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Forensic Jokes, Puns & Tidbits FORENSIC LIMERICKS 1. The science of Medicine Forensic has applications prolific It's the use of medicine For detection of sin, There's little to do with treatment of the sick 2. There was a woman from a nation, Who had twins and to one's consternation, One was black, the other white, A truly awkward sight, Sure enough, it was superfecundation. (Both of the above composed by Professor Anil Aggrawal) The limericks may not be very elegant, but I composed these to show what can be done with this new genre. Could you contribute more limericks of better quality please? 3. Henceforth the trouble begins For the careless lady who sins her spouse may request the HLA test in case of biovular twins N.B. This limerick appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 300, No. 1, Jan 4, 1979 at page 50 in response to an earlier paper Twins with two different fathers identified by HLA by Paul I. Terasaki Ph.D. et al, appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 299, No. 11, Sept 14, 1978 at pages 590-592. This is one of the rare examples of a medical limerick appearing in a respectable medical journal. If you are aware of more examples, kindly let me know. Thanks. OTHER LIMERICKS IN SCIENCE During my younger days, it was my hobby to devise science limericks. But since I don't know anything about "metres", they were almost invariably unmetred. Once I sent a whole lot of them to Khushwant Singh, the famous Indian writer, and quite surprisingly he reproduced two of them in the weekly magazine Sunday of 30 August - 5 September 1987, at page 9 (with acknowledgement to me of course). That assured me that at least those two were alright. I am reproducing those two here for the benefit (?) of readers. 1. There was a computer scientist from London Who had with binary digits lots of fun When asked his age Replied the sage "I'm 100001" 2. There was a young prodigy from Sevagram Who was muttering PQR... in his pram Said a guest, "He's precocious" Replied his father, "Yes! These days he is learning electrocardiogram."

Forensic Science Fiction The mystery of the dead infant I had just got up from the bed. It was a nice Sunday morning, and lazily I asked my wife to prepare a cup of coffee for me. Tarun, my son brought me the newspaper, and just when I sank further deep in my bed anticipating a nice sunny Sunday morning, with a cup of coffee in one hand, and the newspaper in the other, the telephone bell rang. “Who is it?”, I asked somewhat impatiently. “Sir, I am the Sub divisional Magistrate of this hill district located about 200 km from your place. We have a very tricky case on our hands. Could you come immediately please?” and then without waiting for my answer, added. “I am sending the vehicle. It is a Fiat car DL 4C A 6600. It will be there in about half an hour. Please be ready with your post-mortem kit.” “Hell”, I thought, “Why in the world did I chose forensic medicine as a career?” To be honest with you, I chose this career because I love the dead. But probably a minor reason was that by choosing it, I would not be getting any emergency calls. The dead hardly call you on Sunday mornings. And yet, here I was getting calls almost all Sundays. Well, that’s life. I was already quite worked up by the time my wife brought me coffee. I quickly gulped it down, and became ready with my post-mortem kit. The car soon arrived at my house, and in about 6 hours took me away to a nice sleepy little hamlet tucked away in the lap of some very huge mountains. The air was so fresh and invigorating, I was glad I came there. The SDM was waiting for me at the office. “Thank you doctor for coming. It’s already 3 pm. Let us first have some lunch and then we would talk”, and quickly he took me inside. He made some motions with his hands to his subordinates and they all swung in action. Soon trays, plates, cups with nice little eatables started pouring in. What he told me over the lunch was this. Sushila was a 27 year old woman married to Dinesh, and both of them had a happy life. They lived about 5 km from where we were sitting. They had a neighbor called Sitaram, with whom they were having a land dispute for almost one generation now. Their (Dinesh and Sitaram’s) fathers had died while the litigation was on, and now Dinesh and Sitaram were getting on with the litigation. Sitaram had a bad reputation in the area, and he had threatened Dinesh many times with dire consequences if he did not relinquish his claim on that controversial piece of land. However since about one year, the two had buried the hatchet, and were meeting each other regularly at least on social occasions such as Diwali, Holi, marriages etc. The case of course was going on in the court as usual. This is not a very unusual occurrence in our country. Land disputes do go on, while people mix together in social occasions. About a week back Sushila gave birth to her first son in a local hospital. When she started having labor pains - at about 4 pm - she was taken to the local hospital, and admitted there. Soon the word spread among the locality and many people gathered at the hospital. Many of them came with sweets. Dinesh’s mother and Sushila’s parents were there to receive them. Sitaram also came to congratulate the young couple. After exchanging some pleasantries most of them melted away. By the time the baby was born - at about 3 am the next day- only Dinesh, Sushila’s father and Sitaram were outside the labor room. All of them distinctly heard the baby’s cries. Dinesh and Sushila’s father became ecstatic and ran outside to phone their friends. Only Sitaram remained there. When they came back after fifteen minutes after telephoning all the relatives they found Sitaram talking with the doctor in somber tones. They were told that the child had been born dead! They could not believe their ears. They had heard the child’s cries with their own ears. This definitely meant that the child had been born alive. How could the doctor play this fast one on them by saying that he had been born dead. Definitely there was something black at the bottom. When the police made enquiries, both Dinesh and Sushila’s father asserted that they had heard the child’s cries standing outside the labor room. Sitaram was also standing along with them, but when he was asked about it, he said he hadn’t heard any such cries, and may be Dinesh and his father-in-law were mistaken. Sometimes you do listen what you want to listen. This now became a two versus one story, and naturally a lot of doubt started whether the baby had actually cried or not. This was important, because if the baby had cried he had been born alive, and somebody - most probably Sitaram - had killed him. And if the baby had not cried, then it was possible that he was a case of a still born child. Many fingers started raising at Sitaram. He did have an old rivalry with Dinesh, and he had a strong motive to harm him. He was alone for as much as 15 minutes outside the delivery room, and the nurse told to the police that for five minutes after the baby was born, there was no one in the delivery room, as they had to rush to the next room for an emergency case. In these five minutes, it was quite easy for Sitaram to enter the room and -say- strangle the child. Sushila was of course too exhausted to note anything. She had probably passed out for some time after delivery. The doctor and nurse were questioned. The doctor was a young man, who had passed his MBBS only a year back, and had taken up this job to pass his time while he studied for his post-graduate entrance examination. The nurse was also very young and inexperienced. They had probably already sensed some medico legal problems and had become very defensive. Both of them asserted that the baby was born dead. As you can very well understand, things had become very complicated by now with some saying the baby was born alive and others saying he was born dead. The only way to solve this puzzle was to order an autopsy. Since in that little hamlet no expert forensic expert was available, the autopsy was entrusted to a young pediatrician named Dr. Harish. I looked at the autopsy report. It was a fairly nice job, considering it was done by a pediatrician. I certainly could not do a pediatric job as nicely as he had done this forensic job being a pediatrician. He had conducted the hydrostatic test and had found it to be positive and in addition had found several semilunar marks around the baby’s neck. As we all know these semilunar marks indicate nail marks and often form on the neck in cases of throttling or manual strangulation. As regards hydrostatic test, I am sure all of us know about it, but just for recapitulation, it is an interesting test which tells us - the forensic pathologists- whether a baby was born alive or not. The premise is that if the baby was born alive, he would have respired - at least once - and this would fill his lungs with air, making their specific gravity less than that of water. If on the other hand, the baby was born dead, he would not have respired and his lungs’ specific gravity would remain more than that of water. So what one does in such cases is just to dissect out the lungs and put them in water. If the lungs float, the test is positive - meaning thereby that the infant was born alive - and if the lungs sink, the test is negative implicating the opposite conclusion. To be sure, the actual test is much more complicated than this, but this is the gist. There are some problems with the test, with many pathologists claiming that it is not an infallible test, but we will leave aside those controversies for the time being. As I told you, the doctor had made a fairly thorough post-mortem. His conclusions were summed up like this: “The baby had been born alive, and survived probably five minutes. The cause of death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation.” This raised a very strong finger of suspicion at SitaRam, and the police arrested him. The basis of arrest was of course the implicating post-mortem report. But SitaRam was a well-connected man. He contacted someone high up in the political hierarchy, and got an order for a repeat post-mortem. And this post-mortem had to be done by a forensic expert of some standing. That is how I came into this picture. My job was of course to conduct the autopsy again, and find out if the earlier findings by Dr. Harish were alright. I must say, this was not an enviable task. First autopsy destroys many organs, and disturbs their natural relationships with one another. A repeat autopsy is at least ten times as difficult as the first one, yet the SDM had reposed his faith in me, and I had to live up to my reputation. The first thing I did was to talk to SitaRam at length. Now after remaining in this specialty for almost 25 years now, I have developed a knack of sensing when a person is speaking the truth. I don’t know how I do it, but I can give you some pointers. When you question a suspect, look straight in his eyes. If his eyes flinch, he might be speaking a lie - otherwise he would look straight at you too. Look at his fingers, and observe any fine tremors there. Look at his Adam’s apple, while he is speaking and look for the very faint quivering there. Touch his hands and see if he has just those tiny traces of sweat on his hands. These little things tell me if the person is speaking the truth. An accomplished liar can consciously control his voluntary nervous system, but can’t control his sympathetics and parasympathetics, and they usually give him away. Above all there is this sixth sense which has developed in me, which tells me if the person is speaking the truth. After talking to Sitaram for about an hour, I was convinced he was not the murderer. He was definitely at loggerheads with Dinesh and Sushila, but he would not go to the extent of killing