Mercury. Mucosæ congested, ecchymotic or showing grayish-white eschars; diphtheritic inflammation of pharynx, colon and vagina; decalcification of bone; cloudy swelling and calcification of kidney. In chronic cases ulcerative stomatitis.
Nitrobenzol. Cadaver cyanosed; blood and muscles brown; mucosa of stomach hyperæmic and ecchymotic; odor of bitter almonds; brownish methæmoglobin in collecting tubules of kidney.
Opium and Morphine. No characteristic findings. Condition of pupils not conclusive.
Phosphorus. In very acute cases there may be few changes; odor of phosphorus; cloudy swelling of heart, liver, kidneys and gastric mucosa. In subacute cases there is icterus, hæmorrhage, marked fatty degeneration of all organs; in chronic poisoning there is universal fatty degeneration, and not rarely a necrosis of the jaw-bone.
Potassium Chlorate. Hypostatic spots and blood are of chocolate color; methæmoglobinæmia; hæmorrhagic nephritis.
Ptomaines. Gastro-enteritis, fatty degeneration; icterus, cloudy swelling of kidneys.
Strychnine. Intense and persistent rigor mortis; blood fluid and dark as in asphyxia. Urine should be saved for the frog-test.
Other causes of death requiring especial consideration in a medicolegal examination are:—
Abortion. Determined by the finding of fœtal tissues, chorionic villi, decidua, enlargement of uterus, formation of sinuses at placental site, curetted surface, corpus luteum of pregnancy in ovary, punctures or lacerations of uterus and cervix, effects of corrosive fluids, infective endometritis, evidences of poisoning.
Asphyxia. Death due to lack of oxygen and excess of carbon dioxide, produced by interference with respiration, choking, drowning, hanging, paralysis of muscles of respiration, intoxication, etc. When respiration is suddenly checked ecchymoses are usually found in the pericardium, pleura, meninges, thymus, and rarely in peritoneum. Lips, skin of face and neck, and finger-nails may be deeply cyanotic; the blood is dark and fluid; passive congestion of lung is usually present. In death caused by hanging or strangling there may be fracture of the hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage or tracheal rings, marks upon the skin, hæmorrhage, laceration of the intima of the arteries, fracture or dislocation of the cervical vertebræ and injury to the cord. In death from drowning the bronchi, lungs and stomach may contain fluid, there is watery fluid in the pleural cavities, maceration of skin, greater water-content in blood of right heart than of left, with consequent raising of freezing point.