SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-4 WAS SHE ACTUALLY RAPED ? Sexual crimes are on the increase these days. Many times we are asked to examine girls and young women- both alive and dead- who have been sexually molested. The questions which the police wants to ask us are many. One of the questions which is invariably asked is whether the woman has been raped or not. It might seem surprising to many here, why the police wants to ask this question. After all, if a woman is asserting that she has been raped then she must have been. Unfortunately this is not true in all cases. Many times women falsely accuse innocent men of having raped them. In such cases it becomes very important for medical personnel to thoroughly examine the victims and tell the police whether she has been raped or not. To determine the answer to this question, the doctor relies very heavily on examination of female genitalia and it would be pertinent to have a quick review of the structures present there. Fig 1 shows the genitalia of a female who has recently had a sexual intercourse. On the top one can see the pubic hair and at the bottom is anus. In between are structures which are collectively known as vulva. Two main openings can be seen. The upper one is urethra through which urine come out. The lower one is the vaginal opening. Intercourse takes place through this opening. Menstrual blood comes out of this opening too. Both these openings are covered by two very thick fleshy lips called labium majus . Clitoris, a very sensitive, pea sized organ lies at the top, between the folds of the labium majus. The vaginal opening is covered in the virgins by a thin delicate membrane- the hymen. It is very thin and delicate and ruptures on sexual intercourse. The first thing that we do is to look whether the hymen is intact or not. If the hymen is intact, the presumption is that the female is telling a lie and trying to implicate the person falsely. In the diagram 1, the hymen is showing a tear at 5 O' clock position. By referring to figure 2, you can know why this tear is called to be at 5 O' clock position. Forcible intercourse also causes injuries to vestibule, an area lying between urethra and vagina (see fig 1) . Injuries may also occur to fourchette and perineum. These are very strong indications that the woman has been raped. Even married women, who are used to sexual intercourse by their husbands don't show rupture of fourchette, perineum or vestibule. Sometimes the walls of the vagina may be so severely torn that they may reach the anus. This is a very severe injury and may even cause death. This is a certain sign of forcible rape (fig 3) . Most people who commit rape are of low socio-economic status and suffer from multifarious venereal diseases. During intercourse they transmit these diseases to their victims. A careful examination of the victim for the signs of disease is also very helpful in estimating whether rape has been done or not. This is a very valuable pointer to us. Interestingly, this can happen the other way round too. An infected woman may give the disease to her attacker, and can thus punish him in more ways than one! She not only gives him a nasty disease, but if the same disease is found in the accused, as that in the woman, it may be a strong indication that he really assaulted the female. We also introduce a cotton swab deep in the vagina (fig 4) and take out the semen from the vagina. In an unmarried female the presence of semen in the vagina is a very strong indication that rape has taken place. We can identify the semen by making a smear of the semen on a glass slide and looking under the microscope. If the material picked up by the swab is indeed the semen, then we see thousands of little snake like sperms (fig 5). Thus the presence of sperms almost confirms that we are dealing with a case of rape. But what about rape on married women? Married women may have sperms in their vagina as a result of intercourse with their husbands. For this we have a slightly more complicated technique. These days there is a special technique called DNA fingerprinting which can differentiate between sperms of any two or more given individuals. We apply this technique and know whether the sperms belonged to the victim's husband or not. Other injuries that we look for are injuries on the thighs, buttocks and abdomen. During a forcible rape, the person tries to force the thighs apart while the women wants to keep them together, to avoid rape. In this scuffle, injuries appear almost invariably on the inner side of abdomen (fig 6). During passionate love storm, the assailant may attack victim's breasts, producing multifarious injuries to the breasts. He may tug at the breasts, squeeze and scratch them, suck them or even bite the nipple off. This might produce several injuries to the breasts including teeth bite marks (fig 7) . These injuries strongly suggest that forcible intercourse may have taken place. Most of the times, the victim scratches at the assailant and thus small tags of skin can be found underneath her nails. These tags of skin obviously belong to the assailant. We can take these tags of skin out and can estimate the blood group of the individual. This can help us greatly in nabbing the criminal. We can even do DNA fingerprinting with these skin tags. This can pick out the culprit from among millions. When the accused is apprehended, he might deny that he had sexual intercourse with the victim. Forensic experts again come to the rescue of police here. If his body shows multiple scratches, abrasions and bruises, it is a clear indication that he has had a scuffle with someone. But he case is clinched by another very ingenious technique. If the accused has had a sexual intercourse with the victim, there could be vaginal cells over his penis. These vaginal cells can not be seen with the naked eye, but can be detected by a test. These cells turn brown when exposed to the vapors of a chemical (Lugol's iodine). We wipe the skin of the penis with a filter paper moistened with salt solution and then expose it to vapors of Lugol's iodine. It the filter paper turns brown, we can tell the police that he has indeed had sexual intercourse with the victim. Thus we can see that by a clever battery of tests, not only can we say that the woman is raped or not, we can also say who raped her. This medical evidence goes a long way in sending the accused to jail.

Explore a unique collection of forensic science fiction curated by Dr. Anil Aggrawal. Blending medical accuracy with thrilling narratives, these stories captivate students, professionals, and lovers of scientific mysteries alike. Anil Aggrawal's Forensic Science Fiction Page Hi, I am Professor Anil Aggrawal from India. I teach forensic medicine and toxicology at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi. I love reading and writing science fiction, especially that related to forensic medicine. My favorite SF author is....yes, you guessed it right- Isaac Asimov! Unfortunately he was not a forensic man, and so not many stories related to forensic medicine exist in current SF literature. Although I am no Asimov, I have made a humble attempt and tried to fill up this gap by writing SF stories related to forensic medicine. Some of these stories have been hosted on the net by science fiction enthusiasts. Anyone wishing to exchange ideas with me on forensic medicine, science, and science fiction is welcome. Many of my Science Fiction stories have been published in Spandan, the inhouse magazine published by the students association of Maulana Azad Medical College. You may want to go to this site for some other very interesting articles. Anil Aggrawal's Forensic science fiction stories ~ ( click on title below to access ) The mysterious old man The Freak A tale of detection The New Antibiotic The mystery of the drowned man The mystery of the burnt bride The mystery of the electrocuted man The mystery of the slain General The mystery of the dead infant The mystery of the assassinated prince Anil Aggrawal's other science fiction stories Why dinosaurs became extinct ? The Weird House. (click on title above to access) My favorite science fiction pages Isaac Asimov Check Website DO YOU HAVE AN INTERESTING TALE TO TELL? E-MAIL ME, AND I WILL PUT YOUR STORY ON THE WEB WITH CREDIT TO YOU. YOU WILL FIND NEW STORIES ON THIS PAGE VERY OFTEN. BOOKMARK THESE PAGES. YOU MAY WANT TO COME TO THESE PAGES AGAIN! Contact

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-7 WHEN THE BODY TURNS BLUE ! The police found the hanging body of Basesar at 7.15 am. on February 26, 1983. The body was naked except for a dhoti ( dhoti is a piece of cloth wrapped over the loins. It is a popular piece of garment in warm countries like India) over his loins. The head was tilted to one side. The body was hanging from the branch of a thick fat banyan tree at the outskirts of his village. From a preliminary look one could say that he had been hanging for several hours. His wife had been looking for him since the previous day. He usually came back from work at 5.00 p.m., but on the evening of February 25, he did not turn up. His anxious wife waited for him till 8.00 p.m., then made inquires from relatives. When everybody answered in the negative, she made a complaint at the police station at about 9.00 p.m. To be sure, Basesar was facing several difficulties. Last year he had taken a loan of over one lakh rupees ( Lakh is an Indian measure, meaning one hundred thousand. Rupees is Indian currency) from the local moneylender against the security of his house and fields. He had married off his two daughters with that amount and had done some long-pending repair work in his house. He was sure that he would he able to repay his loan, but this year’s crop was destroyed in the rain and he did not have enough money to run even his own house. The moneylender had been demanding his money from Basesar for the last several days. Last week he had even sent two goons to him to terrify him into paying back the money. The moneylender had set his eyes on Basesar’s property, which he could acquire at very cheap rates. It was not hard to imagine that under such desperate circumstances, the aging Basesar had taken the extreme step of committing suicide. When Basesar’s wife saw his dead body, she started crying and wailing. The police took off the body from the tree and then called for me to make a preliminary examination of the dead body and of the place, where the dead body was hanging. They thought that they could get some lead from my examination. When I reached the spot, the body had been lying on the ground for some half hour. I looked at the feet and then turned over the body. The back was bluish purple. I pressed the back with my thumb for about half a minute, then removed my thumb and looked at the back again. Then I turned to the Investigating officer, Gajendra Singh, and said, “It’s a case of murder and not suicide”. Gajendra Singh was obviously taken by surprise. I had hardly examined the body in any detail. I had not even conducted a postmortem examination. Then how on earth could I say it was a case of murder? Let us start the story from the beginning. When a person dies, his heart stops beating and the blood comes to a standstill. Gradually this blood starts gravitating to the lower portion of the body. If you moisten a sponge thoroughly and keep it on a table for 3-4 hours, you will find that its top portion has dried while the bottom portion has become even more moist. What actually happens is that the water within the fibers of the sponge starts gravitating to the bottom portion of the sponge. After 3-4 hours practically all water has seeped to the bottom of the sponge. This makes the top portion dry and bottom portion moist after some time. Practically the same thing happens in a dead body. All the blood starts seeping to the bottom portion of the body. After death, generally a body lies on its back, so all the blood collects on the back. This collection of blood gives a characteristic bluish purple color to the portion of the body where it collects. This coloration is known as postmortem staining or hypostasis (Figure 1). Those portion of the body which are in firm contact with the ground remain pressed and no blood collects there. So these areas remain pale. In Figure 1, one can see that the hips and shoulder blades which remain in firm contact with the ground are pale, but rest of the body has turned bluish purple. Post-mortem staining or hypostasis can tell us many important points regarding a crime. Post-mortem staining (or p.m. staining, for short) starts to appear by about 2-1 hour after death and in 4 hours, it is quite well established. If at this time, one presses the area of p.m. staining for about 2 minute, the blood collected blood starts to clot. So after 6 hours of death, if one presses the area for 2 minute or even more, the area will not blanch. The p.m. staining is now said to be fixed. The fixation of p.m. staining appears after 6 hours. So, by seeing the p.m. staining and if it is fixed or not, we can say how long a person has been dead. P.M. staining tells us another vital aspect about death - the position of the body after death. The blood will gravitate to the lowest portion of the body and stain it. Thus if the body was lying on its back, the back portion will get stained as shown in Figure 1. But if the body were lying prone, i.e. on its stomach, then chest and stomach will get stained. If the body were hanging as in the case of Basesar, then feet will get stained (Figure 3 ). On the other hand, if somebody tied the body by legs and hanged it upside down, the face and hands will get stained (Figure 4 ). It all depends on which portion of the body was lowest. If the body was lying on its back for say 3 hours, then the p.m. staining would develop on the back , but it swill not be fixed (as we have already seen). If at this time somebody turned the body, so that it came to lie on its stomach, the blood collected at the back would start moving to the chest and stomach, because in the new position these are the portions which are lying lowest. This causes the staining to disappear from the back and reappear on chest and stomach. This is called shifting of the p.m. staining. Continuing will our old analogy of sponge, if after keeping the wet sponge for 3-4 hours, you invert it, the previously dry portion will become wet and the wet portion dry, because the water will start moving to the new low position. However when the p.m. staining has become fixed, then the turning of the body does not cause shifting of the post-mortem staining. It is because fixation involves clotting of blood and the clotted blood does not move. Thus if a body has been lying on its back for say 8 hours the p.m. staining would become fixed on the back. Turning the body over on its stomach now would not cause shifting of p.m. staining to a new area. Now I must tell you what I found in Basesar’s body. When I examined Basesar’s legs, I did not find any p.m. staining there, which puzzled me somewhat, as Basesar had been found hanging. Then I turned over the body and looked at the back. The back showed p.m. staining. This meant that the body had been lying on its back for a minimum period of 6 hours, after which someone hanged the body to give the appearance of suicide. Since the p.m. staining has already become fixed on the back, it did not shift to the legs later on when the body was hanged. From this examination, I could deduce the whole crime scenario in great detail. Basesar was murdered at least 6-8 hours before, perhaps 10 hours before. Then for some reason his body was kept lying on its back for 6-8 hours. Then someone hanged his body to give the appearance of suicide. The police swung into action now. The local moneylender Dhanprasad denied any hand in the murder. Under sustained interrogation however, he did admit having sent his two goons, Kallu and Lalla to Basesar. But he reiterated that they had been instructed merely to terrify him into paying. Murder was never his aim. Kallu and Lalla, when interrogated, denied all knowledge of murder. They said that on Dhanprasad’s instructions they did go to Basesar at about 5 p.m. on February 25, but had merely enquired from him about the repayment of loan. They said that they had departed after half an hour when Basesar had assured them to do something regarding the loan soon. However the police knew the blueprint of the story now, so they pressed them further. Under sustained interrogation, they broke down and told the whole story which was an eye opener. On the evening of February 25, when Kallu and Lalla met Basesar at 5.00 p.m. he expressed his inability to repay the loan. Kallu and Lalla then took him to the outskirts of the village. The idea was to beat the hell out of him. However before they could start a beating, an altercation started and Kallu grabbed Basesar by the neck. In the heat of passion, he did not realize that Basesar by the neck. In the heat of passion, he did not realize that Basesar was an old and ailing man and the slightest pressure on his neck could prove dangerous. It was only after he felt Basesar going limp in his arms, did he realize that he had unwittingly murdered Basesar. Both of them now panicked. They did not know what to do. Lalla suggested that they should hang Basesar’s body from the branch of a banyan tree. Everybody would then think that Basesar had committed suicide. The idea appealed to Kallu. They did not have a rope however. It was decided that they would cover Basesar’s body with leaves, twigs and grass, go back to village and bring some rope. When they were leaving for the village, it was about 8.00 p.m. They saw a big marriage procession coming towards them and gathering towards some tents which had been pitched to receive those guests. Doing all the gymnastics of hoisting Basesar’s body up the banyan tree was no easy task, especially with so many people only a few hundred yards away. Anyone could wander towards the jungle and catch them in the act. It was decided that they would wait for the marriage procession to dispense away and then they would start their work. It was nearly 4.00 a.m. on February 26, when finally the marriage rites were completed and everybody went away. Now Kallu and Lalla returned to the jungle and hoisted Basesar’s body up. So Basesar’s body was lying on its back for almost 8-10 hours. This caused p.m. staining to appear on the back and become fixed there too. So when finally Basesar’s body was hanged, the p.m. staining did not shift to the legs. This little knowledge of p.m. staining could help me to unravel this seemingly impossible case in no time. There is hardly any doubt that without medical evidence, the case would have passed off as a suicide. The court admitted the medical evidence and awarded a sentence of 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment to both Kallu and Lalla.

