Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE MARCH 1999 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY DIESEL FUMES -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a old man today. What has happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this old man is Shyam. He was a big industrialist and was about 83 years old. His dead body was found today morning at about 9 am in his Ford saloon car. This car was parked in his garage. I may tell you that this car was fitted with a diesel engine." "So how do you think he has died?" "That is what I have to find out. But police has a suspect with them, and they think that he has killed Shyam. Well, let me begin from the beginning. Shyam had a business associate Sohan Lal. Both Sohan and Shyam had been working together for quite some time. However lately they had fallen out over some monetary matter. Sohan is a relatively young man - only about 48 years old. The police has interrogated many persons who knew both of them, and all of them have told the police that Sohan did not have good relations with Shyam. The things had deteriorated to such an extent that on one occasion, Sohan had even threatened Shyam with dire consequences." "Oh, I see. It does appear that Sohan has a hand in Shyam's killing." "Shyam Lal lives alone in his big mansion. His wife died about two years back and his only son is settled in Netherlands. He comes to India only occasionally. Rarely a guest comes to his house to spend a night with him. So for all practical purposes Shyam Lal lives alone in his house. Shyam Lal used to remain quite depressed after his wife's death, and it appears he had lost all will to live, especially as his only son had also left him. Two days before, i.e. on Saturday evening Sohan invited Shyam Lal for dinner. He came to Shyam Lal's house in his own car, parked it at his house and from there both of them drove to a 5-star hotel in Shyam Lal's car. It was somewhat surprising to Shyam, but he thought that probably Sohan wanted to settle matters with him, and so accepted his invitation. They had their dinner and returned quite late - at about 12 midnight. We know these details because the police has made thorough inquiries from the hotel staff. Shyam Lal was not seen on whole of Sunday, and on Monday morning, i.e. today his dead body has been found in the garage in his car. So the presumption is that Shyam Lal died just after his return from the hotel. I have made some preliminary examination of the dead body, and from the various changes seen in the body, I am also of the view that Shyam Lal died somewhere around 1 am on Sunday morning, i.e. just about one hour after return from the hotel." "So what do you conclude from all this?" "Well, the police has come up with an interesting story. According to them, Sohan mixed some poison in his food surreptitiously when they were having dinner together. He came with Shyam Lal back to his house. There he left him, collected his own car from his residence, and drove away. Shyam Lal was already feeling weak from the effect of the poison Sohan had given him. He wanted to get some rest. But just as we was parking his car in his garage, he fainted and dropped dead within his car. His body was only discovered today." "So what are they waiting for? They must immediately arrest Sohan." "They have already done that. But Sohan is swearing he didn't mix any poison in Shyam's food. He says that he did want to patch up things with Shyam, and for this purpose he had invited him for dinner. But from the talks it appeared to him that Shyam was reluctant to his proposal. They had talks for about 2 hours after which Sohan came back to Shyam's house, bade him good bye and went to his own house. He does not know what happened to Shyam Lal after that. However the police are reluctant to believe his version. They are holding him, and interrogating him more severely, so he could come out with the truth." "What do you think doctor?" "Tarun, a forensic pathologist goes only by the evidence that he has with him. I am a forensic pathologist and I won't form any theories merely from the details of circumstances. From the circumstances, it does appear that Sohan has a hand in the death, but I would make my deductions only from the hard scientific facts that I have seen for myself. I went to Shyam's house and made some preliminary observations. The first thing that struck me when I was examining the car was that, a hose pipe was connected to the interior of the car from the exhaust..." "Sorry to interrupt you doctor, but how is this observation important?" "Tarun. It is a common method of committing suicide. Carbon monoxide is known to emit from all car exhausts. Many persons - especially in the western countries- close themselves in a garage along with their car, run the engine of the car and simply wait there till the level of carbon monoxide rises enough to kill them. The attraction of this method among suicides is that it is a very painless death, and all persons wanting to commit suicide want a painless death. A hosepipe going to the interior of the car from the exhaust means an arrangement had been made to let the carbon monoxide come inside the car." "But doctor, these days most cars are fitted with catalytic converters. I believe such an advanced car as the Ford saloon, in which Shyam Lal's body was found must definitely be fitted with a catalytic converter." "You are right Tarun. Catalytic converters convert carbon monoxide to relatively non-toxic carbon dioxide. This has not only enabled the carbon monoxide levels in the atmosphere to go down, but also reduced the risk of suicides substantially. Now anyone who makes this arrangement for the purpose of committing suicide is likely to fail. The reason is that carbon dioxide is not as deadly as carbon monoxide. In fact, if you read medical literature, you will find many instances of failed suicides because of these catalytic converters." "Oh, I see." "Tarun, with the coming of new vehicles on the Indian roads, there is now an apparent progressive increase in diesel-driven motor vehicles in all forms of road transportation. Diesel is a commonly used vehicle now and it is believed to be safer than petrol as diesel fumes contain substantially less carbon monoxide. However their emissions are still potentially toxic. Diesel engines emit more than twice the amount of sulphur dioxide than that contained in petrol emissions. They also emit 14 times the amount of black smoke, i.e. particulate materials, than of petrol engines. Diesel emissions also contain marginally more nitrogen dioxide than petrol. Petrol, as I told you earlier, however creates more carbon monoxide - 28 times to be exact- than diesel." "Oh, I see. So if someone wants to commit suicide in the manner you just described, probably he is better off with a petrol engine than with diesel engine?" "You are right Tarun. The reason is obvious. Petrol engines create substantially more carbon monoxide. Of course only those petrol engines would do so, which are not fitted with catalytic converters. I must however tell you that both fuels cause acute toxicity if substantial quantities of their emissions are inhaled. However the mode of toxicity would be different. Whereas petrol engines cause death by carbon-monoxide poisoning, diesel fumes cause death by blocking the air passages with soot and other material in the emissions. The absorption of toxic materials in the latter case is increased owing to the blockage of tiny lung alveoli by the soot particles. These soot particles effectively plug the alveoli, thus "holding back" the toxic fumes within the alveoli. This greatly enhances the absorption of toxic substances. Thus although diesel fumes do not contain much carbon monoxide, they can still be very harmful." "Doctor, have you found any evidence that Shyam Lal died of diesel fumes?" "Tarun when I examined Shyam's heart, I found that the coronary arteries - the arteries that supply the muscles of the heart - were blocked to a great extent. However the amount of blocking was not sufficient to cause death, so I looked at other organs for more clues. The interesting finding was that the windpipe (trachea) and the bronchi were thickly covered with soot. The lungs were very much congested, which meant that they had been exposed to some irritating substance like diesel fumes. But what clinched the diagnosis in favour of death by diesel fumes was the fact that there were thick beads of black oily sticky material in the smaller bronchi. When I cut the lungs and pressed the cut ends, these thick beads of oily materials could be expressed. These beads were nothing but toxic material -including some diesel fuel- in the lungs. To see if the blood had any carbon monoxide in it, I did a toxicological analysis of the blood too, and found that there was less than 5% saturation with carbon monoxide. This indicates that there wasn't a substantial amount of carbon monoxide in the fumes that Shyam Lal inhaled. It is almost sure that Shyam Lal died of diesel fumes." "Oh, that is interesting. So would you reconstruct the events for me doctor?" "Sure. On Saturday evening, the talks between Shyam Lal and Sohan failed and this sent Shyam Lal again into a bout of depression, which he was already suffering from. He came back to his house and probably decided to take his own life. He had already lived a full life, his wife was no more there and his son was living far away from him. On that day, probably he lost all will to live. He was an educated man. He had read about deaths by carbon monoxide. I personally feel that he intended death by carbon monoxide. But it was a diesel engine, which does not emit carbon monoxide. He ultimately died of diesel fumes. Come let us tell the police that Sohan is innocent and they should release him." "Very clever indeed. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Without your masterly deduction, police could have unnecessarily went on harassing Sohan. People might have thought, it was a case of killing by Sohan. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about death by arsine gas. "

