairly good evidence that aflatoxins are connected with liver cancers. Within each country, there is a direct relationship between the incidence of liver tumors (cases/100,000 people/year) and the average daily dietary intake of aflatoxins in contaminated agricultural products." "That is interesting. You were saying that aflatoxins are also used by certain nations for biological warfare" "Tarun, first of all you must know, what biological warfare is. It is the use of living organisms or their products by a nation for killing the people of its enemy nation. The earliest instance of biological warfare is provided by ancient Mayans, who used to throw deadly snakes in their enemy camps. Now the biological warfare is much more advanced and complicated. People are thinking of using aerosols of deadly bacteria and viruses to decimate their enemies. These aerosols can be released in the enemy territories in the same way that traditional bombs are dropped. On 17.10.96, Alan George of the London Observer reported some interesting facts about Iraq's weaponizing of Aflatoxin. According to him, in May 1988 Iraq began studies on Aflatoxin at its Al Salman facility where the toxin was produced by the growth of the fungus Aspergillus in 5.3-quart flasks. In 1989 Iraq moved its Aflatoxin production to a facility at Fudaliyah. In November, 1989, trials using Aflatoxin warheads (in 122 mm artillery rockets and R400 aerial bombs) were conducted. In 1990 between spring and December 1990, it produced 481 gallons of Aflatoxin in solution. Between May 1990 and August 1990, trials using Aflatoxin warheads were continued. In December 1990 large scale "weaponization" of biological agents started. In 1991 Iraq's Gulf War arsenal included sixteen R400 Aflatoxin bombs and two Aflatoxin warheads for enhanced Scud missiles. In total Iraq produced 572 gallons of concentrated Aflatoxin, of which 410.8 gallons were put into munitions. There is however no evidence that these Aflatoxin weapons were ever used. But under these circumstances, United Nations has continued its sanctions over Iraq." "That is most interesting. Coming to our original case, do you think, Ramnath was intelligent enough to mix aflatoxins in the milk, to cause liver cancer in Suman Dubey so he may die?" "I don't think so. Although there is a distinct possibility of someone doing so, if he were intelligent enough. Ramnath is an illiterate person, and I don't think, he even knows about aflatoxins. I think the rice that he was getting from his village was moldy, and he got his poisoning from that. In fact, I have examined the rice stores in Dubey's house and they are indeed moldy. I examined some of the rice grains under the microscope and I could indeed find Aspergillus in it. So that solves our case. Come, let us tell the police that Ramnath is innocent and that they should release him." "Very clever indeed. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Without your masterly deduction, police could have unnecessarily went on harassing Ramnath. Suman Dubey's relatives and other people might have thought, it was a case of killing by Ramnath. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison, nitric acid. "

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE DECEMBER 1998 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY SODIUM CHLORATE -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a young man today. His whole body seems to have a chocolate brown color. Well, this is the most peculiar color I have ever seen in a dead body. What happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this young man is Radhey, and he died in Dr. Gupta's nursing home today morning. Yesterday he and his friend Shyam had a dinner at a 5-star hotel. While they were still having dinner, Shyam got a phone call and had to leave suddenly leaving the dinner unfinished. Radhey became sick immediately thereafter. He started vomiting. Seeing his condition, the hotel staff called the ambulance, and he was shifted to Dr. Gupta's nursing home. The doctors there started a battery of tests to arrive at a diagnosis, but before any diagnosis could be made, he died." "Oh, looks like he died of some natural disease. You said he had vomiting. May be he died of gastroenteritis." "Doesn't look like to me. Look at his body. It is so darkly colored. You yourself remarked on that as soon as you came here. One doesn't get that kind of color in gastroenteritis. There may be more to his death, than meets the eye." "Really? Well, let me know. I am all ears." "Tarun, I have asked the police investigating this case. It appears, Radhey and Shyam did not have good relations. They were business partners, but lately there had been lot of tussle between the two regarding the ownership of certain business properties, which ran into lakhs of rupees. Naturally each wanted the