Carla Valentine

Carla Valentine Instagram – “Stomach; Hydrocyanic Acid Poisoning”. Ahead of my talk on the forensics of Agatha Christie in Torquay at the Agatha Festival, I’m re-posting this stomach specimen from our Medico-legal (i.e. forensic) collection. It was mounted by renowned British pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury, who also taught Morbid Anatomy at Bart’s for a while, and whose real-life cases feature repeatedly in Christie’s works. Spilsbury (1877-1947) was basically a celebrity during a time when there was no such thing as reality TV shows etc. He was known for his legendary court appearances in which he commanded attention, effortlessly ripped apart attempts to acquit the vilest murderers of the time and communicated with the public in a way no scientist had before. He was extremely intelligent and worked on some of the most famous murder cases of the era: Dr Crippen, “The Brides in the Bath” Murders, and “The Crumbles” Murders (which caused him to devise the crime-scene kit, including such basic equipment as pots for specimens and rubber gloves. It didn’t exist before Spilsbury). In more recent years, however, his inability to work with others or admit fault have come into question.
This specimen is a stomach removed at post-mortem from a man who was poisoned with hydrocyanic acid (aka prussic acid or hydrogen cyanide),1932
#vintageforensics #forensics #forensicscience #vintage #truecrime #agathachristie
#bernardspilsbury #crimescene #crime #pathologymuseum #wetspecimen #wetspecimens #specimenconservation | Posted on 13/Sep/2024 19:23:40