3 - 2 - Week 3A - 2 Decomposing Bodies I (Putrefaction) (06 13), kryminalistyka, introduction to forensic science
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[MUSIC]So what do we do if the body that we foundhas been there for several days, andit's already cooled down to ambienttemperature, and theLivor Mortis and the Rigor Mortis haveboth passed?Well, probably what we would have to do atthis stageis to look at the state of putrefaction ofthe body,and once again, this needs an experiencedpersonto make a judgment and give his opinion.So what is putrefaction and how does ithappen?Well, when you're dead, of course, you'redead, but all the microorganismsthat live inside you, they're not dead,and they keep on goingand they will start to eat you.Essentially they will take your tissuesand they willbreak them down chemically and use themas nutrition.But as a by-product, they will produce allsorts of chemicals, including gases andvolatile chemicals,and it's these chemicals produced byputrefaction thatgive an abandoned dead body its particularsmell.And if you've ever walked past a ditchwherethere's a dead dog, you know what I mean.So, an experienced examiner can look atthe body and make a judgment.Of course, he does have to take intoeffect all sorts of environmental factors,particularly temperature.If it's a very hot place, rather than avery cold place,then of course, there's going to be a bigdifference in the rates.You also get effects due to drug use,becauseif someone has been a heavy drug user, thepresence of all those drugs in their bodycanaffect the rate of which themicroorganisms do their stuff.And again, this relies on experience.So, one of the problems is there's notmany hardscientific studies on the rate ofdecomposition of human bodies.So, some studies are ongoing.One of them is, as you see, at theUniversityof Tennessee, Knoxville, where they have aso-called "Body Farm",which is an area of open ground which theyfencedoff, and they will place donated bodiesin particular situations -clothed or unclothed, partially buried,etc. -and then they can scientifically observethe process of putrefaction,and maybe this will make estimates morescientifically reliable.Well, during putrefaction, this is roughlywhat happens.After a few days, the body will start todiscolour and also it will start to swell.The reason for the swelling is the gasesproduced bythe putrefaction process are inflating thebody slowly, like a balloon.As the days go past, the staining spreadsand the veins ofthe body start to become discoloured as thematerials in your blood decompose.Further days pass, the abdomen swells evenmoreas more gas is developed by theputrefaction process.The skin starts to blister, and eventuallythe abdomen willbecome very tight and swollen because ofall the gas inside.The tissues also break down, so thetissueslose their structural integrity, and theystart to soften.And that means that the organs andcavities inside the body, which havebeen filled with these putrefactiongases,then burst, a little bit like balloons.In addition, the fingernails will nolonger beattached to the fingers and they will falloff.So in a typical case, maybe in fourweeks, the soft tissues will be startingto liquefy,and one of the consequences of thisis that the face is no longerrecognizable.So if the body is found at this stage,somebody just looking at itcan't tell who it is, and it will have tobe identified by other means.So, a body exposed to the elements willultimately turn into a skeleton.How long this takes is very dependent onenvironmental factors, sosome people in some places might say ittakes several years.Here in hot, tropical Singapore, it cantakeas little as two weeks for that to occur.Now, not all bodies putrefy.If the environmental conditions are right,particularly if the conditions areextremely dry,then the body will become mummified andthe tissues will actually be preserved.So mummification does happen by accidentbecausethe body happens to be in thosecircumstances.But of course, the most famous kinds ofmummification is where it has been donedeliberately.So these four gentlemen in the slidehere were all mummified.There's Pharaoh Ramses the Second ofEgypt.This is Lenin, the founder of CommunistRussia,who was mummified and preserved by havingasecret chemical injected into him afterhis death,and his body is still there in Moscow.If the Russians did it, then of course theChinese did it.So there's Chairman Mao.And the last of these fourgentlemen actually specifically wished tobe mummified,and he said so.And he is Jeremy Bentham,the English philosopher who was also thefounder of University College London, andif yougo to University College London, you can goand see him there, he's still there.