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE JULY 1998 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY DNOC -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a young girl today. What happened to her? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this young girl is Seema, and she died this morning in the hospital. Yesterday night she had some severe problem for which her neighbors had taken her to a hospital, but there she died soon after. Well, let me tell you everything from the beginning. She is 24 years old and used to live alone. She is originally from UP, where her parents and family is still residing. She was doing a job in Delhi as a typist, and so was living here for about 2 years. She apparently had a love-affair with one of her colleagues Ramesh. They had a good relation for quite some time, and there were rumours that they were even going to marry." "Oh, I see. But how did she die?" "About a month back, Ramesh's parents fixed his marriage somewhere else, to which Ramesh also did not object much, which in effect meant, that he had tacitly consented for the marriage. When Seema came to know about it, she became mad, and there was a verbal duel between the two. Quite coincidentally, this happened in their office, and everyone saw them fighting them in this manner. That's how we know about this incident." "What was she saying during the verbal duel?" "The colleagues who were present there told the police, that the verbal duel suddenly started and went on for about 15 minutes, till their colleagues intervened. She was saying that Ramesh had shown utter meanness and had deserted her because of her looks. As you can see, she is quite fat. I have measured her height and weight. She is 157 cm in height and her weight is 76 Kg, which as you can see is quite much for her height. Apparently there were sexual relations between the two also, and she was heard saying that Ramesh used their friendship for his advantage, and is now deserting her. He never intended to marry her in the first place." "Is this accusation correct?" "Well, nobody knows for sure. But from what I hear from the office colleagues, Seema was not a very attractive girl, and no male was much interested in her, except for official relations. If Ramesh started nurturing relations with her, it's quite possible, that he was looking for some free fun. Once he had his fun, he decided to marry elsewhere." "Are you hinting that he killed Seema?" "No. Not me. I do not say anything before I have scientifically confirmed my facts. The sequence of events was this. Ramesh had visited her flat last night. Apparently the meeting was aimed at reconciliation. Ramesh wanted to explain Seema the circumstances under which he was marrying elsewhere. The fact of his visit last night is confirmed by Seema's neighbors. Even Ramesh himself has agreed to this fact. Apparently, he stayed there for about 15 minutes and then left. Sometime after he left, Seema knocked at a neighbor's door and told her she was not feeling well. She was sweating profusely, had very high fever, complained of intense thirst, and was in great distress. The neighbors immediately realized that something was terribly wrong with her. They took her to the nearby hospital. Before the doctors could ask her anything, she fell into a coma, from which she never recovered. She died after 6 hours." "Oh, I see. So how did she die? "I will tell you about that a little later, when I tell you about my scientific deductions. But before that, it would be very necessary for you to know, why this case has been brought to me. Her parents were immediately informed by the neighbors and they have arrived this morning. After hearing everything, they have put a very damning allegation on Ramesh. They say that last night during his visit, Ramesh must have given her something to eat because of which these symptoms started. The fact that the symptoms started just after Ramesh left has given credence to this allegation. The police also believes this theory. They think that Ramesh wanted to get rid of Seema, otherwise she could have made life hard for him. She could even have kept troubling him after marriage, and could even infuse all kinds of doubts in the mind of his future wife, so the best course for Ramesh was to put an end to her life." "What does Ramesh have to say in this regard?" "The police has enquired Ramesh, and he says that he did visit Seema to explain her his position. The marriage was being held at the instance of his parents, and he could not interfere in that. But Seema was not ready to listen to him. She was very depressed. After about 15 minutes of unsuccessful attempts at reconciliation, he left." "What do the doctors at the hospital say about the cause of her death?" "The doctors did not have much time to examine her. I have talked to the doctors there. They feel it could be a case of salicylate poisoning or perhaps even thyrotoxicosis." "I don't really understand these two terms. Please explain them to me." "Tarun, acetylsalicylic acid is used in modern medicine for the relief of pain. Ordinary dispirin, which is available in the market for pain relief contains 350 mg of acetylsalicylic acid. If too many tablets are ingested, one can get salicylate poisoning. The toxic dose of acetylsalicylic acid is about 200-300 mg/kg. Thus you can plainly see that for Seema who was 76 kg, the toxic dose is about 65 tablets. People may ingest pain killers for committing suicide. This practice although very common in foreign countries, is not so common in our country, mainly because people are not aware of this fact. But Seema was an educated girl, and she might be well aware of this fact. She was depressed because of recent developments and she might have ingested these tablets after Ramesh left. Ramesh obviously could not give her so many tablets to eat, and even if he had given her, she would not have eaten them. So if this case does turn out to be that of salicylate poisoning, it is quite probable that Ramesh is indeed speaking the truth, and had nothing to do with her death." "Why did the doctors at the hospital think in the first place that she was having salicylate poisoning?" "Because of her symptoms. The symptoms of high fever, thirst and profuse sweating are seen in salicylate poisoning. It might surprise you to know, that although acetylsalicylic acid is normally used for the control of high temperature, during overdose, it produces high fever itself. The doctors also noted difficulty in respiration and very rapid heart rate. Before she went into coma, she also had convulsions. These features are quite typical of salicylate poisoning. The same features are also seen in thyrotoxicosis, a disorder of the thyroid gland, in which the thyroid starts secreting excessive amounts of thyroxine. That is why the doctors gave this as the second diagnosis." "Oh, so now we have all the views. Now tell me what your investigation reveals." "Tarun, we can straightaway rule out thyrotoxicosis. In this disorder, the person is excessively lean and as you can see, Seema is very much overweight. Acetylsalicylic acid poisoning seems a more likely choice. But when I examined her hands, I found some yellow stains on them. This, and certain other findings, which I shall explain shortly, immediately alerted me in the direction of another poison- a very rare one, but one which causes exactly the symptoms exhibited by Seema" "What is that poison doctor? Please tell me. I am getting curious." "Tarun it is known as DiNitroOrthoCresol or DNOC for short." "DNOC? Never heard of this poison. Please tell me something more about this poison." "Tarun, DNOC belongs to a family of compounds known as dinitrophenols (DNP). These compounds are highly toxic and can rapidly produce death. Toxic effects often appear at blood concentrations greater than 30 mg/l while concentrations greater than 60 mg/l are associated with severe toxicity. Dinitrophenols are mainly used as pesticides. Dinitro-ortho-cresol (DNOC) and Dinitrophenol are the two main phenolic pesticides. These substances are used in agriculture chiefly as selective weed killers for cereal crops and for the destruction of potato haulm. In dilute solution they may be used as an insecticidal winter wash for fruit trees. The principal risk of poisoning is in the agricultural use of concentrated solutions for spraying crops. Absorption occurs by inhalation and ingestion and also through the skin; excretion is extremely slow so the poison tends to accumulate in the body. The risk of absorption is much greater during hot weather. Those exposed to these chemicals (such as farmers when spraying these chemicals) are generally recommended to wear respirators to avoid inhaling them. They are also subjected to periodical examination to determine the concentration of these compounds in the blood, which should not exceed 20 micrograms per gram. Dinitrophenolic compounds, especially DNOC stimulate the human metabolism very strongly. In fact DNOC can increase the tissue metabolism by 1200%! The effects of dinitrophenol in stimulating metabolism have been known since 1885, and at one time DNOC was even used in the treatment of obesity and misused for "slimming". "I couldn't understand that last point very well doctor." "Tarun, any compound which stimulates metabolism that greatly basically burns up your energy stores in the body. The main energy store in the body is the fat. If it is burnt, the person will get slim. All exercises are aimed at this only- to burn as much fat as possible. But exercise is time consuming, boring and exerting, so people are on the lookout for easy way out such as chemicals and drugs which can either reduce appetite or enhance metabolism, i.e. help burn up excessive fat. For the former effect, drugs known as amphetamines were once very popular, but they have lost favour as their side effects are too many and too serious. DNOC stimulates metabolism by as much as 1200%, i.e. it burns fats 12 times faster than in a normal man. Obviously this will form a good candidate for weight reduction." "Then why don't doctors prescribe it for weight reduction?" "Because it is a very toxic drug. But early in the century several people did take it for the reduction of weight. When fatalities started occurring, the doctors came to know about its serious toxic nature, and they advised the people against taking this drug. But it was commonly available, as it was a herbicide, so people purchased it with impunity and many overweight girls are known to have consumed it in an attempt to become slim overnight. But in fact nothing of that sort happened. They died instead. Following the deaths of several girls in this way, the availability of this drug was restricted to certain people only. But still many people can get hold of this drug and may consume it. You may be surprised to know that today DNP and DNOC can be illegally bought over the internet too! Many gullible youngsters who fall prey to these internet advisers are paying with their lives. These internet advisers are quacks who encash upon the gullibility of such youngsters. They claim that their concoction would cause a quick weight reduction, but it doesn't. It kills them instead. DNOC is about 5 times as potent as dinitrophenol. The characteristic effect of these two drugs is the uncoupling of the oxidative phosphorylation, causing a great increase in tissue metabolism......" "Sorry to interrupt you doctor. You just talked about uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. I don't understand this term quite well. Can you explain me please?" "Tarun, this is a technical term the details of which I may not be able to explain in such a short discussion. But I will tell you certain basics. When glucose is burnt in the body to carbon dioxide and water, it passes through 3 stages. The last stage is technically known as oxidative phosphorylation. During each stage some energy is liberated, which is stored in the form of ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate) molecules. DNOC and other dinitrophenolic compounds inhibit the formation of ATP molecules, without inhibiting the process of oxidative phosphorylation. This means that although body is burning glucose continually, it is not getting any energy in the form of ATP molecules. This situation when energy is being produced, but is not available for the formation of ATP molecules is technically known as uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. This excess energy has to be dissipated in the form of heat. That is why patients poisoned by this poison show high body temperature and sweating. Since body is not getting adequate amounts of energy, it tries to burn more and more glucose in a futile attempt to get energy. Even fat stores are mobilized, but all the energy produced is dissipated as heat. This is the basis of increase of metabolic rate by these compounds." "Oh, I see. But the symptoms are also seen in salicylate poisoning. How did you know she had taken DNOC?" "By the yellow stains on her hands. This yellow staining is very typical of dinitrophenolic compounds. When these compounds come in contact with skin, they form trinitrophenol or picric acid, which is yellow in color. By the yellow stains on her hands, I immediately realized that she must have handled dinitrophenol compounds. I believe she was quite concerned about her weight, and was taking this compound reqularly in small doses. I do not know where she procured this compound from, but probably she must have contacted one of those quick weight reducing quacks, who must have given her this compound. When she was taking small doses, nothing dangerous happened. But due to recent developments, she was quite convinced that she had lost Ramesh because of her weight problem. In a bid to overcome her weight problem overnight, she must have tried to get at it in one go, and may have consumed a great amount of drug immediately after Ramesh left. That is how the symptoms appeared." "But how are you sure, Ramesh did not administer her this drug?" "Because of this drug's peculiar color, odor and taste. No one can administer this drug to another by deceit, without the other immediately coming to know about it. I have exmained her blood and have found high amount of DNOC in her blood. The levels are about 100 mg/l, which is surley a fatal level. Subsequent to this, I asked the police to search her house and look for all medication bottles there. Normally the police would never have even peeped there. But following this discovery, they looked at her almirah and did indeed find a medicine chest. They brought her entired medicine chest. I noticed 3 suspect looking bottles and put their contents to examination, and in one of these, not very surprisingly, I did find high amounts of DNOC. The police have noted the name and address of the doctor from the label of that bottle, and a party has been despatched to UP to arrest that doctor. It appears that the quack who prescribed this medicine to her is based in UP, and during one of her visits to her parents, Seema must have picked this medicine." "Oh, how very clever of you doctor. Without your clever deduction, poor Ramesh would have unnecessarily been arrested and implicated. This was a most interesting discussion. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison- Cadmium."

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Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE FEBRUARY 1997 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS ARSENIC - THE KING OF POISONS -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing with this dead body? He seems to have a terrible rash all over his body. Would you explain me what he died of?" "Good morning Tarun. This man is Radheyshyam who is a 56 year old man. His first wife died about 5 years back, and soon after he married again. He was complaining of loose motions and vomiting off an on for the last two years. The doctors suspected he was suffering from gastroenteritis, which as you know is an inflammation of the stomach and intestines. But what they could not find out was the cause of this inflammation. Consequently he was being given only the symptomatic treatment. Finally he succumbed yesterday to his illness." "Then why is he here? Why haven't his relatives taken him for cremation. You are a forensic pathologist, and if I understand it correctly, you only look after cases with legal implications. What possible legal implication could be involved in this case." "Y ou are right Tarun. I deal only with legal cases. But yesterday, the brother of this person, Harishyam has alleged that his brother's relations with his new wife Shanti were not good. He suspects some foul play in his death. Many times he saw her mixing some whitish powder in his food. When he enquired, she would say it was some medicine she had brought from the local doctor for his illness. Immediately after his brother's death he reported the matter to the police. In response to his complaint, the police has registered a case against Shanti, and has submitted the body to me for post-mortem. Now my job is to find out if he really died of gastroenteritis." "Doctor, it seems very confusing. Just now you said that he did die of gastroenteritis. His symptoms were that of gastroenteritis, and he was getting treatment for it. Then what else could he die of?" "On the face of it, it does appear that he died of gastroenteritis, but there could be foul play as well. You yourself remarked over the rash he has all over the body. Well, in gastroenteritis one does not get rash over the body." "Then he might be having some concomitant skin disease, isn't it?" "Could be. But a more likely explanation could be arsenic poisoning, especially as Harishyam repeatedly saw Shanti mixing some white powder in his brother's food." "You mean Shanti was giving him arsenic, because of which he developed gastro-enteritis like symptoms and also the rash?" "Yes, that's what I mean Tarun. But I must tell you that pure metallic arsenic is seldom poisonous. It is its white colored salt Arsenious oxide, known in the vernacular as Sankhya or Somalkhar which is poisonous. It is this salt which is often loosely referred to as arsenic. When a chemist talks of arsenic, it is the pure arsenic, but when a toxicologist or a pathologist like me talks of arsenic, he is probably referring to arsenious oxide. We sometimes refer to it as white arsenic also, because of its white color" "Arsenic certainly seems an interesting poison. Please tell me more about it doctor." "Tarun, arsenic is a metallic poison known since ancient times. An eighth century Arab alchemist Geber produced arsenious oxide, from realgar, a naturally occurring red colored ore of arsenic found in lead and iron mining, and thus made available to the humanity one of the most cruel, deadly and widely administered poisons. In Imperial Rome a form of arsenic was used as a poison to such an extent, that kings, queens, and other important court officials regularly employed official food-tasters! It has been a favorite with the poisoners because it fulfills many of the criteria of an ideal homicidal poison..." "I beg your pardon? Do you mean to say that there are things like ideal homicidal poisons? What in the world does this term mean? How can anything as sinister as poison be ideal?" "Tarun, there not only are ideal homicidal poisons, but ideal suicidal poisons too. You see, there are several poisons in this world, but not all can be used homicidally or for suicide. Only certain poisons are ideally suited for these purposes. Poisons which suit well for these purposes are known as ideal poisons." "It is still not very clear to me. Would you please explain with some examples?" "Sure. Let us talk about homicidal poisons first. A bitter poison, like strychnine, can obviously not be given with homicidal intent. The victim would immediately spit it out. Thus a homicidal poison must be tasteless. Similarly a poison which is colored can not be given. Copper sulphate is poisonous, but it is blue colored. If a killer mixes it in water or milk, it will render these liquids blue, and the victim would not drink it. Thus a homicidal poison should be colorless too. There are several other criteria which have to be fulfilled as well before a poison qualifies as an ideal homicidal poison. It should be easily available, fatal in only a small quantity and symptoms of both acute and chronic poisoning must mimic natural diseases..." "Why should this be so?" "Because then the public at large would think that the person died of that natural disease whose symptoms the poisoning mimics, and the killer would go scot free. Arsenic qualifies well in all the above criteria. Symptoms due to its poisoning mimic natural diseases. While acute arsenic poisoning resembles gastro-enteritis, chronic arsenic poisoning presents a combined picture of stomach upsets, peripheral neuritis and dermatitis..." "Sorry to interrupt you doctor. You have introduced some new terms which I don't understand. What in the world is meant by acute and chronic arsenic poisoning?" "Tarun when a large dose of a poison is given in one go, killing the victim within minutes, it is called acute poisoning. On the other hand when small doses of a poison are given over a long period of time, typically over years, it is called chronic poisoning. If a wife wants to kill her husband, it would be very easy for her to mix sublethal doses of a poison in his food over a long period of time. By sublethal dose, I mean a quantity of poison which is not enough to kill the victim in one dose. The hapless husband would die in the end after a few years. In this case he would be said to have died of chronic poisoning." "oh, I see. So you were telling me about the criteria of an ideal homicidal poison." "Yes, I was telling you that the effects of arsenic poisoning resemble natural diseases. Its effects are cumulative, so the poisoner does not have to rely on one large, fatal dose; he can give it little and often, thereby weakening his victim by stages before delivering the fatal dose. An ideal homicidal poison should be undetectable in the dead body. About one and a half century back, arsenic fulfilled this criteria as well, but no more now. Before 1836, it was impossible to detect it in the body organs. All these facts made it the poisoner's ideal choice. So commonly and successfully was it used for homicidal poisoning that once it was variously referred to as king of poisons or poison of poisons. Since many people used it to do away with rich old uncles and aunts, it became known in France as poudre de succession, or "inheritance powder". The history of crime is replete with cases of homicidal poisonings by arsenic. Arsenic was ostensibly bought for killing rats, but it was often used for homicidal purposes. Women purchased it to kill rats; the rat in most cases used to be the husband!" "Funny joke! What about ideal suicidal poisons?" "A person who is going to commit suicide with poison, probably wouldn't worry about its color or even taste. He wouldn't be bothered with taking large doses too. He would be more concerned about the pain the poison is likely to produce. He needs a poison which produces minimum discomfort, and produces death or at least sleep within minutes, so his agony is lessened. Sulfuric acid is a deadly poison, but it would kill rather slowly; in about 12-24 hours. Moreover it is a strong corrosive producing severe burning pain in the mouth and throat. A potential suicide may be interested in death, but he probably wants a quieter death. So Sulfuric acid is not an ideal suicidal poison. Barbiturates or sleeping pills on the other hand are ideal suicidal poisons, because they would put a person rapidly to sleep, and then to death. There are no unpleasant symptoms." "Oh I see. While talking about arsenic you mentioned the year 1836. What happened in that year?" "In that year a successful test for arsenic was developed for the first time. It was called the Marsh test and it ultimately brought about its downfall as an extremely successful homicidal poison. One quality of arsenic makes it a very poor candidate as a homicidal poison; it can be detected in the dead body, virtually years after the body has been buried. Thus the poisoner leaves a permanent record of his deed in the dead body... "But how can anyone detect the poison in the body, once it has been buried?" "There are laws in all countries which allow the law enforcement agencies to unearth or exhume the body, if strong suspicion develops against some person later on. There have been cases where the bodies have been exhumed as late as 3-4 years after death, and arsenic has been detected in their bones. An ideal homicidal poison should immediately disintegrate after doing its job. Before 1836, this peculiar property of arsenic did not cause any problems to the poisoners because there was no test for arsenic in the first place. With the development of Marsh test, this property assumed paramount importance and it rapidly fell into disfavor." "So before the development of Marsh test, all the cases of poisoning must be going undetected?" "Yes! Many celebrated cases are on record when the suspected poisoner went Scot Free merely because of the inability of the chemists of those times to detect it in a dead body. In fact tests weren't available for any poison. The only reliable test was to feed the remains of the poison to an animal and see if it died. So desperate was public that Henry Fielding (1707-1754), a celebrated English novelist clamored in despair for some way to make poison visible so that one could hang the poisoner. That was in the year 1740. This was in connection with a case in which a widow was accused by neighbors of having poisoned her husband. But no poison was found in the widow's house, nor could it be proved that she had ever purchased poison. The only thing left, therefore, was to show that the corpse had poison in it. When Fielding appealed to the doctors, they answered that there was no way to do this. The widow had to be acquitted" "And then came the Marsh test"? "Marsh test came much later. Many interesting things happened before that. One of the most celebrated cases of arsenic poisoning occurred in 1752, when a 31-year old spinster Mary Blandy murdered her father with arsenic. Her court appearance was the first trial for murder by poison at which medical evidence was called in regard to the cause of death. Dr. Anthony Addington did not possess the knowledge to analyze the victim's organs for poison, nor was he able to use chemical tests to prove that the powder Mary used was arsenic. Nevertheless, on the basis of simple comparison he convinced the court that the powder was arsenic, and Mary Blandy was convicted and sentenced to death." "How were those comparisons made?" "Mary Blandy mixed white arsenic in gruel and gave it to her father. She wanted to kill him, because he was not agreeing for her marriage with someone she loved. Two days after eating the gruel, Mr. Blandy fell seriously ill. Some of the gruel left over was eaten by the charwoman and she was violently sick too. A maid also ate some of it, and she also fell sick. Because of this peculiar chain of events, they became suspicious and examined the pan used to prepare the gruel and saw a white sediment at the bottom. They locked up the pan and next day handed it over to the doctor." "And he compared that sediment with a known sample of arsenious oxide, and found them to be similar?" "Exactly. In today's parlance they would be called physical tests. He believed the sediment on the pan to be white arsenic because it had a milky whiteness, it was gritty and almost insipid. When put in cold water, part of it swam on the surface, but the greater part sank to the bottom and remained there undissolved. Arsenious oxide behaves in exactly the same way. When thrown on red-hot iron it did not burn, but sublimated, i.e. it rose in thick white fumes. These fumes had the stench of garlic. To be sure he did perform some simple chemical tests but they were also comparative in nature. This means that he conducted some chemical tests both on the sediment and on a known sample of arsenious oxide, and both gave similar looking reactions. The court accepted these tests- the first time any court accepted a scientific evidence in a case of arsenic poisoning- and sentenced Mary Blandy to death." "That certainly is interesting! I mean science ultimately catching up with the poisoners." "Twenty-three years after Mary was hanged, in 1775, a Swedish chemist made an important discovery. Karl Wilhelm Scheele found that he could change arsenious oxide to arsenious acid by treating it with nitric acid. Arsenious acid in turn when treated with zinc produced arsine, a highly poisonous gas. This epoch making work had the germs from which a reasonably good test for arsenic could be developed. This work was actively pursued by scientists in Germany, but the break-through was provided by an English chemist James Marsh. In 1836, he published a method for converting arsenic in body tissues and fluids into arsine gas, which was quite similar to that of Scheele. But the interesting thing was that Marsh was able to convert arsine back to metallic arsenic which could be shown to the court. It is much easier for a non-technical person like a judge to convict a criminal when he can actually be shown the poison which killed the victim." "How did Marsh convert arsine to metallic arsenic?" "As the gas escaped, the gas was ignited, and Marsh held a cold porcelain bowl against the flame. The metallic arsenic precipitated on the porcelain in the form of a black deposit. The process was unbelievably sensitive, making it possible to detect as little as a fiftieth of a milligram of arsenic! The Marsh test revolutionized the investigation of poisoning, and it was quickly taken up by crime scientists." "After the development of the Marsh test it must have become a lot easier for crime scientists to prove the presence of arsenic in a dead body?" "Yes surely. In 1840, the Marsh test was used in the celebrated Lafarge poisoning case. In January of that year Charles Lafarge, a minor French industrialist, died of suspected poisoning at his home in Le Glandier. Arsenious acid was found in his stomach, and it became known that his wife, Marie, had bought arsenic as rat-poison. She was arrested and sent for trial. The application of new scientific methods proved futile at first. When the Marsh Test was applied to corroborate earlier findings of arsenic by traditional methods, the results proved negative. The defence was elated, but the elation was short-lived, as the experts declared that the test worked better on organs other than the stomach. Exhumation of Lafarge's body was carried out for the purpose of retrieving these other organs for testing. Famous French toxicologist Dr. Mathieu Orfila was summoned by the court. He applied the Marsh test correctly and found arsenic in Lafarge's