other out of way. In fact, yesterday's meeting at the 5-star hotel was meant just to sort out these problems...." "Oh, so you are hinting that probably Shyam killed Radhey. Did he administer some poison to him?" "Tarun, I have enquired in detail from the police about yesterday's events. They have taken the help of waiters and other staff to find out what exactly happened yesterday evening. Radhey and Shyam arrived in the dinner hall at about 7.30 pm yesterday night, and first of all they started having some drinks. After about two drinks, they called for soups. Just when the soups were brought, a phone call came for Radhey. We know this from the waiter who received the call. Well the waiter tells us that Radhey came back within a minute and started having soup. Soon after Shyam got a phone call and he had to leave. After this Radhey became sick. This peculiar story, coupled with the fact that the body of Radhey is showing this characteristic chocolate brown color, leads me to think that Radhey indeed has been poisoned..." "Really? With what poison doctor?" "Tarun, it is a very interesting poison. May be you never realized it is a poison. It is a very common salt available in all chemistry laboratories- sodium chlorate." "Sodium chlorate? Yeah indeed it is a very commonly available salt. But I never realized it is a poison also." "Yes, Tarun, it is a very deadly poison. In fact the brown color of Radhey's body led me to that. It causes browning of the body, because it forms a brownish colored compound in the body- methemoglobin." "Don't really know what methemoglobin is. Please tell me more about it doctor." "Tarun you know that all of us have hemoglobin in our bodies. It is the basic pigment which picks up oxygen from the lungs and delivers it to all tissues. It resides in the Red Blood Corpuscles or R.B.C.s. If anything were to go wrong with hemoglobin, oxygen transport to the tissues would be seriously hampered and the person may die. Hemoglobin molecule has four iron atoms in it, all of which are in the reduced or ferrous state. This is usually written by the chemical symbol Fe++. Methemoglobin is nothing but a molecule of hemoglobin, in which one or more of iron atoms - may be just one, or all four- are oxidized to Ferric state. Chemically we can represent these iron moieties as Fe+++. Once the hemoglobin molecule is modified in this way, it no more remains useful as an oxygen carrier. It becomes useless in other words, and the person may die for want of oxygen. Sodium chlorate is a strong oxidizing agent. It oxidizes the hemoglobin to methemoglobin and this may cause rapid death." "Just a minute doctor. You said that normally hemoglobin takes oxygen from the lungs and delivers it to all tissues. Doesn't that too oxidize the hemoglobin and render that useless?" "Oh, no Tarun. That is a very loose combination of hemoglobin with oxygen. In fact nature has devised it to be so loose that it readily delivers its oxygen to the tissues. In this combination, all iron atoms remain in the ferrous state. Only the whole molecule simply picks up the oxygen molecule, much as you would pick a hot coal with a tong. But Sodium chlorate really "oxidizes" the molecule rendering it useless. So although Hemoglobin normally carries oxygen around, it doesn't get oxidized in the true sense of the word. In fact, if it were to be oxidized by any means, it would immediately be rendered useless." "Oh, Sodium chlorate really appears to be an interesting poison doctor. Please tell me more about it." "Tarun. Two chlorates are very important from a toxicologist's standpoint- Sodium and Potassium chlorate. Chemically we can write them as KClO3 and NaClO3. At one time potassium chlorate was widely used in medicine and being obtainable without restriction, it was a popular household remedy, especially for sore throat. It has now been completely abandoned as a remedy and therefore it is a rare source of poisoning today. Sodium chlorate on the other hand, has a reputation as a safe and effective weedkiller, and is commonly available. Sodium Chlorate is also used as an explosive in many parts of the world. It is still commonly available in the market. Unfortunately many people think that it is non-poisonous, and this wrong belief has given rise to several poisonings." "Doctor, how can poisoning with sodium chlorate occur usually?" "Tarun, poisoning with sodium chlorate can occur accidentally, suicidally or even homicidally as seems to be the case I am handling today. Accidental poisoning is perhaps the most common. Sodium chlorate has been mistaken for common salt and Epsom salts..." "Sorry to interrupt you doctor, but what exactly is Epsom salt?" "Tarun, it is a bitter, white crystalline powder consisting of hydrated magnesium sulfate. It was once used in medicine as a cathartic and to reduce inflammation such