Citation

Dall'Olio G. Rivista Italiana della Medicina di Laboratorio 2018; 14(1): 54-58.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018)

DOI

10.1007/s13631-018-0173-2

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In 1882 Angiolo Filippi (1836-1905), professor of forensic medicine in Florence, takes care of an alleged case of a young woman's suicide by ingestion of chloroform. Filippi, according to the desire of the deceased's relatives, has to limit himself just to the external examination and the autopsy of the head. The external recognition of the body gives only little information while the chemical examination of the brain reveals the presence of chloroform. At the beginning, there is only little circumstantial news that can give confirmation of the chemical analysis. With the investigation progress, the case begins to become clear thanks to reliable information deduced from the medical consultant's inspection report in the house of the deceased and other information about her life. Filippi does not discard the possibility of a murder disguised as a suicide, and among many doubts, even on the method used for the chemical analysis, he reaches in the end the conclusion that, in the absence of direct or indirect evidence to accept the hypothesis of a murder, it is very probably a case of suicide. Many valuable indications are contained in the work that Philippi offers to the forensic consultants who will have to deal with similar cases. © 2018, Società Italiana di Patologia Clinica e Medicina di Laboratorio.

Language: it

Keywords

human; suicide; Toxicology; Poisoning; autopsy; Italy; forensic medicine; forensic pathology; medicolegal aspect; Forensic medicine; chemical analysis; teacher; Article; chloroform; head; Chloroform; Angiolo Filippi