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE MAY 1998 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY BARIUM -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a man. What happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this 37 year old man is Kantilal, and he has died this morning in the hospital. He is married to 23 year old Asha, and they don't have any children. It is rumored that Asha had an affair with a 24 year old person Sohan. He works in a chemical factory. They perhaps wanted to marry too, but obviously Asha could not marry him without first divorcing Kantilal, and he would not agree for it." "Oh, I see. So Asha and Sohan gave some poison to Kantilal and finished him off. Right?" "Don't jump to conclusions Tarun. You may be right, but listen to the story first. Then you can perhaps make a more logical and scientific deduction. Yesterday night Asha gave her husband the dinner as usual. Just after having his dinner, Kantilal became severely ill. He complained of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea along with severe abdominal pain. He complained of dryness of mouth and tightness in the throat, generalized weakness and headache too. In addition, he felt numbness and tingling around his mouth. However the most alarming symptoms were a paralysis of his both lower legs. His wife thought that these symptoms were probably due to exhaustion and advised him to rest in bed, but he insisted on calling his doctor. Despite his wife's constant advice to the contrary, he called his doctor. The doctor immediately advised hospitalization. In the hospital, investigations were being carried out to diagnose his illness, but in the meantime he died. Since this is quite an unexpected death, and the hospital doctors had not been able to come to any conclusion regarding his illness, the police has handed over his body to me to find out the cause of death. They are suspecting that Asha gave him some poisonous substance last night in his dinner. If this hunch proves to be correct, Asha could land in jail for a long period." "So what do you think, Kantilal died of?" "Tarun, I have gone through the hospital records. I have found that he had muscular twichings too. The doctors have also recorded that he was not able to pass the urine normally and that once he vomited blood. There was a slowing of his heart beat and he was found to have high blood pressure. All these findings point only to one poison......" "What is it doctor? Please tell me. I am getting curious." "Well, the poison appears to be a salt of barium, perhaps barium chloride." "Barium? Never heard of it being used as a homicidal poison." "Yeah, you may be right. Not many cases of homicidal cases with barium are known, which is surprising, because barium can indeed be used quite successfully as a homicidal poison." "Okay, in this case how are you going to prove to the court that Kantilal did in fact die of barium poisoning?" "I am quite confident of proving that, but to understand how I can do that, you must perhaps know a little bit about barium. The history is replete with interesting stories of poisoning with barium." "Oh doctor, as I told you earlier, I like good juicy stories about poisons. Please tell me more about barium." "Tarun, Barium was discovered by the Swedish chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele in 1774. He can probably be called the unluckiest chemist in history, for although he discovered several elements such as chlorine, manganese, barium and several others, he does not receive undisputed credit for having discovered a single one. In some cases chemists independently made the same discovery a little sooner. In others Scheele did not quite carry matters far enough and other chemists took the last step and got the credit. Anyway, I told you that just as an interesting historical sideline." "Oh, yes. That is indeed very interesting. I read somewhere that barium preparations are used as a rat poison. Is it true?" "Tarun, over a century ago, barium preparations were used in the treatment of scrofula, which is a form of tuberculosis. It has also been used as a sudorific. A sudorific is an agent which promotes sweating. You might wonder why anybody would want to promote sweating in anyone. Well, sweating as you know brings the temperature of the body down, and at one time this was a favorite method of controlling fever. Furthermore, in ancient days people believed that many poisons can get excreted through the sweat, so to treat any poisoning, doctors recommended sudorifics. The idea was that they would induce so much sweating that all poison would come out along with it. Barium salts have also been used as a diuretic. It is an agent which promotes urinary excretion. Diuretics were also recommended in many poisonings. So you can see, barium salts were in rampant use in ancient times. But barium is quite toxic to the human body and this fact was soon recognized." "Oh, so barium salts are not used in modern medicine at all?" "That is not the case Tarun. There are several salts of barium almost all of which are poisonous except one- barium sulphate. And this salt finds good used in modern diagnostics. This is routinely used in radiography. Doctors use this when they want to take radiographs of the patient's stomach and intestines. The patient is given a glass of barium sulphate suspension to drink. This fills the stomach and intestines. Then the doctor takes the X-ray. By this method, stomach and intestines are very clearly seen in the X-ray. Almost all other salts of barium are poisonous. Barium salts which are poisonous are Barium carbonate, barium nitrate, barium chloride, barium hydroxide, barium sulfide, barium chlorate and barium acetate. Out of these barium carbonate and barium sulphide are often used as a rat poison as you mentioned earlier. In fact all these barium salts which I mentioned can cause serious poisoning in man. Barium carbonate and barium chloride are most often responsible for poisonings in man." "Doctor, how is it that certain salts of barium are so poisonous that they have been used as rat poisons and can even cause serious poisoning in man, while other salts of barium are routinely given to patients for diagnosis? It appears almost as a paradox to me." "Tarun, it all depends on the solubility of the salt. The chloride and nitrate are well soluble in water. The carbonate is much less soluble in water but is soluble in dilute acids. All other poisonous salts that I mentioned are also soluble either in water or in dilute acids. So once they are ingested by a human being, they get dissolved in the hydrochloric acid of the stomach and can get absorbed. Sulfate on the other hand is the least soluble compound in any medium. That is why it is non poisonous and is even routinely used in diagnostics. In fact, when a case of barium poisoning comes to the doctor, his first line of treatment is to give about 5-10 g of sodium sulphate or magnesium sulphate to the patient, so that the poisonous barium salt may get converted to insoluble and harmless barium sulphate." "Oh, I see. Are there other uses for barium salts in modern times too." "Oh, Barium salts are used in a number of industrial processes, but I will not go into the details of that. I would only limit myself to the use of barium salts in day-to-day life. This is important, because this is how a poisoner can get hold of the poisonous salt. Barium sulphide in a cream is sometimes used as a depilatory, i.e. to remove hair. And as I told you earlier, it has also been used as a rat poison. Barium carbonate is more commonly used as a rat poison however." "Doctor, since when is barium being used to poison people?" "Tarun, I must tell you that till now barium has not been used much by the poisoner to kill people, although it has several properties of an ideal homicidal poison (for ideal homicidal poisons, see "Arsenic- the King of Poisons", Science Reporter February 1997). Barium has been used for suicide, but this poisoning has mostly remained accidental till now. And very rarely barium has been taken by women to procure abortion. The first case of poisoning by any of the barium salts was reported in 1868, when a case of poisoning by barium nitrate was reported. Since then several interesting cases of barium poisoning have been reported. A case was described in 1921, where a bag of flour was stolen from a store at some docks. It was used to make noodles for the family. Five persons were poisoned and one of them died. Later the flour was found to contain 23% of barium carbonate! So quite ironically the thief received punishment without undergoing any trial. Another case occurred in 1948, in which severe but non-fatal poisoning resulted when a woman tasted some icing on a cake she had made. She had used a product called "Stafford starch" to set the icing. Analysis demonstrated that Stafford starch contained upto 55% barium carbonate. It was withdrawn from sale in 1956. Barium salts have been mistaken for other products and taken. In 1951, for instance, a patient was ordered barium sulphate prior to X-ray examination of his stomach, but owing to a mixing of the stock in the chemist's shop, barium carbonate was supplied. The patient became seriously ill after the X-ray examination and died in spite of prompt treatment. In yet another case, a workman in a chemical factory took home some crystals of barium chloride from the poison store and gave some to a neighbour, who used them in a foot bath in the belief that the substance was a "health salt". His wife, in like belief, handed some to a woman aged 27, who died after ingesting about 8-10 g." "Oh, they are very interesting cases indeed!" "Early in this century, it was the practice to add an artificial rind to gorgonzola cheese by applying a mixture of barium sulphate and talc....." "Sorry to interrupt you doctor, but what exactly is gorgonzola cheese?" "Tarun, Gorgonzola cheese is a strongly flavoured, hard pressed variety of white Italian cheese veined with mold. It is named after a small town in Lombardy, in Northern Italy, just a few miles east of Milan. It is a very popular kind of cheese even today. So it is interesting that despite applying barium sulphate on it, no one was poisoned." "Oh, but that is what is to be expected. You told me earlier that barium sulphate is the only form of barium which is non poisonous." "That's right Tarun. I am happy you are listening. But actually commercial forms of barium sulfate may be contaminated with other soluble barium salts, and indeed such forms of barium sulfate may prove to be poisonous. But in the case that I mentioned, certainly the manufacturers seem to have been using a very pure form of barium sulfate." "Oh, I see!" "Tarun there have been some other mass poisoning incidents in which barium salts were involved. In the Chinese province of Szechuan, in the district of Ipin, an endemic condition, Pa-Ping, has been described since 1930, the cause of which was eventually attributed to food poisoning from the very high proportion of barium chloride in the table-salt mined there. The poisoning was restricted to the workers in the salt mines and others who ate the salt from there. The poisoned people showed symptoms of nausea, vomiting, ocassional diarrhea, and muscular paralysis. Analysis of salt has shown it to be contaminated by barium chloride in concentrations of up to 25.69%. Fortunately fatalities were rare. Similarly a poisoning incident of the British Army occurred in 1945. In that year, British Army was stationed in Persia. They ate some pastry made of flour, and immeditely thereafter 85 of them became severely ill. It was later discovered that a sack in the flour store, containing 4 lb of barium carbonate, had been filled with flour and issued to the unit! It was found that an average portion of pastry contained about 15 g of barium carbonate! Fortunately in this case too, there were no fatalities. Yet another epidemic occurred in an Indian Unit of British Army stationed at Alexandria. In this outbreak