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Mummification

Mummification is the rapid dehydration and preservation of a dead body, preventing normal decomposition and resulting in a thin, stiff, and odorless appearance. It begins in exposed body parts and can affect internal organs, with factors such as hot environments and dry air promoting the process. The time required for mummification can vary from 3 to 12 months or longer, and it holds medico-legal importance similar to adipocere.

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A Rajvansh
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19 views

Mummification

Mummification is the rapid dehydration and preservation of a dead body, preventing normal decomposition and resulting in a thin, stiff, and odorless appearance. It begins in exposed body parts and can affect internal organs, with factors such as hot environments and dry air promoting the process. The time required for mummification can vary from 3 to 12 months or longer, and it holds medico-legal importance similar to adipocere.

Uploaded by

A Rajvansh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DEFINITION

 It is the rapid dehydration/desiccation and


shriveling of the dead body from evaporation of
water, with preservation of natural appearances
and features of the body.
 It is a modification of putrefaction.
 The entire body loses weight, becomes thin, stiff,
brittle and odorless.
 The process of normal decomposition of the dead
body is prevented, as the growth of the micro
organisms is retarded.
 It occurs most readily in a current of dry warm air.
SALIENT FEATURES
 It begins in the exposed parts of the body, like face (lips, tip of nose),
hands and feet and then extends to the entire body including the
internal organs.
 The skin may be translucent due to absorption of the liquefied
subcutaneous fat. It is usually shrunken and contracted, dry, brittle,
leathery and rusty-brown in color, stretched tightly across anatomical
prominences, such as the cheek bones, chin, costal margins, hips and
adheres closely to the bones, and often covered with fungal growths.
 The internal organs become shrunken, hard, dark- brown and black and
become a single mass and may not be identifiable.
 Collagen, elastic tissues, cardiac and skeletal muscle, cartilage and bone
are usually demonstrable histologically in the mummified material.
 Occasionally, a body may show evidence of mummification in certain
parts and adipocere changes in others. Thus, there may be adipocere in
cheeks, abdomen and buttocks with mummification of the arms and
legs.
TIME REQUIRED FOR MUMMIFICATION
It varies between 3-12 months or longer.

FACTORS FAVORING MUMMIFICATION


i. Hot environment: As in the deserts.
ii. Dry atmosphere: Mummification cannot occur in humid
conditions.
iii. Free air movement: It helps in rapid evaporation of
body fluids.
iv. Contact of the body with absorbing media: A dead
body lying in shallow grave, in dry sandy soils
mummifies early due to absorption of body fluid
rapidly.
v. Poisoning: Chronic arsenic or antimony poisoning
favors the process of mummification.
MEDICO-LEGAL IMPORTANCE
 They are same as adipocere.

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