body. This case stirred up so much controversy in France, that the entire country was divided into Pro-Marie and anti-Marie factions. The case ended up in Marie being delivered the sentence of life imprisonment. Marie served 10 years of sentence. She was released by Napoleon III in 1850, and she died the following year still declaring her innocence! "Every killer does assert he is innocent. So arsenic has really been responsible for many killings. Good that the scientists ultimately came up with a good test for arsenic. Tell me doctor, what are your conclusions regarding this man Radheshyam?" "When his body was brought to me, I immediately suspected chronic arsenic poisoning..." "Really? What made you think so?" "The fact that his relations were not good with his wife, and that he was complaining of loose motions and vomiting for the last two years. The doctors were not able to find out a cause for his gastroenteritis. This is a classic picture of chronic arsenic poisoning, when the wife is stealthily mixing it in her husband's food. To top it all, she was often seen mixing some white powder in his food. But what clinched the diagnosis was the examination of his dead body. I am now positive he died of chronic arsenic poisoning." "How did you arrive at this conclusion?" "One of the landmark symptoms of chronic arsenic poisoning are the skin changes. The most important skin changes are, first, pigmentation and second hyperkeratosis, which is nothing but a technical term for thickening of the skin. If arsenic is given continuously for some years, even skin cancer may develop. You yourself remarked on the rash this person has all over his body. This rash is nothing but pigmentation. As you can see, this is finely mottled, brown rash, presenting a picture as if colored rain drops splashed his body. In fact this rash is often called "raindrop rash". This rash resembles measles rash in many ways. You can also see that his palms and soles are thickened. This is the hyperkeratotic change, another classical sign of chronic arsenic poisoning. In fact, even if I hadn't been told anything, just this change would have brought arsenic poisoning to my mind. You can also see that he has an irregular thickening of nails which is another good sign of chronic arsenic poisoning. The final clinching fact was the chemical test. when I applied Marsh test to his internal organs like liver, spleen and kidneys, arsenic was found to be present in abnormally high amounts. It is certain that he died of chronic arsenic poisoning. Let us phone the police and tell them about it." "Yes, certainly we should. Thank you doctor for giving me such interesting information on arsenic. What are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time I shall tell you about Spanish Fly, which as you shall see has acquired a very notorious reputation. "

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-34 DEATH BY COCAINE On 23 December 1992, a very interesting case was brought to me. A 23 year old youth was found dead in a park. The youth was identified as one Geeta who studied in a local college. The police found several wounds on her body (Please reproduce figures XX-16,17,18 on page 543 here). It was suspected that Geeta had been killed by someone. Their main reason for thinking this was the multiplicity of the so-called wounds on her body. When the police made enquiries they found that Geeta belonged to a rich trader family. Her father had a flourishing export business. Geeta used to get a good amount of pocket money. Lately she was demanding her parents to increase her pocket money to Rs 10,000 per month. Previously she was getting only about Rs 5,000. It was found that lately she was going steady with a boy Harish, who also studied in the same college. Geeta was previously in love with another boy Ganesh, who was somewhat of a dada of his college. When Geeta switched favors, Ganesh held Harish responsible for this and told him to keep off his girl friend. He also told Geeta not to meet Harish. But neither Geeta nor Harish paid any attention to him. Once while sitting in canteen Ganesh bragged among his goons that if Geeta did not mend her ways he would finish her off. The police immediately summoned Ganesh and held him responsible for the murder. Ganesh seemed horrified to know that Geeta had actually been killed. He admitted that he did brag about killing her, but actually he had done nothing to her. But the police wouldn't listen to him, and took him to their "torture chamber" to get the truth out of him. It was at this stage that the case was brought to me. When I had a careful look at the body, I found that she had a strange key like thing dangling from her neck, which the police had completely ignored thinking it was an ordinary medallion usually worn by girls (reproduce fig XX-24 on page 551 here). This was not the ordinary medallion. It gave me some inkling as to the cause of her death. Then I looked closely at the hair of her nose, and as I had suspected, I found some white particles sticking there. I plucked some of those hairs with tweezers, and sent them for chemical analysis. I wanted to find out the chemical composition of those particles. Her nasal septum, the cartilage that divides the nose into two nostrils, showed a perforation. I immediately realized how she must have died. I called the investigating officer, and told him that Ganesh hadn't killed Geeta. I told him that I knew how she had died, and asked him not to torture Ganesh any more and release him at once. The police officer looked back at me in surprise and said,"But sir, you have hardly had a look at the body, let alone do an autopsy. How could you say that Ganesh has nothing to do with this death? How can you tell the cause of death in this case?" "Well, experience my boy, experience!", I said in smug confidence, and then wrote out a cause of death, on a rough sheet of paper, and asked him to keep it in his pocket. Of course the subsequent autopsy conducted by me proved that I was right. The cause of death given by me after conducting an autopsy was the same as I had given the police officer on the rough sheet of paper immediately after seeing the body. The readers may be surprised as to what magic I had done to find out the cause of death so quickly. Well, before going any further, let me tell you a little bit about a dangerous narcotic drug cocaine . The youth of today is in the grips of narcotic drugs. Many narcotic drugs are in use, main among them being heroin, LSD, amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine and several others. Heroin is the narcotic drug of choice today, but now many users are shifting to cocaine, especially in America. Its use in India is also increasing. The use of cocaine has permeated into the powerful and socially prominent circles. It is used by the youth of rich families. Of all the drugs cocaine is considered the largest producer of illicit income in the United States today. Cocaine is a white, crystalline powder derived from the leaves of coca plant (known botanically as Erythroxylon coca ). The coca plant is native to South America, particularly the countries of Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, and must not be confused with the similar‑sounding coca plant from which chocolate is made. The scientific name of the plant is derived from the Greek word erythros meaning `red', and xylon meaning `wood'. The name is based on the flesh‑red colour of the inner layers of the bark. The wood itself is tinged with red or yellow. Although the coca plant is natural to South America, it has been successfully cultivated in Java, West Indies, Australia and India . It's not that cocaine use has become popular in modern times only. It has been in use for a long time. Recent archaeological findings in Ecuador indicate that the use of cocaine dates back to at least 5,000 years. Small bags of coca leaves have been found in the graves of the Incas, mysterious South American people, who lived in the Cuzco Valley of the Andes mountains on the west coast of South America. This area roughly constitutes the modern‑day Peru. Cocaine which is used these days is usually available in adulterated form only. During its "journey" from the clandestine lab where it is prepared to the addict, it is adulterated a number of times, a practice often known as cutting . Every dealer who gets hold of the cocaine powder mixes some adulterant powder in it. The cutting or diluting agents can be any soluble powder that is not disruptive to the body such as baking soda, powdered sugar, powdered milk, starch, etc. Since pure cocaine is also a white crystalline powder, these agents can not easily be detected and serve as good dilutants. Other agents which are usually employed to cut cocaine are lactose, dextrose, Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate), quinine or powdered vitamins. A dangerous narcotic, methamphetamine, known as speed , is also sometimes used. Cocaine use is a very expensive habit and because of the expense, cocaine habit is often referred to as the king's habit . Cocaine has traditionally been popular with pimps, prostitutes, musicians, jet‑setters and the wealthy. It can be taken by the addict in a number of ways, but the most commonly employed method is by inhalation (known as snorting or horning ). In snorting cocaine, the immediate euphoric effect (known as the rush ) takes place within about thirty minutes. The usual time period for euphoric effects are generally in the same range when cocaine is injected directly into a vein. When cocaine is taken by mouth, the effects begin after five minutes and the rush is not as great as when cocaine is injected or snorted . That is why oral intake of cocaine, or cocaine eating , as it is often known, is not a preferred method among the addicts. There is a little compensation however. The euphoric effect after an oral intake lasts about fifteen to thirty minutes longer. The rush is most intense when cocaine is injected. Snorting produces a slightly lesser effect, yet the effect is not so minor as to make injection a preferred method. In snorting cocaine, the user brings the powdered cocaine up to one nostril, holding the other nostril closed and sniff the cocaine into the nose. The user may use any nostril but usually holds the other nostril closed for better suction. The immediate effect of snorting cocaine is a burning or freezing of the nostril area, depending on the purity of the cocaine and the substance the cocaine has been adulterated with . If it has been "cut" with procaine, there will be more of a freezing. The user may snort anywhere from one‑tenth of a gramme to half of a gramme at one time. Sometimes little particles of cocaine can get lodged in hair of the nose, and if they remain there for any length of time, they tend to irritate the membrane and cause sores and bleeding. Because of this irritation, chronic cocaine addicts usually have a perforated nasal septum. This is what I found in Geeta's dead body, and that is why I took no time in concluding that she had died of cocaine poisoning. Geeta was actually a cocaine addict . She had to buy cocaine regularly from the underworld of drug dealers. This was the reason she was pestering her parents for increasing her allowance. Usually for snorting, the users simply put the cocaine powder on a paper or a knife blade, hold it up to the nose, close one nostril and snort. Some users, however, adopt a very elaborate ritual. For instance they use a coke spoon, purchased from head shops (illegal shops selling drugs and drug paraphernalia), which is a highly ornamental tiny spoon, to hold about 50 mg of cocaine powder. The spoon, containing the cocaine, is brought up to the nostril and then the cocaine snorted. One can often identify a cocaine addict by seeing this spoon, which is often attached to a chain and worn round the neck. Some coke spoons have two small bowls so that the cocaine can be snorted into both nostrils at the same time. This was the key like thing which I found around Geeta's body, and which had been ignored by the police as an ordinary medallion. It was actually the spoon used by her for snorting. In fact, this spoon is so characteristic of cocaine users, that just its presence was enough for me to say that Geeta was a cocaine addict. Some addicts inject the cocaine directly into the veins or just beneath the skin. Injecting cocaine beneath the skin is commonly known as skin popping . It can cause ulcers, which often look like maps of various countries. Because of their fancied resemblance to maps, these ulcers are also known as geographical ulcers . I found these ulcers also on Geeta's dead body. Obviously Geeta was not only snorting cocaine, but injecting it too. Because of this practice, there were ulcers all over her body. These were the so-called wounds which the police was suspecting as indicative of homicide. She was probably going to the park to have her regular dose of cocaine. On the day of her death, she went to the park, and chose a lonely corner for her regular dose. First of all she snorted cocaine for some time. This was responsible for the white cocaine particles sticking to her nasal hair. Then she perhaps decided that she should inject cocaine for more intense feeling. During the procedure, she accidentally injected an overdose of cocaine. That is how she had died. It was an accidental death due to overdose of cocaine. No one had murdered her. Chemical analysis of her body organs revealed lethal doses of cocaine. Analysis of the white powder particles sticking to her nasal hair also turned out to be cocaine! When the police told Geeta's already depressed parents that she was a cocaine addict, they couldn't believe their ears. They realized that they should not have been giving such a heavy pocket money to her. Well, this is a warning to all parents to see what their children have been doing with their pocket money. It is not surprising if the large pocket money they are demanding is for the purposes of narcotism only. When the police released Ganesh, he came and fell on my legs. He said that his life had been saved because of me only. The poor boy did not know that it was not me, but forensic science which had saved him. I only used the science! ( To protect the identity of the individuals, their names, as well as the various dates of occurrence have been changed )