however, one person died. In this case too, it was shown that that the flour had been contaminated by barium carbonate intended for use as a rat poison." "Oh, they are indeed very interesting incidents." "There are more of such incidents Tarun. One of the most well-known is the accidental poisoning of about 100 persons in Israel in 1963. On Aug 21, 1963, more than 100 persons, ranging in age from 15 to 56 years, fell ill in Israel, following the ingestion of sausage made from turkey. Nineteen of them- 12 males and 7 females- had to be even admitted to the Central Emek Hospital for treatment. The main symptoms in these patients were diarrhoea, vomiting, generalized weakness, paralysis ranging from weakness of one limb to complete quadriplegia, dryness of the mouth, tightness in the throat, dysarthria, headache and muscular twitchings. One of the most characteristic and constant symptoms was however paresthesia around the mouth. This was described as numbness and tingling, without impairment of touch, pain or temperature. In some patients the paresthesiae spread to the hands and feet. The history of intake of food from a common source, coupled with the fact that there were predominant neurological symptoms led the doctors to believe initially that they were facing an outbreak of botulism...." "Sorry to interrupt you doctor, but what exactly is botulism?" "Tarun, botulism is a form of food poisoning, which occurs due to poor preservation of food. A dangerous bacterium Clostridium botulinum infects such food, and produces a very dangerous nerve poison, botulin. In fact, it is the most powerful and dangerous toxin known, with the lethal dose as small as half of a microgram! Initially it was thought that this bacterium infects only meat. In fact the word botulism comes from the Latin Botulus meaning, "a sausage" signifying this earlier belief. But now it is known that it can infect any type of food- even vegetables. The symptoms of botulism may resemble that of barium poisoning. In fact, so similar may be the symptoms that according to most doctors, barium poisoning should always be considered as a possible diagnosis in all cases of food poisoning accompanied by neurological complications. However there are some differentiating features. For instance, in botulism, the patient usually displays eye signs such as double vision (technically known as diplopia), drooping of eye lids (technically known as ptosis) and abnormalities of the pupil. In the Israel poisoning, eye signs were not present in any of the victims, and this led the doctors to think towards barium poisoning. The doctors looked for potassium depletion in the blood. This is a very typical finding seen in barium poisoning. They did find very low potassium levels in the blood (this condition is technically known as hypokalemia), which seemed to confirm that the patiens indeed were suffering from barium poisoning. On investigation, it was found that the turkey-sausage, made by a local factory was contaminated heavily with barium carbonate..." "Interesting! But how in the first place did it get contaminated?" "In the manufacture of that particular type of sausage, potato meal was mixed with meat. On that particular day, by accident a sack of barium carbonate had been sent to the factory in place of potato meal and this is how the meat got contaminated! Earlier I was telling you that most barium salts, except barium sulphate, prove poisonous because they are soluble either in water or in dilute acids. This Israel poisoning case proves this point very nicely. In this case children were not affected, although many had eaten the affected food. Do you know why? The reason was that children's stomachs have very low acidity, and in this low acidity, barium carbonate could not get dissolved, and was thus not absorbed. More interesting is the case of three persons, who had had previous gastrectomies....." "What is a gastrectomy doctor?" "It is an operation in which the stomach is surgically removed for some reason. Most commonly, it is removed because of cancer of stomach. These three people who had had gatrectomies also ate the contaminated food, but were not affected! This was also due to the fact that the barium could not get absorbed in these patients. Intestines have an alkaline medium in which barium carbonate is insoluble!" "Very interesting indeed. Doctor, just now you told me that in barium poisoning, potassium levels of the blood are decreased. Why does it occur?" "Tarun, Barium is physiologically antagonistic to potassium. It is seen that somehow, barium is responsible for pumping the potassium from the blood stream in to the cells. That is why hypokalemia of barium poisoning is accompanied by increased intracellular potassium levels. In addition, some potassium is also lost through vomiting and diarrhea which occurs in barium poisoning." "This means that administration of potassium should be a good treatment of barium poisoning?" "Oh, indeed it is. I am happy you are thinking. Indeed, intravenous administration of potassium is a very effective treatment of barium poisoning. In fact, in the British Army case, I just mentioned, the soldiers were given solutions of potassium permanganate to drink! And this worked dramatically and that's why there were no fatalities. Similarly in the Pa-Ping outbreak, the workers were given a 5% solution of potassium citrate, again with very good effect. Both these salts provided much needed potassium to the patients." "Doctor, how much of a barium salt can kill a human being?" "Tarun the fatal dose of barium salts generally varies between 1 and 15 g. The fatal dose of barium carbonate- one of most commonly implicated salts- is about 0.8 g. Coupled with the fact, that this salt is white, odourless and tasteless, this really makes a very good homicidal poison. To prevent it being used as a homicidal poison, and mainly to prevent an accidental intake of barium, an attempt has been made to add coloring matter to barium carbonate. But this has proved futile because the rats refuse to eat the colored food!" "Oh! And how quickly does a person die when given a lethal dose of barium?" "Death usually occurs within an hour." "Doctor, in the case of Kantilal, how are you going to prove, that he indeed died of barium poisoning, and not food poisoning?" "Tarun, I have done post-mortem in this case, and have found some findings which are seen in barium poisoning. For instance there is evidence of inflammation of stomach and duodenum, accompanied by numerous bleeding points in the wall of the stomach. I have found hemorrhages in the left ventricle. These are called subendocardial hemorrhages. I have also found severe pulmonary edema, which is a condition in which lungs become water-logged. However these are not very specific findings and I could not prove barium poisoning from these findings alone. The finding that clinches my point is that barium barium has been found to be present in the kidneys and spleen of Kantilal's dead body. Come, let us tell the police that Kantilal has indeed died of barium poisoning. Now they can question Asha and Sohan more rigorously and perhaps they will now come out with the truth." "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- Selenium "

< Back To Main Page. LinkedIn WhatsApp X (Twitter) Facebook Copy link Anil Aggrawal's Book Review Journal Volume-15 Number-1 (July -December) Book Review (Technical Section) Basic Sciences as applied to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology by Anil Aggrawal Publisher: Arya Publishing Company, India (1st edtion) Pages: XVIII + 301 Publication Date: 2025 ISBN: 9789360590864 Language: English Read >

Frequently asked questions General What is an electronic journal? An electronic journal is a scholarly publication made available exclusively in digital format, accessible via the Internet. Unlike traditional print journals, it leverages the flexibility and speed of the web, allowing for immediate global dissemination, interactive content, and multimedia integration. Why is your journal titled Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology? Wouldn’t a simpler title, such as Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, be more appropriate? The journal bears my name to clearly identify the editorial leadership and maintain accountability for content quality. This practice ensures transparency and reflects the personal commitment behind the journal’s establishment and ongoing standards. It is a deliberate choice to build trust and credibility in an era of proliferating online publications. But isn't it somewhat unusual for a journal to be named after its editor? Indeed, it is unconventional. However, the name reflects the pioneering nature of this project—an initiative deeply driven by a single individual’s expertise and passion for forensic sciences. It symbolizes responsibility and personal stewardship over the journal’s integrity and quality. What is the frequency of publication of this journal? The journal publishes biannually, issuing two comprehensive editions per year, each presenting the latest advances and research in forensic medicine and toxicology. How many electronic journals currently exist on the internet? There are numerous electronic journals available online—approximately a dozen that I have personally accessed and linked on our homepage. However, Anil Aggrawal’s Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology remains a pioneering publication as India’s first true electronic journal across all disciplines and the world’s inaugural electronic journal dedicated to forensic medicine . This landmark journal was launched on February 25, 2000. Are the papers published in this journal peer-reviewed? Who are the editors? Yes. All submissions undergo a rigorous peer-review process before publication. The journal is guided by an International Board of Editors , comprising at least two subject-matter experts from each continent. For a full list of editors and their affiliations, please refer to the International Board of Editors page on our website. Can I cite articles from this journal in my book or academic papers? If so, how? Absolutely. Citing electronic journal articles is now standard academic practice. You are encouraged to reference our papers in your scholarly work. Detailed citation guidelines are available on the Instructions for Authors page. Do electronic journals simply act as repositories for papers rejected by traditional print journals? Not at all. The academic landscape has evolved significantly. Electronic journals are now widely respected, and many researchers specifically choose to submit to them. All papers published in this journal have been written and submitted exclusively for consideration here. Moreover, our journal has a distinct editorial scope and mission that sets it apart from conventional print journals. As outlined on our Home page, we embrace the unique capabilities of digital publishing—such as multimedia integration and broader accessibility—making it a purposeful and independent platform, not a fallback option.