as in sore throat. Its formula is MgSO4.7H2O. It is named after a place called Epsom, in Surrey, England, where it was originally prepared from the water of mineral springs. If magnesium sulfate is prescribed for some disorder, and the person inadvertently took sodium chlorate, which looks very much like it, he may be severely poisoned. In some cases poisoning has occurred when potassium chlorate was taken as a medicine, mainly to treat inflammation or septic spots. In many such cases, potassium chlorate was given for local application, but it was swallowed instead. In one such case, a person was having an ulcer in his mouth. He was given potassium chlorate to gargle his mouth with, but he swallowed it, and was severely poisoned. Illegible prescriptions have also given rise to some poisonings. In one such case, the intended drug to be given was potassium chloride. But on the prescription, only the words "potassium chl." were written. This was misinterpreted by the chemist as potassium chlorate. This drug was dispensed and the patient was severely poisoned!" "Very interesting indeed!" "Tarun, I know of several instances when potassium and sodium chlorates have caused inadvertent deaths. In one case, a 5 year old girl had scarlet fever. Inflammation of her throat was treated with repeated sponging with a 2% solution of potassium chlorate. On 7th day, the symptoms of poisoning appeared, and even though the treatment was stopped on that very day, the girl died on the tenth day. In another case, a 61 year old woman sucked daily on 20 tablets of potassium chlorate (324 mg each) for 6 to 10 weeks. She thought that a cancer was developing on her tongue and that she would be cured by this. She was severely poisoned. In one case, a chemist gave his wife several tablets of potassium chlorate for treating her tonsillitis. She died after five days. But probably the most interesting is the case of a 48 year old gardner who was severely poisoned in a curious way. He was using a concentrated solution of sodium chlorate in an atomizer, while a strong wind was blowing. In consequence, spray was blown on to his face and he inhaled and ingested some of the solution. Symptoms of poisoning started the same evening. He could be saved with some heroic effort on the part of the doctors, yet he could only return to full-time work at the end of about a year." "Doctor, what symptoms does one get on swallowing this poison?" "Tarun, immediately there is acute digestive upset. Vomiting is usual. It may persist for upto 48 hours. There may be severe pain behind the breast bone or in the abdomen. Red Blood Cells begin to break down and may reduce in number to half. Red cells may only be 2.5 x 1012/L in this poisoning, while normally they are 5 x 1012/L. Heinz bodies are seen in the red cells...." "What are Heinz bodies doctor?" "Tarun, Heinz bodies are nothing but denatured hemoglobin. I told you that sodium chlorate destroys hemoglobin. This destroyed or denatured hemoglobin, also known as methemoglobin precipitates in the RBCs as Heinz bodies. These bodies were first described by a German doctor Robert Heinz. Hence the name. Besides these symptoms, acute renal failure also occurs in sodium chlorate poisoning. This is in part due to direct action of chlorate on the kidney and in part due to mechanical obstruction of tubules of the kidney by hemoglobin set free from the red cells. Urine is scanty and dark brown. Total stoppage of urine may also occur." "Doctor, how much sodium chlorate is needed to kill an adult robust man?" "Tarun, about 20-35 grams would be required. And the person would die in about 4-5 days, although death can be quicker as in this case." "Oh, Doctor, now I know all about sodium chlorate. Tell me how you deduced that Radhey died of sodium chlorate poisoning?" "Tarun, the color of Radhey's body gave away the poison to me. You will agree the color is very peculiar. It is chocolate brown. This is the color of methemoglobin. So the moment I saw the chocolate color of Radhey, I knew I was looking for some poison, which converts hemoglobin to methemoglobin, and sodium chlorate is one such poison. Then I made a blood film of Radhey and saw it under the microscope. RBCs were broken, and they showed fragmentation which was expected in sodium chlorate poisoning. Numerous Heinz bodies were also seen in the RBCs. His kidneys as you can see are enlarged, as we would expect in sodium chlorate poisoning. I have made a microscopic examination of the kidneys too. And I have found that the tubules of the kidney are occluded with broken red cells and brown pigment granules. You surely know what the tubules of the kidney are. They are the microscopic tubes through which filtered blood - or urine- passes forwards. These tubules are dilated and many are completely blocked by debris. This is exactly the change that we would expect in sodium chlorate. There is no doubt that Shyam has given Sodium chlorate to Radhey." "But how could he do that? They were both having dinner together." "Tarun, Shyam was probably working with some accomplice, who was sitting outside the dinner hall probably with a mobile phone. Just when the soups were served, the accomplice phoned from his mobile to the reception desk of the dinner hall, asking for Radhey. When Radhey went to pick up the phone, Shyam quickly mixed the sodium chlorate which he already had in his possession. Radhey discovered that it was a blank call and returned to his table and started having his soup. The taste of sodium chlorate is somewhat similar to that of common salt, so one may not discover any change in taste, especially when he is already drunk as Radhey was. When he had finished his soup, Shyam and his accomplice knew it was not safe to remain there any more. So according to their pre-arranged plan, the accomplice phoned again- this time to Shyam. He took the call, came back to Radhey and told him that he had to leave as he had got some important call. The idea was to leave the scene immediately to remain out of trouble. You know the rest of the story." "Very clever indeed. But how do you know the story with such gory details?" "Tarun you will be surprised but Shyam has told us this story himself. Actually when I conducted the post-mortem, I immediately suspected I was looking for sodium chlorate. I told the police about it. They raided Shyam's house and recovered a small sachet, containing a white powder. When I examined it chemically, I discovered it was nothing but sodium chlorate. Faced with this fact, police renewed their interrogation of Shyam. Faced with all the scientific evidence against him, Shyam broke down and told these details to the police. The police are now looking for his accomplice, who is on the run." "Very clever doctor. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Without your masterly deduction, Shyam could never have been caught. Every one would have thought that it was a case of death due to gastroenteritis. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison- Sodium nitrite. " "

Forensic Science Fiction

Forensic Science Fiction The mystery of the drowned man The man had been drowned for five days! At least that is what Dr. Khanna made me believe. Dr. Sunil Khanna as we all know is a leading forensic expert of our country and his opinion had to be respected. Well! before proceeding further, I shall explain what forensic experts are. They are doctors who, among other things, cut up dead bodies and try to find out the cause and manner of death. After we completed our graduation in medicine, we decided to devote our energies to the detection of crime, rather than to the routine, drab, utterly boring checking of festering sores, furred tongues, missed heart-beats, aberrant pulse rates and bizarre temperature patterns. Coming back to our case. The man was ultimately identified as one Ramlal. When the police made investigations, they came up with some rather dubious evidence that Ramlal had been killed by Jagga and then thrown in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Gujrat. It is well-known that in our country, criminals often kill their victims and then do dispose of the body by throwing it in this manner in deep ocean, river, lake or pond or some such similar body of water where it would be difficult to retrieve the body for quite some time. But it so happened that I personally knew Jagga and was quite convinced that Jagga could not kill anybody. I talked to Jagga, and after talking to him, I became all the more convinced that Jagga was not the killer. When I talked to Jagga, he categorically denied his hand in Ramlal's killing. He requested me to save him from the clutches of the law. Well then, if Ramlal had not been killed by Jagga, how had he died. I surmised that Ramlal must have gone to the sea shore for a bath and then must have been carried away by the tidal waves. He thus drowned accidentally. But I was told that Ramlal was an accomplished swimmer. If this was true how could he drown accidentally? Well, even accomplished swimmers have been known to drown in sea water. The tidal waves are really very strong, and can carry the person deep inside the ocean in no time. Before the person has time to think, he finds himself deep inside in the sea. The waves are so forceful that they do not allow him to swim back to the shore. The person gets exhausted and ultimately drowns. This is what should have happened to Ramlal. But the law wants solid proof. The courts do not pay attention to mere conjectures. If I wanted to save Jagga, I had to produce some real good scientific evidence in favour of my theory of accidental drowning. The police was bent upon implicating Jagga. They had even