176:
and
Professor Littlejohn were able to find more than enough evidence from the preserved remains for police to identify the victims and charge the killer, who was hanged. At the same time, the pathologists secretly took some of the remains back to Edinburgh University for further study; nearly a
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century later, a relative requested the return of those remains so they could be given a
Christian burial. The university agreed to do so if the claimant could prove her relationship to the boys and if other relatives agreed to her plan, and the remains were eventually cremated in 2009.
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and used them to light the public lecture he gave to report on the mummy's dissection. Granville apparently thought that the waxy material from which he made the candles had been used to preserve the mummy, rather than its being a product of the saponification of the mummified body.
125:
In a
Hydropicall body ten years buried in a Church-yard, we met with a fat concretion, where the nitre of the Earth, and the salt and lixivious liquor of the body, had coagulated large lumps of fat, into the consistence of the hardest castile-soap: wherof part remaineth with
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of fat in tissue. The transformation of fats into adipocere occurs best in an environment that has high levels of moisture and an absence of oxygen, such as in wet ground or mud at the bottom of a lake or a sealed casket, and it can occur with both
530:
Papageorgopoulou C, Rentsch K, Raghavan M, Hofmann MI, Colacicco G, Gallien V, Bianucci R, Rühli F (2010). "Preservation of cell structures in a medieval infant brain: a paleohistological, paleogenetic, radiological and physico-chemical study".
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and untreated bodies. Adipocere formation begins within a month of death, and, in the absence of air, it can persist for centuries. Adipocerous formation preserved the left hemisphere of the brain of a 13th-century infant such that
172:'s Higgins brothers, murdered by their father in 1911 but whose bodies were not found until 1913. The bodies had been left floating in a flooded quarry, resulting in an almost complete transformation into adipocere. Pathologists
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The degradation of adipocere continues after exhumation at the microscopic level resulting from the combination of exposure to air, handling, dissection and the enzymatic activity of microbiota.
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could be distinguished in the 20th century. An exposed, insect-infested body or a body in a warm environment is unlikely to form deposits of adipocere.
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Corpses of women, infants and overweight persons are particularly prone to adipocere transformation because they contain more body fat. In
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Salihbegović, Adis; Clark, John; Sarajlić, Nermin; Radović, Svjetlana; Finlay, Finlay; Jogunčić, Anes; Spahić, Emina; Tuco, Vedo (2018).
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In corpses, the firm cast of adipocere allows some estimation of body shape and facial features, and injuries are often well-preserved.
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is limited because the speed of the process is temperature-dependent. It is accelerated by warmth, but temperature extremes impede it.
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576:"Histological observations on adipocere in human remains buried for 21 years at the Tomašica grave-site in Bosnia and Herzegovina"
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The body of the "Soap Lady", whose corpse turned itself into adipocere, is displayed in the
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Adipocere is a crumbly, waxy, water-insoluble material consisting mostly of saturated
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is replaced by a permanent firm cast of fatty tissues, internal organs, and the face.
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Murad, Turhon A. (2008). "Adipocere". In Embar-Seddon, Ayn; Pass, Allan D. (eds.).
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is believed to have (somewhat unwittingly) made candles from the adipocere of a
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body fat, adipocere is either grayish white or tan in color.
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Probably the most famous known case of adipocere is that of
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43:
37:
31:
441:"Plea to university to return bodies of murder victims"
241:, the utility of adipocere formation to estimate the
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40:
34:
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Waxy substance formed by anaerobic hydrolysis of fat
28:
134:, came to be understood in the 17th century when
81:, is a wax-like organic substance formed by the
208:Adipocere is formed by the anaerobic bacterial
123:
130:The chemical process of adipocere formation,
8:
473:"Murdered boys' final remains laid to rest"
189:. Depending on whether it was formed from
599:
580:Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences
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7:
505:"Decomposition: What is grave wax?"
386:"What killed Dr Granville's mummy?"
420:from the original on 24 March 2014
384:Pain, Stephanie (1 January 2009).
14:
111:Adipocere was first described by
545:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.029
141:In 1825, physician and lecturer
24:
439:Rose, Gareth (9 January 2008).
293:Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary
99:in corpses. In its formation,
1:
481:. 9 May 2009. Archived from
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138:became widely available.
592:10.17305/bjbms.2018.3343
355:. Pasadena, California:
118:Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial
319:Oxford University Press
128:
315:UK English Dictionary
325:on 21 December 2019.
511:on 15 February 2009
243:postmortem interval
95:in tissue, such as
635:Forensic phenomena
296:. Merriam-Webster.
143:Augustus Granville
453:on 5 October 2015
370:978-1-58765-423-7
115:in his discourse
113:Sir Thomas Browne
69:), also known as
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410:muttermuseum.org
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351:Forensic Science
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321:. Archived from
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239:forensic science
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406:"The Soap Lady"
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586:(3): 234–239.
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539:(3): 893–901.
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485:on 9 July 2017
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268:Saponification
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132:saponification
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155:Mütter Museum
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513:. Retrieved
509:the original
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487:. Retrieved
483:the original
478:The Scotsman
476:
467:
455:. Retrieved
451:the original
446:The Scotsman
444:
434:
422:. Retrieved
409:
400:
389:
379:
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323:the original
311:
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291:
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263:Putrefaction
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236:
232:motor cortex
228:Nissl bodies
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174:Sydney Smith
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163:Pennsylvania
159:Philadelphia
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129:
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116:
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101:putrefaction
79:mortuary wax
78:
74:
70:
19:
18:
489:22 December
457:22 December
424:22 December
359:. pp.
357:Salem Press
308:"Adipocere"
288:"Adipocere"
226:, and even
187:fatty acids
136:microscopes
624:Categories
533:NeuroImage
210:hydrolysis
181:Appearance
89:hydrolysis
71:corpse wax
515:6 October
274:Footnotes
204:Formation
86:bacterial
83:anaerobic
75:grave wax
20:Adipocere
610:29669235
553:20080189
418:Archived
258:Bog body
252:See also
215:embalmed
170:Scotland
121:(1658):
97:body fat
601:6087555
561:1452569
394:(2687).
230:in the
107:History
630:Lipids
608:
598:
559:
551:
367:
313:Lexico
557:S2CID
220:sulci
195:brown
191:white
147:mummy
606:PMID
549:PMID
517:2011
491:2021
459:2021
426:2021
365:ISBN
224:gyri
596:PMC
588:doi
541:doi
193:or
157:in
126:us.
93:fat
91:of
77:or
53:ɪər
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