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Main Page > Vol-27 No.- 1 > Paper 1(you are here) [Epub ahead] Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Volume 27, Number 1, January - June 2026 Received: Accepted: Ref: Tsranchev I , Timonov P , Yancheva S , Hadzhieva K , Gudelova T , Sotirova M , Fasova A , Dzhambazova E , Uchikov P. Posttraumatic Ischemic Brain Stroke After Sharp Neck Injury: A Case Report Based on Autopsy . Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology [serial online], ---- ; Vol. 27, No. 1 (January - June 2026): [about 6 p]. Available from: https://www.anilaggrawal.com/forensic-medicine-and-toxicology/vol-027-no-001/27-01-paper001 . Published : -----, (Accessed: ---) Email- Ivan Tsranchev Pavel Timonov Stela Yancheva Kristina Hadzhieva Teodora Gudelova Mirena Sotirova Antoaneta Fasova Elizabet Dzhambazova Petar Uchikov Posttraumatic Ischemic Brain Stroke After Sharp Neck Injury: A Case Report Based on Autopsy Abstract Neck injuries usually are emergency medical conditions which require special medical attention. Several complications following neck trauma could be fatal, if they are not correctly treated and diagnosed. Present case is of a 56-year- old male patient sustained sharp neck trauma, who was immediately admitted for hospital treatment, with following surgical reconstruction of the left carotid artery. Two days after the surgical intervention, the patient showed clinical signs of coma and sudden respiratory and cardiac failure, resulting in a lethal outcome. Autopsy and microscopic findings revealed a life-threatening post-traumatic complication following such type of trauma. In each case of sharp or blunt neck trauma, the diagnosis “post-traumatic ischaemic brain stroke” must be ruled out as a possible serious complication by a detailed examination, including laboratory, ultrasonography, contrast angiography and various specific imaging methods. All these medical actions as standard medical algorithm can save the patient’s life. Keywords: neck injury, posttraumatic brain stroke, sharp force trauma, fatal outcome, medico-legal case Introduction In routine forensic practice, various types of trauma can contribute to neck injuries, potentially leading to severe consequences or even a fatal outcome for the patient. Death could be directly attributed to the source of the injury or as a result of a complication following such a neck injury [1]. One possible cause of death can be a post-traumatic ischaemic brain stroke after blunt or sharp neck trauma involving blood vessels in the neck, which supply the brain with blood, which in turn can be a reason for blood clots and/or emboli, causing critical cerebrovascular blood flow blockage and death of brain tissue. In these emergency cases, if such an injury to the arteries can be diagnosed at the time after the trauma, a patient could be treated with different types of anti-clotting medications to prevent thrombosis and potential stroke formation, thus saving the patient's life. Case Presenntation A 56-year-old male patient after excessive alcohol consumption fell to the floor in a bar and injured his neck on pieces of a broken glass. Immediately after, he was transported by emergency medics to the University Hospital "St George", Plovdiv, Bulgaria. After a detailed emergency room assessment, he was transferred to the Department of Vascular Surgery with the diagnosis of an "incised wound in the neck region with severance of the left carotid artery." An emergency reconstruction of the vessel wall was performed. Two days after the surgical intervention, the patient presented with clinical signs of coma and sudden respiratory and cardiac failure, resulting in a lethal outcome. After death, the body was transferred to the Department of Forensic Medicine for routine forensic examination. During the examination of the cadaver in the autopsy room, it was observed that on the frontal surface of the neck, in its upper third, just below the tip of the chin and slightly to the left, a slit-shaped incised wound was found, which had been surgically treated and stitched with 4 sutures. The length of the wound was 5cm. The edges of the wound were relatively clean and smooth; the edges were sharp. On the left half of the frontal surface of the neck, in the upper, middle and lower thirds, a large zigzag wound was found, stitched with 15 sutures. The length of the wound was 17 cm. The edges of the wound were also relatively smooth and clean, slightly congested, with scattered necrotic areas (Fig. 1). The wound was additionally assessed by performing several deep surgical cuts. A slit-shaped wound, 1 cm long and treated with one stitch, was found 2 cm to the left of the zigzag wound in the middle third of the neck. Fig.1 showing the neck region represented with a zigzag wound Fig.2 showing the left common carotid artery and inserted prosthesis inside with a greyish-reddish dense thrombus The skin in the neck area was carefully dissected, and the zigzag wound was examined in depth. The muscles in the left half of the neck were diffusely blood-soaked with a dark reddish colour. The middle third of the sternocleidomastoid muscle had impaired integrity and had undergone surgical suturing. The muscle was dissected, and the left carotid artery was reached. It was found that a 2.5 cm long section from the common carotid artery to the carotid sinus was replaced by an artificial Dacron-type prosthesis. The left common carotid artery was opened during the autopsy, and at the upper end of the inserted prosthesis, a greyish-reddish dense thrombus was found inside, adhered to the prosthesis-vessel transition (Fig. 2). The thrombus occluded the lumen of the carotid artery by about 90%. Along the course of the external carotid artery at its beginning, two transverse tears in its intima with lengths of 0.2 and 0.4 cm were found. There was a tear in the wall of the left jugular vein at the level of the described carotid artery prosthesis. The tear is sutured. Its length was 0.5 cm. During the internal examination of the cadaver, all soft tissues forming the scalp were intact, with a moist surface and a pale pink colour. The bones of the cranium were intact. The dura mater was pearly in colour and had a smooth surface. The cerebral gyri were smoothed, and the sulci were narrowed. In the left parieto-temporal region, there was a section of the cerebral cortex, sunken below the level of the surrounding brain tissue, with a pale greyish-yellowish colour, sized 4cm by 3.5 cm. We fixed the brain in a 10% formaldehyde solution for 48 hours before conducting a detailed examination. The cerebral vessels at the base of the brain were well developed without malformations. A detailed examination revealed a hard, greyish-reddish thrombus occulting the left middle cerebral artery. Consecutive sections of the brain were made. In the left parieto-temporal region of the brain, a large area of softening with a livid-greyish colour was found, with peripheral reddish haemorrhages (infarction) around it. The border between the grey and white brain matter was obliterated (Fig. 3). This area measured approximately 8 cm x 7 cm as dimensions on the surface of the left cerebral hemisphere with depth measured 7 cm in the left cerebral hemisphere. The left middle cerebral ventricle narrowed, and the left cingulate gyrus (gyrus cinguli) was shifted to the right. In the hypothalamus in the left cerebral hemisphere, a dark reddish round haemorrhage measuring 0.5 cm x 0.5 cm was also found. A similar haemorrhage was found in the basal nuclei of the left hemisphere, measuring 1 cm x 0.5 cm. Along the course of the brainstem (pons and medulla oblongata), numerous dark reddish haemorrhages measuring from punctate to 0.5 cm in diameter were found. In cross-section, the cerebellum was clear and normally developed. Fig.3 showing the infarction of brain matter over the left cerebral hemisphere Samples from brain matter were taken, and further microscopic examination was performed with H-E staining under Primo Star Zeiss microscopes with enlargements of 10x, 40x, and 100x. The detailed microscopic examination showed haemorrhages, oedema and multiple massive punctate haemorrhages in the left frontal cortex with multiple massive punctate haemorrhages in the left parietal cortex (Fig. 4), in combination with hyperaemia of blood vessels in the arachnoid layer. Additional microscopic findings were stated during this examination as follows: corpus callosum – mild oedema, hypothalamus – massive punctate haemorrhages and mild oedema, pons – areas with haemorrhages and severe oedema, medulla oblongata – severe oedema, cerebellum – oedema, cortex – mild oedema 2. Carotid artery vessel wall – part of a vessel with mixed thrombus (fig. 5). Other samples from internal organs showed no significant pathologic changes. Fig. 4 showing multiple haemorrhages and oedema in the left frontal and left parietal cortex. H-E staining. Fig.5 showing the carotid artery vessel wall – part of a vessel with mixed thrombus. H-E staining Discussion Ischaemic strokes resulting from carotid artery thrombosis following open and closed head and neck trauma have been recognised with increasing frequency recently, and these cases involve not only adults but even children [2-6]. They can lead to life-threatening consequences or even a fatal outcome if they are not diagnosed correctly [7-10]. Ischaemic strokes resulting from carotid artery thrombosis are observed in both blunt and sharp injuries, such as in the case report described above. Carotid artery thrombosis is a rare but potentially devastating complication that can follow even reconstructive surgery of any major traumatised blood vessel of the neck region [11, 12]. The non-traumatic genesis of carotid artery thrombosis, which can lead to ischemic stroke, should also be considered in such cases. The most common cause of non-traumatic carotid artery thrombosis is atherosclerosis [13]. In the presence of an unstable atherosclerotic plaque or an ulcerated atherosclerotic plaque, the endothelium of the arteries is compromised. In these cases, coagulation factors are activated, which predisposes to the formation of thrombi. In our case report during the autopsy, no atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries was detected. Other factors, of a non-traumatic nature, also predispose to the formation of thrombi in the body, such as obesity, pregnancy, smoking, arterial hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Our case lacks previous patient history on whether the patient had any of the above-listed diseases based on medical documentation, and no pathological changes or malformations of the vessels in the brain were identified during the autopsy and on microscopy. Other causes of ischemic stroke are emboli. Most often, emboli form in the heart in the area of a post-infarction aneurysm, in the left auricle of the heart in patients with ventricular fibrillation, and in patients with bacterial endocarditis. No such conditions were found in our case report. Taking certain medications, such as oral contraceptives, can cause blood clots to form in women. Different mechanisms can cause traumatic internal carotid artery thrombosis, including direct traumatic force delivered to the neck, the head, or the oral cavity, resulting in trauma to the soft tissues or even to the cranial bones, other possible mechanisms are whiplash trauma, seatbelt trauma or even procedures in the neck region [14]. Studies have shown that factors significantly increasing the risk of developing carotid thrombosis due to carotid artery injuries include non-penetrating head injury, basilar fractures of the skull, facial fracture, cervical spinal fractures and thoracic injuries [15], with the non-penetrating head injury being the most common single associated injury. In the literature is suggested that combined injuries to the upper part of the body /head and neck injuries