THE DETECTION OF PETECHIAL HEMORRHAGES OF THE CONJUNCTIVAE IN DEPENDENCY ON THE POSTMORTEM INTERVAL

Petechial haemorrhages of the conjunctivae are not specific for lethal throttling or strangulation, but they belong to the important indicat ors for such mechanisms. In experimental models it is shown that petec hial bleedings of the conjunctivae disappear with the occurrence of ad vanced signs of putrefaction or in cases of fresh-water logging. There fore, it must be emphasized that the lack of petechial haemorrhages in putrefied or fresh-water-logged corpses is of very restricted meaning for the examination, whether throttling or strangulation has taken pl ace or not, and the autopsy should always be performed in these cases with special regard to the neck.