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In this publication 125 years after the violent death of the famous Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898) of Austria, known as Sisi, a modern evaluation as well as valuation will be presented. The day after her assassination by the young anarchist Luigi Lucheni using a file, a partial autopsy was performed to find out the exact cause of death-a pericardial tamponade. The complete translation of the autopsy report is part of this article, the intention being to avoid unclear wording and translation errors, which have often caused some confusion in the past. A pictorial illustration of the puncture canal will provide clarity through medical facts as to how Empress Elisabeth's death came about by correct pathological and anatomical description and, thus, counteract former interpretations., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

P.T. Barnum's career as the Greatest Showman on Earth began in 1835, when he "leased" and then publically exhibited a frail African American slave Joice Heth, who was reportedly the 161-year-old former nursemaid of George Washington, throughout New England; the contract was a lease, as slave ownership had recently become illegal in northern states. Barnum exhibited Heth 6 days a week for up to 12 hr a day. Under this grueling schedule, Heth became ill and died while under contract. Barnum sold tickets for her autopsy, which was performed by David L. Rogers, an accomplished New York surgeon, in front of an audience of 1,500 paying customers. Roger's autopsy determined that Heth was no more than 80 years old, and the penny newspapers, a new form of public media, called this a "humbug" and then published dozens of fabricated "fake news" stories about Barnum, Rogers, and Heth. Barnum and his business partner generated valuable publicity by telling different penny newspapers different stories. This whole spectacle launched Barnum's career as an entertainer. Five years earlier, Rogers performed a public dissection of Charles Gibbs, an infamous Caribbean pirate who was tried, convicted, and hung in New York City. This article describes the bizarre nature of American politics and culture in the 1830s that made all of these seem normal. I will also distinguish between "public dissection" and "public autopsy," and put these into an historical context. Finally, I will address the macabre concept of autopsy as a form of entertainment. Clin. Anat. 31:956-965, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The name "Ioseb Besarionis dze Dzhugashvili" is as unassuming as it is unknown. It is the birth name of the brutal dictator who changed the face of Europe and whose actions still influence our lives today. Stalin, the man responsible for the slaughter of over twenty million of his own Soviet citizens and yet, the man who transformed the USSR from the feudalistic society of the Tsar's to a twentieth century military powerhouse that was instrumental in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Known as "Koba" to his friends, he cultivated a cult of personality where he was, and to a certain extent still is, admired in Russia and the former Soviet states. This paper will look at the following questions: why when he fell gravely ill did his comrades wait so long before seeking medical assistance? why were there omissions in the final post mortem report?, and why did one his closest lieutenants boast so openly about having murdered him.

The main facets of professor N.I. Pirogov's professional activity are outlined. Forensic medicine (in the first place its organizational and practical aspects) was an integral component of his scientific and clinical work, along with applied anatomy and surgery. Landmark publications of N.I. Pirogov are listed with special reference to those concerned with forensic medical expertise of medical malpractice cases, postmortem inspection and intravital examination procedures, wound ballistics studies, the atlas of forensic pathology, etc. The surgeon and anatomist N.I. Pirogov can be justly regarded as a founder of forensic medicine in this country.

The aim of this study is the reconstruction of a case of puerperal fever, which affected the mother of Caterina de' Medici, the future Queen of France, in 1519. Only unpublished data found in the Archives were used, to follow the onset and the development of the disease, offering a glimpse into medical perception of the time. The description of the case provides interesting points of contact with modern medicine.

Henri IV, King of France, was killed on Friday, May 14th, 1610 in Paris, inside his partially open coach. The autopsy was performed the following day by Jacques Guillemeau, whose report was published in 1612. The murderer's position was deduced from the direction of the lethal second wound. We suppose that Ravaillac used his left hand (he was an ambidexter) hitting Henri IV under the left arm; the King was bent on his right side after the first wound, a superficial one. Ravaillac jumped up on a post by his left foot, then on the nave of the left-back wheel with his right foot and turning, gripped something high on the coach and hit with his long knife the left side of the king's chest. The direction of the wound was 40 degrees posterior and 30 degrees ascending. The pulmonary perforation involved a haemoptysis, an inability to speak and a bilateral pulmonary inundation. The left haemothorax was very probably associated to an haemopericardium and an haemomediastinum leading to a rapid collapse with a loss of consciousness which could not last than ten or fifteen minutes before death.

