The 1628 Vasa Inquest in Sweden: Learning Contemporary Lessons for Effective Death Investigation.

Much that is constructive can be achieved from analysis of death investigations that have failed to achieve desirable outcomes in terms of learning lessons about risks to health and safety and in terms of gaining an understanding as to how further tragedies can be avoided. This article reviews an "inquest" into the sinking in 1628 of the pride of the Swedish Navy, the Vasa, and the factors that led to the inquest failing to come to grips with the various design, building, oversight, subcontracting, communication, and co-ordination flaws that contributed to the vessel being foreseeably unstable and thus unseaworthy. It argues that Reason's Swiss cheese analysis of systemic contributions to risk and modern principles of Anglo-Australasian-Canadian death investigation shed light on how a better investigation of the tragedy that cost 30 lives and a disastrous loss of a vessel of unparalleled cost to the Kingdom of Sweden could have led to more useful insights into the multifactorial causes of the sinking of the Vasa than were yielded by the inquest.

"Las declaraciones de esencia" del siglo XVIII: Un tipo textual para el estudio de la terminología anatómica / "Las declaraciones de esencia" (surgical-legal declarations) of the 18th century: A textual type for the study of anatomic terminology

En los pleitos y probanzas del siglo XVIII, las declaraciones quirúrgico-legales se denominan frecuentemente «declaraciones de esencia». Son certificaciones médicas llevadas a cabo por cirujanos y sangradores en las que dictan a un escribano la descripción minuciosa de las heridas sufridas por las víctimas de una agresión. Se trata de un tipo textual interesantísimo para estudiar el léxico médico que se empleaba en el día a día de la práctica terapéutica, porque recoge tanto las voces populares como los tecnicismos médicos y anatómicos de la época. El artículo se cierra con la transcripción de siete declaraciones redactadas por cirujanos y sangradores del reino de Granada, seleccionadas de las treinta y siete que configuran nuestro corpus de estudio

Surgical-legal declarations were often called "declaraciones de esencia" in lawsuits and witness statements in 18th century Spain. These were medical certifications, in which surgeons and blood-letters dictated to a notary a detailed description of the wounds observed in the victim of an aggression. This is a highly interesting textual genre for studying the medical lexicon used in day-to-day therapeutic practice, because it gathers both vernacular vocabulary and technical medical and anatomic terminology used at the time. The article closes with the transcription of seven declarations drawn up by surgeons and blood-letters in the Kingdom of Granada, selected from among the thirty-seven that form our study corpus

[History Of forensic medicine and the coroner system in the town of Bjelovar]. / Prilog povijesti sudske medicine I mrtvozorstva u gradu bjelovaru.

This review analyses historical sources on the development of forensic medicine and the coroner system in the town of Bjelovar over the past two centuries. The development of these two professional fields in the context of public health was regulated through a number of bylaws, such as Normativum Sanitatum from the time of the Habsburg Monarchy. Coroner examinations were performed by physicians, surgeons, and laymen using special instructions such as the famous booklet by nobleman and county medical officer Vilim Peicic from 1914. Forensic autopsy was performed by surgeons, primary or secondary hospital physicians in case of sudden or suspicious in-hospital deaths, whereas outpatient forensic autopsies were performed by county or town medical officers and district physicians at the request of investigating authorities (police, court, or general attorney's office). This historical review should serve as the basis for further historical research into this field in Croatia so as to obtain deeper insight into the development of forensic medicine and the coroner system, two professions that have always been a vital factor in public health.

Thomas Wakley (1795-1862): a biographical sketch.

Thomas Wakley--founding editor of The Lancet, member of Parliament, coroner and, for 12 years, all three simultaneously--died 150 years ago. His fullest biography is more than a century old, but still provides a good account of the struggles and achievements of this extraordinary yet at times rather difficult and overstretched man. Nonetheless, there are gaps, and this anniversary provides a chance to fill in a few of them.

Reliance on internal autopsies in coronial investigations: a review of the issues.

Internal autopsies are invasive and result in the mutilation of the deceased person's body. They are expensive and pose occupational health and safety risks. Accordingly, they should only be done for good cause. However, until recently, "full" internal autopsies have usually been undertaken in most coroners' cases. There is a growing trend against this practice but it is meeting resistance from some pathologists who argue that any decision as to the extent of the autopsy should rest with them. This article examines the origins of the coronial system to place in context the current approach to a death investigation and to review the debate about the role of an internal autopsy in the coronial system.

[The Berlin morgue of 1886--the 125-year-old morgue of Berlin-Mitte]. / Die Berliner Morgue von 1886--125 Jahre Leichenschauhaus in Berlin-mitte.