requested the court and taken him in police remand for a period of 15 days. I had to do something fast. I consulted Dr. Khanna and he suggested me that our question basically boiled down to proving that Ramlal's drowning was a case of antemortem drowning. If the police version was correct, then Ramlal's drowning was a case of post-mortem drowning. Before proceeding further, I must tell you a little bit about ante-mortem drowning and post-mortem drowning, in case you are unaware of it. This is an age old question in forensic medicine and one for which no satisfactory answer has been found yet. Basically ante-mortem drowning means that the person drowned when he was still alive. Post-mortem drowning on the other hand, means that the person was first killed by someone and then thrown in water to conceal crime. While post-mortem drowning almost certainly points to homicide, ante-mortem drowning could be anything; accidental, suicidal or homicidal, roughly in that order. It is rather difficult for someone to drown a conscious adult person with homicidal intent, so on the face of it, a case of ante-mortem drowning goes against homicidal drowning. I had to do an autopsy on the dead body of Ramlal and find out the cause and manner of his death. Now if I could prove that it was a case of antemortem drowning, it would go in favour of my theory that Ramlal had died accidentally while taking a swim. If on the other hand the autopsy showed it to be a case of post-mortem drowning, it would be a very strong evidence in favour of the police theory that Jagga had done him to death and then thrown away the dead body in the ocean. Of course we forensic scientists know that one of the best ways to differentiate between ante-mortem and post-mortem drowning is to conduct the so-called diatom test. I won't bother you with details, but just give you the outline of the principle of this test so that you could follow the story better. In all bodies of water- in rivers, lakes, ponds, oceans, even in tap water- are present some minute microscopic unicellular organisms called diatoms. These are microscopic algae with hard and highly refractile silicon shells. They come in all kinds of shapes; in fact about 15,000 different species are known. Under the microscope they all appear very beautiful and symmetrical, presenting rather a kaleidoscopic picture. Diatoms are quite abundant. A mere c.c. of water would contain literally thousands of diatoms. Now if a man drowns while he is still alive, he would make violent efforts to respire. Water would enter his respiratory passages along with respiratory air, and would reach the alveoli, the fine balloon like terminals of the lungs. Sure enough diatoms would also reach the alveoli along with the water. Due to the violent respiratory efforts, some of the alveoli would get ruptured causing the water (and the diatoms along with it) to be sucked in the tiny blood vessels lining the alveoli. From here they would find their way to the left chamber of the heart and from there the aorta would pump this water (and the diatoms along with it) to all the conceivable organs of the body- liver, spleen, brain, bone marrow, everywhere. In case the person was thrown in the water when he was already dead, neither his lungs, nor his heart would be functioning. Thus in the first place almost no diatoms would enter the lungs. If due to sheer pressure of water, some diatoms did enter the lungs, they would not be able to penetrate the alveolar wall. Further, for the sake of argument if we assume that the water pressure was enough to break some of the alveoli, and some diatoms did enter the alveolar blood vessels, they couldn't be pumped to all the systemic organs for the simple reason that the heart would not be beating. Thus a simple test to prove a case of antemortem or postmortem drowning was simply to look for diatoms in some internal organ, say liver or spleen or brain. If you found diatoms there, it was a case of antemortem drowning; if you didn't find any, it was of course a case of postmortem drowning. When I conducted a post mortem on the body of Ramlal, I found all his internal body organs literally infested with diatoms. Diatoms were to be found everywhere- in his liver, spleen, brain, bone-marrow, everywhere. This naturally made me very jubilant, as this proved beyond doubt that my theory was correct and Ramlal had indeed died while he was alive. But when I contacted Dr. Khanna with these findings, he seemed doubtful. He reminded me that the diatom test was in fact challengeable. Well, I will digress for a moment and tell you why he said so. It so happens that the diatoms are rather ubiquitous; they are present in all bodies of water- even in the tap water as I have already said. Now imagine a situation when a person has been drinking tap water all his life. Suppose he has an