their new born son. Either the infant had been born dead in the first place, or he had been killed by someone other than Sitaram. There were some difficulties though. First of all, courts don’t act on hunches. They need real proof. I could tell them, I had a knack of knowing a liar, but they would still want scientific proof, and I had to get one. When Dinesh and his father-in-law left the hospital to phone their relatives, their was no one beside the labor room except Sita Ram, so there was no question of someone else killing the new born infant. So I was left with just one option; that the infant was born dead. But what was I to make of the positive hydrostatic test? And furthermore how was going to explain the tell-tale semilunar nail marks on the neck of the infant. That was the main question. Without waiting further, I demanded to see the infant’s body. It was lying in the cold room of the mortuary, and was brought out for me. I looked at him. He was a nice sweet little boy. It was heart-rending to see his chest and abdomen all sewed up (after the first autopsy). I closely examined the so-called nail marks on his neck, and I must say, they were looking quite similar to the usual nail marks that we see day in and day out in cases of manual strangulation. There were no other injuries on the infant’s body. I opened the stitches and examined the internal organs closely. I looked at his lungs, which definitely seemed inflated. I conducted the hydrostatic test again, and it was undoubtedly positive. In addition I conducted some additional tests which the previous doctor had not done. For instance, I also conducted the so-called Wreden’s test (sometimes wrongly called as "Wredin's test"). First suggested by R. Wreden in 1868 (in Otitis media neonatorum), this is a rather dubious test, yet in a case of second post-mortem, it was strongly indicated. If not for anything else, then just for confirmation. For the purposes of recapitulation again, this test relies on the fact that a fetus’s middle ear contains jelly like material till he resides in the womb. When he is born and takes a deep breath, his Eustachian tubes open and air enters through them to the middle ear. So if you find a small bubble in the middle ear, you can be quite sure, the baby was born alive. On the contrary if you find just jelly like material in the middle ear, the baby was most probably born dead. Again this is a highly controversial test, and no pathologist worth his salt performs this test these days. But as I told you earlier, this was a case, where we were leaving no stones unturned. [More information on Wreden's test for the more scientific minded amongst you. In 1873 - five years after the initial report by Wreden - another scientist Wendt reported in Arch. f. Heilkunde that if the infant respired when he was immersed within the amniotic fluid, one could detect even amniotic fluid in the middle ear of such babies. Based on the researches of these two scientists, the test is often known as Wreden-Wendt test, or Wreden-Wendt tympanic cavity test. One may also want to go through the following paper for the details of the test:Jobba G, Sandor T. (1971) Medicolegal evaluation of the Wreden-Wendt tympanic cavity test [Article in German]. Z Rechtsmed 69(3):173-6 Or you may want to click on the following link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=5170412&dopt=Abstract ]. Wreden’s test also came positive and I was quite depressed. The baby had indeed been born alive. So depressed was I that I came back to my hotel, and tried to sleep. Tried hard as I would, I couldn’t sleep. After sometime, I went out for a walk in the mountain roads. The fresh air invigorated me. After about one hour of aimless stroll, I came back and slept. Probably I kept dreaming of the case. I know this because at 4 am, I suddenly got up. I had probably dreamt something strange. I kept sitting for some time, and then I remembered there was a phenomenon called vagitus vaginalis, which is such a rare phenomenon, that most people take it as a myth. Here we might be dealing with a case of vagitus vaginalis. You might be wondering what this strange term means. Let me explain. In the nineteenth century, there were a number of reports by reputed obstetricians, which stated that a fetus can in fact respire while he is still in the vaginal canal. He can emit a cry in the vaginal canal, while he is being born! This would be heard as a muffled cry by people standing close by, and anyone would swear he had heard the infant cry. There is a still stranger phenomenon known as vagitus uterinus, in which the baby cries while he is still higher up - in the uterus. Well here we probably had a case either of vagitus vaginalis or vagitus uterinus. These babies who utter such a cry either inside the vagina or uterus may be born alive or dead. If born alive, naturally no problem would occur, but if such babies were born dead, they could land the doctor in severe trouble. Relatives standing outside the labor room would invariably have heard the cry and they would hold the doctor responsible for the death of the baby. They would keep asserting the baby was born alive, and died subsequently due to doctor’s negligence. I personally know of many such cases, in which doctors had to face the patients’ ire. The more I thought about it, the more I got convinced that I could convince any court of law about its possibility. I had xerox copies of all those reports of vagitus vaginalis and vagitus uterinus. And if so many reputed obstetricians had seen this phenomenon, certainly this phenomenon was possible in our case too. But what indeed remained to be explained were the strange looking semilunar marks on the baby’s neck. They did look like nail marks, indicating someone had tried to kill him. If he was born dead, why anyone in the world would try to kill him. I could not solve this problem despite thinking deeply about it. Finally I got tired and slept again. Next day I took out the body of the infant again from the cold room and looked closely at his neck. There were these unmistakable nail marks. There was no doubt about that. I was quite nonplussed. Without having the faintest idea of what I was doing, I began examining his abdominal contents. Suddenly I was gripped with excitement. When I looked near the area of his liver, I found that the baby had not just one, but two ligamentum teres. The previous doctor had probably missed this strange finding. And I wouldn’t blame him for that, for he was so inexperienced. Now before you throw up your arms in despair, let me tell you a little bit about this strange structure. In a fetus, originally there are two umbilical veins which take oxygenated blood from the placenta to the fetus. After sometime, the right umbilical vein disintegrates; only the left persists. After birth the baby starts respiring and this umbilical vein becomes quite redundant. Nature has a way of dealing with this new situation. This umbilical vein obliterates and becomes a ligament like structure in about 3-5 days after birth. This ligament like structure is called ligamentum teres. This is a very useful marker for forensic pathologists. By seeing this structure, they can tell how long the child survived after being born. For instance if we see only the umbilical vein, we can say, that the child died within 3-5 days of being born, but if we see a ligament in its place we would be quite sure that the child survived at least 3 days after being born - probably more. Does that meant, the little child survived 3 days after birth? Not in the least. The child’s death immediately after death was so well documented that there was not an iota of doubt about it. It was probably a case of very early disintegration. Such cases do occur once in a while. But what surprised me no end was that he was showing not just one, but two ligamentum teres. To my feeble mind, the only implication was that his right umbilical vein had not obliterated early in his uterine life. It had persisted till birth and only after that it obliterated. Well, I am no anatomist, and did not want to make any further conjectures on it. So I phoned, one of the best anatomists I know of - Professor J.M. Kaul of our own anatomy department. What she told me over the phone was quite surprising to me. She said that in some lower animals, the right umbilical vein does persist till birth. She was not aware of any case where it was seen in humans, but if I had seen one this must be a case of atavism. You might accuse me of throwing one technical term after other, but I can’t help it. I was taking things as they were coming to me. Thankfully I did know something about atavism, so I did not have to bother her more for that. I thanked her profusely and rushed back to mortuary. Atavism is a technical term which comes from the Latin at, meaning above or beyond and avus, meaning a grandfather. Thus Atavism literally means “above a grandfather”. It refers to a reversion or throw-back of an inherited characteristic which has skipped a number of successive generations. To the best of my knowledge, the presence of a cervical rib in a human being is a good example of atavism. Evolutionarily there has been a reduction in the number of ribs, especially in the region of our pectoral and pelvic girdle (to allow for greater freedom of movement), but every once a while we see persons with cervical ribs. These people are very good living examples of atavism. Well, what about this boy. I dissected his neck, and was amazed to see not just one, but two cervical ribs - both on sixth and seventh cervical vertebra. Are you getting the picture now? This boy was showing several primitive characteristics. In other words, he showed many atavistic characteristics. Probably my salvation lay in him showing atavism. What about neck scales? Lower animals like snakes and crocodiles show scales on their necks, while humans do not. Was it possible that his little boy showed another atavistic character in his neck? Was it possible that those little semilunar marks on his neck were not nail marks, but very primitive scales? I could not rule the possibility out, as this boy was showing so many of the atavistic characters. I am no biologist, and I contacted a very prominent biologist - Dr. Lalji Singh of Hyderabad. He told me to send over some of the skin samples from those semilunar marks, so that he could put them to tests. I did exactly that. He examined them in great detail and his reports really astounded me - well! Not so much after what I had been seeing all throughout. Those semilunar marks were not nail marks at all. They were very tiny scales which were probably again a relic from the past. He had histological reports with him to confirm his findings. Those semilunar marks did not show the structure of skin, but that of scales! So this little child indeed showed a number of atavistic characters. I will now tell you what exactly happened. This child cried probably in the vagina, because of which his hydrostatic test - and other tests depending on respiration - came positive. In fact he died somewhere within the birth canal probably because of fetal distress. In addition, he showed a number of atavistic characters, one of which was tiny scales over his neck, which looked exactly like nail marks. These marks stumped not only the young inexperienced Dr. Harish, but even me. I was very happy when the court accepted my findings, and released SitaRam. He came to me and thanked me no end. I was happy I could do justice to that person. Meanwhile, I am told, Dr. Kaul has written a very good paper on atavism, and is going to Berlin to deliver it there. As for Dr. LaljiSingh, he is trying to find the incidence of atavism in Indian children, taking that child as an example. As for me, I am burdened with more dead bodies and more post-mortems. Well, who cares. The dead are after all ones whom I love most!

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE JANUARY 2000 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY SUCCINYLCHOLINE -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a young boy today. What happened to him? Please tell me.” “Good morning Tarun. The name of this 26 year old young boy is Subodh, and he was a post-graduate medical student in a leading medical college of this city. For the last few months, he was in love with a fellow medical student Rita. Recently she had ditched him and had got married to someone else. This had hurt him very much. Actually a few days before her marriage, he had got a hint that she was going to ditch him. So he had gone to her to plead his case. At that time she was reportedly sitting with his fiancée Suresh, who literally pushed him out. There was a minor scuffle too, and Suresh had threatened to kill him, if he ever troubled Rita again. Today morning Subodh did not report at the O.P.D. his fellow doctors got suspicious, and went to his hostel room. There they found his dead body.” “Oh, that is indeed very unfortunate. So do you think that Suresh has carried out his threat?” “Let us get all the facts straight, before we can say anything. The body of Subodh was lying on his charpoy (a charpoy is a popular hand woven bed used in India mostly by villagers). A syringe was inserted in his leg vein. And there were two empty vials of Anectine lying on the floor beside him.” “What is Anectine doctor?” “Tarun, Anectine is the trade name of a very useful drug in medical practice. Its chemical name is succinylcholine, and it is a very useful drug for surgical operations.” “Oh, so obviously Subodh has not died of Succinylcholine. How has he actually died doctor? And do you think he has committed suicide?” “Why can’t he die of succinylcholine Tarun?” “How can a useful drug kill a person doctor? He must have died of something else.” “This is a mistake Tarun. All drugs are poisons in large doses, and many poisons may act as useful drugs in extremely small doses. Some time back I told you the story of a death by Digitalis (See Science Reporter Death By Digitalis (August 1999, Pages 22-24). Now Digitalis as you know is a very useful drug in several heart ailments, and yet it killed when given in more than the required dose. So it is incorrect for you to think that a useful drug can not kill. Now to your other questions. No one knows how he has actually died, and that is indeed why the police has handed over his dead body to me. As far as your conjecture concerning suicide is concerned, he might indeed have committed suicide. The scene certainly appears as if he has committed suicide. Had the room been locked from inside, and a suicide note found, we would have very strongly thought that he has committed a suicide. But neither was the room locked from inside, nor was any suicide note found. The police knows that Suresh had threatened to kill him some days back. Suresh - like Subodh - is a medical student and knows about drugs like succinylcholine. So it is quite clear that Suresh is the prime suspect with police. In fact, Subodh’s parents have lodged an FIR with the police, naming Suresh as the possible killer.” “Doctor, is succinylcholine very commonly used as a homicidal poison?” “No, not at all. In fact, I am aware of only one instance, when a person has been convicted of murder by succinylcholine. In 1983, a Texas-licensed vocational nurse Genene Jones was tried on a single charge of murder, even though those who had worked with her believed she had been responsible for the deaths of more than a dozen children under her care. In her first 31 days of work for a child specialist, nine incidents of respiratory failure involving eight patients occurred before Jones was finally arrested. She was finally sentenced to 99 years for the murder of one patient and 60 years for the attempted murder of a second. So succinylcholine can definitely be used for homicide, although its use is very rare. But before we come to any conclusions, we have to first prove that Subodh indeed died of succinylcholine poisoning.” “How are you going to prove that doctor?” “Tarun, to do that you must know a little bit about succinylcholine and how it actually kills. Succinylcholine actually mimics a natural chemical within the body, acetylcholine. The function of acetylcholine is to make a muscle contract. Whenever we make any muscular movement- be it walking, running, climbing, even laughing and crying - some muscle has to contract, and in most of the cases, it is the acetylcholine, which makes the muscle contract. First of all, a nerve impulse goes from the brain to the required muscle. Then a tiny amount of acetylcholine is liberated at neuro-muscular junction..” “Doctor, what is neuro-muscular junction?” “Tarun, it is technical name of the junction of that nerve with the muscle. It is also known as the myoneural junction. So I was telling you about acetylcholine, being released at the neuro-muscular junction. This small amount of acetylcholine starts a train of physical and chemical events at that junction, which ultimately leads to contraction of that muscle. Whole of this procedure takes a fraction of a second only. Of course, once acetylcholine has succeeded in making the muscle contract, it must be removed from the junction. For if it is not removed, the muscle would remain in a contracted position. And this can be very disastrous indeed. For instance, when the heart contracts, it is due to acetylcholine making the heart muscle contract. But if this acetylcholine could not be removed, the heart muscle would remain in a contracted state, and no useful purpose would be served. In fact, the person would die within minutes.” “Oh, I see. How does the body remove this acetylcholine then doctor?” “There is another chemical at the junction- acetyl cholinesterase. It destroys the acetylcholine, after it has done its work. Succinylcholine may be regarded as a sister chemical to acetylcholine. Earlier I was telling you that succinylcholine is widely used in surgery. Now you can understand why. In most abdominal operations, the doctors want that the abdominal muscles remain in a relaxed state. If the muscle is relaxed, doctors can make incisions easily, and make several manipulations in the abdomen easily. Succinylcholine is used to relax the abdominal muscles….” “Just a minute doctor. You said that acetylcholine makes the muscles contract, and also that succinylcholine is a sister chemical to acetylcholine. Doesn’t it mean that succinylcholine should also contract the abdominal muscles?” “That is an interesting question, Tarun. Actually succinylcholine belongs to a class of muscle relaxants, known as depolarizers. Let me first tell you the meaning of this new term. Earlier I told you that acetylcholine starts a train of physical and chemical events at the neuro-muscular junction, which ultimately leads to contraction of muscle. One of these events is the reversal of the electric charge normally found on the muscle fibres. In other words, the muscle is depolarized. Since succinylcholine depolarizes the muscle, it is known as a depolarizer or a depolarizing agent. There are several other depolarizing agents. One of these is decamethonium. It also acts very much like succinylcholine. All depolarizing agents, including succinylcholine, initially do act much like acetylcholine, i.e. they cause the muscle to contract. But since doctors give succinylcholine continuously in an intravenous drip, it keeps contracting the muscles. Finally a stage comes, when the muscle is exhausted, i.e. it can no more work. In other words it gets paralyzed. That is why despite acting very much like acetylcholine, succinylcholine paralyses the muscles, while acetylcholine makes the muscles contract. When an animal is injected with succinylcholine, the animal indeed shows repeated contractual movements of the muscles. These repetitive muscular movements have been given the name fasciculations. After a few minutes of fasciculations, the muscles get tired, and paralysis sets in.” “Doctor, is succinylcholine easily available in the market?” “Oh, yes. Succinylcholine is available as injections of Anectine. It is marketed also as a sterile powder. Injections are available in three different concentrations- 20 mg/ml, 50 mg/ml and 100 mg/ml. Now that you have understood some basic facts about succinylcholine, I can tell you, how this drug kills. It repeatedly stimulates and finally paralyses, respiratory muscles. This causes respiratory failure and death. The usual dose in surgical operations is 20 mg, but more can be given too. It is interesting to note that this succinylcholine not only relaxes abdominal muscles, but also respiratory muscles, so the anesthetists maintain the respiration of the patient artificially throughout the operation. If however the same dose is injected by a person for suicidal purposes, or by someone with homicidal intentions, it would easily kill, because there is no one to support the respiration artificially. In other words, the same dose helps a surgeon in operation, and the very same dose would kill a person, if it were given with homicidal intentions.” “Doctor how are we going to prove that Subodh indeed died of succinylcholine poisoning?” “Tarun, in the body, succinylcholine is broken down by enzymes in human plasma, especially by one known as pseudocholinesterase, into succinic acid and nitrogen containing choline. Both of these are normal components of human tissues. That is why it is indeed difficult to say by chemical examination of Subodh’s viscera alone that he died of succinylcholine poisoning. However, I have found the lungs to be swollen and loaded with water. In technical terms we say that the lungs are oedematous. This is a sign that Subodh’s respiration was compromised just before his death. If we couple this finding with other findings at the scene of his death, it becomes very plain and simple that Subodh has died of succinylcholine poisoning. Regarding the manner of death, I do not think, Suresh has injected this drug into Subodh’s body. Subodh would simply not allowed him to do that. It appears that Subodh has committed suicide because of failure in love.” “Doctor, had someone caught him during the act, or just after it, could he have been saved? In other words, what is the antidote of succinylcholine?” “Tarun, unfortunately there is no antidote to succinylcholine. The only thing one could have done is to give artificial respiration as the respiration is compromised in succinylcholine poisoning.” "This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison - Gold."

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-15 SPEECH SPECTOGRAMS CATCH CRIMINALS This time I tell you about an exciting new technique, by which we can recognize a person from his speech. This technique is useful in cases like abduction, when kidnapper asks for ransom over the telephone. Can a person be positively recognized from his voice? You must have noticed that you can readily recognize a person from his voice. Even when you are sitting engrossed in your work and someone calls you from the back, you can readily recognize his voice. This is because, the voice‑generating system in each individual is different. In fig(1) you can see the various structures of the mouth which are involved in speech production such as palate, tongue, teeth, lips, cheeks, nasal aperture etc. These structures are different in different individuals and this is the basis of speech recognition. For a long time scientists were thinking of having a kind of "photographs" of human speech. It is always easier and simpler to compare two photographs, than to compare two sounds. Moreover, if a person has not heard the voice of a culprit for a long time, and he was asked to recognize that culprit again by his voice after a period of, say ten years, he might be at a loss to recognize him. If there was no way of converting the sound to a photograph, a police officer would face this problem very often. To overcome this handicap, in 1963, as scientist Lawrence G.Kersta, developed a unique machine in his laboratory in Somerville, New Jersey. This machine is known as the speech spectrograph and is shown Fig(2). The speech spectrograph converts a human speech into various graphs which can be easily compared. Fig 3 , shows the spectrograms (the voice graphs) of male and female voice. Once can easily spot the difference between the two. Fig 4 , shows the spectrograms or voice prints of 5 people saying a single word"you". there are 6 spectrograms which show clearly that one person has said" you" two times. Try to visualize the photograph carefully and try to find out which two voice prints look similar. These are the words uttered by the same person. With this background in mind, it is now easier to explain, how the machine helps in police investigation. Suppose a kidnapper has kidnapped a child, and then asks for ransom over the phone. The police scientist can record his voce and make speech spectrograms from that recorded voice, by the help of the spectrograph. The voice prints are then stored in the police prints are then stored in the police records for future reference. In future whenever a suspect is arrested, his voice prints can be made again and matched with that of the telephone caller. If the voice prints match perfectly, then the suspect is indeed the real kidnapper, otherwise not. The same technique can he used in several other situations. Sometimes people phone young females just for fun sake and speak obscene languages over the phone. These are basically harmless people, but their repeated malicious calls may be a nuisance. Till now the only way to tackle with such malicious callers was to keep the phone off the hook or to keep the receiver off the cradle. But now the affected party can call the police and ask them to make voice prints of such callers. These voice prints are permanent records in the files of the police and can be used anytime later when a suspect is arrested. Several countries are using this new technique now regularly to investigate crime.. Michigan State Police for example have been using this method with success since 1968. Some very famous crimes have been solved by this technique. This account should give you an idea of how deeply modern science has affected crime investigation. This is a new field of crime investigation. This is a new field of crime investigation and more research is needed before we can say the final word on it.