On 1 March 1886, a new morgue built along the lines of the Paris morgue, was opened in Berlin, Germany. Experts from many European countries were interested in the new building with its modern design and equipment. As the morgue, the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Berlin University accommodated in the same building also acquired international reputation. However, neither the scientific nor the economic achievements of this long-standing institution could prevent the closure of this historic site in Berlin-Mitte after almost 125 years.

[The evolution of autopsy technique--from Virchow to Virtopsy]. / Ewolucja techniki sekcyjnej--od Virchowa do Virtopsy.

The autopsy technique evolves with extending knowledge and technical and technological progress in medical sciences. The objective of this report is to present the main autopsy techniques and an outline of transformations that occurred in the methodology of post mortem examinations with a focus on the Polish literature. Additionally, we present examples of paintings inspired by autopsy.

"Killed by its mother": infanticide in Providence County, Rhode Island, 1870 to 1938.

This article analyzes infanticide based on the Coroners' Records for Providence County, Rhode Island, from the 1870s to 1938 to determine doctors' and coroners' attitudes toward mothers who killed. The nineteenth century witnessed a medical discourse on the possibility of postpartum insanity as a cause of infanticide. While some women claimed temporary insanity, and some doctors and coroners legitimated this defense, its application to mothers who killed was arbitrary. They determined who deserved this diagnosis based on the woman's character, her forthrightness, and extenuating circumstances. Infanticide divided the profession nationally and at the local level and prevented doctors or coroners from speaking in a united voice on the issue. This article does not attempt to follow cases of infanticide through to jury verdicts. Instead, it provides an opportunity to analyze the circumstances women faced that led them to kill their newborns, and to analyze the responses of doctors and coroners to these mothers who killed. Unlike the findings of other studies, neither physicians nor coroners in Rhode Island were united in a claim of ignorance to save these women from guilty verdicts.

Remaking the medico-legal scene: a social history of the late-Victorian coroner in Oxford.

There have been wide-ranging debates about medicine and the law encapsulated in the figure of the coroner in Victorian England. Recently the historical literature on coroners has been enriched by macro-studies. Despite this important research, the social lives of coroners and their daily interactions remain relatively neglected in standard historical accounts. This article redresses that issue by examining the working life of the coroner for Oxford during the late-Victorian era. Edward Law Hussey kept very detailed records of his time in office as coroner. New research material makes it feasible to trace his professional background, from doctor of the sick poor, to hospital house surgeon and then busy coroner. His career trajectory, personal interactions, and professional disputes, provide an important historical prism illuminating contemporary debates that occupied coroners in their working lives. Hussey tried to improve his medico-legal reach and the public image of his coroner's office by reducing infanticide rates, converting a public mortuary, and acquiring a proper coroner's court. His campaigns had limited success because the social scene in which he worked was complicated by the dominance of health and welfare agencies that resented his role as an expanding arm of the Victorian information state.

Dr GD Monteith: an unobtrusive Wellington surgeon who became coroner, provincial surgeon and hospital superintendent.

The first general surgical operation performed on an etherised patient in New Zealand took place early on the afternoon of Monday, 27 September 1847, at the recently opened Wellington Colonial Hospital. The surgeon Dr JP Fitzgerald, M.D. was assisted by Dr GD Monteith and the ether was administered by JH Marriott Esq. Whereas the biographies of Dr Fitzgerald and James Manrriott have been well documented nationally, little has been recorded concerning Dr Monteith. The following article has been compiled in an attempt to prevent the life and contributions of Dr Monteith from slipping into oblivion.

Whose body is it anyway?: trading the dead poor, coroner's disputes, and the business of anatomy at Oxford University, 1885-1929.

This article examines the application of the Anatomy Act (1832) at Oxford University, circa 1885-1929. For the first time it retraces the economy of supply in dead bodies, sold by various black-market intermediaries and welfare agencies, transported on the railway to Oxford. Both pauper cadavers and body parts were used to train doctors in human anatomy at a time when student demand always exceeded the economy of supply. An added problem was that the trade in dead bodies was disrupted by a city coroner for Oxford in a bid to improve his professional standing. Disputes about medico-legal authority over the pauper corpse meant that the Anatomy Department failed to convince the local poor in the city center to sell their loved ones' remains for dissection on a regular basis. Adverse publicity was a constant financial headache for anatomists. Consistently, they had to pay higher prices for cadavers than their competitors did. Often bodies were purchased in surrounding Midlands towns. This context explains why the Anatomy Department at Oxford failed at the business of anatomy in the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras.