One size fits all?

[Errata]

Hello Errata. I suppose that's possible.

What effect would strangulation have?

Cheers.
LC

Well, it could account for the color of the clot, but not the clot itself. People do stroke out whilst being strangled, but mostly only a prolonged choke release repeat situation. The kind of thing that blows all the vessels in the face and turns the tongue black. If the vessels in her eyes weren't blown, I don't see how she blew a vessel in her head. And I think someone would have mentioned if the whites of her eyes were filled with blood.

Of course, the whole thing could just be phrased oddly. Like if "clot" didn't mean what it means. Today, it means either a clot in the blood, or a clot of blood that is a dried mass of blood and sometimes tiny vessels on the outside of a blood vessel. If the meant a congealed mass of blood in a certain potion of the brain, well, that's not a clot. That's one of a number of other things that were known at the time. I don't know why a doctor would use a medical term in a descriptive sense, as opposed to the medical sense, but weirder things have happened.

But let's face it. Polly's booze was either beer or gin. I doubt she could even get inebriated from beer anymore, which leaves gin. Now I admittedly have a very sensitive nose when it comes to booze, but I can smell gin my dad has spilled and cleaned up a full day earlier. Cause that stuff smells awful. It's like turpentine. I would be astonished if someone could not smell the gin in a freshly opened stomach, and the gin had been there within 36 hours. And you can only imagine how bad "Blue Ruin" smelled.

[Bridewell]

Absorbtion

Polly left the Frying Pan at around 12.30. Even slow delay alcohol would have been in her system fully by 2.30 and some would been well on the way out by 3.30.

Alcohol is absorbed from the stomach and small intestine in response to a concentration difference between the fluid in those organs and the blood. The larger the concentration difference the greater the rate of absorption – but only up to a point. A neat spirit will contain between 37 and 40% alcohol by volume, and when taken undiluted it can actually slow down the rate of absorption, principally by slowing down the rate of gastric emptying. This is because alcohol is most easily absorbed through the upper section of the duodenum than it is through the stomach. So if the spirit drink is diluted to about 50:50 with water, gastric emptying is more frequent and the alcohol is absorbed into the body more quickly. Also, gas in a mixer [such as soda, tonic water or coke] will speed up alcohol absorption. The mechanism by which it does this is not fully understood, although it is probably because the gas also speeds up gastric emptying – which is why we often use such mixers to dilute spirit drinks. Quote from lionlaboratories.com

Unless Polly Nichols was taking tonic with her gin, which I think unlikely, her system will still have been processing the alcohol consumed before she left the Frying Pan for some considerable time afterwards.

Regards, