No abstract

We report, from the aspect of 'acting' capability, an autopsy case of suicide by hanging in which multiple deep stab wounds were observed in the neck and chest. A 49-year-old man was found dead in a state typical of hanging. His car was found about 100m away with a blood-stained climber's knife on the seat. Multiple incised and stab wounds were in the neck, with a lesion of the right inner jugular vein. Three penetrating stab wounds of the chest punctured the lungs, with pooling of about 500ml of blood in the left thorax and about 100ml in the right. Two other shallow stab wounds were in the chest. All the above wounds were explainable as self-inflicted. From the autopsy findings and the circumstantial evidence, it was concluded that he walked approximately 100m after stabbing his neck and chest and finally committed suicide by hanging.

High-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry enabled us not only to measure bromvalerylurea rapidly, < or = 2 h following accumulation of human bone marrow, but also to improve sensitivity without interference. The method can be widely and effectively used in the fields of pharmacy and forensic sciences.

This report concerns a head-on collision accident of a motorcycle at a very high speed (c. 80-100 Km/h) against a bonnet-type automobile, in which both the motorcyclist and pillion rider were injured at the base of the skull by violent anteroflexion of the head due to the force of inertia. A difference in their injuries was: the motorcyclist sustained a 'ring' fracture and the pillion rider an atlanto-occipital avulsion; dural tear. Anteroflexion without impact on the occiput such as described above seems to be a rare causal mechanism of the 'ring' fracture. In addition, the mode of action of the accelerating forces to the heads of the victims along with their physiques may explain the mechanism which caused the different injuries in this accident.