Explosions

EXPLOSIONS cause mechanical damage up to the dismemberment of the body, thermal damage in the form of burns of all degrees, or chemical damage both in the sense of action on the surface of the body and in the sense of poisoning by the products of the explosion. The force of gases can cause all kinds of damage to the skull, other parts of the skeleton, internal organs, concussion of the brain, hemorrhages into the substance and membranes of the brain, and so on; usually, in this case, the external coverings are less affected. If mechanical action of gases is combined with burns from burning gases and flame, the picture of injuries is complicated; in assessing mechanical causes of death, it is necessary to take into account the degree and extent of the burns. The gases formed during an explosion can cause death both due to their unsuitability for breathing and due to their toxicity upon entering the blood through the respiratory tract; depending on the penetration of gases into the blood, the latter takes on an abnormal hue of color; at the same time, it must be remembered that the blood of heavily burned corpses under the influence of posthumous heat action can acquire a surprisingly red color, and in the heart and large vessels one can see cinnabar- or brick-red clots, not showing signs of carbon monoxide. In addition to gunpowder, there are many explosive substances in the form of solid, liquid, and gaseous bodies, which under the influence of various conditions are capable of turning into gases striving to occupy a large volume, which causes the transmission of living force to the encountered obstacle and damage to the latter. Some explosive substances, such as dynamite, fulminating mercury, etc., produce strong destruction of the parts closest to the place of explosion; in this case, on the skin of persons injured by explosions, soot blackening of the skin is observed, and often small punctures, not deep, quite regular, with a diameter of 2-5 mm, but large wounds from the implantation of large fragments and solid objects are also possible, up to the tearing out of entire parts of the body and its dismemberment into parts, if the explosion occurred near a person. In the explosion of substances that develop a huge amount of gases (such as, for example, gunpowder) or develop a large increase in temperature (as in the explosion of ether, gasoline, petroleum, flour dust, ignition of illuminating gas and other flammable gases), the pressure of the gas can increase many times over, which results in contused wounds and burns. In addition to accidents in blasting work, explosions are often observed in the improper handling of primus stoves in domestic life. Explosive substances are used for the purpose of murder, usually political, and even suicide. In the examination of the dead from explosions, in addition to the nature of the wounds, one must pay attention to soot and the remains of the projectile. Hofmann, in his study of soot from the explosion of fulminating mercury, found the presence of mercury; in a dynamite explosion, diatoms can be found microscopically, since dynamite is a mixture of nitroglycerin and kieselguhr, consisting of the shells of algae.