Two cases of homicidal corrosive poisoning: once upon a time
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LESSONS FROM THE MUSEUM
Two cases of homicidal corrosive poisoning: once upon a time Slobodan Nikolic´ • Vladimir Zˇivkovic´
Accepted: 2 August 2014 / Published online: 10 September 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
The Institute of Forensic Medicine, as part of the School of Medicine at University of Belgrade, was officially founded in 1923 by Professor Milovan Milovanovic´ (1884–1948). In addition to several medical textbooks, he also published 48 papers in Serbian, German, and French medical journals [1]. Several of his papers were published in a German medical journal Sammlung von Vergiftungsfa¨llen, now called Archives of Toxicology. In one of these, he published the epidemiological data and the incidence of lethal corrosive poisoning in Belgrade, for the period 1922–1933, taking into consideration the manner of death [2] (Fig. 1). In a table from this papers he described two cases of homicidal corrosive poisoning, one in 1928 and one in 1929 (Fig. 2). Professor Milovanovic´ collected data about his forensic autopsy cases meticulously. In large notebooks marked as Suicides, Homicides, and Accidents, there were sheets for each year, with table and rows and columns filled with handwritten data of interest: age and gender of deceased, data about the circumstances of the event, the mental condition of deceased, chronic illnesses, etc.—hand written equivalents of modern-day excel-documents. From one of these notebooks we are able to identify the two cases of homicidal corrosive poisoning listed in the published manuscript and described below [2].
S. Nikolic´ V. Zˇivkovic´ (&) Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Belgrade-School of Medicine, 31a Deligradska Str., 11000 Belgrade, Serbia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Case Outline 1 Case History In the note-book where Professor Milovanovic´ collected data about murders for the year 1928 there is information on the first case of homicidal corrosive poisoning mentioned in his paper—ordinal 9 (Fig. 3) [2]. The decedent was a male newborn, killed on May 26th by his mother, a poor maiden. She delivered the child by herself in a shed, and poisoned the newborn by pouring liquid lye into his mouth. Professor Milovanovic´ also recorded ‘‘cauterization of the skin around the mouth, and of the mucous membranes of the tongue, larynx, esophagus, stomach, trachea, and bronchi. Forensic case No. 159, infanticide’’. Although the Institute has been in the possession of the majority of forensic autopsy records since 1920, unfortunately this autopsy record is missing from the archive. However, there is a specimen in our forensic museum collection.
Museum Reference Museum specimen M No. 357 is a jar (Fig. 4b) containing an infant head, attached to which is a label with the following text: ‘‘L No 697, M No 357. Intoxicatio cum NaOH. Cauterisatio faciei cum NaOH. Homicidium—infanticium. Belgrade, May 27th, 1928’’. (Fig. 4a). After autopsy, Professor Milovanovic´ retained the head of this murdered infant as a museum specimen.
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