especially skull and spinal fractures and combined injuries to the head and chest/ increase the risk of damage to the carotid arteries. In our case the patient did not sustain any other trauma, except to the neck. In this case, we concluded that the cause of death is an ischaemic brain stroke caused by vascular injury resulting from sharp force trauma to the neck. He sustained a reconstructive operation on the traumatised section of the common carotid artery, which was replaced with an artificial Dacron-type prosthesis, despite additional anticoagulation therapy. During the autopsy, a thrombus was found adhered to the prosthesis-vessel transition. The macroscopical and histological examinations determined ischaemic brain stroke.These results imply that the carotid artery damage location is where the thrombus originated. It is therefore very likely that the thrombus formed as a result of an intimal tear in the carotid artery caused by the sharp force trauma. The patient died three days later, with clinical signs of coma and sudden respiratory and cardiac failure. In summary, for patients admitted for treatment as a result of neck trauma caused by a sharp object, it is important to monitor them, especially in the first few days, for the appearance of neurological symptoms [16]. It is known that in the early stages of development of an ischaemic stroke of the brain, changes may not be visualised with standard imaging techniques like a CT scan. Therefore, numerous tests have been developed that can provide an early evaluation of a neurological condition, such as the MMSE (mini mental state examination) or Folstein test, the Hodkin-son abbreviated mental test score. Highly sensitive imaging methods have also been developed, such as diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI or DW-MRI), which is highly sensitive to the changes occurring in the lesion and revealing subclinical neurological changes. These imaging-specific methods could be used in combination with specific biochemical markers, proving the diagnosis [17]. CT angiography is also a highly sensitive and informative imaging method which could be in helpful use for the correct diagnosis. Conclusion Different diagnostic methods, clinical assessing tests and biochemical markers could be used in cases of sharp force neck trauma to diagnose this type of life-threatening post-traumatic complication in trauma patients. In each case of sharp or blunt neck trauma, the diagnosis “post-traumatic ischaemic brain stroke” must be ruled out as a possible serious complication. A detailed examination, including laboratory, ultrasonography, contrast angiography and various specific imaging methods with the rich patient’s history, periodic neurologic consultation and physical examination, must be performed as a standard algorithm for medical action in such types of clinical cases. That could prevent fatal complications and can save a patient’s life. References 1. Tawil I, Stein DM, Mirvis SE, Scalea TM. Posttraumatic cerebral infarction: incidence, outcome, and risk factors. J Trauma. 2008 Apr;64(4):849-53. doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e318160c08a. PMID: 18404047 2. 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PMID: 14402209; PMCID: PMC497379 7. Schneider RC, Lemmen LJ. Traumatic internal carotid artery thrombosis secondary to nonpenetrating injuries to the neck; a problem in the differential diagnosis of craniocerebral trauma. J Neurosurg. 1952 Sep; 9(5): 495-507. doi: 10.3171/jns.1952.9.5.0495. PMID: 12981571. 8. Moulakakis KG, Mylonas SN, Lazaris A, Tsivgoulis G, Kakisis J, Sfyroeras GS, Antonopoulos CN, Brountzos EN, Vasdekis SN. Acute Carotid Stent Thrombosis: A Comprehensive Review. Vasc Endovascular Surg. 2016 Oct;50(7):511-521. doi: 10.1177/1538574416665986. Epub 2016 Sep 19. PMID: 27645027 9. Julia C. Schmidt, Dih-Dih Huang, Andrew M. Fleming, Valerie Brockman, Elizabeth A. Hennessy, Louis J. Magnotti, Thomas Schroeppel, Kim McFann, Landon D. Hamilton, Julie A. Dunn, Missed blunt cerebrovascular injuries using current screening criteria — The time for liberalised screening is now. Injury, Volume 54, Issue 5, 2023, Pages 1342-1348, ISSN 0020-1383, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2023.02.019 10. Macdonald S. Brain injury secondary to carotid intervention. J Endovasc Ther. 2007 Apr;14(2):219-31. doi: 10.1177/152660280701400215. PMID: 17488181. 11. Setacci C, de Donato G, Setacci F, Chisci E, Cappelli A, Pieraccini M, Castriota F, Cremonesi A. Surgical management of acute carotid thrombosis after carotid stenting: a report of three cases. J Vasc Surg. 2005 Nov; 42(5):993-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2005.06.031. PMID: 16275459. 12. Iancu A, Grosz C, Lazar A. Acute carotid stent thrombosis: review of the literature and long-term follow-up. Cardiovasc Revasc Med. 2010 Apr-Jun; 11(2):110-3. doi: 10.1016/j.carrev.2009.02.008. PMID: 20347802.] 13. Torvik A, Svindland A, Lindboe CF. Pathogenesis of carotid thrombosis. Stroke. 1989 Nov; 20(11): 1477-83. doi: 10.1161/01.str.20.11.1477. PMID: 2815181. 14. Karnecki K, Jankowski Z, Kaliszan M. Direct penetrating and indirect neck trauma as a cause of internal carotid artery thrombosis and secondary ischaemic stroke. J Thromb Thrombolysis. 2014 Oct; 38(3): 409-15. doi: 10.1007/s11239-014-1077-2. PMID: 24748050; PMCID: PMC4143597. 15. Hayakawa A, Sano R, Takahashi Y, Fukuda H, Okawa T, Kubo R, Takei H, Komatsu T, Tokue H, Sawada Y, Oshima K, Horioka K, Kominato Y. Post-traumatic cerebral infarction caused by thrombus in the middle cerebral artery. J Forensic Leg Med. 2023 Jan; 93:102474. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2022.102474. Epub 2022 Dec 24. PMID: 36577210 16. Fisher M, Paganini-Hill A, Martin A, Cosgrove M, Toole JF, Barnett HJ, Norris J. Carotid plaque pathology: thrombosis, ulceration, and stroke pathogenesis. Stroke. 2005 Feb;36(2):253-7. doi: 10.1161/01.STR.0000152336.71224.21. Epub 2005 Jan 13. Erratum in: Stroke. 2005 Oct; 36(10): 2330. 17. Capoccia L, Speziale F, Gazzetti M, Mariani P, Rizzo A, Mansour W, Sbarigia E, Fiorani P. Comparative study on carotid revascularisation (endarterectomy vs stenting) using markers of cellular brain injury, neuropsychometric tests, and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. J Vasc Surg. 2010 Mar; 51(3):584-91, 591.e1-3; discussion 592. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2009.10.079. Epub 2010 Jan 4. PMID: 20045614 *Corresponding author and requests for clarifications and further details:

Explore the intersection of coding and forensic science. Dr. Anil Aggrawal’s Forensic Programming page features tools, scripts, and insights that help automate forensic workflows and empower tech-savvy investigators. Tarun and Anil Aggrawal's Forensic Programming Page Hi, I am Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India. I am a lover of information and knowledge. "Knowledge is power", said Thomas Hobbes. It appears if he hadn't said it, I would have. Forensic Medicine is just one of the several subjects I love. Of course it occupies my main attention because it is my profession. I have always felt forensic professionals are very creative people. They have always wanted to do new things. Over the years they have been asking me over and over again, how they can make their own forensic pages. I made my first page, sometime in 1996, and have mostly been self-taught, through books, other web pages, discussions with friends and the like. But never in my life have I taken regular classes from a professional programmer. Lately a brilliant teacher has come in my life - my son Tarun. My Family You may want to skip this sub-heading. I wrote it mainly to please myself! But if you are curious about what these pictures are doing in a page on forensic programming, you may want to read on. I did not find these pictures abnormal at all, till Tarun asked me this question. I felt then, that this question needed to be addressed. A bit about my family first, without whose active support, these pages would not have been possible at all. The top row shows me and my wife Marygold just after marriage - sometime around 25 March 1983 (I got married on 16 March 1983). This picture was taken during our honeymoon in Mussourie and Dehradoon. The second picture was taken almost 19 years later - on 25 December 2001, when we visited our brother-in-law Sanjay Gupta in California. Among other things, it shows the inexorable stamp of time. The bottom row shows my son Tarun. He was born on 20 December 1984. The first picture was taken sometime in 1988, during our visit to Kausani, a lovely hill station in North India (it is now known mainly because the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi visited it once and praised this place). The second during 1996 during my visit to USA as a WHO fellow. He is trying threading his hand through the vertebra of a whale in a Washington D.C. Aquarium. Over the years he has grown into an intelligent and loving child. He is the one who is responsible for whatever I know about programming. But why the pictures? These show the two people I love most in my life (besides my mother, my two brothers and their families of course!). And it was mainly because of these two people that I could do whatever little I have been able to. If I could explore new vistas of knowledge, it was because my wife looked after me with great loving care. While she was looking after all my personal worries, I was busy learning new things. My child taught me programming like a great teacher. Hence their pictures. I would have known no programming at all without these two people in my life. Why these pages on Programming? Over the years forensic professionals from all over the world have asked me questions about the basics of computers and internet. They have asked how they could make their own web pages; how could they write their own programs to store and manipulate data (such as post-mortem data, clinical forensic medicine data and so on), and I have been answering them through Emails. Finally I decided I shall make a website which will say something about computers, internet and above all programming. No familiarity with programming is assumed from readers. They don't even have to know much about computers. The only thing they must have is a computer and the releveant program (say C++ compiler for C++, or Netscape or Internet Explorer for HTML). And they must know how to type! Programs can often be long, and it helps if you can type fast. No need to worry though if you don't know typing. Just copy and paste the programs in your compiler. Of course if you type out the program yourself, you learn faster. In this site, I hope to include simple lessons in HTML, DHTML, C++, Javascript, Perl, CGI, and whatever little I know of other programming languages. Are these pages relevant to Non-Forensic people too? Yes! Although these pages are meant specially for forensic professionals (I will be addressing their problems mainly), even non-forensic people can enjoy these pages. This is because the basic programming principles remain the same. I shall begin with C++, and then go on to other languages. You can go through lessons in order, test the various exercises in your computer and if there are any queries, you can always write Email to ask me. Books on Computers/Internet/Programming Although this site would initiate you into the world of computers, internet and programming, you can't learn everything there is to learn through these pages only. Very soon, you will begin to feel the need of proper books on these subjects. One of our main aims is to provide readers of these pages with information on latest books on computers, programming and internet in the form of book reviews. Readers may read the reviews of latest books and decide, which ones they would like to buy. A Lucrative Career in Forensic Programming Is there a career in Forensic Programming? Certainly. This