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-9 TESTING FOR HOMOSEXUALITY Two years back, I was involved in a most bizarre case. A young boy of eight, Kalu was once coming home from school. The time was around 2.00 p.m. Two sturdy looking persons came to him and lured him away with a chocolate. They took him to his house and tried to have intercourse with him tried to have intercourse with him through anus. When the boy protested, they offered him a ten‑rupee not for this "little job". He was told that he would not be hurt. Kalu was a poor boy and a sum of Rs.10/‑ was big amount for him. He could purchase many toys with that amount, which he had always wanted to. Although he did not like the idea of someone introducing his 'organ' in to his anus, yet the lure of the money let him allow that. During the act, however, he suffered from great pain and even bled slightly. His gait became painful and wobbling after that. When his parents asked him why he was walking in a peculiar way, he replied cautiously that he had fallen down and hurt himself. The parents paid no further attention to him. However things did not stop there. The next week, the two youths met Kalu and suggested the same bargain. The boy hesitated a little, but then decided that he could do with another ten rupee note! From then on, this became quite regular. Those two youths would regularly have anal intercourse with Kalu‑almost twice every week‑and would each time give him ten rupees. The affair went on for quite a number of weeks. Then trouble started when the boy developed some ulcers around his anus. These ulcers were discharging pus. His parents thought that the boy had caught some infection and so brought him to me. When I examined him I found that he was suffering from syphilis‑a venereal disease. Such a young boy could catch syphilis in only one way‑through anal intercourse. I explained the situation to his parents and at the same time informed the police also, because it had become a medico‑legal case. Kalu's parents lost their temper and started beating Kalu. Kalu then revealed that Jagga and Kaka, two youths of his area had been using him in this way. Before we go on with our story further, a few words about homosexuality or 'coitus through anus' would be in order. Intercourse through anus is known as sodomy or buggery. An adult male can perform anal intercourse on an adult male, adult female or on a young child(of either sex), as in Kalu's case. When homosexuality is done on an adult male, the practice is known as homosexual sodomy. When a male commits anal intercourse on a female, it is known as heterosexual sodomy. When a child is used, the practice is known as paederasty. This child is usually known as a catamite. The person who performs the act is known as the active agent and the one on whom the act is performed is known as the passive agent. Sometimes two adult males act as active and passive agents alternately. More commonly however, a passive agent always remains a passive agent. n our country, many people regularly earn their livelihood by acting as passive agents and charging a fat fee from their customers. These are known as male prostitutes. Several hijrahs whom are all familiar with, mostly act a passive agents,. Several boys like Kalu agree to become passive agents for the sake of money only. In our country, anal intercourse is a crime. According to section 377 of I.P.C., if it can be proved in anal intercourse, he can be sent to jail for 10 years. So Jagga and Kaka had every reason to deny their involvement in anal intercourse with Kalu. It was not merely a matter of shame, but a criminal act. As we shall see later, they did deny their involvement and it remained for me to prove conclusively that they had indeed used Kalu as a passive agent. An interesting thing is that if a passive agent consents for anal intercourse, even then the he can be incriminated under Section 377 of I.P.C. In our case, Kalu had consented for the act, but since he was only eight years old, his consent was not valid and he could not be incriminated. According to our law, any child under 16 years of age can not understand the nature of such acts and thus his consent for such act is not legal. Another interesting thing is that if a person performs anal intercourse on his own wife, even then he is a culprit under section 377 I.P.C. If his wife consents for such an act, then even she is a culprit and both can be sent to jail for 10 years. A wife can refuse her husband who demands anal intercourse from her. Interestingly she can not legally refuse normal vaginal intercourse to her husband even if she is not in "mood", but she can and must refuse anal intercourse, because if she does not refuse anal intercourse, she also becomes a culprit. If a wife refuses normal vaginal intercourse with her husband and her husband forcibly commits such an intercourse with her, she can not bring him before thee law, but the same is not true of anal intercourse. Not only can she send him to jail for 10 years (if she wants to), but is also entitled to divorce him In fact if a male commits anal intercourse on any man, child or woman, the wife is entitled to divorce him. So much regarding some of the legal points regarding homosexuality. When Jagga and Kaka were interrogated by the police regarding their criminals act, they denied any such involvement. So the burden of proving their involvement fell on me. Whenever a passive agent is brought to us, we examine mainly his anus which tells us several tell tale signs. The person is examined in a knee‑elbow position (Fig.1) . In this position the person rests on his knees and elbows. This position is chosen because it exposes the anus in a most prominent way. I first 'inserted a cotton swab (just like Johnson's buds; but with longer handle) into Kalu's anus. The idea was that if any seminal fluid was present in the anal canal, it would be absorbed by the cotton. It could then be tested for the presence of seminal fluid. the presence of seminal fluid in the anal canal confirms that buggery has been done on the passive agent. One of the most common preliminary tests to confirm semen is the Florence test. In this test, we prepare an extract of the suspected, seminal fluid from the anus and mix it with the Florence reagent. If the suspected fluid is semen, then dark brown needle‑shaped crystals are formed (see figure 3) Formation of these crystals confirms the presence of semen. We also try to look at the extract under the microscope. The presence of small tadpole‑like sperm cells confirms the presence of semen. We also see the underwear of the active and passive agents under a special light, the ultraviolet light. If seminal stains are present on the underwear, they begin to glow brightly. The examination of anus also tells several things. Figure 2 shows three main findings in and around the anus. For the purpose of clarify, anal opening is shown slightly enlarged. An important is tearing of the skin around the anus. this is known as fissure. these fissures appear because of the introduction of large‑sized male organ in relatively narrow anal canal. Second important thing is the laxity of the anal sphincter. Anal sphincter is a circular muscle which acts much like a highly elastic rubber band (Figure 3) . It actually checks the faecal matter from coming out involuntarily. But when male organ is repeatedly introduced in the anal canal, as during buggery, this sphincter becomes lax and the anus starts gaping. The third important sign is the smoothness of the covering of the anal canal. If we dilate the anus of a normal person and look inside, we find that the covering inside is much like an orange peel, i.e., rugged and rough. But repeated acts of penis insertion smoothers out the ruggedness of the covering. These three signs were quite suggestive that the boy was being used as a catamite. Interestingly, when I subjected the swab taken from Kaka's rectum to Florence test, it came positive for seminal fluid. His anus also showed all the three classical signs. The lawyers of Jagga and Kaka could not refute this hardcore medical evidence in the court. The court admitted my evidence and sentenced both of them to ten years of rigorous imprisonment.

Forensic Jokes, Puns & Tidbits Hi, I am Professor Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi-110048. I am married to a professor of chemistry and have a 20 year old son, who is studying to be an electronics engineer. I am interested in interacting with people who are interested in forensic pathology, science, science fiction, and above all, Forensic Jokes. I have always felt that forensic people tend to be too serious. Forensic medicine has its own quota of fun, jokes, good healthy humor. This page is a modest attempt to put together all funny things connected with forensic medicine. At present, it is a very rudimentary site, having only a few jokes, puns, limericks and poems, but I hope to add more quality stuff, including forensic limericks, haiku, puns, stories and other similar tidbits in due course of time. Needless to say, inputs from all discerning web surfers are required. All contributions would be put on the net within a weeks' time with due acknowledgements. This modest effort would put at one place the collective "wisdom" of all of us, where all of us can contribute and enjoy one another's experiences. If you have an interesting forensic story, joke, limerick or any other interesting tidbit related to forensics, then mail me. Explore these forensic pages: Forensic Limerick Forensic Puns Forensic Jokes Forensic Poem Created on: September 2, 1999 Many people think that science and humor don't mix. But nothing could be farther from the truth. There are an amazing number of pages on the web (Besides this one of course!), which illustrate how the two go together hand in glove. Have a look at some of the links given below. Science Cartoons Science Jokes Jokes & Science

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-10 WHAT DO THE FINGERPRINTS TELL US ? Sometimes seemingly trivial clues can be very helpful in detecting crime. A fascinating case came my way about 3 years back, which I solved with practically no clues‑ well, almost. I only had a very trivial clue which no person would have even imagined to be helpful in the least. But let me begin my story from the beginning. On the morning of August 19, 1990, the body of Sunita Babbar was found in her flat in Ghaziabad. Somebody had killed her hitting her head with a heavy rod. She was married two years back and had a one year old son. Her husband Rajesh Babbar a clerk in a local private office was getting Rs. 3000/‑ per month. they were living in a joint family‑the whole family occupying a common ancestral house. The night before the killing, all members of the joint family except Rajesh, Sunita and their little son were out. They had gone to the shrine of Vaishno Devi for pilgrimage. Since a few months, tension was brewing up in the house regarding the meagre dowry Sunita had brought. Sunita's mother-in-law Tejwanti wanted that Sunita's father should have giving them a colour TV, so that the whole family could enjoy with it. However, Sunita's father could not fulfil this demand despite his best efforts. This had led to some tension in the house. Sunita's mother‑in‑law Tejwanti and sister‑in‑law Lali sometimes used to misbehave with her. Sunita's husband Rajesh used to keep quite and steered himself out of this tension. Sunita was quite tensed up with the behavior of her in‑laws. She had even written a couple of letters to her parents about this. In the evening of August 18, Sunita and her husband Rajesh were watching their black and white TV in the drawing room, while their son Raju was sleeping in the other room. At about 9.30 pm. Rajesh's friend Ashok Talwar came and invited him to his house for drinks, as he had recently got the promotion. Rajesh jumped at this offer and immediately got ready to accompany him. When Rajesh went to his bedroom to get ready, Ashok sat near Sunita and began staring at her with lustful eyes. Sunita never appreciated his such habits. Once he had tried to make an obscene pass at her and she had even complained about this to her husband, but Rajesh had laughed the matter off. Sunita had a hunch that Ashok secretly wanted to have sex with her. She had once mentioned this fact in her diary too. When Rajesh came back from his bedroom after getting ready, Sunita requested him not to go away leaving her and her son alone in the house. Rajesh did not want to miss the offer of a free drink. He assured Sunita that he will be back around 11 pm. Sunita knew he has giving a false assurance to her, but there was no option for her. Reluctantly she closed the door behind her. Then she went into her room and having nothing better to do, started writing her diary. She was in the practice of writing her diary since last ten years. This diary ultimately fell into the hands of the police from where the police came to know of many facts about her. Ashok Talwar's earlier lustful behavior and his behavior and intention on the night of August 18, was also mentioned in the diary. Apparently Sunita waited for Rajesh upto 12 at midnight and then slept. Rajesh hadn't come by that time. The police apprehended Rajesh from the house of Ashok Talwar. Rajesh told the police that on the night of August 18, when he had gone to Ashok Talwar's house, Talwar had offered him drink after drink till he blanked out at Talwar's residence itself. Ashok Talwar was a shady character. He couldn't answer police queries very well as to what had prompted him to take away Rajesh to his house on that fateful night, when he knew very well that Sunita would be alone. He persisted in saying that he wanted to give Rajesh a treat on his promotion. On enquiry the police found that Talwar had indeed got a promotion about 3 months back. The question was why he gave a treat to Rajesh after such a long period? Apparently there was no sense in giving a party after such a long gap. To the police Talwar could not give any reasonable answer to this question. Another remarkable fact was that no other person had been invited for that party. In fact it could hardly be called a party. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that Talwar wanted to have Sunita alone on that night. Police inspector Chauhan developed a very weird but convincing theory from his investigations. According to him, Talwar was having a lustful eye on Sunita for a long time, but he was not getting a proper chance. When on August 18, Rajesh's family left for Vaishno Devi, Talwar noticed the opportunity. If he could somehow draw Rajesh away from his house, Sunita would be alone and he would be able to quench his lust. So he came to Rajesh's house at 9.30 pm. and took him away on a very flimsy ground. At his residence, Talwar, completely boozed Rajesh till he lost his consciousness. In the midnight around 12 pm. he came to Sunita's house and rang the bell. Sunita opened the door thinking Rajesh had returned. Thus Talwar gained entry to Sunita's house easily. There he raped her and either killed her afterwards intentionally or she died without his intention to kill her, during the course of rape itself. Frequently during the acts of rape, the rapist tries to stifle the cries of the victim by pushing a pillow against her face. Quite possibly, after Talwar was through with Sunita, he found to his horror that he had inadvertently killed Sunita and then he bolted away, came back to his house and slept. The theory seemed very plausible and all the known facts seemed to fit in perfectly well in this story. It was at this stage, that I was called by the police inspector Chauhan to inspect Sunita's body and the scene of crime. Post‑mortem examination revealed that Sunita had died because of a head injury. Somebody had hit her head with a heavy rod. There were no signs of suffocation. This was a major blow to Chauhan's hypothesis. Yet he insisted that he was right. He had an intuition that Talwar was the killer. He now said that Talwar must have raped Sunita first and then deliberately killed her. This was also a plausible alternative. All in all we couldn't find much to disprove Chauhan's hypothesis. An examination of Sunita's genitals revealed that she was used to sexual intercourse and one act of sexual intercourse had been performed on her shortly before her death. I could not say much about the timing of the act. It could be just before her death or as long as 10‑12 hours before her death. I fixed her time of death (see 'Crime & Detective' February 1993 , page 90) as 2 am on August 19. This meant that the act of sexual intercourse could have taken place anytime after 2 pm on August 18. this was not of much help as Sunita was alone with her husband on August 18, till 9.30 pm. and that act could reasonably have been done by Rajesh himself. Chauhan was desperate to prove himself right and he went to Rajesh and interrogated him. Certainly a strange question to ask from a recently bereaved husband, yet the investigation had to be completed. Rajesh admitted demurely that he and Sunita had sexual intercourse on that day at about 5 pm. Chauhan's theory was still not busted because even after this, Talwar could have indulged in sex with her. I had not said that Sunita had only one act of intercourse. The only thing I could say was that she had engaged in sex shortly before her death. Nobody could have said anything about the number of acts she had gone through. I now concentrated on the scene of crime‑ the place where Sunita's body was found and not before long I found two short clippings of nail on the floor. It appeared that Sunita had violently resisted on attack on her and during the scuffle, the assailant tried to scratch her. During this act the nail of the assailant broke and fell on the ground. When we examined Talwar's hands all his nails had been recently clipped. Chauhan insisted that Talwar had become aware of his broken nails and to hide this fact he had clipped all his nails. Anyway, I managed to take a small sliver of nail from each of Talwar's fingers. In 2 hours, I was able to tell Chauhan with cent per cent certainty that Talwar was not the culprit. How did I do this feat? Well! before I go ahead, look at your nails very carefully. You will find long striations over them, some of them are thick and some are thin. These striations are there in a fixed pattern in each individual. Every individual could be recognized positively by his unique pattern of nail striations. I tried to match the striations of the broken nails, I had found on the floor with the striations of nail silvers I had clipped from Talwar's hands. I tried hard to match them but couldn't match them at all. We can look at the nail clippings in three major ways. Fig 1 shows all these three ways. One is to look at the untreated fingernail. A better way is to first put a thin layer of metal on the fingernail and then look at it. Another way is to look at it between crossed Polaroid films. Very few crime specialists like to look at the nails in the last way but for the sake of completeness I have mentioned all the ways. Another important fact to remember is that the striations would not match even in twins sisters. Both fingernails have been taken from the left little finger. You can easily find out that the striations do not match at all. The striations also do not change over a period of time. They remain constant and are thus a very valuable tool for positive identification. Fig 3 shows 4 clippings form the same person, taken over a period of 10 years. You can see that all striations match perfectly with each other. So, these clippings really came as a boon for Talwar. He had been arguing about his innocence from the moment he was apprehended but nobody was ready to believe him. In fact all the available evidences pointed so strongly at him that nobody could think in a different way. Now, that Talwar was exonerated, the police made more searches. Rajesh reported very soon that from his almirah some jewellery and cash were missing. The theory now shifted to that of burglary. Three noted burglars of the area were apprehended after 15 days. I took nail clippings of all the three and could say positively that out of them Kartar Singh was the one, who had committed the burglary and murder. His nails striations matched perfectly with those I found on the floor. On sustained interrogations Kartar Singh admitted his guilt. In the court too, Kartar Singh confessed his crime. The court gave due importance to my medical evidence and Kartar Singh was jailed for life. It was at that moment that Talwar came to me and touched my feet. It was my evidence based on science, which had exonerated him. I sometimes think now, what would have happened, had I not found those clipping, had I not found those clippings? Sooner or later Rajesh would have discovered that his cash and jewellery were missing. But, could merely that finding, in the absence of clippings, have saved Talwar? Could Talwar's lawyer successfully plead in the court that it was the work of a burglar and not of Talwar, because cash and jewellery were missing? I think no, because the prosecution could have argued that Talwar took away cash and jewellery just to give it the look of burglary. Talwar would have been in a difficult position to counter such argument. In fact, in past, sexual murders have been committed by family friends, who have done just this to give the whole situation a look of burglary. Anyway, even if court would have given him the benefit of doubt (which I feel impossible). Talwar would have undergone the agony of a long court ordeal. The finding of nail clippings exonerated him completely in just one go. ***

