NCJ Number
70043
Editor(s)
J A Perper,
C H Wecht
Date Published
1980
Length
466 pages
Annotation
Written as a text for forensic pathologists, the book is a collection of treatises by individual forensic scientists on the most common situations in which a microscopic examination is indicated.
Abstract
Each chapter attempts to serve as a guide to the use of the microscopic examination in determining the exact causes of sudden and unexpected death. The reports of the forensic pathologist may have significant impact on the proper administration of justice, on matters of compensation, insurance, negligence, future prevention of similar deaths, and on the scientific body of statistical knowledge. Two chapters explore the histological, the histochemical, and the biochemical estimation of the age of injuries, while another discusses the importance of detailed examination of the cardiovascular system. Chapters on microscopic changes in adverse drug reactions and in drug abuse offer the specific and wide ranging effects of drugs on the entire body. The chapters on drowning reveal the difficulty in identifying death by drowning as a certainty, and offer the diatom method of diagnostic approach as being technically easy, consistent, and highly reliable. Other chapters deal with microscopic features of emboli, microscopic approach to rape and sexual crimes, electrical injuries, microscopy of traumatic central nervous system injuries, histopathology of gunshot wounds, microscopic diagnosis of hairs and fibers, and application of the scanning electron microscope with elemental x-ray emission analyzer in forensic pathology. Each chapter includes illustrations, case histories, and references. An index is included.