Exhibition Images

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Bloodstain, blisters, bullet holes, 1864
Head and hand of a drownee, 1864
Decomposed stomach, 1864
Rope marks and upper thigh, 1864
The color of the lungs of dead newborn children: stillborn, newborn who have taken a breath, newborn whose lungs have been artificially inflated, 1864
T. N. Kelynack, M.D., The Pathologist's Handbook: A Manual for the Post-Mortem Room, London, 1899
Leg bone from the Ragsdale Gunshot Wound Study, 1984
Leg bone from the Ragsdale Gunshot Wound Study, 1984
Chest plates commissioned by Frances Glessner Lee, about 1940
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Decomposed stomach, 1864
Image 21 of 43

Upon a View of the Body

Decomposed stomach, 1864
Figs. 9 & 10. The color of decomposition in the stomach. The stomach of a 50-year-old man, drawn in half-scale, who died in December from tuberculosis of the lung and consumption. Even though the temperature was already -5 to -8 degrees C, the decomposition, after three days, had already progressed to the point where the inner lining of the stomach had turned green and trachea had turned brown-red. The stomach drawn on this day (fig. 9 shows the outer surface; fig. 10 shows the inner surface) reveals the discoloration that is typical of this stage of decomposition, and which is described in greater detail in the text. What is important from a diagnostic standpoint are the markedly expanded veins, as well as the dirty brown and dirty purple blurry island spots, because otherwise the signs of decomposition might be mistaken for signs of inflammation or poisoning.
Johann Ludwig Casper, M.D., Atlas zum Handbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin [Atlas for the Manual of Legal Medicine] (4th ed., Berlin, 1864) [chromolithograph]; Artist: Hugo Troschel; Lithographer: Winckelmann & Sons
National Library of Medicine