specialty has skipped the attention of most professionals till now. But now more and more forensic and computer professionals are becoming aware of this specialty. To know more about careers in forensic programming and in other forensic fields, you may want to go to the forensic careers page. You may also want to go through the various books we keep suggesting on this site from time to time. It would help you get an insight into the world of computers, internet and programming, and you might be able to apply this knowledge to forensic fields effectively. From time to time, we also suggest other teaching aids such as multimedia, CDs, DVDs, Video and audio tapes. Look out for various announcements on these pages for these products. Enter Frequently asked questions What is Forensic Programming? Forensic Programming is the use of computer programming for the aid of police, judiciary and other law enforcement agencies. But how is this possible? That is indeed what we intend to discuss in these pages. It can not be explained in a sentence, but let me give you an illustrative example. Let us imagine that in a particular Forensic Medicine department, 1000 autopsies are conducted in a year. These would comprise a whole spectrum ranging from natural deaths to murders. If someone asked a pathologist of that department, how many, say, drowning cases had come to them in that particular year, he may not be able to tell you off hand, despite having been involved in ALL those cases. Finer statistics such as how many of them were homicidal in nature and so on, may be impossible to tell. But imagine what would happen if all this data had been cleverly programmed. At the touch of a button, one could tell not only the number of drowning deaths that year, but statistics such as homicidal, suicidal and accidental drownings, sex and age distribution, region of drowning, salt and fresh water drowning, time of the day when drowning occurred and so on. But how is it going to help law enforcement agencies? Suppose out of 1000 cases done by this hypothetical department, they dealt with, say, 91 cases of homicide. A good programming of this data would tell us, how many of these homicides were by gunshot, how many by sharp weapons and so on. This would also tell us the time of day/night when most homicides took place, the likely victims, the likely areas where homicides tend to occur and so on. Imagine how a police department can gear itself up, if it had all this data. They could, for instance, increase the patrolling in a particular area at a particular time, where most homicides occurred. Isn't it the same thing as Forensic computing or Computer Forensics? All of us are already aware of it. Forensic computing or Computer Forensics would involve using one's knowledge of computers - may be even programming - to track down criminals. A typical instance of this is a person who sent an Email to his cyberfriend asking her to meet at a particular place, and killed her after, say, sodomising her. An expert in forensic computing can examine the computer of the victim and from a thorough examination of the hard disk and data therein could perhaps track the man who was sending her Emails. Forensic programming is an entirely different thing. A forensic programmer DOES NOT track down a criminal at all. His sole purpose is to organize his data in a fashion so that it could be manipulated in a number of ways to give him useful information. Information, which could profitably be used by law enforcement agencies. Alright. Any more uses of forensic programming? We can think up a number of them. Let us talk about poisonings, or toxicological deaths. A good programming of our data can tell us how many poisoning cases are we dealing with, what are the most common poisons encountered, how many of them were homicidal, suicidal or accidental in nature. If, for example, we found that an alarmingly high number of deaths were occurring due to, say, accidental ingestion of corrosives, we might want to investigate why this is happening so. Or are these deaths indeed accidental in nature in the first place, or is there something more to it. Since when is forensic programming practiced? Who started it first? I am not sure. When I learnt programming, it occurred to me, we could use it in a clever way for our purposes. Which computer languages are most often used in forensic programming? Virtually any. But most often we would be using C++, Visual Basic, Java and so on. Does forensic programming make a good career option? Sure. It is the specialty of the future according to me. For more information, you may want to visit our forensic careers page.

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE APRIL 1999 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY ARSINE GAS -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a middle aged man today. What has happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this middle aged man is Radhey. He used to work in a factory, where they used to make soldering flux. He was working in his factory five days ago, when at about 2 pm, suddenly he started having nausea, headache, vomiting and diarrhea. He had taken lunch only a few minutes before so naturally everybody started thinking that he had had food poisoning. His illness soon became worse. He started complaining of intense headache and pain in the loins. He passed urine after sometime, and everybody was alarmed to see that it was very dark. He was taken to the hospital, where the doctors were unable to diagnose his illness. However the history of having taken his meals only a few minutes before, and the non-specific symptoms prompted some doctor to write "undiagnosed poisoning" on the hospital case sheet." "So it was a case of poisoning? Was somebody else was poisoned too?" "No, nobody else was poisoned - of course presuming that Radhey died of poisoning. Only Radhey showed these peculiar symptoms. The tentative diagnosis of "undiagnosed poisoning" flared up everybody's tempers, especially those of Radhey's relatives. They thought that somebody had surreptitiously mixed poison in his food. And all suspicion fell on another man Suleiman." "Why on Suleiman doctor?" "Because and Radhey apparently did not have good relations. They did not even talk to each other. Nobody knows how their fight started, but it is for sure, that they were sworn enemies. After Radhey was taken to the hospital, the doctors tried their level best to save him, but they could not, and he died today morning after an illness of about four and half days. The doctors refused to give a death certificate, as they did not know the illness Radhey was suffering from. Meanwhile the relatives of Radhey actually lodged an FIR in the police station, in which they alleged that Suleiman had poisoned Radhey, and he should immediately be taken in custody. Apparently the relatives of Radhey had some political clout too, so the police had to act fast. Now they have sent this body to me. My job obviously is to find out how Radhey actually died." "Very interesting indeed. That explains the big mob outside your mortuary. When I came to meet you, I was surprised to see several people sorrounding this mortuary several of whom were toting cellulars." "Yeah, they are very influential people, and apparently they would leave the mortuary only after they have come to know of the cause of Radhey's death. The pressure on police was so much that they had to arrest Suleiman." "What does Suleiman say doctor?" "I have talked to Suleiman myself. The police has also talked to him. He says he has absolutley no hand in this killing. He has hired a lawyer for his defense and he is pressurizing the police by saying that they can not arrest his client without any solid evidence. So the police are finding themselves in a Catch-22 situation. As you can understand, I have been showered upon with a very heavy responsibility." "Yes indeed. I can understand that. Now where do you start from?" "Tarun, I have already started actually. Whenever a death occurs in a factory, I make it a point to visit the factory first and see what kind of activities were going there. I found that Radhey was involved in making soldering flux by putting zinc scrap in hydrochloric acid." "Please explain this to me in some great detail doctor." "Tarun, in several industries there is a "rough and ready" practice of producing zinc chloride to provide a soldering flux by putting zinc scrap in hydrochloric acid. This is actually not recommended as sometimes a very poisonous gas arsine may form in this process. The zinc scrap may contain arsenic as an impurity, and when arsenic acts with hydrochloric acid, it forms arsine (AsH3) a very dangerous gas." "So you think Radhey died of arsine gas?" "I can't say for sure at present, but after you know more about this interesting gas, you can make a guess yourself." "Looks like we are on the trail of yet another interesting poison. Doctor please tell me more about arsine gas." "Tarun, arsine is a very toxic gas, a molecule of which contains just four atoms - three of hydrogen and one of arsenic. It is a colorless inflammable gas. It is supposed to have an odour of garlic, but it is not always apparent, especially when a person is suffering from common cold. It is an unstable compound which when exposed to light or moisture, decomposes to deposit arsenic. It is heavier than air, its vapour density being 2.68 times that of air. You might be surprised to know that the German chemist Gehlen died of accidental arsine poisoning in 1815." "Oh, I didn't know that." "Tarun, arsine is one of the most poisonous gases known. It can kill outright. Even brief exposure to moderate concentrations can cause serious illness. I will give you some figures which will tell you something about the killing power of this gas. The four most poisonous gases are carbon monoxide, phosgene, chlorine and arsine. Inhalation of carbon monoxide in concentrations of 1000 parts per million (ppm) for a few minutes can cause death. The equivalent figures for Chlorine and Phosgene are 400 ppm and 50 ppm respectively, meaning thereby that they are more poisonous. Obviously the lesser concentration required for killing, more poisonous the gas. You would be surprised to know that in the case of arsine, only a concentration of 10 ppm inhaled for about half an hour could be dangerous. And at such low concentrations, the pecualiar garlic odor of the gas may not be apparent at all. The safe maximum concentration of carbon monoxide - generally considered by all to be very toxic - is 100 ppm, while that of arsine is just 0.05 ppm. This can give you some idea of the lethality of this gas" "Oh, sure. From the figures it appears to be about 2000 times more poisonous, which is remarkable. Especially considering the fact that everybody considers carbon monoxide to be a very deadly gas." "Exactly. Like carbon monoxide, arsine is a cumulative poison too. This means that it is excreted much more slowly from the body than it is absorbed. This results in gradual accumulation of the poison in the body which can be very dangerous. A good simily is of a tank, in which poisonous water is entering much faster than it is being let out. This would ultimately result in overloading of the tank with the poisonous water." "Yes, I understand. But what is the significance of a cumulative poison doctor?" "Tarun, it means that repeated or prolonged exposure to even a very low concentration can be dangerous. Thus a cumulative poison - that whose excretion rate is slower than that of its absorption- is a much more dangerous poison, than a non-cumulative poison. The hazard of arsine gas exists in a number of industries including the refining of metal, the manufacture of corrosive acids, galvanizing and electroplating. It is also a risk in laboratories. There was a time when the use of wall papers colored with pigment which contained Scheele's Green, yielded arsine in the