ulcer in his stomach (or for that matter, even some minor abrasion anywhere in his gastrointestinal tract) the diatoms would be entering his circulation all his life and be pumped throughout his internal organs. The internal organs of such a person would show diatoms irrespective of the cause of his death. Such a person might die of, say, electrocution and yet his internal body organs would show diatoms. Dr. Khanna rightly told me that my findings could be challenged by a well-informed prosecution. I could see his point, especially as I knew the prosecution was taking the help of Dr. George Paul, another well-known medico-legal expert of our country. Certainly Dr. George Paul, when called to the court would rip my theory apart. What should I do then? This question gave me many restless moments. Then like a flash of lightning, a possible solution crossed my mind. I recalled that a few days back, there had been a big oil spill off the coast of Gujrat. A big oil tanker had been bringing crude petroleum somewhere from the Gulf, when just off the coast of Gujrat, a crack appeared on the bottom of the tanker and many thousand tonnes of crude oil leaked into the sea. This incident had been the talk of several environmentalists, especially as this was causing threat to marine life. Well, if there was crude oil in the sea water, and if Ramlal was breathing at the time of immersion (as I believed), then some petroleum must have seeped into his circulation, through the same route as the diatoms would normally take in a breathing man. This would result in traces of petroleum being present in his internal body organs. If I found traces of petroleum in, say, liver or spleen, I could prove my point beyond doubt. In that case, Dr. George Paul was definitely going to have a hard time explaining how it reached there, otherwise than what I was suggesting. We all know that petroleum is not a normal constituent of the body and no sane person drinks petroleum, so indeed there was no conceivable way for the petroleum to reach the internal body organs other than through ante-mortem drowning. This naturally made me very jubilant, and I used our newly acquired Gas-Liquid Chromatograph to determine petroleum in Ramlal's body organs. But contrary to my expectations, Ramlal's internal body organs failed to show any trace of petroleum. What had gone wrong? Well, Dr. Khanna suggested that may be I was wrong from the very beginning. Ramlal was indeed killed by Jagga first and then thrown in sea water. Otherwise why didn't I find petroleum in Ramlal's internal organs? Failure to find petroleum there meant only one thing- that Ramlal was not respiring at the time of his immersion in water. But I refused to believe Dr. Khanna. Something deep inside my heart told me that Jagga was innocent. But if he was innocent why was I not getting any traces of petroleum in Ramlal's internal body organs? That was the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Soon I forgot the question anyway. Meanwhile Dr. Khanna and I jointly started an ICMR project in which we intended to find out the etiology of solvent abuse or glue sniffing. It is a poorly understood phenomenon, in which the addict gets an inordinate pleasure in sniffing various hydrocarbons. Most commonly sniffed substances include various glues, paint thinners, gasoline, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and so on. We were trying to find a biological cause for this phenomenon. It so happened that one day I was talking casually to Dr. S.K.Gupta, Professor of Biochemistry in our college. He was working on some new cellular enzymes, and his work was being internationally appreciated. While talking to him, suddenly a weird thought crossed my mind, and I ran back to my department, silently crying "Eureka", much in Archimedean fashion. Thank God I had my clothes on! I retrieved some of Ramlal's tissues I still had in bottles, and brought them back to Dr. Gupta. I asked him to look for a specific cellular enzyme, which had not been discovered till then. Dr. Gupta, as is his wont, told me I was a fool, but I let that pass, and asked him to look for that enzyme anyway. But after a few days, Dr. Gupta was quite surprised that I was right. He could indeed find the enzyme I had asked him to look for. In fact he reported that the cells were very rich in that enzyme. I know you are getting curious. What was that enzyme, you may ask. You will laugh at what I will tell you, but you can confirm it from Dr. Gupta who has lab reports to confirm my statement. In fact even he would not have believed me, had he not found the enzyme himself. This was an entirely new enzyme. An enzyme which metabolizes hydrocarbons! Dr. Gupta suggested that we should call it Petroleum dehydrogenase. Dr. Gupta found 50 microgrammes of Petroleum dehydrogenase per c.c. of tissue, which