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE MARCH 1997 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS THE MYTH OF THE SPANISH FLY -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing with the dead body of this young woman? " "Good morning Tarun. This is the body of an unmarried 20 year old girl Rita. She was in love with one Suresh, who is a student of Ayurvedic medicine. It is suspected that they had secret relations and Rita was pregnant. In order to get rid of this unwanted pregnancy, Suresh secretly administered some drug to her. Immediately thereafter Rita complained of severe cramps in her abdomen. She vomited blood, passed blood in her urine, and died in about 4 hours." "So her body has been brought to you, so you can tell the police how she died?" "Exactly. The police apprehended Suresh, but he has alleged that he did not give anything to her. He has also alleged that she had an ulcer in her stomach which might have perforated and given rise to these symptoms. So it has become extremely important for me to find out the truth. Stomach ulcer does give rise to some of the symptoms exhibited by her, but at her age one does not generally get stomach ulcer. Moreover a patient of perforated stomach ulcer does not pass blood in the urine. To me it seems more like a case of Spanish Fly poisoning..." "What! Spanish Fly!! What kind of a poison is that? To me it appears the name of some insect rather than poison." "Yes Spanish Fly indeed is an insect. But the name is rather a misnomer. It is neither strictly Spanish nor a fly. It is a beetle belonging to the order Coleoptera, and Family Meloidea. Besides Spain, it is also found in several other Mediterranean countries such as southern France, and Italy and also in Russia. In Europe, it is usually found clustered on privet (an evergreen shrub, bearing small white flowers, much used for garden hedges) or such trees as ash or elder. Also known as blister beetle, it is about 2 cm long and 0.75 cm broad and is usually found on olive trees. Its body and wings have a shiny metallic green color. Its biological name is Cantharis vesicatoria. It is the most celebrated of all aphrodisiacs. When an average person thinks of an aphrodisiac, Spanish Fly comes immediately to his mind. "Just a minute doctor. You have introduced certain terms which I don't quite understand. You say that Spanish Fly is also known as the blister beetle. Why is that? And what is an aphrodisiac?" Spanish Fly. These are the crushed bodies of the insect, which can be used as a poison "Tarun, Spanish fly has a chemical in its body known as Cantharidin. It is an irritant. When it is rubbed over the body, it produces blisters. That is why it is known as blister beetle. The term aphrodisiac comes from Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty. When the dried and crushed body of Spanish fly is ingested, it causes severe inflammation in kidneys, ureters and all other organs of genital tract. Because of this property there is a swelling in genital organs. This gave rise to a false belief that Spanish fly could be used for the treatment of impotent people. There is however no truth in this. The swelling of the genital organs, instead of being pleasurable, is extremely painful. Moreover, the dose required to produce such swelling is close to the fatal dose. In women, it may cause violent and painful contractions of the uterus. Because of this, the beetle is sometimes administered by quacks for inducing clandestine abortions." "Are there several types of Spanish flies doctor?" "Tarun, Several different genus and species of beetles are known to contain Cantharidin. All of them have been called the Spanish fly. In the USA, Epicauta and Nemognatha genuses are commonly encountered, of which Epicauta vittata is very well known. In India, three different varieties are found. One variety known as Telni Makkhi (Mylabris cichorii), occurs abundantly in the rainy season in certain parts of North India, especially Kashmir. Another variety (Mylabris pustulata), is found in the fields of cereals and vegetables in the neighborhood of Bangalore. The third species known as Mylabris macilenta is found in southern regions of our country. In Morocco it is available freely in pure form or as an ingredient in the melange of hot spices called ras el hanout, which is usually taken to increase the libido. In 19th century France, it was commonly available as philtre amoureux or love philtre. "Doctor, how is the so-called aphrodisiac made from these flies?" "Tarun, by tradition the beetles were gathered before sunrise while still torpid and unable to fly, the collectors veiling their faces and hands before shaking them down on to cloths laid on the ground. This method may still be in use today. The insects were then dried and heated until they disintegrate into a fine powder. The powder can be easily recognized from its bright green metallic lustre. Several proprietary medicines are made from this powder. In USA, cantharides collodion is in recognized topical use for wart treatment. Cantharidin is used in several hair oils in India. The belief is that the cantharidin stimulates the hair roots and induces them to grow, but this belief has little scientific sanction. Sometimes a tincture is produced by dissolving the powder in alcohol. A vinegar type preparation may also be produced by percolation with acetic acid and water. Aphrodisiac sweets were made by impregnating sugared sweets, and were widely used under the name pilles galantes. They were also sometimes called pastilles de Richelieu, because Duc de Richelieu (1585-1642) administered them to his mistresses. As you must surely be knowing, he was chief minister to the French king Louis XIII from 1624 till his death in 1642. It was said that Madame du Barry, a famous French courtesan, referred to them as pastilles de sérail (pastilles of the seraglio), using them on herself, or perhaps administering them to young women to prepare them for their amorous duties with the ageing Louis XV. " Doctor, earlier you said that Spanish Fly contains a chemical known as cantharidin. Could you please let me know a little bit more about it?" "Yes, certainly. Cantharidin was isolated in 1810 by a French chemist, Roviquet. It is present in the ovaries, soft tissues and blood of the beetle. Cantharidin is a comparatively simple organic compound which occurs as colorless, odorless crystals..." "But doctor, you have just said that Spanish Fly powder is bright metallic green...?" "Tarun, although the Spanish Fly powder has a bright green metallic lustre, cantharidin- its active chemical constituent- is colorless. These crystals glisten in light yet give no color reactions and can not be detected by any simple chemical test. The old powdered preparations of Spanish Fly can however be identified by using a microscope to show the characteristic fragments of insect in the powder. "What is its fatal dose doctor?" "Tarun, about 1.5 grams of powdered Spanish Fly or 50 mg of pure crystalline cantharidin is enough to cause death. I must tell you that although Spanish fly is not an aphrodisiac at all, it has been used effectively in veterinary medicine in breeding farm animals." "What symptoms does one experience on swallowing the poison?" "When swallowed, there is a burning sensation in the throat and stomach, difficulty in swallowing, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting of blood stained material, intense thirst, and diarrhoea with blood and mucus. As time passes, kidneys get damaged. There is a dull heavy pain in the loins, and a constant desire to pass urine, but only small amount of blood stained urine is passed This last symptom is known as strangury. After some time, convulsions occur and death occurs in 24 hours. Occasionally, blister formation may take place in the mouth and other parts of the gut with which the poison has come in contact. You will remember that Rita had several of these symptoms." "Yes, I do. Suresh probably gave it to her for abortion. But you told me earlier that it has a great - although false - reputation as an aphrodisiac. Has anyone administered it to someone to increase the desire" "Tarun, there is a very interesting case in which a married man Arthur Ford deceptively administered Spanish fly powder in coconut candies to two female colleagues, both of whom had earlier spurned his advances. He approached a pharmacist he knew personally to provide him with some cantharidin. It was used in those days in some lotions, so it was usually available with pharmacists. He gave the reason as administration to a neighbor's rabbits which were not breeding fast enough! Although the pharmacist was known to him, he refused to oblige. Ford returned during the lunch hour when the pharmacist was absent and stole some cantharidin. With a pair of scissors he inserted the powder in coconut candies and gave it to his female colleagues. His idea was to increase their desire, so that they may come running to him in his arms, but quite predictably both of them died and Ford got six years in jail! This celebrated case of Spanish fly poisonings occurred in UK in 1954. But about two centuries earlier another famous case occurred..." "What was that case doctor? Please tell me about it." "Tarun this case is most interesting. It is a very long and interesting one, but I shall tell you only the gist. On Saturday, 27 June 1772, the notorious French sex pervert Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) with the help of his valet Latour, arranged for four French prostitutes to gather at a place where he wanted to have fun with them...." "Sorry to interrupt you doctor, but isn't he the same man after whom the word Sadism has been coined?" "Yes, you are right Tarun. Although de Sade was a sex pervert, he was a great writer too, and has written such classical books as 120 Days of Sodom, Justine and Juliette. His writings revolved around a single dominant theme: cruelty of every kind performed for the purpose of achieving sexual excitement. This practice was later named "sadism". "Yes, so we were talking about Marquis de Sade...." "Oh yes Tarun. After he had called the prostitutes, he gave them sweet aniseed (saunf) balls laced with Spanish Fly, in the belief that it would "set them on fire". Later on the same day evening he met another - the fifth- prostitute and repeated the same practice with her. She as well as one of the earlier 4 prostitutes started having incessant and uncontrollable vomiting. You might wonder why the other girls did not get poisoned. Well, they had secretly dropped the sweets on the floor after suspecting something black at the bottom. A written complaint of poisoning was formally lodged on Tuesday, 30 June 1772. The investigating officer was Jean-Pierre Chomel, Lieutenant Général criminel at the Seneschal's Court in Marseille. He collected the sample of vomit and sent it for chemical analysis to two toxicologists, André Rimbaud and Jean-Baptiste Joseph Aubert. The first suspicion was that the poison was arsenic. We have already discussed about this poison in our last meeting. It may be interesting to note that in 1772, the methods of chemical analysis of poisons were extremely primitive, the first reliable chemical test of note for any poison being developed in 1836 for arsenic." "Yes, we talked about that last time. That was the Marsh test. Were these toxicologists able to detect cantharidin from the vomitus?" "No, they used very primitive methods, which could not determine the nature of the poison. The maximum they could say was that it was neither arsenic nor corrosive sublimate, the two poisons known in those times to cause severe vomiting." "This means that de Sade and Latour must