Diagnosis of skull fractures according to postmortem interval: an experimental approach in a porcine model.

Most studies on fracture morphology of fresh or dry bones, specifically skull bones, have a limited focus, and they are often based on observations rather than experimental tests. This study characterized pig cranial fractures sustained under known impact conditions. An impact machine (mobile carriage guided by columns) was used to perform a fracture on each skull.

[Fortune and misfortune of the cemetery of the lunatics of Cadillac].

The psychiatric hospitals run by the French "Départements", which were created under the Law of 30 June 1838, in the past constituted places of exclusion, as the life of their inmates would often come to an end inside the institution itself. Therefore, the asylums often held their own "cemeteries of the lunatics", as a number of defuncts would not be claimed by their families. The present study describes the history of the Centre hospitalier de Cadillac-sur-Garonne (Département de la Gironde) and of its cemetery of the insane.

[A medico-legal problem of the past: invalidation of the sale of a slave in case of concealed disease. Zacchias' opinion].

In his famous "Questions" Paul Zacchias (1584-1659) deals with the medico-legal problem of invalidation of sale of slaves or beasts of burden for concealed redhibitory defects. He analyzes the Roman right always used in his time but does not show any critical mind while he is only compiling and commenting the texts taken from the famous "Edit des Ediles curules". A listing of the redhibitory defects is opposed to the slight vices which do not justify the cancellation of the sale.

Forensic medicine in Bordeaux in the 16th century.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Renaissance was accompanied by a real cultural revolution in Europe and France. Montaigne, the Bordeaux humanist and writer, was highly involved in this movement, particularly by his thinking on medicine, physicians, and illness. The 2 forensic reports presented are the oldest known testimonies of forensic medical activity in Bordeaux in the 16th century.

[Heterogeneity of expert psychiatric conclusions. Study of 101 authors of voluntary homicides].

Objectives: Specify the prevalence of various mental pathologies observed in authors of voluntary homicides and assess the interest of the psychiatric expertise of these persons.

Methods: The conclusions of the psychiatric expertises of 101 authors of voluntary homicide; condemned (94.20%) or declared irresponsible because of mental or personality disorders (5.

[Critique to the medical-social management of dangerous mental patients and sexual aggressors in France].

The author first underlines that the international literature proves the following: 1) individuals who are ill or mentally handicapped present a higher risk of committing criminal acts than the general population; 2) mental disturbances are frequent in criminals. He emphasizes that the decrease in the number of beds in public psychiatric wards (units of ordinary hospitalization or for difficult patients) together with the increased penal responsibility of delinquents suffering from mental disturbances have led to a large increase in the number of the seriously mentally ill in prisons. It is therefore essential to reorganize the management of the dangerously mentally ill, both in psychiatric hospitals and in prisons.

[Classification of voluntary homicides and psychiatry].

The author first reviews the various psychiatric and criminologic classifications of homicides. Then, he examines the FBI classification and points to the fact that the existence or absence of mental disturbances is only rarely mentioned in the description of each category of homicide. Finally, he proposes his own classification of pathologic homicides comprising eight categories: impulsive, crime of passion, sexual, depressive, non delusional psychotic, delusional psychotic, of organic cause, otherwise non-classifiable.

[The uneven history of clinical examination].

Clinical examination was developed by Hippocrates to understand diseases and patients. This approach was later almost abandoned in the Middle Age before a revival and a period of flowering at the beginning of the XIXth century. The multiplication of other new means of examination again provoked its decline, which has presently stopped, allowing a better balance of clinical practice.

[Some medico-psychological perspectives on sexual homicides. Three cases].

While sexual murders are widely reported in the media, there are almost no reports on these major crimes in the French medico-psychological literature. After a brief historical and legal overview, the author discusses the forensic definition of sexual homicides, parent-to-child transmission of sexual violence, the distinction between paraphilic and non-paraphilic sexual offenders, criminal affects, and the classification of aggressors in violent homicides. He confirms that particularly violent murderers may be divided into two psychiatric and behavioral categories.

[The Kreutzer Sonata or homicidal jealousy according to Tolstoy].

In the first movement (the presto) of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata there are two strongly opposing themes (positive masculine and negative feminine). Inspired by this confrontation, in his novel "The Kreutzer Sonata", Tolstoï describes the marital conflict that drives the jealous husband, Pozdnychev, to kill his wife whom he believes to be unfaithful. The murderer thinks that his wife, a pianist, is betraying him with a violinist when he discovers them in his home at night.

[Difficult mentally ill patients: length of hospitalization in english and french maximum security services].

The average length of stay of a difficult and dangerous mentally disordered patient and offender in conditions of maximum security is much longer in England and Wales than it is in France. This difference can be attributed to reasons of history, to national procedures relating to admission, transfer and discharge, to the differing importance attached to the gravity of the admission offence and to the time-lags involved in carrying out the transfer and discharge decisions.