Forensic Science Fiction A tale of detection The man had been dead for five days! At least that is what the forensic pathologist Dr. Chandra would have everyone believe. The body was in an advanced state of putrefaction and there were maggots over the body. Every pathologist knows that flies lay eggs in and around natural orifices of the dead body a little after about 3 days and maggots hatch in another two days. So if a body is found full of maggots, it must be dead five days before. All evidence pointed towards Papi Singh as the killer. He and Bachan Singh, the dead man had been sworn enemies. They both ran rival gambling dens and when two months back Bachan Singh spat over Papi Singh after a drunken brawl, Papi Singh had sworn to get even with him. Everybody knew about that. The body of Bachan Singh was found of the night of 27th May. That put the time of death round about the night of 22nd May. Throughout the proceedings Papi Singh kept asserting he hadn't killed Bachan Singh. Some of his cronies swore they had seen Bachan Singh roaming around on the night of 23rd May with a lady of ill repute but nobody believed them. In fact nobody could think of suspecting Dr. Chandra's judgement. But the defence lawyer Basu was a shrewd man. He was a man of multiple interests and had his fingers in several pies. He studied the autopsy report in great detail and found that the main reason for Dr Chandra's judgement was the presence of maggots on the body. All the putrefactive changes plus the maggots put the time of death as five days, but the same changes minus the maggots put the time of death as merely three days and put the date of death as the night of 24th May. That suited his client Papi Singh, as he had left for Chandigarh on 24th morning by train making his alibi watertight. Everybody knew about it, and furthermore he had the train tickets to prove that. Papi Singh even had some minor scuffle with the guard of the train, and the guard remembered it. Even he could be called as a witness to say that Papi Singh had indeed made the journey to Chandigarh on the morning of 24th May. This was as good an alibi as could possibly be. In essence, Papi Singh could be saved from the gallows, if it could somehow be proved that Bachan Singh had died just 3 days before and not 5 days before as Dr. Chandra had indicated in his post-mortem report. But from where did the maggots emerge? That was the sixty-four thousand dollar question. The answer began emerging in Basu's mind a few days later. While reading the latest issue of the American Journal of Ornithology he read with interest the report of an Indian ornithologist who had reported finding a new species in India called Passeriformes peculiaris. The females of the species ate small seeds while the males ate eggs of insects. This in itself was not a very startling or amazing finding as the same situation is prevalent in many known species. Male anopheles for instance sucks flower juice while the female anopheles sucks blood. The real amazing find was that if by mistake the female bird swallowed the insect eggs which look very much like the seeds it ate, it would not be able to digest them. It would be able to keep the eggs in its gizzard as long as they did not hatch. But once the maggots hatched, they would start irritating the gizzard, and the bird would be forced to disgorge the maggots immediately. Still more surprisingly, the bird would search for decaying flesh, so that it could get nauseated strong enough and be able to evacuate its gizzard as completely as possible. The female of the species seemed to have a kind of aversion for these maggots, so to say. What Basu decided was this. Bachan Singh was killed on 24th night by someone else, and his body thrown away in the open. As the species Passeriformes peculiaris was rather abundant in the region where the body was found, some birds, which had earlier ingested the insect eggs accidentally, disgorged some of the maggots on the decaying flesh. In other words flies never laid eggs on the corpse. Quite simply, the body had not been dead long enough for that to happen. Maggots were directly disgorged upon it by the female Passeriformes peculiaris, and that put the time of death as just 3 days. Maggots were in fact only artifacts. But in the court everybody laughed at this outlandish conjecture. New reports had to be taken with a pinch of salt, they said. However the defence kept harping on the authenticity and reputation of the journal. Finally the judge appointed a committee of ornithologists, entomologists and forensic experts to look into the issue and give its report. The main task of course was to look into whether such a bird really disgorges maggots on decaying flesh or not. And when finally the report came after a month, it acquitted Papi Singh. It said laconically, "The girly bird retches the worm!" *** This story was published in Published in Spandan (Maulana Azad Medical College's Magazine) 1990-91 on Page 8

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE OCTOBER 1999 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY VITAMIN A -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 happened to him? Please tell me.” “Good morning Tarun. The name of this 24 year old man is Ramlal, and he died in the hospital today morning. He was admitted to the hospital about two days back, with complaints of throbbing headache, pain in the stomach, diarrhoea, vomiting, irritability, dizziness, muscular weakness and cramps. Some peculiar symptoms, which confused most doctors at the hospital was that his skin was peeling off from many parts of the body, his hair were falling and that he had an irresistible desire to sleep. Doctors were trying to figure out what his illness was, but in the meantime he expired.” “Seems like a most strange illness to me doctor. But since you have said that his hair were falling, I can surmise that he might be suffering from Thallium poisoning.” “Tarun, I do remember having told you that hair start falling in thallium poisoning, but look at his other symptoms too. All the symptoms taken together are pointing towards only one direction - I can think of nothing but one poison, with which Ramlal must have been poisoned. It remains to be seen who gave him this poison.” “Doctor please tell me which is that poison. I am getting curious.” “Tarun, somebody has given Ramlal a dangerously high dose of Vitamin A, and probably that is why he has died.” “Vitamin A! Come on doctor. You are being preposterous. We all know that Vitamin A is an essential vitamin, which must be regularly taken to stay healthy. How can such a nutrient prove toxic?” “This is the paradox. Vitamin A acts as a double edged sword. Before saying anything, let me clarify a few basic concepts about Vitamin A. The term “Vitamin A” covers two chemicals - a true pre-formed vitamin known as retinol, and a pro-vitamin beta-carotene. A pro-vitamin is a substance which gets converted into the proper vitamin in the body. In human beings, some beta-carotene gets converted into Vitamin A in the intestinal mucosa, while the most gets converted in the liver. Vitamin A is usually measured in International Units or I.U. One I.U. of Vitamin A is equal to about 0.3 micrograms of retinol, which as you now know is the true Vitamin A. I must also tell you that one microgram of beta-carotene (which is the pro-vitamin) gets converted to about 0.167 micrograms of true vitamin A or retinol. Another way of saying this is that the “retinol equivalent” of one microgram of beta-carotene is 0.167.” “Oh, yes, I am understanding it. What is the daily requirement of Vitamin A, and what is its toxic dose?” “Normal daily requirement of Vitamin A for an adult is about 3000 I.U. per day. In pregnancy and lactation, it increases to about 4000 I.U. per day. Vitamin A capsules available in the market provide a little more than this amount. For instance Adexolin, a commonly available capsule of Vitamin A contains about 5000 I.U. of vitamin A. You must remember that Vitamin A and D are not soluble in water so if someone takes more quantities of these vitamins than required, there is no way they can be excreted. They generally are stored in the liver. On the other hand Vitamins B and C are water soluble vitamins. If someone takes enormous quantities of Vitamin B and C, they would be excreted in urine.” “Oh, I see. So this means Vitamin A can act as a poison too?” “Oh yes. Certainly. This is a fact which most people do not know. The medical condition which results from an intake of excessive amounts of Vitamin A is known as Hypervitaminosis A. About one million I.U. of vitamin A are very toxic to human beings, and about 3 million I.U. may prove fatal, as they have in the case of Ramlal. To put it another way, about a year’s requirement of Vitamin A if taken as a single dose may prove toxic, and about three years’ requirement taken as a single dose may kill a human being. Well, we do say often that ‘too much of a good thing can be bad’. Nowhere does this maxim prove truer than in the case of Vitamin A.” “Doctor, you are repeatedly saying that Ramlal died of Vitamin A poisoning, but how could he have got poisoned. You tell me that an average capsule of Vitamin A available in the market provides about 5000 I.U. of vitamin A, and also that about 3 million I.U. are fatal. This means that someone with an intent to kill his enemy has to administer as many as 600 capsules of Vitamin A to his enemy. How is that possible?” “Tarun, I did not tell you a very interesting fact. Most polar animals such as polar bears have dangerously high levels of Vitamin A in their liver. In fact there have been cases, where polar explorers have died of Vitamin A poisoning, because they ate the livers of animals residing in those regions.” “Really? That’s an interesting fact. How does such dangerous amounts of Vitamin A reach their liver?” “Vitamin A originates in marine algae, and then passes up the food chain to reach the large carnivorous animals. Toxic levels of Vitamin A may accumulate in the livers of a wide range of creatures such as Polar bears, seals, porpoises, dolphins, sharks, whales, Arctic foxes and huskies. Even a small meal of southern Australian seal liver, say 80 g, may produce illness in man. I may tell you that several foods are recommended as good sources of Vitamin A. Most of them contain well below the toxic levels of vitamin A, but one - Halibut liver oil - contains dangerously high amounts of Vitamin A, as you can see from the accompanying table. Source of Vitamin A Vitamin A content in International Units (I.U.) per gram of food Ox liver 550 Cod liver oil 600 Halibut liver oil 30,000 Table 1: Vitamin A content of some commonly recommended foods rich in Vitamin A In contrast look at the vitamin A contents of the livers of some common animals living in the polar regions in the following table. For comparison, I have also given the vitamin A content of the human liver. As you can see, most animals, especially the polar bear have very high amounts of Vitamin A in their livers. Common Name Zoological Name Vitamin A content of the liver in International Units (I.U.) per gm of specimen Weddel Seal Leptonychotes weddelli 444 Man Homo sapiens 575 Southern Elephant Seal Mirounga leonina 1,160 Antarctic huskies Canis familaris 10,570 Arctic bearded seal Erignathus barbatus 12,000-14,000 Polar bear Thalaractos maritimus 24,000-35,000 Table 2: Vitamin A content of the livers of some common animals living in polar regions - compared with that in humans “Oh, these two tables are real eye openers. Doctor, you were telling me that some polar explorers have actually died of Vitamin A poisoning. Could you tell me that story in detail please? I am getting curious.” “Oh sure. The story starts in January 1912, when a three man party of explorers from the Australasian Antarctic Expedition started their expedition to explore Antarctica. The team was led by Douglas Mawson, and the other two members were Lt. B.E.S. Ninnis and Xavier Mertz, a Swiss scientist. Disaster struck on December 14, 1912, when Ninnis fell into a very deep pit and died. With him also went precious food supplies. With most of their food gone, Mawson and Mertz decided to return to their base at Commonwealth Bay, which is at the shores of Antarctica. From here they could take the ship back to their country. But Commonwealth Bay was about 315 miles from where they were stationed. Covering that distance in the inhospitable surroundings of Antarctica would have taken them weeks, and they had only 10 days’ food left with them. They had six huskies with them. Huskies, as you know are Eskimo dogs, used as ponies in Antarctic region. They knew that sooner or later they would have to eat those dogs to remain alive.” “Oh, it was really terrible. But the story is getting interesting. What happened then?” “They did kill the huskies and ate their flesh, but the flesh was stringy and they could not eat it. In contrast to flesh, they found the liver softer and easier to eat so they took generous quantities of liver. Mertz was a near vegetarian; he could not eat the stringy flesh, so he took more liver than Mawson. Little did he realize that he was taking fatal amounts of Vitamin A in this form. On New Year’s Eve, Mertz began to feel ill. Next day he complained of stomach pains. Few days later both men began displaying typical symptoms of Vitamin A poisoning, although Mawson was affected less. Their skin was falling off their bodies in strips and their hair was dropping out in handfuls. A week later, Mertz fell into a delirious sleep - a sleep from which he never woke. As far as we know, he was the first case of death due to overdose of Vitamin A. Mawson survived, and ultimately did return to Commonwealth Bay." Note by the Editor There are counterclaims insisting that the death of Xavier Mertz and the suffering of Douglas Mawson was not due to overdose of Vitamin A. For more on this, please click here “This is certainly a most interesting incident doctor.” “So I was telling you about the vitamin A content of polar animals. With the amounts I told you, you can see that really very little quantities of livers of these animals are required to kill a human being. For instance, it would require about 30 to 90 g of the liver of a polar bear, 80 to 240 g of the liver of bearded seal and 100 to 300 g of the liver of Antarctic Husky to kill a human being. You may think that the livers of these animals are not commonly available. That is true, but Halibut liver oil also contains almost the same amounts of Vitamin A as that of the liver of Polar Bear. About 30 to 90 g of Halibut liver oil could thus prove fatal to a human being, and this is commonly available with the chemists. It is not very difficult for someone to coax another to drink this amount, especially when Halibut Liver Oil is commonly considered to be a health food.” “So you think someone coaxed Ramlal into drinking this amount of Halibut liver oil?” “This is exactly what has happened. I have made inquiries, and found that Suresh a person working in the same factory as Ramlal held a grudge against him. Suresh was an educated person - he held a first division in chemistry in college- and yet Ramlal, probably due to his hard work, rose to a higher position than him in the factory. He held another grudge against him, that Rekha, a co-worker whom he loved and wanted to marry was attracted more towards Ramlal.” “Oh, I see. But how did he coax Ramlal to drink a fatal amount of Halibut liver oil?” “Ramlal thought that he was not strong enough, and before marriage he could do with some more nutritious foods. Suresh knew about health foods well, and one day he took his advice. Suresh saw his chance and advised him to contact him the next day. Next day he handed him a bottle of Halibut liver oil and asked him to drink copious amounts from there. He told him that it acted as a good aphrodisiac and would serve him well before marriage. Poor Ramlal believed him, and drank almost the whole bottle, which contained 100 g of oil in one go. This is how he died.” “This is all very well doctor, but how are you going to prove in a court of law that Ramlal died of Vitamin A poisoning?” “Tarun, I have examined the vitamin A content of Ramlal’s liver and it is more than 40,000 I.U. per g. As you know, a human being should have at the most about 600 I.U. of Vitamin A per g of liver. This proves beyond doubt that Ramlal had Vitamin A poisoning. Added to this is the hospital record which gives us the typical symptoms of vitamin A poisoning. I don’t think the court would have any hesitation awarding sentence to Suresh. Come, let us tell the police to arrest Suresh.” "That was very clever of you doctor. Without your clever deduction - especially your noticing the peculiar symptoms of Ramlal at the time of his death- everybody would have thought he died of some mysterious natural disease. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison- Cicutoxin."