Russian scientists are certainly among those who contributed actively to the search for the neuroanatomical basis of exceptional mental capacity and talent. Research into brain anatomy was one of the topics of special interest in various Russian universities. A number of independent reports on the study of famous Russian brains appeared both in Russia and abroad. Collecting and mapping brains of elite Russians in a structured manner began in Moscow in 1924 with the brain of V. I. Lenin. In 1928, the Moscow Brain Research Institute was founded, the collection of which includes the brains of several prominent Russian neuroscientists, including V. M. Bekhterev, G. I. Rossolimo, L. S. Vygotsky and I. P. Pavlov. The fact that the brain of two of the most outstanding scholars of Russian neurology and psychiatry, A. Ya. Kozhevnikov (1836-1902) and S. S. Korsakov (1854-1900), have been studied is largely unknown. A report of the results of this study was published by A. A. Kaputsin in 1925 providing a detailed neuroanatomical assessment of the brains. A considerable weight, a predominance of the left hemisphere and a particularly complex convolution of the frontal and parietal lobes of both brains were reported, the assumption being that these brain parameters can serve as an indicator of mental capacity. The names Kozhevnikov and Korsakov are among those most cherished by Russian neuroscientists; they are also familiar to Western colleagues. The (re)discovery of the records of the brain autopsies is meaningful, maybe not so much from a neuroanatomical point of view as from a historical perspective.

Ludwig 2nd, dream-king of Bavaria, has been the subject of medical speculation even during his life and he still is today. Documents from the Secret Archive of the Bavarian State and more widely available information do not support a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but correspond with contemporary criteria for a schizotypal personality disorder. Ludwig's behavioural deterioration during the last months of his life and autopsy findings may indicate incipient frontotemporal degeneration.

On July 2, 1881, Charles Julius Guiteau shot President James Abram Garfield in the right flank. The President died because of infection produced by the unsterile fingers and probes repeatedly inserted into the wound. The major complaint of the wounded President was intractable pain in his legs and feet. This symptom failed to alert the doctors to the possibility of vertebral and spinal cord injury. Garfield died with sepsis after 80 days of intense national concern, and for the patient there was psychological, physical, and nutritional deprivation. His autopsy revealed the bullet was not in the pelvis as his doctors had expected, but adjacent to the first lumbar vertebra it had shattered. The trial and execution of Guiteau split the medical community into those that considered him insane and those who felt execution was justified. Guiteau was delusional and his brain revealed chronic inflammation and histological features suggestive of syphilis. At the time, and since, the propriety of the execution has been questioned.

The death of Adolf Hitler is one of the unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Numerous historians and journalists have attempted to piece together the details, but despite the interest in the forensic literature regarding the identification of the body, there has not been much scientific debate about the alleged cause of death--cyanide poisoning, gunshot injury, or both. The available literature concerning Hitler's cause of death is incomplete because the toxicological analysis has not been performed and because the skull bone fragment with a gunshot wound possibly from Hitler's corpse has not been properly examined. This has given basis for various theories, which are reviewed. We believe that mtDNA analysis of the skull fragments and of Hitler's jaw, now filed in Moscow, and samples from maternal relatives of Hitler are crucial linking the skull fragment with the gunshot wound to Hitler.

The death of Kaspar Hauser is described taking present medicolegal and criminological knowledge into account, the main question being whether the injury was self-inflicted, homicidal or suicidal. In spite of a critical retrospective analysis this question cannot be answered with sufficient certainty even from our modern perspective. It seems unlikely that the stab to the chest was inflicted exclusively for the purpose of self-damage, but both a suicidal stab and a homicidal act (assassination) cannot be definitely ruled out.

John Paul Jones, the "Father of the American Navy," is known for the battletime assertion that he had "not yet begun to fight." His central role in a triumph of scientific forensic identification more than a century after his death is less known. John Paul Jones died in 1792 and was buried in Paris, France. The location of his grave was lost over time and a search for his corpse began in 1899. Remains matching his physical characteristics and circumstance of burial were discovered in 1905 and returned to the United States for a hero's burial. Some questioned the identification at the time and the major source of identifying information has since been shown to contain false information. The published forensic literature fails to address existing critiques of the identification. We provide a substantive analysis and conclude that the available evidence supports the identification of the unknown remains as those of John Paul Jones.

The health of heads of states is not always handled in the same way as an incapacitating disability in ordinary professionals. Instead of suspension of responsibilities, the health status of political leaders is concealed, especially when the illness is perceived as stigmatizing, such as organic mental impairment or sexual disorder. The objective of the present paper is to analyse the malady of Lenin (1870-1924) in the light of relevant and new medical information. It is hoped that this will accentuate the need for transparency when the health of a statesman is concerned.

A substantial body of literature exists surrounding the assassination and subsequent pathological examination of President John F. Kennedy. In the first part of this series, we provided a previously undocumented eyewitness account by a neurosurgeon of what transpired in Trauma Room 1 of Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1963. The current article reviews the copious literature and extensive controversy regarding President Kennedy's wounds. The autopsy report, ballistics data, official reviews of the autopsy data, and Dr. Grossman's observations are correlated in an effort to provide a neuroforensic analysis of the nature of the wounds that President Kennedy sustained. The final article of the series will relate the wounds to the timing of the shots and the location of the President as his limousine traversed Dealey Plaza and will discuss the sites from which the bullets could have been fired.