[BLANK-AUDIO] [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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[MUSIC]So what do we do if the body that we foundhas been there for several days, andit's already cooled down to ambienttemperature, and theLivor Mortis and the Rigor Mortis haveboth passed?Well, probably what we would have to do atthis stageis to look at the state of putrefaction ofthe body,and once again, this needs an experiencedpersonto make a judgment and give his opinion.So what is putrefaction and how does ithappen?Well, when you're dead, of course, you'redead, but all the microorganismsthat live inside you, they're not dead,and they keep on goingand they will start to eat you.Essentially they will take your tissuesand they willbreak them down chemically and use themas nutrition.But as a by-product, they will produce allsorts of chemicals, including gases andvolatile chemicals,and it's these chemicals produced byputrefaction thatgive an abandoned dead body its particularsmell.And if you've ever walked past a ditchwherethere's a dead dog, you know what I mean.So, an experienced examiner can look atthe body and make a judgment.Of course, he does have to take intoeffect all sorts of environmental factors,particularly temperature.If it's a very hot place, rather than avery cold place,then of course, there's going to be a bigdifference in the rates.You also get effects due to drug use,becauseif someone has been a heavy drug user, thepresence of all those drugs in their bodycanaffect the rate of which themicroorganisms do their stuff.And again, this relies on experience.So, one of the problems is there's notmany hardscientific studies on the rate ofdecomposition of human bodies.So, some studies are ongoing.One of them is, as you see, at theUniversityof Tennessee, Knoxville, where they have aso-called "Body Farm",which is an area of open ground which theyfencedoff, and they will place donated bodiesin particular situations -clothed or unclothed, partially buried,etc. -and then they can scientifically observethe process of putrefaction,and maybe this will make estimates morescientifically reliable.Well, during putrefaction, this is roughlywhat happens.After a few days, the body will start todiscolour and also it will start to swell.The reason for the swelling is the gasesproduced bythe putrefaction process are inflating thebody slowly, like a balloon.As the days go past, the staining spreadsand the veins ofthe body start to become discoloured as thematerials in your blood decompose.Further days pass, the abdomen swells evenmoreas more gas is developed by theputrefaction process.The skin starts to blister, and eventuallythe abdomen willbecome very tight and swollen because ofall the gas inside.The tissues also break down, so thetissueslose their structural integrity, and theystart to soften.And that means that the organs andcavities inside the body, which havebeen filled with these putrefactiongases,then burst, a little bit like balloons.In addition, the fingernails will nolonger beattached to the fingers and they will falloff.So in a typical case, maybe in fourweeks, the soft tissues will be startingto liquefy,and one of the consequences of thisis that the face is no longerrecognizable.So if the body is found at this stage,somebody just looking at itcan't tell who it is, and it will have tobe identified by other means.So, a body exposed to the elements willultimately turn into a skeleton.How long this takes is very dependent onenvironmental factors, sosome people in some places might say ittakes several years.Here in hot, tropical Singapore, it cantakeas little as two weeks for that to occur.Now, not all bodies putrefy.If the environmental conditions are right,particularly if the conditions areextremely dry,then the body will become mummified andthe tissues will actually be preserved.So mummification does happen by accidentbecausethe body happens to be in thosecircumstances.But of course, the most famous kinds ofmummification is where it has been donedeliberately.So these four gentlemen in the slidehere were all mummified.There's Pharaoh Ramses the Second ofEgypt.This is Lenin, the founder of CommunistRussia,who was mummified and preserved by havingasecret chemical injected into him afterhis death,and his body is still there in Moscow.If the Russians did it, then of course theChinese did it.So there's Chairman Mao.And the last of these fourgentlemen actually specifically wished tobe mummified,and he said so.And he is Jeremy Bentham,the English philosopher who was also thefounder of University College London, andif yougo to University College London, you can goand see him there, he's still there.[BLANK-AUDIO] [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]