# Any forensic pathologists here? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 31, 2017, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648 "2017-01-31T06:44:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/42 "2017-02-02T22:48:03Z")
So my good doctors. Is _too-many-birthdays_ always fatal? ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/43 "2017-02-03T02:05:38Z")
TMB is 100% fatal. IANAD ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/44 "2017-02-03T02:23:34Z")
It’s also a tautology because one less birthday wasn’t. Ditto one less blow to the head, one less bout of pneumonia. Whatever does finally get you, one less of it wouldn’t. At least not right away. If you can figure out what that one-less quantity and item is, that’s your cue to party like there’s no tomorrow. Because for a suitably small number of tomorrows, you’ll be right. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/45 "2017-02-03T02:46:29Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > It was one of the 1952-59 radio episodes (since Friday’s partner was Frank Smith). When I tuned in, the two intrepid detectives were interviewing the deceased man’s wife and later his venomous mother-in-law who dismisses him as a worthless drunk. As they’re leaving the 9-year-old son calls them from a window to tell them about the “bitter” milk. > > I see that at least 298 episodes of the series are available to listen to online. But since every single one from the time period in question seems to be titled “The Big \_” (The Big Smoke, The Big Strip, The Big Mask, The Big Ham, The Big Dig etc. etc.), there’s little clue as to which is the one I heard, and I’m not about to go through them all to find out the denouement. It’s “The Big Ray”, 9/4/52, Episode 167. [You can hear it here.](https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/crime/dragnet/big-ray-1952-09-04) As near as I can tell, they never identify what the poison was, just refer to it as “the poison”. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/46 "2017-02-03T03:23:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Still unresolved: what question(s) the OP needed a forensic pathologist to answer. > > Meantime, I have one. > > On the way to work this morning I was listening to an old Dragnet episode on the classic radio satellite channel. I arrived and had to turn off the radio at a critical point in the program, where Jack Webb and his sidekick had just learned that the victim of a purportedly natural death had “a stomach full of poison” which the M.E. (or what passed for one in those days) found at autopsy. > > Earlier, the man’s son reported to the detectives that before keeling over and hitting his head on the floor, Daddy mentioned that the milk he’d just drunk tasted “bitter”. > > So now I’m wondering what poison tastes bitter, kills incredibly fast and can “fill” a stomach to the extent that it’s detectable when you open the stomach. Cyanide is fast, but it’s usually described as having an acrid taste and produce a burning sensation (not that I’m eager to test the veracity of this). Maybe it was almond milk… ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/47 "2017-02-03T03:55:15Z")
Cyanide is said to smell like “bitter almonds”. One of those weird Med school factoids that is useless since few people know what bitter almonds actually smell like. ---
**Author:** ![eightysix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@eightysix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eightysix)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/48 "2017-02-03T14:00:39Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Still unresolved: what question(s) the OP needed a forensic pathologist to answer. > > Meantime, I have one. > > On the way to work this morning I was listening to an old Dragnet episode on the classic radio satellite channel. I arrived and had to turn off the radio at a critical point in the program, where Jack Webb and his sidekick had just learned that the victim of a purportedly natural death had “a stomach full of poison” which the M.E. (or what passed for one in those days) found at autopsy. > > Earlier, the man’s son reported to the detectives that before keeling over and hitting his head on the floor, Daddy mentioned that the milk he’d just drunk tasted “bitter”. > > So now I’m wondering what poison tastes bitter, kills incredibly fast and can “fill” a stomach to the extent that it’s detectable when you open the stomach. Cyanide is fast, but it’s usually described as having an acrid taste and produce a burning sensation (not that I’m eager to test the veracity of this). > > \*In this episode, Mama reportedly had checked with the insurance agent a few days before Daddy croaked, asking about increasing his life insurance coverage. Probably a coincidence. > \*\*I’m pretty sure that even those people who can smell cyanide are not capable of distinguishing dose by odor. I’d wager it was cyanide.It is very fast acting and is said to have a bitter taste. As far as “bellyful”, well a little goes a long way. I’ve seen a few cases of cyanide poisoning. The ones I can remember off the top of my head were suicides by people who had some formal background in chemistry. One was a grad student. They used reagent grade cyanide they got their labs. Cyanide is said to have a “bitter almond” odor. It is also said that the ability to smell it is a genetic trait and only a minority of people can so detect it. I do not think I am one of those people, because I didn’t smell anything out of the ordinary (for an autopsy, that is) while I did those cases. Then again, I’m not sure what “bitter almonds” are supposed to smell like. When I did my training, there was one pathologist who had a little dispenser from which she’d pull a small strip of paper and wave it over the stomach of a decedent, right after she open it on the autopsy table. I wondered what she was doing, and she didn’t offer an explanation until I asked. She then said the paper was a colorimetric indicator that would detect cyanide. You see, she was also a nonsmeller. I then started to wonder if I had missed a whole lot of cyanide poisonings. But turns out cyanide shows up on standard toxicology testing, at least that which we get where I work now. Sometimes we see small amounts of it in fire deaths, as the burning of some plastics generates cyanide, and it comes in with the smoke people inhale. It’s also generated in very small amounts by decomposition. In fact, we have a small hand held cyanide detector (not a strip of paper, but a meter that beeps and gives you a digital ppm readout). It is sensitive enough to pick up the tiny bit from decomp. As far as 86, I can’t speak to the etymological origin, but the origin in my lexicon is indeed from the food service industry. I cut my teeth (as well as many fingers) as a working lad in the kitchens of restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/49 "2017-02-03T14:42:55Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > Cyanide is said to smell like “bitter almonds”. One of those weird Med school factoids that is useless since few people know what bitter almonds actually smell like. > [@eightysix](#): > > … > Cyanide is said to have a “bitter almond” odor. It is also said that the ability to smell it is a genetic trait and only a minority of people can so detect it. I do not think I am one of those people, because I didn’t smell anything out of the ordinary (for an autopsy, that is) while I did those cases. Then again, I’m not sure what “bitter almonds” are supposed to smell like. > … The “smells like bitter almonds” factoid is repeated _ad nauseum_ in DoD training on detecting and countering chemical weapons. But nobody knows what they smell like. :smack: Useless factoid indeed. Wiki ([Almond - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond#Sweet_and_bitter_almonds)) tells us they’re a related cultivar to the “sweet” almonds we eat. And that some shady suppliers have some bitter ones mixed in their crop. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/50 "2017-02-03T18:12:39Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > It was one of the 1952-59 radio episodes (since Friday’s partner was Frank Smith). When I tuned in, the two intrepid detectives were interviewing the deceased man’s wife and later his venomous mother-in-law who dismisses him as a worthless drunk. As they’re leaving the 9-year-old son calls them from a window to tell them about the “bitter” milk. > > I see that at least 298 episodes of the series are available to listen to online. But since every single one from the time period in question seems to be titled “The Big \_” (The Big Smoke, The Big Strip, The Big Mask, The Big Ham, The Big Dig etc. etc.), there’s little clue as to which is the one I heard, and I’m not about to go through them all to find out the denouement. I listened to it and it is always just referred to as the poison. The detectives eventually find the druggist who sold it to her and she admits to doing it. She claims to have only been trying to make him sick and not kill him. It turns out that the wife was a shrew and the husband was going to a bar to avoid her. She thought he was cheating on her at the bar and claimed she wanted to make him sick so he would have to stay home with his family. Despite her unpleasant attitude the mother in law was determined not to have known about the poison. Arsenic seems like it would have taken too long to work. Strychnine is more likely. It has a bitter taste, kills quickly, and was available in drugstores around the time of the episode. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/51 "2017-02-03T19:02:00Z")
While we’re waiting for the real question to get posed, we should ask… Robert David Hall or Jack Klugman? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/52 "2017-02-03T19:05:24Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > While we’re waiting for the real question to get posed, we should ask… > > Robert David Hall or Jack Klugman? David McCallum. Klugman was good until his show got preachy. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/53 "2017-02-03T20:54:32Z")
> [@eightysix](#): > > Then again, I’m not sure what “bitter almonds” are supposed to smell like. Almonds. With a hint of acrid bitterness ;). We used cyanide to make kill jars when I was an entomology student. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/54 "2017-02-03T21:12:45Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > While we’re waiting for the real question to get posed, we should ask… > > Robert David Hall or Jack Klugman? Wally Nydorf. That was the character’s name. I don’t recall the actor. He was the medical examiner on several episodes of _Hill Street Blues_. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/55 "2017-02-04T00:42:19Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Was someone here looking for a coroner? Those folks usually don’t mind waiting. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/56 "2017-02-04T01:39:48Z")
I like Ducky but I’m getting pretty fond of Loretta Wade (CCH Pounder on NCIS NO). What happened to the OP? Did he…oh you know. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/57 "2017-02-04T01:52:49Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Klugman was good until his show got preachy. His show was preachy from Day 1. Jack Klugman only agreed to do the show in the first place if he would be allowed to use it as a platform to promote the issues he cared about. I’m a big fan of _Quincy_, but the idea that it was a good show that was somehow ruined by its social conscience is a myth. The social conscience was the entire point of the show from the very beginning. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/58 "2017-02-04T02:00:34Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Wally Nydorf. That was the character’s name. I don’t recall the actor. He was the medical examiner on several episodes of _Hill Street Blues_. The wonderful [Pat Corley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Corley). He was best known for his role as Phil the bar owner on _Murphy Brown_. Apparently he claimed that of all the many roles he played on T.V., his favorite was Wally Nydorf. I’m a big fan of T.V. coroners. No one has mentioned Jordan Cavanaugh of _Crossing Jordan_, or her boss Garret Macy, played by the late Miguel Ferrer. Quincy will always be my favorite, though. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/59 "2017-02-04T02:59:44Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > His show was preachy from Day 1. Jack Klugman only agreed to do the show in the first place if he would be allowed to use it as a platform to promote the issues he cared about. I’m a big fan of _Quincy_, but the idea that it was a good show that was somehow ruined by its social conscience is a myth. The social conscience was the entire point of the show from the very beginning. Well, I remember it different, but it’s been what 40 years? ---
**Author:** ![eightysix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@eightysix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eightysix)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/60 "2017-02-04T03:32:05Z")
I grew up watching Quincy. But my real inspirations were Kolchak The Night Stalker and Jim Rockford. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648/61 "2017-02-04T04:29:51Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > The wonderful [Pat Corley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Corley). He was best known for his role as Phil the bar owner on _Murphy Brown_. Apparently he claimed that of all the many roles he played on T.V., his favorite was Wally Nydorf… Thanks. He was great. I loved his final collapse, where he was the last one to realize it was really over. Such a tragic character. I loved his monologue about the case he figured out when no one else could. “Me! Wally Nydorf!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-forensic-pathologists-here/778648.md?page=4)