have gone scot free." "Tarun, as we discussed in our very first meeting, in those times poisoning was considered a very grave offense, and the tendency of the authorities was to punish the suspects irrespective of the presence of evidence. The failure to detect poison did not, therefore, deter the legal authorities. Police teams were dispatched to arrest both de Sade and Latour, but they had fled. On 3 September the same year, despite the absence of both Marquis de Sade and his valet, the case was brought to trial. Both de Sade and his valet were found guilty of poisoning and sodomy. They were sentenced in absentia. The Marquis de Sade was to have his head struck off while Latour was to be hanged or strangled by the public executioner. Afterwards their bodies were to be burnt and the ashes scattered. However as both of them could not be caught, their straw effigies were hanged on 12 September 1772. For an utterly wrong belief, two innocent girls were in agony for almost a week, and almost lost their lives. This case occurred almost two and a quarter centuries back. But it is indeed unfortunate that Spanish fly still enjoys a reputation as an aphrodisiac and figures largely in lavatorial jokes and bawdy ballads. Its use is to be actively discouraged. "Yes, surely it must. But doctor, in the second case, which occurred in 1954, doctors must have been able to detect the poison quite successfully?" "Tarun, it is interesting to note that although almost two centuries had elapsed between the two cases, the advances in knowledge and technique brought about during this period still seemed scarcely sufficient for the task of solving it. The chemical analysis of the poison in Arthur Ford's case was done by Dr. Lewis C. Nickolls, director of the Metropolitan Police Laboratory at New Scotland Yard. He also could not find an infallible chemical test for it. He concluded that there were only three ways in which one could arrive at a positive identification for cantharidin: by its melting point; by the X-ray diffraction pattern obtained from its crystals; and by the standard observation that, when cantharidin is applied to human skin, pain and blistering are produced. But these tests can not be called ideal. For instance, applying cantharidin to skin can be dangerous....." "Really? How? Tell me doctor." "Tarun, in 1953- just one year before the notorious Arthur Ford case- an important case of accidental death with Spanish Fly had occurred, in which the poison seeped through the skin. A keen 43-year old fisherman had managed to obtain some cantharidin, believing it would attract fish...." "It is indeed remarkable how such bizarre beliefs have centered around Spanish Fly. Isn't it doctor?" "Yes, sure, and all of them are wrong. Well, we were talking about that fisherman. After shaking up the powder with water, he stopped the mouth of the bottle with his thumb, and then, within minutes, unfortunately pricked his thumb with one of his fish hooks. Within half an hour he was ill, within three days dead. This shows that the drug can penetrate broken skin, and possibly unbroken skin too, with toxic if not fatal results." "Oh, that certainly is most interesting. Doctor what have you found in the post-mortem of Rita?" "Tarun, Rita's mouth showed blisters, which at once made me suspicious about Spanish Fly. The whole alimentary tract from the mouth downwards is inflamed. You can see it is completely injected with blood. But the finding that has nabbed Suresh is the presence of bright green particles in Rita's stomach and intestines..." "Oh, yes sure. I can see bright metallic green particles sticking on the walls of stomach. Are there more clues doctor?" "Oh yes there are, but none as specific as the finding of green particles in the stomach. You can see that the kidneys and ureters are congested. The uterus is congested and it shows a fetus about 2 months of age. It is almost sure that Suresh administered Spanish Fly to abort this fetus to save her from the ignominy of childbirth before marriage." "Great, let us go and tell about this to the police." "Oh, I have already done that Tarun, and have instructed the police specifically to look for some bright metallic green powder in his possession. I knew that if this powder is found in his possession, Suresh's lawyers would find it very difficult to save him. And do you know what? Police specifically looked for this powder and has actually been able to locate it in one of the shelves of his house. Had I not informed them about it, they would probably have left it untouched. So Forensic medicine has indeed been able to nab Suresh." " Oh, Great, and thank you doctor for telling me about such an interesting poison. What are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time I shall tell you about Boron, which as you shall see is a very important poison. "

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE DECEMBER 1997 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY LYSOL -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today. You seem to be doing the post-mortem on a very old man. He is showing some ghastly trickle marks over his chest and abdomen too. What happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this man is Ramlal and he is 60 years old. His dead body was found in his house on 29 November at 8 am. He lived alone in his house. His wife had expired some time back, and his two sons had both left him, and were living abroad along with their families. The most peculiar thing about the dead body, as you have already commented upon, are these strange and curious reddish black trickle marks starting from his mouth and going on to his neck and chest..." "Yes certainly. I would think he had been poisoned by someone?" "That's exactly what the police is thinking. It certainly appears that someone had given him some poisonous substance to drink. No poisonous substance has however been found in the vicinity of the body, and this substantiates the belief that Ramlal was indeed poisoned..." "What significance does the presence of poisonous substance near the body has?" "If the poisonous substance is found near the dead body, the presumption is that the person took it himself. The reason is that he might have died soon after taking poison, and had no way to remove the poison from the vicinity. On the other hand if the poison was administered by some poisoner, he would take the remaining poison with him. However there have been cases where the person has taken the poison with suicidal intention and then kept the poison back at some secret place, before the death actually occurred." "Oh, I see." "Well, the fact that no poison was found in the vicinity of Ramlal gave rise to the suspicion that someone visited Ramlal, perhaps on the previous day and gave him something to drink. After Ramlal had drunk the potion, the poisoner left. The suspicion of Police has fallen upon Pyare, who had an old axe to grind with Ramlal. Ramlal had lent Pyare Rs 20,000 about 2 years back which Pyare was not returning. Recently Ramlal had intensified his efforts to get the money back. Pyare was unable to give the money back. Recently Ramlal had threatened to go to the police if Pyare did not pay up within two weeks." "Sure enough, Pyare had lot of good reason to do away with Ramlal?" "Yes, and he has a criminal background too. Twice before he had been to jail, once for shoplifting, and once for eve-teasing. He had even visited Ramlal on the evening of November 28, just one day before the body of Ramlal was found. Several neighbors had seen him entering Ramlal's house. There were angry shouts from within the house after which Pyare hurriedly left. As you can plainly see, all this evidence is against Pyare, but when the police questioned Pyare, he expressed his complete ignorance about the death. The police inspector Gajendra Singh had decided to apply third degree methods to Pyare, when this case was brought to me." "So how you are going to find out if Pyare had indeed done away with Ramlal?" "Well, look at the body first (Please reproduce handmade fig 1 here). These trickle marks have surely been made by some strongly corrosive substance. Such a strong corrosive substance could only have been administered by Ramlal himself. No one could possibly give this substance to him. So it appears that Pyare indeed is innocent." "How can you prove it scientifically?" "Well. I have examined the stomach contents chemically and have found them to contain large quantities of Lysol..." "Never heard of such a substance. Doctor, please give me some more information about lysol." "Really! Well, let me first tell you about a related substance Carbolic Acid. Both carbolic acid and Lysol are very strong poisons. They are chemically quite closely related too. The chemical formula of carbolic acid is C6H5OH. It is known by several other names, some of them being Phenol, Phenyl alcohol, Phenic acid, and Hydroxybenzene. It is a colorless substance, but its needle-like crystals turn pink and liquefy when exposed to air. Although we call it an acid, it is not a true acid and does not redden litmus paper. It has a sweet burning taste and a distinct `carbolic' smell, the one which you would usually get in hospitals or operation rooms. In homes too we generally use it in our toilets. It is usually known as Phenyle in ordinary parlance. It looks like a thick syrupy brownish red liquid. "Oh sure we do use it. So it is carbolic acid?" "Yes it is. It is soluble in water. Its solubility in water is 6.7 g/100 ml at 160C. Besides water, it is soluble in many other solvents including alcohol, ether and glycerine. The commercial carbolic acid is a dark brown liquid containing several impurities, chiefly cresol." "Well, we are getting another new substance. What exactly is cresol doctor?" "Tarun, cresol is a mixture of three isomers of methyl phenol (CH3C6H4OH). It is now known to be a better disinfectant than phenol. It is less toxic than phenol, yet has a better germ killing activity. It is available in the market as an oily solution known as Lysol. Sometimes even lysol is used as a disinfectant in homes. This is what Ramlal has ingested." "Doctor, you talk about germ killing activity of phenol. Now I am beginning to recall. Isn't carbolic acid the same which was proposed by Lord Lister as an antiseptic?" "You are right Tarun. In fact Carbolic acid was originally introduced by Lemaire as a disinfectant and its use for this purpose became general when Lord Lister chose it as an agent to prevent and cure sepsis. Lord Lister was a British surgeon who was born in England in 1827. In his time, the concept of antiseptic surgery was completely unknown and many patients died after the operation because of infection. For the first time, Lister came to the right conclusion that the infection was caused by the bacteria present in the air. To kill those bacteria, he used carbolic acid. The first operation in which he used carbolic acid was performed in March 1865. Surely, no infection occurred. Subsequently all operations were conducted in rooms where the air had been disinfected with a carbolic spray. Lord Lister also introduced carbolized oil for the storage of catgut sutures. The Listerian method soon yielded great benefit to the patients but unfortunately, the poisonous nature of the remedy took its toll too. Many patients died when the wounds were disinfected with carbolic acid, because it was absorbed in the system." "Oh, it appears every good thing has its own bad aspects too." "Things were not as bad as they appeared. Safer disinfectants were soon discovered. The principal modern phenolic disinfectants include Lysol which is a 50% solution of cresol in saponified vegetable oil. Lysol is only about one-eighth as poisonous as phenol. And it might come as a surprise to you that the modern Dettol is also a relative of carbolic acid. Of course it is even less dangerous than lysol, so much so, that it is frequently used by people for disinfecting wounds even without the recommendation of a doctor." "Then why do people use Lysol at all?" "Lysol is mainly used for disinfecting bathrooms and toilets. The term Lysol is a actually a trademark rather than a chemical term. The chemical term as I have already told you is cresol. It might interest you to know that this trademark was first registered by a German firm, but following the First World War, this registration was cancelled. It is however still a protected trademark in certain countries, notably in the United States, and thus the term is always written with a capital L. Lysol has an amber or red-brown color and a distinctive phenolic odour. Although