is quite high as you can understand. A minor mutation in Ramlal's body gave rise to that enzyme. He was a mutant in other words. Well, how does this fact fit in our story. I will tell you shortly. But first things first. While talking to Dr. Gupta, I was subconsciously working on my own multifarious problems and suddenly it occurred to me that the solution to my problems lay in the realm of biochemistry. Perhaps Ramlal had an enzyme in his tissues which metabolized any petroleum that had seeped in his body cells during drowning. Now we were indeed able to find that enzyme in Ramlal's body cells. This changed our investigation much in our favour. I will tell you what happened. Ramlal was indeed breathing at the time of immersion. Some petroleum did seep inside his circulation and got deposited in his internal organs as explained earlier. Molecular death, as we all know occurs a few hours after the somatic death. Somatic death is the time when a doctor pronounces a person dead. But we all know that molecular activity continues for a few hours after that. During the interval between the somatic and the molecular death, the enzyme Petroleum dehydrogenase metabolized any traces of petroleum that had seeped in Ramlal's body tissues. That was the reason why we did not find any traces of petroleum in Ramlal's body despite the fact that he died while still breathing. You might say this is spurious reasoning. It is quite possible that there was no petroleum in Ramlal's tissues in the first place. Merely the fact that the enzyme Petroleum dehydrogenase had been discovered in Ramlal's tissues does not necessarily mean that this was responsible for the absence of crude petroleum in his tissues. This was certainly one of the possibilities but the possibility of crude petroleum being absent in Ramlal's tissues from the very beginning could not be ruled out. I knew if confronted with my new findings, Dr. George Paul would certainly come up with this question. So I decided to play one up on him from the very beginning. I took out Ramlal's preserved tissues once again, and looked for the metabolites of Petroleum in them. I had worked out its metabolites in detail, and one of them was 2-Butyne. In my renewed analysis with my Gas-Liquid Chromatograph, I looked not for petroleum but for its metabolites, mainly 2-Butyne. You can perhaps imagine my joy when I found fairly rich quantities of 2-Butyne in Ramlal's tissues. Earlier when I was not specifically looking for it, I met with failure, but now I knew what I had to look for and sure enough I got it. All of us know that 2-Butyne is not a normal constituent of body cells. Thus the only way it could have accumulated in the tissues is through metabolism of crude petroleum by the enzyme Petroleum dehydrogenase. This was the final vindication of my theory. Of course if Ramlal had survived longer, even 2-Butyne would have got metabolized further to carbon dioxide and water. Petroleum dehydrogenase was capable of metabolizing all hydrocarbons down to their very basic elements. I knew I had killed two birds with one stone. I enquired from his family members and was quite satisfied to find out that Ramlal was a glue sniffer. In fact I was quite sure of this fact when I was submitting his tissues to Dr. Gupta. I will tell you now what happens in a glue sniffer. These glue sniffers are all mutants. They have the enzyme Petroleum dehydrogenase in their body cells. Petroleum dehydrogenase is able to metabolize not only petroleum products but all hydrocarbons, liberating a good amount of energy in the process. These glue sniffers sometime during the course of their life discover accidentally that sniffing hydrocarbons gives them a renewed sense of well-being. What actually happens is that they are able to metabolize the hydrocarbons quite effectively which gives them short bursts of energy, which they construe as a sense of rejuvenation or well-being. They ultimately get addicted to the hydrocarbons. So now Dr. Khanna and I had hit upon an entirely new and novel theory of glue-sniffing. Initially Dr. Khanna was quite hesitant about accepting it, but I am happy to tell you that since my fateful meeting with Dr. Gupta, I have submitted blood samples of more than 50 glue sniffers to Dr. Gupta and he has found Petroleum dehydrogenase in all of them, which is a good confirmation of my theory! Thanks to Ramlal's death mystery, we found out a solution to an age old forensic question. Oh, yes, I must also tell you that the court admitted my findings and released Jagga. But the thing that satisfied me most, was that when Dr. Khanna read our paper on glue sniffing at The International Conference on Drug Addiction at Tokyo next year, it was adjudged the best paper of the conference! *** This story was published in Spandan, 1995-96 on Pages 13-17

Forensic Science Fiction