theoddmentemporium:

Galvanic Reanimation of the Dead

In biology, galvanism is the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. The effect was named after the scientist Luigi Galvani, who investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 18th century. When Galvani was doing some dissection work in his lab, his scalpel touched the body of a frog, and he saw the muscles in the frog’s leg twitch. Galvani referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a distinct form of electricity. [Source]

Two decades later, Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took the process one step further when he applied it to the corpses of humans. In 1803 he performed experiments in public on the severed heads of ‘malefactors,’ despatched in Bologna and London. The following accounts demonstrate what was witnessed:

“George Forster was hung … at Newgate Prison, for the drowning of his wife and youngest child in the Paddington Canal. After hanging for an hour in sub-zero temperatures, Aldini procured the body and began his galvanic experiments. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons’ Company, who was officially present during this experiment, was so alarmed that he died of fright soon after his return home.”

“[The galvanic] stimulus produced the most horrible contortions and grimaces by the motions of the muscles of the head and face; and an hour and a quarter after death, the arm of one of the bodies was elevated eight inches from the table on which it was supported, and this even when a considerable weight was placed in the hand.”

There is much speculation that Aldini’s experiments were the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. 

biomedicalephemera:

Lower esophagus, stomach, and duodenum of poisoning victims

- Top Left: Acute arsenical poisoning. Note the spots where the arsenic ate its way through the tough wall of the stomach.
- Top Right: Potassium-cyanide poisoning. Largely hemorrhagic, slimy, contracted stomach.
- Second Left: Poisoning with corrosive sublimate. Greyish-green stomach, with lack of bloodflow to local vessels.
- Second Right: Concentrated nitric acid poisoning. Extremely rigid, bright green esophagus, pharynx, stomach, and small intestine.
- Third Left: Acute carbolic acid poisoning.
- Third Right: Subacute carbolic acid poisoning. Note the extreme inflammation as opposed to contracted dead tissue, especially in the esophagus.
- Bottom Left: Dilute sulfuric acid poisoning.
- Bottom Right: Concentrated sulfuric acid poisoning. Note the appearance of the stomach in the dilute versus concentrated sulfuric acid. The author notes a “firm, cooked” appearance to the concentrated sulfuric acid poisoning, and you can observe the beginnings of that “cooked” appearance in the dilute sulfuric acid poisoning.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Suicide by hanging, with an old rope wound five times about the neck.

The lack of cyanosis (blue skin - generally caused by lack of oxygen) and the marked ecchymoses from the rope lead the forensic pathologist to conclude that this man hanged himself, or was hanged while still alive.

For a prolonged period during the 1800s and early 1900s, strangulation and staging a hanging was a crime not unheard of, and a fairly popular tactic for disguising a murder. If the decedent was dead prior to hanging, the ecchymoses (ruptured blood vessels) would not have formed as they did, and if he was strangled manually, significant cyanosis would appear prior to death. Because there is a lack of cyanosis and a presence of imprints from the rope, one can conclude that he was alive when he was hanged. Though it does not completely rule out murder, this conclusion would likely lead to a finding of “suicide” on the death certificate, barring suspicion of forced hanging.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

drfrankscali:

Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination - Prints available on my website (http://www.drfrankscali.com/prints/)

My personal speculation of the pathway of the bullet which killed the US President based on his autopsy report .(http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln60.html)

For this image, I did extensive research on Lincoln’s assassination including the gun used to depict accurate bullet size (diameter of 10.9 mm). I decided to not include the brain and to draw this piece showing the venous sinuses of the cranial vault. The bullet entered the left side of the occipital bone and grazed the superior surface of the left transverse sinus (as shown). As the cranial vault slowly filled with blood, this is most likely the pathological cause of Lincoln’s death. 

Lincoln was assassinated in Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 (Good Friday). He was in a balcony watching the play “Our American Cousin”. Considering he was glancing downwards onto the stage, and based on anatomical evidence stated in the autopsy report, I portrayed the path angle of the bullet slightly superior.

Art was created using graphite. Some of the smaller vessels in the head and image contrast changes are digital. 

Because a depiction of the bullet pathway has yet to be shared with the historical/medical community, I plan on submitting this piece to Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was shot.

Music this image was illustrated to: http://www.repeatmyvids.com/watch?v=bR2w-TROUQ0&kmdom=youtube

biomedicalephemera:

Top: Hand of a day-laborer who had been drowned 24 hours prior
Bottom: Hand of a drowned person submerged in running water for several weeks

The process of tissues decomposing and sloughing off in animals generally reaches its peak around three to four weeks, in a moderate climate. However, in running water, the washing away of the acids from the liquefied fats and proteins, and the lack of insect activity, can often significantly retard or alter the decomposition.

Because of this, it can often take several extra weeks for tissues submerged in running water to separate from the body, and when they do separate, they don’t so much slough off when their substrate is consumed, but “slip” off, often in large sheets. The dermis of the hand is well-connected to itself, but less well-connected to its substrate, and as such is often subject to a phenomenon called “gloving” - where the skin slips off in, you guessed it, a “glove”.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Lower extremity of newborn, under running water for several months - formation of “adipocere”

One of the most interesting things to find in a cadaver is when adipocere forms. This so-called “grave wax” shows that a body is at least several months old, as it takes a while for the biochemical reactions to take place that form this substance.

While most cadavers go through the full decomposition process and are rotted away by bacteria and other organisms, bodies that form adipocere begin a process of anaerobic bacterial hydrolysis at the start of the putrefaction stage of decomposition. As most of the proteins in the body are digested, the fat in the body racidifies, and instead of being digested with everything else, breaks down into glycerine, fatty solids (saturated fats), and fluid fatty acids (unsaturated fat). The glycerine and fluid fatty acids are washed away or dissolved, and the solid fat remains behind, forming a cast of the body.

Adipocere is white or gray, and very much like thick cottage cheese in its crumbly texture. It’s very hardy and preservative in quality, and cadavers over 700 years old have been found to have easily-discernible fine facial structures because of it. However, the formation of the substance requires very specific conditions to be met, the most important of which is a body with a relatively high fat content (though there are occasional exceptions). Because of this, infants, young women, and the obese are most likely to be found in this state.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Mummified cadaver of suicide by hanging

On the other end of the scale from that rapid putrefaction is mummification.

This cadaver is of a man who hanged himself in a dry, airy attic ten years before being found. His organs began to putrefy shortly after death, but as he disappeared (and likely hanged himself shortly after) in mid-November, the dry, cold, winter air halted to decomposition process. As he dessicated all winter long, the heat and insect activity of the following summers had little effect on his remains. Since the area he was found had little humidity during the summer, it appears that the heat hardened the remaining skin, and did not allow further decomposition as it would have when coupled with dampness.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

glittertomb:

by *Corviid

(via batwithbutterflywings)

devflavio46:

Gérard de Lairesse

devflavio46:

Gérard de Lairesse