SUBSTANTIAL LITERATURE EXISTS on the assassination and subsequent pathological examination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Report, the United States Government's official report on the assassination, instead of providing definitive answers on the precise cause of President Kennedy's death, sparked intense and on-going debate. Since the publication of the Warren Report in September 1964, many issues have been woven into a wide array of theories concerning the assassination. One element continues to generate debate, namely, the exact sites of the wounds that President Kennedy sustained. A neuroforensic analysis of the wounds, from the perspective of the neurosurgeon, would establish a reasonable hypothesis for the mechanics of the shooting. Eyewitness accounts of the events surrounding the assassination represent one critical source of data for such an analysis. This report provides a previously undocumented neurosurgeon's eyewitness account of what transpired in Trauma Room 1 of Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1963.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German historian of ancient art and archaeologist, was born on 9 December 1717 in Stendal, a town in Saxony-Anhalt. At the age of 50 he was murdered on 8 June 1768 in a Trieste hotel. The voluminous original record of the criminal proceedings against his murderer, Francesco Arcangeli, was presumed lost for about 150 years. A new edition in the wording of the original text appeared in 1964. This long sought historical document gives cause for forensic-historical reflections under consideration of the autopsy protocol about Winckelmann, which is likewise a historical document. A considerable change of paradigm in comparison to current autopsy protocols is observed with regard to the evaluation of injuries and the circumstances of death.

George II, the King of England, died from dissecting aneurism of the aorta. Napoleon died from a carcinoma of the stomach. Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, died of a laryngeal cancer; his untimely death, and the succession of his son, Wilhelm II, was largely responsible for the great catastrophe of 1914. An autopsy was performed on each of these three famous and historical figures.

The authors reviewed a rare autopsy report of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and offer a fresh interpretation of the cause of his death, with illustrations on the implied findings.

Shortly after President Abraham Lincoln's assassin was killed on April 26, 1865, a formal inquest was held to positively identify the body. Dr. John Frederick May, a leading surgeon in the District of Columbia, was summoned to examine the remains. Two years earlier, Dr. May had removed a fibroid tumor from the back of the assassin's neck and an identifiable large ugly scar resulted when the wound inadvertently opened and healed by granulation. Based upon the recognition of the scar made by his scalpel, Dr. May made a positive identification.

Although four American Presidents have been assassinated (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy), only the assassins of Garfield (Charles Julius Guiteau) and McKinley (Leon Franz Czolgosz) were tried, convicted, and executed for their crime. In 1882 Edward Charles Spitzka, a young New York neurologist with a growing reputation as an alienist, testified at the trial of Guiteau. He was the only expert witness who was asked, based on his personal examination of the prisoner, a direct question concerning the mental state of Guiteau. Spitzka maintained the unpopular view that Guiteau was insane. In spite of aggressive and spirited testimony on Spitzka's part, Guiteau was convicted and hanged. However, even before the execution it was acknowledged, by some experts, that Spitzka was undoubtedly right. About 20 years later, in 1901, Edward Anthony Spitzka, the son of Edward Charles Spitzka, was invited to conduct the autopsy on Czologsz, the assassin of McKinley. At the time Spitzka the younger, who had just published a detailed series of papers on the human brain, was in the fourth year of his medical training. It was an unusual series of fortuitous events that presumably led to Edward A. Spitzka conducting the autopsy on the assassin of the President of the United States while still a medical student. This, in light of the fact that other experts were available. Each Spitzka went on to a career of note and each made a number of contributions in their respective fields. It is however, their participation in the 'neurology', as broadly defined, of the assassins of Presidents Garfield and McKinley that remains unique in neuroscience history. Not only were father and son participants in these important events, but these were the only times that assassins of US Presidents were tried and executed.

Dr. Wagner's description of an advanced macronodular cirrhosis is compatible with end-stage liver disease due to a variety of causes. An alcoholic etiology seems more probable than chronic viral hepatitis since such a diagnosis might also account for the chronic pancreatitis, unless it was related to the cholelithiasis. However, Dr. Wagner's description favors a diagnosis of biliary pigment sludge related to hemolysis. Furthermore, the controversy over the extent of Beethoven's alcohol consumption and the absence of mention of pancreatic calcification weakens the case for an alcoholic etiology. On the other hand, Dr. Wagner's emphasis of bluish-green pigmentation of the liver, blackish pigmentation of the spleen, and an arteropathy of the hepatic vessels suggests the probability of hemochromatosis, which diagnosis is also in keeping with Beethoven's medical history. In this regard the composer's history of recurrent obscure abdominal pain, commencing in his third decade, is especially in keeping with hemochromatosis. As many as a third of patients present with recurrent abdominal pain, and eventually up to 40% of cases develop significant abdominal pain in the course of their disease. While some of these cases of abdominal pain have been attributed to hepatoma, ascites, pancreatitis, perisplenitis, or diabetic neuropathy, the majority remain ill-defined (32). Even so, the diagnosis of hemochromatosis remains unproved in the absence of a histological examination and measurement of hepatic iron concentration. It is proposed that the combined additive, toxic effects of alcohol and iron were the most likely cause of Beethoven's cirrhosis.