it is only about 1/8th as toxic as carbolic acid, it remains quite irritating, and its toxicity is well known. You can see that Ramlal died because of this poison. It is alkaline in nature, and it is its alkalinity that makes it more irritant. During the 1930s, it was a common choice of the suicides by poisoning. It can be absorbed from the intact skin and concentrated solutions of it are corrosive." "Doctor, can lysol be used as a homicidal poison?" "Hardly. The reason is that it is so corrosive and has such a distinctive color and smell. As I told you in several of my earlier meetings, an ideal homicidal poison should be colorless, odorless and tasteless. However it has been used as an irrigating fluid for inducing abortions by quacks..." "What does that mean doctor?" "Tarun, if an unmarried girl becomes pregnant, she wants to have an abortion for fear of society's ridicule. And for this purpose she frequently contacts quacks. They do not know of the modern safe methods of abortion and use age old dangerous methods. One of the methods is to irrigate the uterus with strong irritant substances, such as phenol or lysol. The solution is passed through the vagina through a tube. Whether it really expelled the uterine contents is anyone's guess but what is certain is that it caused several deaths of pregnant girls." "Really? So even a passage in the uterus can cause death. But how?" "Tarun, it can enter the blood stream through dilated uterine veins and can cause fatal poisoning. You must remember that in pregnant women, the uterine veins are often very much dilated. Since all veins empty in the right side of the heart, it is reasonable to expect the right side of the heart to contain unusually high amounts of lysol in such deaths. If high amounts of lysol or phenol are found in the right side of the heart, it is safe to assume that some quack did administer phenol or lysol to the unfortunate mother through the vagina." "Very clever doctor! Tell me, are there some other points which can help you prove that Ramlal did die of lysol poisoning?" "Tarun, the greatest proof is the chemical report of the stomach contents. But there are other findings too. Look at the stomach wall. It is soapy to touch. You would remember that lysol is actually a solution of cresol in saponified vegetable oil. It is because of this fact that the stomach wall is appearing soapy to touch. Further, you can find that the stomach wall is reddish brown. This is the color of lysol. The stomach wall is also soft in texture, and this is how the stomach wall becomes in lysol poisoning. Of course the trickle marks over the face, chest and abdomen also go in favor of lysol poisoning. Ramlal has indeed taken the poison himself. This poison couldn't have been administered to him by Pyare, who in fact is innocent. Ramlal was actually extremely depressed because his wife had died and his sons had left him. After Pyare left him on November 28, Ramlal became all the more depressed, because of constant irritations from various quarters. Sure enough in a bout of severe depression after Pyare left, Ramlal ingested the poison, and finished himself. Come let us tell the police about our findings." "Wait a minute doctor. Where is the bottle of lysol? If Ramlal took the poison himself, he couldn't have removed the bottle. Then why haven't we found the bottle?" "Tarun, death in lysol poisoning occurs in about 3-4 hours. So Ramlal took the poison, and put it back in his almirah. I have looked in his almirahs and have found the bottle there. It is half empty. It shows the fingerprints of only Ramlal. No fingerprints of Pyare have been found on it. So it seems that Pyare indeed is innocent." "Oh, how very clever of you doctor. This was a most interesting discussion. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very deadly poison- Phosgene "

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-6 THE VITAL EVIDENCE ? During my long professional career, I have been involved in a number of interesting cases, where a sound medical knowledge helped me to unravel crime. I will discuss one such case here. Ram Avtar was a God fearing man living on the outskirts of Delhi. He had a small family; a religious wife, a fifteen year old son Raju and a twenty-one year old daughter Neetu. Ram Avtar was worried about Neetu as she was growing older rapidly, and he wanted to get her married. She was beautiful and moderately educated, but as Ram Avtar did not have enough money to pay as dowry, he was having difficulty in finding a suitable groom. A beautiful, poor, young girl is often the target of bad elements in the neighborhood. Shamsher and Kishore, two bad characters of the locality, often teased her. Whenever Neetu would pass through the streets, they would pass filthy remarks on her. In several such remarks, they proposed marriage with her even. But Neetu knew them well and quite rightly ignored and avoided them. But one day they transcended all limits of decency. It was about 10.00 pm on August 22, 1983. Neetu was returning home after visiting her aunt. Normally she wouldn't have been so late but the DTC bus in which she was traveling, went out of order. She could not get an alternative transport for quite some time. Finally she decided to walk home as she could not afford an auto rickshaw. Shamsher and Kishore were drinking at the local pub, round the corner. By the time they saw Neetu arrive, they were quite tipsy. They staggered towards her as she advanced towards her house. One of them caught hold of her dupatta (Dupatta is a small band of cloth used in India by the girls to cover breasts) and pulled it while the other tried to touch her breasts. He managed to lay his hand on her left breast and even succeeded in stealing a kiss on her cheeks. Naturally this enraged her and she started calling for help. Ramavtar came out of the house and as soon as he saw the two youths and his disheveled daughter, he understood the whole story and instinctively started beating them. He also raised an alarm, on hearing which many residents came out of their houses. They also gave them a sound thrashing and later dragged both of them to the police station. The police swung into action and registered a case under Section 354 on the Indian penal Code (which deals with “indecent assault on women”). The case did not drag on for long. Eight residents of the colony, besides Ramavtar and Neetu, gave evidence against Shamsher and Kishore. Against such an overwhelming evidence, the court found no difficulty in prosecuting both of them. They were sentenced to six months of rigorous imprisonment. When the two criminals were being dragged to jail, they openly swore to get even with Ramavtar and Neetu. Many people heard their threats, but none took them seriously as they were petty criminals and could not do much harm to them. On January 14, 1986, the unexpected happened. Ramavtar's wife and son were away on a marriage. Only Ramavtar and Neetu were at home. At 6.00 am when the milkman knocked at Ramavtar's door, there was no response. Normally the milkman would have gone away but he had to collect the payment, which was already delayed by a week. When there was no response even after 5 minutes, the milkman got suspicious and informed the neighbors. Soon many people collected outside. Someone informed the police. When the police broke open the door, they found a horrible scene. Ramavtar was found dead on his bed, his head badly mangled. Neetu was lying stark naked, spread-eagled on the floor. There was a gag in her mouth and foam at her nostrils. Her genitals were bleeding. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of crime could see that she had been sexually assaulted a number of times. The window of the room was ajar. It appeared that the criminals had escaped from the window. A detailed enquiry could not reveal much. A faint lead came from one neighbor, Satbir. He said that on the night of January 13-14, he had got up to urinate twice, sometime in the night. For urination, he had to go to his backyard, from where he could clearly see Ramavtar's house. He usually got up in the night to urinate and he couldn't help but see Ramavtar's house, as it lay exactly at the back of his house. Normally the lights in Ramavtar's house used to be off, but last night, when he went to urinate for the second time, he found that the lights were on. He was quite drowsy initially, but he noticed that the lights were flickering. It appeared that someone was moving about with a torch. It was a strange sight, but he did not give it much importance, as no sound was coming from there. He thought that their electricity may have failed and they were looking for something, probably a candle. The police asked him for more information, but he could not reveal more. Finally they came to me for help. I saw the scene of the crime and listened to Satbir's versions. The police inspector was standing besides me when I was interrogating him. The police inspector again asked him if he could remember the time when he saw those flickering lights. Clearly if he could remember the time, the police would know the exact time of murder, down to the last minute. But Satbir had not looked at the clock and try hard as he would, he could not remember the time. It could have been 1 am, 2 am or even 5.15 am. He just did not know the time. The already faint clue was becoming fainter. I looked at my watch. It was 8.15 am now. Tired of interrogation, Satbir asked to be permitted to go to the urinals. I asked him if he had gone to the urinals again after seeing those lights. He answered in the negative. I produced a flask from my bag and asked him to urinate in that. The police officer was surprised at this strange request, but I told him that everything could become clear soon. When Shamsher and Kishore were rounded up for investigation, they came up with an iron-strong alibi. They were in Chandigarh the previous night and had landed in Delhi only at 3.00 am, on January 14. They had bus tickets to prove this. When the driver and conductor of the bus were contacted, they affirmed that Shamsher and Kishore had indeed traveled on that bus that night. With the time of murder not yet fully solved, it seemed difficult to implicate them for murder, although the police had a strong hunch that Shamsher and Kishore were the ones who had murdered them out of revenge. The police inspector came to me and asked if I could say anything about the time of murder. On hearing the latest developments, I realized that in the light of fresh revelations, the calculation of the time of murder had become vital now. I brought out the flask of urine, measured the volume of urine and told him that Ramavtar and Neetu had been murdered at 4.35 am on January 14. This took the police officer by surprise. Indeed if my calculation was correct, he could implicate Shamsher and Kishore in the murder, because by that time they were already in Delhi. In fact, if the time of murder was found to be earlier than 3.00 am (the time when Shamsher and Kishore landed in Delhi), his task would have become a lot more difficult. He asked me how I had calculated the time of death of Ramavtar and Neetu, from Satbir's urine. In fact, initially he thought that I was joking. But like a good old medical detective, I wanted to keep my secrets. I told him that I would reveal my calculations in the court only. The court duly acknowledged my scientific evidence and both Shamsher and Kishore were sent to jail for life. Now, let me share this secret with the readers. All medical people know that our kidneys produce 1 ml of urine in 1 minute. Thus, in a day we produce about 1440 ml of urine. When the bladder accumulates about 300-400 ml of urine, we feel an urge to go to the urinals. When Satbir got up in the night to urinate, he emptied his bladder completely. We can be sure of that. Now what is important is that his kidneys started pouring exactly 1 ml of urine per minute into his urinary bladder. When at 8.15 am, I took his urine in my flask, its volume was 220 ml. It meant that Satbir had emptied his bladder 220 minutes earlier, i.e. 3 hours and 40 minutes earlier. When this time was subtracted from the time the urine sample was taken (which was 8.15 am), I got the required time, which was 4.35 am. This meant that Satbir must have got up at 4.35 am (for the second time) to urinate and it was at that time when he saw strange lights in Ramavtar's house. Here Satbir's kidneys worked as effective clocks for me. The human body works in a rhythmic fashion and if we know how to make use of this rhythm, we can unravel seemingly unsolvable mysteries.