G. B. Morgagni Among Human Pathology, Forensic Medicine and Mummiology. The Beatification of Gregorio Barbarigo of Padua

The article is the first step of a research project aimed at investigating new perspectives and aspects of Morgagni's role and work. His activities as a medical examiner and forensic doctor are yet to be truly discovered. Manuscripts, written by Morgagni when he was a forensic expert for the Health Magistrate of Venice, currently preserved at the City Library in Forli (Italy), shed light on a new aspect of his cultural background. As a forensic doctor, he also helped push an increase in "social medicine" in Italy, when physicians began to collaborate with the administrative and political institutions in order to plan environmental and urban regulations to control air quality. While reading his reports, his contribution to the primordial medical Hygiene and Public Health emerges. Among his reports, the authors focused on the one concerning the Beatification of Gregorio Barbarigo, which clearly highlights his pathological approach, as well as his knowledge and application of embalming systems and mummiology. Moreover, this report could be considered as an issue in the history of paleopathology.

Effects of peri-mortem infection on the entomofauna of decomposing buried human remains - a metadata analysis.

The role of infectious disease as a cause of death is undeniable. The affect infectious disease may have on decomposition after death is less well established. Furthermore, virtually no information is available regarding the effects of burial conditions in such circumstances, despite that numerous clandestine burials occur each year. Although many aspects of post-mortem pathology are well understood and provide frequent insight in medicolegal investigation, where buried bodies are concerned, there is great variation in the decomposition processes, depending on extrinsic and intrinsic conditions. Criminal burials and hurriedly dug clandestine graves are seldom deeper than 120 cm allowing access to certain invertebrates, excluding others that only develop in unburied bodies. Numerous studies have reported on such clandestine graves with a purpose to facilitate forensic investigation, but our knowledge of decomposition in deeper graves lags behind, despite several often-cited papers of over a century ago. The poor level of detail in deep-grave knowledge is in part due to resource deficiencies and ethical considerations, but in part due to lack of thorough investigation of the data in papers of often cited prior work. To this end, a metadata analysis assessed a paper written by Dr. Murray Galt Motter in 1898, providing detail of 150 disinterment events with linked medical records from City of Washington cemeteries. This paper, written more than a hundred years ago, was largely descriptive and the detailed data provided in a summary table were never fully analysed. The paper is often quoted despite these obvious oversights. The present study revisits this work, applying a frequency statistical analysis conducted using categorical data and chi-squared analysis. This new analysis reveals patterns and relationships so long 'locked-up' within the body of the table and provides greater understanding of the effect of infectious disease on the abundance of species in the entomofauna associated with deeply buried remains. The data confirm that the presence of adipocere (saponification) is detrimental to development of soil entomofauna ((X2 = 6·64, df = 1, p < 0·01)). Some species, in particular Proisotoma sepulcralis (Collembola), Eleusis pallida (Coleoptera) and Conicera tibialis (Diptera), were positively influenced by association with infectious disease cases (p < 0·01) while only Piophila casei (Diptera) demonstrated a negative association (p < 0·05). Furthermore, the presence of peri-mortem infectious disease, while not necessarily a cause of death, influences post-mortem colonisation of the buried body by insects. The abundance of some species is enhanced, suggesting that bacterial burdens enhance decomposition in a manner favourable to insect feeding and hence abundance, by releasing compounds that the entomofauna feeds on.

[Divine cadavers: gender, medical discourse, and anatomical collections in the legend of Pedro González de Velasco]. / Divinos cadáveres: género, discurso médico y colecciones anatómicas en la leyenda de Pedro Gonzólez de Velasco.

This paper examines the relationship between the public image of Pedro Gonzólez de Velasco (1815-1882), famous for his anatomical collections and his Anthropological Museum, founded in 1875 in Madrid, and the popular legend related to the death, embalming and exhumation of his daughter Concepción. The doctor who is committed to the nation becomes a mad scientist, and his official biography is transformed into an urban legend. Beyond the merely anecdotal, I show how the aesthetics associated with female corpses and artificial women organize cultural imaginaries, bringing together medical discourses and literary and artistic representations.

The afterlife of Laurence Sterne (1713-1768): Body snatching, dissection and the role of Cambridge anatomist Charles Collignon.

This paper aims to highlight the practice of body snatching from graves in the 1700s for the purpose of providing corpses for anatomical dissection, and for stocking anatomy museums. To do this, we examine the exhumation and dissection of the famous eighteenth-century novelist Laurence Sterne and explore the involvement of Charles Collignon, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Cambridge. We also show that osteological and cut-mark analysis of a skull purported to be that of Sterne, currently housed in the Duckworth Collection at Cambridge, provides the key to solving the mystery surrounding why Sterne was resurrected.

Reconstruction of methods of execution of the death penalty by shooting in the years 1949-1954 based on exhumation research of "prison fields" in Osobowicki Cemetery in Wroclaw. Part I--Historical outline and results of research conducted prior to exhumations performed in 2011.

In the period between October and December 2011, a series of exhumation research of the so-called prison quarters dating back to 1949-1954 was conducted in Osobowicki Cemetery in Wroclaw. Among the buried there were political prisoners executed by shooting--genuine or alleged members of post-war independence organizations. It was a unique opportunity to determine the method of execution of the death penalty in that period because, according to historical data and the results of two test exhumations, this method considerably differed from instructions on the use of a firing squad during execution of the death penalty.

Reconstruction of methods of execution of the death penalty by shooting in the years 1949-1954 based on exhumation research of "prison fields" in Osobowicki Cemetery in Wroclaw. Part II--analysis of gunshot injuries and an attempt at reconstructing the course of execution.

The analysis of gunshot injuries in prisoners who were executed in Wroclaw penitentiary in the years 1949-1954 shows divergences from legal regulations describing the method of execution. This observation leads to the conclusion that the predominant method of execution of the death penalty was a gunshot or gunshots to the back of the head, which is analogous to the results of exhumation works on collective graves of war prisoners executed during World War II in the territory of the former Soviet Union.