Science Fiction WHY DINOSAURS BECAME EXTINCT? -Dr. Anil Aggrawal I know you won't believe me, but I first wrote this scientific report about 16 years back and sent it to the editor of a prominent science magazine for publication. I thought I had invented a new discipline of science, bioastronomy, an inter-relationship between biology and astronomy. Bioastronomy could be used to make predictions related to one science based on the data gathered from the other. For instance, I devised ways to predict and extrapolate the time of origin of life on earth (and on any other planet for that matter), by counting the number of stars in a sphere of 100 light years around that planet, and putting that number in a complicated formula. Similarly, by looking at the cellular structure of the animals on any planet, I could make useful predictions about the space around that planet. I know you would think I am beating about the bush, and I wouldn't blame you. If I didn't invent the science myself, and you told me the same thing, I would go to the extent of thinking you were crazy. That's what the editor of the Science magazine thought 16 years back. Actually what I had sent him was a report of an actual science experiment on bioastronomy that I had conducted. But he thought it was a Science Fiction story and refused to publish it, stating that the events mentioned in my report were too unlikely and unnatural even to be included in an SF story. That made me aghast with disbelief, but I couldn't help it. After all, we all writers are at the mercy of editors. If they don't like something, the writer's piece can't see the light of the day, whatever its merit. Then why am I writing it again now, you might ask. Well, much light has flown through the galaxies meanwhile and certainly in the present circumstances my report would appear more trustworthy to you. The world has been gripped with the dinosaur mania during this period, and that is the single most important factor which makes my report look more realistic today. My report as you would shortly see deals with resurrecting the dinosaurs and certainly the events in the story would appear less unnatural to you now. They certainly appeared realistic to my present editor and that's why you are able to read this story. Well, to begin with I must tell you that I am interested in finding the reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs. Years ago, I developed an interesting theory about the extinction of dinosaurs, but needed a live dinosaur to prove it. We all know that if we can somehow get a single intact nucleus of the ancient dinosaurs, we could clone a whole dinosaur from the DNA contained in that nucleus. Michael Crichton in his now famous SF novel, surmises that such an intact dinosaur nucleus could be found in the gastrointestinal tract of mosquitoes who fed on the blood of dinosaurs and then got entrapped in sticky amber flowing down the trees. But in actual life such a finding is extremely unlikely. I found intact dinosaur cells in another way - in Himalayan peat bogs. Peat bogs were marshy, muddy places where some dinosaurs might have strayed and got accidentally buried there. The peat bogs were very much like quicksand. They have a remarkable quality to preserve tissue specimens. Later on, with the coming of ice age the whole peat bogs, along with buried dinosaurs within them got covered with snow, which further helped preservation. I cloned the dinosaur nucleus in the fertilized ova of the American alligator (Alligator mississipiensis). Of course I first destroyed its own nucleus and then transplanted the dinosaur nucleus in the fertilized ova. The American alligator is the closest living relative of the dinosaurs, and it was the best medium to transplant the dinosaur nucleus in. Sure enough when I cloned the dinosaur (Tyrannosaurus rex), and studied its cellular enzymes in great detail, I found a gross abnormality in the respiratory enzyme Cytochrome oxidase. This is an essential respiratory enzyme which is vital to the functioning of the cells. There are about 100 atoms in the molecule. Most of the atoms are of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but there are two peculiar atoms- iron and copper. Empirically, the altered molecule had the same number of atoms as the natural molecule, but structurally the relative positions of all the atoms including those of iron and copper atoms had been changed drastically. This caused the enzyme to become at least 6 times less effective. Sure enough, the dinosaurs died as a result of this fatal mutation. But what caused the mutation? Well, I had just invented the science of bioastronomy. This helped me come up with a remarkable explanation. The earth had been visited about 65 million years ago by some super-intelligent extraterrestrials. They were masters of genetic engineering. They didn't come to earth on purpose. There was hardly any intelligent life on earth then. They stepped on it only in passing. However during the rest period the spent here, they played a little game, in which they sought to represent the position of their star in relation to the earth's star (The Sun). They did this by genetically altering the 3-dimensional structure of the most important respiratory enzyme of the most conspicuous creatures on earth-the dinosaurs. They did it in such a way, that various atoms in the cytochrome oxidase molecule came to represent the relative positions of all the stars in the vicinity of the Sun. In other words, if all the atoms of the changed cytochrome molecule were enlarged on a galactic scale, each atom of the changed molecule would faithfully represent a star in the vicinity of the sun. There are only two particularly peculiar atoms - iron and copper- in the cytochrome oxidase molecule. Now if the iron atom was taken as the position of the sun, the other unusual atom- copper- would represent their star. Such drastic genetic engineering served their purpose alright but it decreased the efficiency of the enzyme vastly, which over the years caused the dinosaurs to get asphyxiated. I brought out a 3-dimensional star chart and extrapolated the position of copper atom. It represented the star Tau ceti. This clearly meant that the race had come from Tau ceti. You might think I am crazy, but how on earth (excuse the pun) could you otherwise explain the uncanny similarity of the 3-dimensional structure of a macroscopic and a microscopic thing. This was unmistakably the handiwork of a super-intelligent race. Those beings evidently changed the genetic makeup of all dinosaurs in the same way. Doing this is not difficult if you can "programme" gamma rays to do just that and then irradiate the planet with them. Dinosaurs were so important in Jurassic ecology that with their extinction, several other species dependent on them for their survival perished too. This explains the disappearance of many other species simultaneously. I am happy to tell you that some exobiologists in the USA believe my theory and only yesterday I learnt with satisfaction that a very strong electromagnetic wave carrying a friendly message has been sent to Tau ceti.

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE OCTOBER 1997 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS POISONING BY THALLIUM -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today. You seem to be doing the post-mortem on a rather old man. And he seems to have a most peculiar rash over his face. His hair have also come off his head. Please tell me what happened to him." "Good morning Tarun. This man is a 56-year old man Ramlal, who worked in a store in New Delhi. He suddenly fell ill on 27 August. He developed acute griping pain in the stomach for about 1 hour, and he also had vomiting and diarrhoea. He was well until four days later when he developed severe burning pain in the toes of both feet and tingling sensation in the tips of all the fingers. These symptoms increased over the next five days with some reduction in the power of hand grip. His company admitted him to a leading private nursing home in Delhi. Some leading medical experts examined him, but couldn't diagnose his illness. Ramlal's condition remained unchanged until 9 September when he suddenly developed more symptoms. He had difficulty opening the eyes in strong light, a symptom known in medical parlance as photophobia. There was some disturbance in his vision also. His condition worsened further over the next few days and by 11 September there was drooping of eyelids (known in medical parlance as ptosis) and weakness of face muscles. Swallowing became increasingly difficult. He had difficulty in breathing too, which became so severe that on 15 September, a surgical opening had to made in his neck to help him breathe. However his condition continued to worsen and he died on 19 September, 23 days after his first symptoms started." "Oh, he had a most terrible illness. What do you think he died of?" "Everybody thought he had died from some undiagnosed natural illness. But when the dead body was brought to me, I noticed this curious rash over his face. I also noticed- as you also did- that his hair were also falling off his scalp. This made me suspect that Ramlal was being poisoned- perhaps with thallium." "What! Thallium!! I never thought that it could be used as a homicidal poison" "Tarun, on the contrary, it is a very good homicidal poison. I will tell you in a short while, why this is so. But before proceeding any further, let me tell you a little bit about thallium, so that you can know something about this interesting poison. "Sure doctor, go ahead. I like listening to good scientific stories." " Tarun, Thallium was discovered in 1861 by the British physicist Sir William Crookes (1832-1919). He was working with selenium ores, and in 1861 he came upon a sample of such ore that when heated showed in its spectrum a bright green line characteristic of no known element. It indicated a new hitherto undiscovered element. When he ultimately found it, he named it thallium, from the Greek word thallos meaning "green twig" after the color of its line. The botanical word thallophyta comes from the same root." "That's very interesting. And when did murderers start using it as a homicidal poison?" "It is significant that it was not used as a poison in the first instance. Its earliest use - albeit unaccountably- was to check the "night sweats" in tuberculosis, and when it was noticed that loss of hair occurred with its use, a scientist named Sabouraud instituted its therapeutic use for tinea capitis or ringworm in 1898. The salt used was thallium acetate. It was supplied as a cream (Koremlou cream), containing 7.18% thallium acetate. This practice was finally abandoned half a century later, when it was realized that it was a potential poison. Quite interestingly Thallium has also been used a rodenticide (e.g. to kill rats and moles) and as cockroach poison, particularly in Germany. For this purpose it was available either as tablets or pellets of thallium sulphate or as pastes. Some time in the 1920s the firm of Bayer-Leverkusen in Germany marketed 30 g tubes of a paste known as Zelio paste, each of which contained 2.3%, or about 600-700 mg of thallium sulphate. It had a wide sale on the continent and in the United States, apparently without any restriction of sale or purchase. A French preparation, Virus Rouge contained thallium nitrate. In 1965, the US banned the use of thallium as a commercial rodenticide. However thallium salts as cockroach poison may still be available today in many countries. It is still used in homeopathic remedies!" "Doctor, why did anyone use thallium as a rodenticide at all, when it was so dangerous to human beings?" "Tarun, the earlier rodenticides contained phosphorus, but the value of thallium as a rodenticide lay in the fact that the usual phosphorus containing rat-killer was harmful to the pigs that ate the poisoned rats, whereas the pigs seemed unaffected by rats killed with thallium salts! The use of thallium rodenticides in Europe spread when the Germans conquered and occupied most of Europe during the 2nd World War." "Is thallium useful for other purposes too?" "Yes, Thallium is widely used in industry. Its addition confers a high refractive index on optical glass. For this reason it is used in imitation jewellery which sparkles rather like diamonds. It is also used as an alloy, a catalyst, and for making low-temperature thermometers. But unfortunately like arsenic (see Science Reporter February 1997) , thallium also accumulates slowly in tissues, and over a short period of time, has cumulative toxicity. This method of administration has been used in many criminal cases. I must tell you that the fatal dose of thallium is about 1 g." "Excuse me doctor, what do we mean by the fatal dose?" "When dealing with poisons, we often speak of their fatal dose and fatal period. You will perhaps remember that we first talked about the concept of fatal dose, while talking about arsenic and Spanish Fly (see Science Reporter February 1997 & March 1997). Fatal dose of a poison is the average dose which is enough to kill an adult human being, while fatal period is the average period taken by the poison to kill. A tube of Zelio paste would contain about 0.6 to 0.7 g of thallium which is considered somewhat less than the average dose to kill a human being. Death usually occurs in 11 to 16 days, which is called the fatal period of thallium. If the patient survives 4 to 5 weeks, he would probably live, but the damage to organ systems may be permanent." "Tell me doctor, can thallium be taken for suicidal purposes too?" "Tarun, cases of both accidental and suicidal poisoning occur with thallium, but probably most sinister is its use as a homicidal poison, as it possesses many of the qualities of an ideal homicidal poison. Its salts are colorless, odorless and tasteless, besides being freely soluble in water. Furthermore, in the body the salts are converted into a relatively insoluble salt thallium chloride. This is favorable to the criminal, as the insoluble salts take longer to act; the effects are rarely noticeable before 12 hours and may be delayed as long as 48 hours. This gives the criminal enough time to cover its tracks. Because of the wide gap between ingestion and the onset of symptoms, it is also that much more difficult to associate the symptoms with what the criminal gave to the victim. The initial symptoms of an ideal homicidal poison must mimic some natural disease, and that's exactly what happens with thallium salts too; its initial symptoms are those of a digestive upset of a non-specific character. More specific neurological symptoms occur only after about 2 to 5 days, but still they are very difficult to differentiate from some neurological diseases such as Guillain-Barré syndrome. That is probably why the doctors were at a loss to diagnose thallium poisoning in the case of Ramlal. One of the most characteristic signs of thallium poisoning- gross loss of hair- does not appear until almost a fortnight has passed." "Excuse me doctor, you introduced quite a frightening term Guillain-Barré syndrome. I know I may be deviating from the main topic, but please let me know something about it." "Tarun, the actual name of this condition is Landry-Guillain-Barré Syndrome or LGBS. It is the name given to the conditions previously known by two different names- Landry's ascending paralysis and Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Now the two conditions are known to be identical. It is an acute disease of the nerves, in which they lose their outer protective covering or myelin. This myelin coat is also important for the smooth functioning of the nerves. The result of this loss of myelin coat is that the nerves can not conduct messages properly. This disease occurs at a rate of one case per million population per month. At this rate about 950 new cases of LGBS must be occurring in India every month. The weight of evidence favors that the cause of the disease may be immune related. However in over two-thirds of the cases, a viral infection is associated. After the infection, demyelination- or loss of myelin coat- in spinal and peripheral nerves occur. The symptoms of thallium poisoning may mimic this disease very much. The good news about LGBS is that its prognosis is good, with about 85% of the patients making a complete recovery. The mortality rate is just 3-4%. You would probably want to know, how the name of the disease came about. Well, it comes from the names of three doctors who described this disease at different intervals. The earliest to describe it was the Paris physician Jean Baptiste Landry (b. 1826). Subsequently Paris neurologist Georges Guillain (b. 1876) and Strasbourg neurologist Jean Alexander Barré (b. 1880) also described it correctly." "Excellent. Coming back to thallium. You said thallium fulfills many of the properties of an ideal homicidal poison. It means killers have got an ideal weapon, isn't it?" "Not exactly. Fortunately nature has put some negative qualities in it too. Had it not been for these counterbalancing features, thallium would indeed have been a poisoner's delight." "Really? And what are these counterbalancing features?" "An ideal homicidal poison must not be readily detectable by analysis, but thallium salts can be readily detected. Furthermore, an ideal homicidal poison must disappear from the body after doing its job. Of course a substance can not magically disappear from the body, but what it effectively means is that the poison must at least be destroyed by putrefaction, so that with the onset of time, it becomes impossible to detect that poison. I must tell you that this does happen with most vegetable poisons. Thallium however remains in the body even after putrefaction. It is also not a product of putrefaction." "Wait a minute doctor. You just said that thallium is not a product of putrefaction. You imply that if a poison is a product of putrefaction, it would be an ideal homicidal poison. Please explain this point to me in some detail." "Tarun, first of all you must know what exactly is meant by putrefaction. It is the destruction of the body with the onset of time. You must have noticed that dead animals start to rot after some time. The same happens with human bodies, if they are not disposed of properly. This rotting is known as putrefaction in medical parlance. Now imagine a killer has killed his victim with some poison, and has hidden the body somewhere, say in some bushes or a nallah. With the onset of time, putrefaction would start and the body would start to smell. This would soon lead to its discovery. Now if the poison is such that it is destroyed by putrefaction, the doctor doing the autopsy at this time would not be able to find this poison, and thus the killer would remain untraced. Wouldn't it make an ideal homicidal poison?" "Yes, I do appreciate that. But how can a poison be an ideal homicidal poison, if it is a product of putrefaction? That is what I really want to know." "Tarun, putrefaction is a chemical process, in which many chemicals are destroyed and many new chemicals appear. For instance, the chemicals skatol and indole are produced during putrefaction which indeed are responsible for the offensive smell of the body. If a poison is a known product of putrefaction, it could reasonably be argued by the defence in a court of law, that the detected poison (in a putrefied body) was not administered during life but was produced as a result of putrefaction. Cyanide, alcohol and ptomaines are well-known poisons which are products of putrefaction. Arsenic and thallium, which otherwise fulfil several of the criteria of an ideal homicidal poison do not fulfil this criteria. Similarly another criteria of an ideal homicidal poison is that it should normally be present in the soil." "Well, what is the explanation for that?" "In some communities, instead of cremation, the dead bodies are buried. Poisoners - and in fact all murderers- don't feel easy with this method of disposal of the body, because the potential evidence of murder -the body- remains beneath the soil. Any time after the burial of the body, if suspicion gathers momentum against the murderer, the body can be exhumed, i.e. unearthed and sent for a post-mortem examination. Now if a poison is normally present in the soil, it can be -and has successfully been- argued by the defence that the detected amount of poison had leached in the body from the surrounding soil. Arsenic - a deadly poison- is normally present in the soil in fairly good concentration, and this argument has successfully been used by many murders. But thallium is not present in the soil in any great quantity, and thus the same argument would not hold, if the poisoner had used thallium to dispose of his victim." "Oh, I see. Doctor, can you tell me what symptoms does the victim experience when thallium is given to him?" "Yes sure. Thallium salts irritate the stomach and intestines. It is a gastro-intestinal irritant so to say and that's why symptoms like abdominal colic, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea occur first. Vomiting and diarrhoea may contain blood. There may be sores in the mouth, a symptom known in the medical parlance as stomatitis. The interesting difference from those of other irritant poisons is that the symptoms start very late- after about 24 to 48 hours of ingestion. In fact it is one of the idiosyncrasies of this poison which makes it a good homicidal poison. Thallium appears to act on nerves too. The symptoms relating to nerves ensue one to five or more days after ingestion. An intense pain develops in the body which is worse at night and is readily provoked by mild stimuli. For instance, even the weight of the bedclothing is enough to induce bouts of pain. The soles of the feet are first involved. The pain gradually travels upwards; to the legs and to the trunk. Sometimes there is intense pain in the big toe, and this can simulate gout. In some cases this may be the first sign. Joint pains which move from joint to joint also occur. There is numbness, especially of the fingers and toes, with detectable loss of sensation to pin-prick and to touch. There is a feeling of tiredness in the legs. This is followed by weakness and finally paralysis. The arms are always less affected. An interesting symptom is the appearance of a "butterfly" rash on the face. In fact this is the first thing I noticed on Ramlal's face, and that had alerted me at once. Another interesting symptom is alopecia or loss of hair. In fact it is highly characteristic of thallium poisoning. Hair loss occurs about a fortnight after the ingestion. The hair is lost in large tufts and within three weeks, the whole of head is bare. The root of the hair -the part of hair that remains buried underneath the skin- shows dense black coloration. This may be seen on the actual hair too, if there has been repeated intake. In fact, if there has been a repeated but interrupted intake, several dark bands coinciding with the period of intake may be seen. Interestingly the same thing happens in arsenic poisoning. It is widely thought that the great Napoleon was killed by the British in this manner. His hair too showed arsenic in bands. The bands are seen only on growing hairs. Thallium finally arrests hair growth and the hair falls. Even you noticed both the rash and the loss of hair, as soon as you entered the post-mortem room. During the autopsy I pulled some of his remaining hair and saw them under the microscope. I was struck with the finding that the hair root was completely black, while normally it is not so. The excessive blackness is considered to be due to an excess of melanin laid down through catalytic action by thallium." "Oh, I see. Coming to think of hair, I find that Ramlal's eyebrows look a little bit curious. Am I right?" "Yes, you sure are right Tarun. Just like hair on the scalp, eyebrows are also involved in thallium poisoning, but for some curious reason, their inner third is spared- only the outer two-third falls off. It is such a characteristic sign of thallium poisoning that it has even been accorded a name; the sign is called signe de sourcil. This is a French term, which literally means "The eyebrow sign"! It has been suggested that the inner third is spared because it is phylogenetically much older than the rest of the eyebrow hair. The fingernails may bear horizontal white bands or white cross lines. This change appears quite late- several weeks after the exposure. That's why you can't see this change in Ramlal's body." "Oh, this is most interesting indeed. Especially the information on eyebrows." "Tarun, there are more interesting nuggets I can give you. You would perhaps be quite interested to know that the noted English crime writer Agatha Christie has given a graphic description of the effects of thallium poisoning in her novel The Pale Horse (Christie, 1952), and this has led a nurse to correctly diagnose a case of thallium poisoning, which had earlier been diagnosed as a case of encephalitis by "experts"." "Really? Please tell me the details of this case" "Tarun, this case occurred in the late 70s. A 19-month-old girl in Qatar was having undiagnosed and unexplained ataxia, which in plain and simple terms means that she was unable to walk. Her physician in Qatar telephonically contacted experts in Hammersmith Hospital, London for help. She had a most extraordinary illness. It apparently began some 10 days earlier with a major convulsion lasting about 5 minutes and associated with a high fever. Over the next 3 days she became increasingly clumsy and lethargic and developed slurring of her speech. By the seventh day of her illness she was unable to sit, stand or walk, and had difficulty with swallowing. The following day she had a further generalized convulsion lasting about 5 minutes. At this stage she was transferred to Hammersmith Hospital. Detailed investigations led experts to believe she was suffering from encephalitis -an infection of the brain- but a staff nurse, who was reading Christie's novel The Pale Horse, realized that her symptoms were remarkably similar to those of thallium poisoning mentioned in the novel! The girl had also started losing hair which normally occurs in about 10-15 days of ingestion- a fact which was also mentioned in the book. She expressed her doubt to the doctors and on subsequent examination, she was indeed found to be suffering from thallium poisoning. On detailed discussion with the child's parents it seemed that the most likely source of thallium was domestic poison used to eliminate cockroaches and rodents in the drains and septic tank of their home. This is a common practice in Middle East!" "Oh, how very interesting. Has Thallium been used for murder in modern times? "Oh yes, it has. One of the most famous cases of murder with Thallium in modern times is that committed by George Trepal - a 42-year-old computer programmer - in 1988. He was a man with a very high I.Q. In fact he was a member of the high I.Q. club Mensa and this case later became famous as the Mensa Murder case. Trepal lived in the small central Florida town of Alturas. He was quite fed up with his neighbor Peggy Carr, 41, and her family, because they always listened to loud music which disturbed him. Carrs' dogs also used to trouble Trepal's cats, which he did not like. In June 1988, he sent the Carr family a chilling typewritten note in the mail. It said, 'You and all your so-called family have two weeks to move out of Florida forever or else you will die. This is no joke.' Carr's family did not pay much attention to this note. Four months later - in October 1988 - Peggy Carr was hospitalized with mysterious symptoms her doctors couldn't explain. At the same time, her son and stepson developed similar symptoms. While they recovered, Peggy did not, and she died with her doctors still mystified as to what killed her. One of her sons was permanently disabled. Officials were completely baffled. Trepal had actually surreptitiously spiked eight-pack of Coca-Cola bottles with thallium nitrate, and secreted them into Carrs' kitchen. Peggy Carr and her family members unsuspectingly consumed the drink. Peggy lapsed into a three-month coma and died thereafter. Four other members of her family were poisoned, though not fatally, but one son, as we have already seen was permanently disabled due to effects of Thallium on his Central Nervous System. Interestingly, Trepal was so confident of his "perfect murder" that when the investigating officials came to him for enquiries, instead of keeping quiet, or expressing his ignorance in this matter, he speculated that someone might poison people to get them to move out of the neighborhood! This immediately allerted the officials, who at once started thinking in terms of poisoning. When Trepal's home was searched, a small vial of thallium nitrate - generally unavailable to the public - was found there. Other incriminating things found in his house were a detailed homemade notebook titled, "General Poisoning Guides," with several entries on thallium, and an extensive store of dangerous chemicals. He was found guilty by the court, and sentenced to die." "Amazing! It appears we have another Trepal on our hands now. It is now sure that poor Ramlal died due to Thallium poisoning?" "Yes, and I confirmed this by several other means too. First of all I analyzed for thallium in his urine, and it was present in high quantities. Furthermore there was a widespread destruction of nerve cells in the brain. Liver and kidneys were damaged as is usually seen in thallium poisoning." "So from an apparent natural death, you have suddenly discovered murder in it. Who could possibly have poisoned him?" "Tarun, before you came, I had already given my findings to police and the police has done a detailed investigation subsequent to my report. You are right that someone was indeed trying to poison him. on detailed investigations, it was found that a colleague Karim was mixing Thallous acetate in his tea daily for some days. He had an old axe to grind with Ramlal. Faced with the scientific evidence, the police questioned Karim and he admitted his guilt. Thus a poisoner who could have gone scot free was caught with the help of forensic science." "Oh, how very clever of you doctor. This was a most interesting discussion. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very deadly poison - Capsaicin. "

