ORDER OF AUTOPSY.
In making the autopsy, the operator should stand on the right side of the body and make the incision by grasping the knife firmly in the hand, and cutting with the whole of the blade and not with the point. The knife should be swept along from the shoulder rather than from the wrist, thus making a long, smooth, deep cut; never a jagged one.
The method of examining the human body after death will vary somewhat according to the objects in view. These objects may be threefold: (1) To ascertain whether a person has died from violence or poison; (2) to establish the cause of death, especially if it has been sudden; and (3) to ascertain the lesion of a disease, or to confirm a diagnosis.
The only difference between a medico-legal and pathological autopsy is that in the former case everything which might subserve the ends of justice should be carefully noted, and the changes found most accurately described; especially any abnormalities found on the external examination of the body. A photograph should be taken of the body.
The head should be opened and the brain examined first, and not last, as is often done in the ordinary autopsy.
Careful notes should be taken during each step of the examination, to be reread, verified, and signed at the completion of the autopsy.
It must be remembered that most of the lesions of disease which are found, indicate the disease rather than the cause of death; that often the lesion found will seem hardly extensive enough to cause death, and that from accidents and injuries apparently trivial, death may result. It must often be acknowledged that no sufficient cause of death can be found, but the more accurate and careful the examinations (especially when a microscopical examination of the organs is made) the fewer will be the number of such cases. If no apparent lesion is found, it must not be forgotten that many poisons destroy life and leave no trace that the pathologist can discover.
Care should always be exercised not to mistake the ordinary post-mortem appearance which we find at autopsies for the lesions of disease.
The examination of the human body, whether it be made from a medico-legal or pathological standpoint, is divided into two main divisions:
(1) The external examination, and
(2) The internal examination.