home, when acted upon by a mould. This could create severe poisoning in the inmates, especially considering that arsine is a cumulative poison." "Just a minute doctor. What is Scheele's Green?" "Tarun, Scheele's Green is a popular name for cupric arsenite. Its formula is Cu3(AsO3)2.2H2O. It is named thus in the memory of the famous Swedish Chemist Kark Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786). It is a brilliant green pigment which was once used for paints, but since it is a potentially poisonous compound, it is no more used now. When mould acts on this compound, arsenic may get combined with hydrogen molecules and may form arsine, which may be very poisonous. Arsine may be produced in quite a few other remarkable ways." "What are those doctor? Please tell me." "Tarun, I know of a unique case of industrial poisoning by arsine in which three men were poisoned - one of them fatally. They were engaged in unloading fish scrap from the hold of a wooden schooner. The close, warm atmosphere promoted bacterial activity and, in turn, the production of arsine." "Oh that is indeed quite unusual." "Yes. Another likely source of arsine is the interior of tanks used in the preparation of sulphuric acid from iron pyrites (sulphide). Some of the deposits in these tanks was hard and had to be scraped from the walls. It contained upto 45% of arsenious oxide. The production of arsine from this material was unsuspected for quite some time. In yet another case, a person had cleaned a water jacket by pouring freshly diluted hydrochloric acid into its pipes. Fumes were liberated and he was in close contact with them in an unventilated room for about half an hour. The acid contained an "inhibitor", which proved to be a mixture of sodium arsenate and aniline hydrochloride. Arsine was produced from the inhibitor n the presence of nascent hydrogen and the man was severely poisoned." "Oh, I see. Arsine can be produced in most unusual circumstances. It does appear to me that Radhey too got involved in arsine poisoing." "Yes, it became apparent to me, when I came to know that he was involved in making the soldering flux by that precarious method, which I have described you just now. My suspicion was confirmed to a great extent when I heard that he had passed dark urine. This was because of the presence of hemoglobin in the urine." "Why should hemoglobin appear in the urine in a case of arsine poisoning?" "Arsine is a deadly poison tarun. It hemolyses (breaks) all the Red Blood Cells of the body. This liberates hemoglobin which ultimately finds its way in the urine which become dark. I have made some slides of the blood of this patient, and you can see under the microscope that all the R.B.C.s are broken. This is a very strong indication that he had died of arsine poisoning. Moreover his kidney tubules are blocked by these broken R.B.C.s which is another finding in favour of arsine poisoing. Coupled with his peculiar history, I am sure Radhey died of arsine poisoning, which is an accidental poisoning. Suleiman had nothing to do with it. Come, let us tell the police about it." "Very clever indeed. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Without your masterly deduction, police could have unnecessarily went on harassing Suleiman. Radhey's relatives and other people might have thought, it was a case of killing by Suleiman. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about death by aflatoxins. "

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Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE FEBRUARY 1999 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a middle aged man today. The corner of his lips seem to be stained with some dark black substance. What has happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this middle aged man is Sagar, and he is about 45 years old. He died in the hospital today morning. Yesterday night, he was having his dinner when suddenly he developed a burning pain in his abdomen. He had nausea and vomiting too, and the vomited material contained some brown material. He complained of intense thirst too. Because of this, the was brought by some of his neighbors to the hospital. But while the doctors were still investigating, he died today morning. Now since the doctors had not arrived at any diagnosis, the police has handed over his body to me. They want me to tell them, how Sagar has actually died." "So what are you going to do now?" "I have taken a detailed history from the police. The police tells me that Sagar was a builder, and he was running a very successful business. He however had business rivalry with a person called Nath. Apparently his business endeavors had caused great losses to Nath. Nath however kept visiting him often and posed as if he was his friend. Deep in his heart however, he wanted to get rid of him. Yesterday Nath visited him in his house for the New Year celebrations and gave him a bottle of red wine too for celebrations. Sagar was a sucker for red wine, so immediately after Nath left, he started consuming the red wine. However I am told that before Nath left, Sagar treated him to some very nice champagne from his own stock. But after Nath left, Sagar opened the wine bottle and emptied it in no time. After that he started having his dinner, but soon he started having all those symptoms." "Oh, I see. Looks like there was something in the red wine, which caused these symptoms. Is it?" "Probably you are correct Tarun. I became suspicious when I saw these dark stains on Sagar's face. You also noticed these stains, didn't you? Furthermore, the inside of his mouth and foodpipe were also stained. From these and certain other post-mortem findings which I am going to tell you later, I could zero down only on one poison....." "What is that poison doctor? Please tell me." "Tarun, it is a very rare poison. You probably never even imagined it is a poison. It is potassium permanganate or KMnO4." "Really? Yes, I never believed Potassium permanganate could be a poison too. In fact as far as I know, it is used to treat certain poisonings." "You are right Tarun. In certain poisonings, such as poisoning by Opium, potassium permanganate solution indeed is recommended. Doctors actually wash the stomach with this solution, because potassium permanganate oxidizes the opium. Similarly in many other poisonings, doctors wash the stomach with potassium permanganate solution. But unfortunately permanganate acts as a poison too. In fact about 10-20 g of potassium permanganate is enough to kill a person." "Is it? Oh, I think, we are on the trail of yet another interesting poison. Doctor please tell me more about Potassium permanganate (KMnO₄)?" "Tarun, potassium permanganate is a common substance, and it may be acquired without restriction by members of the public. Yet poisoning by it is uncommon and although in the case of Sagar we are probably facing a death due to this substance, in fact fatal poisoning by KMnO4 is rare. This must not cause its danger to be overlooked or underrated. Children in particular must be protected against the ingestion of colored crystals which may be eaten in mistake for sweets. In fact, I am personally aware of a child aged about 22 months who died after eating some permanganate crystals which his father used for gardening. Tablets of KMnO4 are still on sale in the USA and as Condy's tablets in Australia. In India too, this substance is not difficult to acquire. You may be surprised to know that KMnO4 has been used for illegal abortions." "Really? How??" "Potassium permanganate is an irritant substance. It irritates the uterus too, and may cause it to expel its contents. This has made the use of KMnO4 very popular in illegal abortions. Some women simply ingest it, while some make its solution and introduce it in their uterus through the vaginal route. Some women simply introduce crystals of KMnO4 in their vagina in order to procure abortion. The insertion of tablets of potassium permanganate into the vagina to procure abortion first came to notice in Spain and Italy during the 1930s. The practice spread to the USA in about 1936. This practice was noticed in England during World War II. It was thought that this 'new way to miscarry' was introduced to England by American servicemen, and indeed the tablets of KMnO4 were being hawked outside the local antenatal clinic of several doctors! You may be surprised to know that the mothers of newly married brides often regarded a box of these tablets as an appropriate gift to their daughters on the eve of their wedding!" "Oh, that is indeed most interesting. Probably it was because proper methods for abortion had not been developed by then?" "No, proper methods for abortions were there, but unfortunately abortion was not legal in most countries at that time. For instance in India, abortion became legal only as late as 1971. Before this time, if any married or unmarried woman became pregnant, the only way for her to have an abortion was to resort to such dangerous "household" methods. Although abortion has become legal in most countries, yet this practice has not yet have been abandoned in most of the countries. The reason is that most unmarried girls - for fear of society's censure - still don't want to disclose they have fallen pregnant. They prefer to do it themselves by these dangerous methods. They learn of these methods from their friends, acquire KMnO4 from somewhere and then try it out on their own. This has caused several deaths too. Douching with potassium permanganate is also very common..." "What is douching doctor?" "Women make a solution of KMnO4 and then with the help of an appropriate instrument, push this solution into their uterus. The douching may be done with intent to procure an abortion or only for hygienic reasons as KMnO4 is supposed to be an antiseptic. If however, the solution is too concentrated, it can have dangerous and probably fatal consequences." "Oh, I see. Has it been used for some other illegal activities too?" "Yes, potassium permanganate has been used to produce fictitious injuries. A trick is often employed by soldiers to simulate the lesions of tertiary syphilis by applying a tablet of permanganate to the skin for 10 to 20 minutes..." "Doctor what is tertiary syphilis? And what do you mean by lesions?" "Tarun, syphilis is a venereal disease which spreads by sexual contact. It affects the victim in several stages. Tertiary syphilis is the last stage of this disease, which commences several years after the sexual contact with an affected partner. By lesions, I simply mean the various abnormal and harmful changes which occur because of disease. A peculiar lesion in tertiary syphilis is a perforating ulcer of the feet. Such a lesion can be produced by applying potassium permanganate on the feet for several minutes..." "But why would a person want to produce such a lesion?" "Many persons want to simulate disease in order to get medical leaves. This trend is very common in the Army, where getting leaves is very difficult. Such people who pose that they are ill, yet are not, are called malingerers. A case of a soldier has been described who swallowed a solution of permanganate to simulate 'coffee ground' vomit. Such kind of vomit is usually seen in gastric ulcers. So probably this soldier wanted leave on this ground." "Oh, that is most interesting. Has it been used for other illegal activities too?" "Well, not for illegal activities, but certainly for some dangerous activities. For instance potassium permanganate solution was used at one time, notably during and after World War I, as an irrigant of the urethra and bladder in the treatment of gonorrhoea. The reasoning behind it was the same - it acts as an antiseptic." "Doctor, you told earlier that KMnO₄ is used for stomach wash in certain poisonings. Does it not kill the patient then?" "Tarun, when KMnO₄ is used for stomach wash, it is used in a solution of the strength 1:5000. It acts as an irritant in