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE FEBRUARY 1998 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY SMFA -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a young woman today. What happened to her? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this 22 year old female is Kabuli. She had got married to Radhey only a year back. Radhey works in a chemical factory involved in manufacturing various chemicals. Since the marriage day itself, there was a dispute among the couple regarding the insufficient dowry which Kabuli brought from her home. Radhey as well as his parents used to belittle her on every little matter. For about last one week, Radhey suddenly started a soft posture towards Kabuli, as if he had buried all differences with his wife. Last evening he became very sweet to her, and even made a cup of tea for her. She was a bit surprised, but thought that may be Radhey had changed his ways. She took tea, but soon after had vomiting, and seizures. After about 3-4 hours she died. A local doctor was called, who certified the cause of death as heart attack. But the relatives of Kabuli lodged a complaint with the police that Kabuli had actually been poisoned to death by Radhey. Subsequently the police went to Radhey's house and seized the remaining portion of the tea, as well as some other stuff from his almirah. The body of Kabuli was also seized and given to me for post-mortem. Now I have to conduct a post-mortem on the case and tell the police if Kabuli was really poisoned or not." "Just a minute doc. You said that a local doctor has already certified that the cause of death was heart disease. Then what more do you expect to find?" "Tarun, the relatives of Kabuli have already lodged a complaint with the police that she has been done to death by Radhey. Kabuli had got married only a year back. Under the Indian law, any death of a married female occurring within 7 years of marriage is termed as dowry death and is taken seriously. Had there been no complaint from Kabuli's relatives side, then everything would have been fine. But since a complaint has already been lodged, the police naturally want to be doubly sure that Kabuli really died of heart disease or not." "You mean that the local doctor gave a wrong cause of death? Do you?" "Well, the doctor had not seen Kabuli during life. The doctor could genuinely be mistaken. Sometimes, a doctor may give a cause of death just to avoid harassment to the relatives. If the doctor knows the family personally and is convinced that the death was natural, he would generally oblige the relatives by giving a cause of death, even if he had not seen the patient during life. He does so in order to save unnecessary harassment to the relatives at the hands of the police. Last but not the least, a doctor can actually be bought by unscrupulous relatives, to give a wrong and misleading cause of death." "Oh, I see. So you are doing the postmortem in order to find out how Kabuli died actually?" "Exactly. If my findings indicate that Radhey had indeed given poison to Kabuli, he could be prosecuted under section 304B of the Indian Penal Code, which is popularly known as Dowry Death. If the court finds Radhey guilty of murdering his wife, he would get no less than 7 years in jail. This is the punishment prescribed in section 304B of the Indian Penal Code." "Oh, I see. So what have you found out?" "Tarun, the most interesting thing is that while Kabuli was drinking tea, she did not complain of any bad odor or taste. This means that the poison, if indeed it was given to her, was tasteless and odorless. The tea also had its normal color, which means that the poison was colorless too. Such poisons, which are colorless, odorless and tasteless are generally very successful homicidal poisons, because the victim can not make out the poison while taking his food. I also took into account that Radhey was working in a chemical factory which was making rodenticides. Rodenticides are very strong poisons and can kill a person within a short time. It was quite possible for Radhey to steal a little quantity of rodenticide from his factory and give it to Kabuli for homicidal purposes. The only rodenticide, which is colorless, odorless and tasteless is a chemical compound known as Sodium Monofluoroacetate which is also known by its acronym SMFA. Its chemical formula is C2H2FNaO2 and it is also known as Compound 1080. Its other names are Sodium fluoroacetic Acid and Sodium fluoroacetate." "Compound 1080? That's rather a strange name. Why has it been given this mathematical name?" "That's an interesting question Taurn. But let me tell you about another compound which has been given a mathematical name too. It is arsphenamine, which is known as Compound 606. This has an interesting history too.." "Doctor, I am a sucker for interesting scientific histories. Please tell me the history of compound 606, and then of course we can go to the history of compound 1080" "Alright as you say. Well, you must surely be knowing about the German Scientist Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915). He is often known as the father of antibiotic therapy. In late 1800s and early 1900s - the era during which Ehrlich lived - one of the biggest problems faced by doctors was to create a drug which could kill bacterial cells but NOT human cells. If such a drug could be discovered, it could be given with impunity to humans in order to cure their infections, say syphilis (which as you surely must be knowing is caused by a bacterium known as Treponema pallidum). The drug would then selectively target bacterial cells killing them, while sparing the human cells. Such a drug could be called - as Ehrlich liked calling it during his entire life - a "magic bullet" ; a bullet magical enough to kill bacterial cells while leaving human cells alone. Since human and bacterial cells are so similar in nature biologically, it was difficult to find a chemical which could destroy one type of cell, leaving out the other. But of course there are differences too, and the answer lay in finding those differences and exploiting them. In the late 1800's, Elrich, was noting with interest that there existed some stains which could stain bacteria but not human cells and vice versa. A cell, as you know, gets stained only when it "takes up" that dye. If bacterial cells and human cells could take up different stains, surely there existed more chemicals which could be differentially absorbed by bacterial and human cells. And surely some could be toxic to them too. Ehrich started from this conjecture and started with one such dye. His aim was of course to find a chemical which could - instead of staining the bacterial cell - KILL it. There was absolutely no luck in the beginning and so he began to chemically alter it little by little, testing each new drug. When he reached 606th compound, he discovered, to his delight, that he had finally synthesized a chemical (it had changed so much by now, that it was no more a stain), which could kill bacteria, especially the bacteria causing syphilis. In the beginning he simply called it Compound 606, because it was the 606th compound synthesized by him. Of course later it became known as arsphenamine and was marketed as Salvarsan." "That's great. Doctor, you know so many stories. And now, what about the story of Compound 1080? So I take it when Ehrlich reached at 1080th compound, he gave it that name, and that compound was SMFA, right?" "No, not at all. In fact Ehrlich stopped at 606. To be sure, he did not live much after introducing that compound. Compound 606 was synthesized sometime in 1909 and the first tests on bacteria were announced in the spring of 1910. Ehrlich suffered a stroke in December 1914, and succumbed to a second stroke in August of the following year (1915). No, compound 1080 was not synthesized by him. There was a company, which was synthesizing chemicals for possible pesticide use, and SMFA was the 1080th compound tested by them. You might be interested to know that there is a compound known as Compound 1081 too. It is Fluoroacetamide. This also acts as a rodenticide and insecticide. This was of course the next compound made by the same company." "Fine. So you concluded that Radhey had given SMFA to Kabuli. Well I haven't heard much about SMFA. Please tell me something about it in detail." "Tarun, I must tell you that I have not concluded anything yet. I am simply trying to analyze the circumstances, and come to the most logical conclusion. That is what scientific thinking is all about. To tell you more about Sodium Monofluoroacetate, I must tell you that it is a highly toxic rodenticide. It contains fluorine, but its toxicity is not related to its fluoride content, but rather to its interference with the Kreb's cycle..." "What is Kreb's cycle doctor? This term is rather new to me." "Tarun before going any further, I must tell you that Kreb's cycle is named after a German-British Biochemist, Sir Hans Adolf Krebs who was born in Germany in 1900. He found out for the first time how lactic acid in the body gets broken down to release energy. Well, to begin from the beginning, glycogen in the liver is first converted to lactic acid, but this step gives only very little energy. Major energy comes from the further breakdown of lactic acid into simpler compounds such as carbon dioxide and water. The exact sequence of breakdown of lactic acid into simpler compounds was first worked out in great detail by Sir Hans Krebs, and hence these steps are known by the name Kreb's cycle. It is also known as tricarboxylic acid cycle. This however is a less fancied name. If any chemical interferes with Kreb's cycle, it would cause death because Kreb's Cycle is the main energy source of the body. Sodium Monofluoroacetate is one such chemical." "Oh, I see. Since how long do we know about this compound? Looks like it was developed fairly recently." "Tarun, SMFA was developed during World War II as an alternative to imported natural rodenticides. Because it is so highly toxic, its use is mostly limited to commercial exterminators. It is derived from some plants such as Palicourea (South America), Acacia (Australia), and a few other plants. As I told you earlier, SMFA is a white, odorless, tasteless, water-soluble salt. It looks like flour or baking soda. Unlike thallium about which we talked in one of our earlier meetings (see Science Reporter October 1997, pages 42-46), SMFA can not be absorbed through unbroken skin. However it is readily absorbed through the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, mucus membranes and broken skin. It is thus highly toxic when ingested, inhaled in dusts, or absorbed through open wounds." "Oh, I see. You said that Kabuli had vomiting after taking tea, and also that she had seizures. Are these the symptoms of SMFA poisoning?" "Well, almost. The toxic effects of SMFA are usually delayed for one to several hours and result from the conversion of the nontoxic fluoroacetate ions to toxic fluorocitric acid, which in turn blocks the Kreb's cycle. I have already told you that this cycle is essential to energy production. I must tell you that this cycle is important in mammalian cells only. Vomiting is commonly seen soon after ingestion. Toxic effects primarily involve the Central Nervous System and the heart. They include nausea and apprehension followed by disturbances of the heart beat, respiratory depression, seizures and coma. Apprehension, auditory hallucinations, and facial paresthesias often precede convulsions. By facial paresthesia, I mean that there are sensory disturbances in the facial area. There may be tingling sensations in the face, or there may be feeling of pins and needles." "How does death occur in SMFA poisoning doctor?" "Tarun, death results either from ventricular tachycardia which is a scientific term meaning that the ventricles of the heart start beating too rapidly. You might imagine that this is good for the body, but this is not so. When the ventricles of the heart beat rapidly, they just beat without really pumping any blood. So this in effect is actually a tremendous waste of effort on the heart's part. Death may also occur from the fibrillation of the heart, which is another condition, in which the heart starts beating very rapidly, without pumping adequate amount of blood. It may also occur from respiratory failure which may occur because of pulmonary edema. Pulmonary edema may sound a formidable term to you, but in effect it is nothing but filling up of lungs with water." "Oh, I see. How much SMFA would actually kill a person?" "Tarun, SMFA is a dangerous homicidal poison, not only because it is colorless, odorless and tasteless, but also because it kills in very small quantities. In humans, does of 0.5-2 mg/kg of the body weight are highly dangerous. This means that if a man weighing 60 kg ingests about 120 mg (60x2mg), he would be quite serious. Lethal dose is 5 mg/kg. Thus for the same man, the lethal dose should be around 300 mg, which as you can see is really small. Small doses make it that much easier for the poisoner to administer the poison, in his victim's food." "Oh, I see. Doctor is there any antidote for SMFA, which could have been given to Kabuli to save her life?" "Unfortunately there is no known antidote for SMFA, which makes it still more dangerous as a homicidal poison." "So did you find any tell-tale signs of SMFA poisoning in Kabuli's dead body?" "Tarun, SMFA, does not leave any tell-tale signs in the victim's dead body, which is yet another reason why SMFA is such a good homicidal poison. There are no specific post-mortem findings. However animals who die of SMFA poisoning develop stiffness of limbs rapidly and are found with their extremities in hyperextension. This in plain and simple terms means that the extremities are stretched fully at the joints. I have taken samples of tea taken by Kabuli from her stomach and have run chemical tests on it. And as expected I have found SMFA in it. Not only that, I have also examined chemically the tea remaining in Kabuli's cup, and have found SMFA in that cup too. In Radhey's almirah, the police found a small white packet in which some white salt was present. On chemical analysis, that salt has turned out to be SMFA as well. So there seems little doubt that Radhey had indeed given Kabuli the poison. He had probably stolen some of the rodenticide from his factory, and had mixed it in Kabuli's tea. That was also probably the reason, why he was going so soft towards her for the last one week or so. He wanted to gain, Kabuli's confidence, so she could accept anything from him, without doubting his intentions. Come on, let us tell the police, that Radhey indeed is the killer." "Oh, how very clever of you doctor. This was a most interesting discussion. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison- common salt. You may believe that common salt is not a poison, but interestingly it can be, and has been, used to kill humans!"