higher concentrations - about 1:1000. I may tell you that from the color of the KMnO4 solution, a rough idea can be made about the concentration. When the solution has a faint pink colour, the concentration is about one part per million. When the concentration rises to 1 part in 76,000 (65 mg/4.5 l) the fluid becomes purple. Because of its color, the solution has been used for staining also. Those who use the chemical as a stain for flooring and woodwork, working with a concentrated solution, must exercise care. Deep staining of the skin of the hands is immediate and prolonged contact can cause damage to the skin. There was a time when permanganate was used to dye white hair a chestnut brown." "Oh really?" "Yes, and I can tell you certain other interesting facts about permanganates too. Permanganates are normally stable in crystalline form but zinc permanganate can become explosive. In fact, storing it in tightly stoppered bottles can be highly dangerous. When handling these containers one should exercise utmost caution." "Doctor, do you think Nath mixed Potassium permanganate in something which he gave to Sagar?" "Yeah, looks like. Remember he gave a bottle of Red wine which Sagar immediately consumed after he left. Potassium permanganate can be easily dissolved in red wine because the colors of both are similar. Moreover the taste of red wine would mask the taste to potassium permanganate. Furthermore, Nath ensured that Sagar was not completely in his senses by having some drinks with him in his house. He knew that after he left his house Sagar would consume the red wine, and he would get severely poisoned." "Doctor, has Potassium permanganate been used for homicide often?" "Not really. It has more often been used for suicidal purposes, but accidental poisoning also occurs, notably in children under the age of four years, who usually mistake the red colored crystals for sweets. Adults, however, have taken the poison by mistake. A solution of permanganate may easily be mistaken for wine. And as I already told you, in the past it occasionally caused poisoning when taken orally as an abortifacient." "What is an abortifacient doctor?" "Tarun, abortifacient is a drug which causes abortion. Another popular - although wrong - belief is that it is a remedy for amenorrhoea. Amenorrhoea means absence of menstruation. Normally a girl should start menstruation at about the age of 13 years, but if the menstrual cycle does not start, the condition is known as amenorrhoea. Ideally when faced with such a symptom, a woman should contact a doctor, but many women prefer to treat themselves by folk remedies, and potassium permanganate is one of the folk remedies for amenorrhoea. Pills containing 65-130 mg of potassium permanganate, taken shortly before the expected period are supposed to cure the condition." "Doctor, what symptoms does the person get when he ingests potassium permanganate?" "Tarun, the symptoms are exactly as seen in Sagar's case. Staining of the tissues is very obvious. Some patients may have brown stains on the face, in linear form running down from an angle of the mouth on to the chin as you have seen in Sagar's case. The eyes and face may be stained if crystals fall on to the face. It is more usual to find discoloration of the interior of the mouth. If seen soon after poisoning the colour is purple-brown, but within minutes this changes to brown or dark brown and, later, following the formation of manganese dioxide, it may be coal black. A slight metallic lustre may also be apparent. I have seen Sagar's food pipe and it is coal black from the inside. This is a very clear indication that he had ingested potassium permanganate. I may tell you that potassium hydroxide is a product of the action of permanganate on the tissues, so corrosion of the foodpipe and stomach may be present. It is however superficial. The lips, gums, teeth, tongue, tonsils, pharynx, and the upper end of the larynx are all likely to be discoloured, inflamed and superficially corroded. This is especially severe at points where any crystals may lodge inside the mouth or throat. Occasionally, crystals may be seen on the lips, inside the cheeks or at the back of the throat and in the piriform fossae, especially when unusually deep." "What are the piriform fossae doctor?" "Tarun, the word piriform comes from the Latin pirum which means a pear. These are deep pear shaped pockets on either side of the pharynx. They are present at just the point where the pharynx ends and oesophagus starts. These pockets are at the sides. In fact any swallowed object - like pins for instance - is likely to get entangled in these pockets. If crystals of KMnO4 get lodged in piriform fossae, they can corrode these areas. Burning pain from the mouth to the pit of the stomach occurs soon after the ingestion of permanganate. Nausea and vomiting are not long delayed and the latter may become intractable. The vomit contains purple-brown or brown material which may be mistaken for altered blood from a bleeding peptic ulcer, i.e. 'coffee ground' vomit. Fluid loss by vomiting may cause intense thirst. A number of the patients experience difficulty in speaking or swallowing; this may persist for several days. About half of the patients complain of epigastric pain and tenderness. This may be accompanied and exaggerated by distension of the abdomen. The stools are black due to manganous sulphide. Potassium permanganate can come in contact with the air passages and when it does that, it provokes severe swelling of the air passages. Irritation of the trachea and bronchi leads to difficulty in respiration, and a persistent, spasmodic cough. Any sputum produced may contain dark flecks. A lethal dose, e.g. about 20g, usually kills in from 20 to 90 hours. When potassium permanganate is introduced into the uterus death may occur in only 12 hours." "Doctor, I have known enough about potassium permanganate to interact intelligently with you. Now tell me how you are going to convince the court positively that Nath killed him by giving KMnO4 in red wine?" "Tarun, I have got the wine bottle seized, and I have analyzed its washings. It has shown traces of KMnO4. How could KMnO4 come in a wine bottle? Obviously someone had put it there. And who else except the one who gave the bottle to him, and that too his business rival. Moreover I have found all the changes in Sagar's body, which are found in deaths due to KMnO4. As I told you, the changes produced by potassium permanganate are essentially those produced by an irritant and mildly caustic poison, but distinguished by brown-black staining of the tissues. I have found the staining of tissues in Sagar's case all over - over his face, inside his mouth, foodpipe and stomach. All these organs show congestion too, which is seen in ingestion of irritant poisons like KMnO4. I have also analyzed the contents of his stomach and I have found KMnO4 there as well. This is enough evidence to nail Nath. Come, let us tell the police to arrest Nath at once. He should not escape the legal net." "Very clever doctor. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Without your masterly deduction, Nath could never have been caught. People might have thought, it was an accidental or perhaps a natural death. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about death by diesel fumes." "

Book Review Policy Reviews of Forensic Books/Journals/Software/Multimedia SPREADING AWARENESS The journal strives to spread awareness about the latest forensic literature among the forensic professionals of the world. Every month tens of new books related to forensic sciences and allied subjects are published, but it takes a while before forensic professionals become aware of them. In several cases, they just remain unaware of these publications throughout. I have been personally handicapped by several such instances. I will tell you just one. In 1998, I went to Bijapur (a historical city in Karnataka State in India), to take a guest lecture, and as is my wont, was thumbing through their library books in my spare time. I was amazed to see a nice biography of Thomas Noguchi published sometime in the late seventies. It gave some of his best cases (among them the murder of Dorothy Stratten, Playboy Playmate of August 1979, who was killed by her lover Paul Snider, when she was six months short of her twenty-first birthday. I had been searching for the details of this murder investigation for quite sometime without any success!). I was completely unaware of this book for all these years , and would have given a fortune to possess this book, but alas, the book was already out of print. What pained (and annoyed) me most was that I have been frantically buying books since late sixties, and had I been aware of the existence of this book at the time it was published, I would have done anything to acquire it - even if it would have entailed writing to the publishers overseas. As I pined for this book (and several others - "Pathology of Homicide" by Adelson is another, "Guinness Book of Crime", which I saw at the British Council Library in New Delhi another, "Poisons, Antidotes and Anecdotes" by William Tichy (Sterling Pub. Comp., New York, N.Y., 1977) still another - the list is endless), I became acutely aware that there should be some surefire and foolproof system by which forensic professionals could become aware of important publications soon after they came in existence. We have been running this very successful Internet Journal for quite sometime now. This has become a sine qua non for most professionals around the world (its beauty is that unlike most other online journals, it is available free online to all), and they turn back often to this journal to see what is the latest happening here. And we at the Journal office decided that it would be best to use this journal as a forum to spread awareness. We wrote to several authors and publishers and the response was amazing. We received books from them regularly and as they came in we got down to scanning them, sorting them, describing them. As can be seen, our reviews are radically different from those appearing in most "Paper journals". We give the front and back cover in high color resolution, and also some of the key diagrams, contents, tables etc in full color, which can be enlarged further at the command of the viewer. The idea is to make the reader feel as if he is himself thumbing through the book, and can take an intelligent decision regarding it. We also began reviewing other items related to forensic medicine (Software, Multimedia, Journals). With time, this section also became really valuable for our readers. Encouraged by the response to reviews of Professional Publications, software and multimedia, we took to reviews of popular books on crime too. Again we wrote to several authors and publishers and again the response was encouraging. I think if somebody had been running such a journal twenty years back, all of us would have had much more books in our collection than we have now (I Certainly would have had Thomas Noguchi's book!). But better late than never! (The journal accepts important books, journals, software and multimedia (VHS, CDs, DVDs) related to Forensic Science, Forensic Medicine, Toxicology, Criminology and Allied subjects for extensive reviews. Both technical and general books are reviewed in separate sections. The journal is visited not only by Forensic Professionals from all over the world, but also by general public exploring subjects related to mystery, crime, suspense, intrigue, supernatural and horror. The reviews are usually hosted within two weeks an item is received at the journal office. For more details please visit our FAQ section.) Books and other items for review must be submitted at the following address Professor Anil Aggrawal (Editor-in-Chief) Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology S-299 Greater Kailash-1 New Delhi-110048 India Phone:+91-11-29235460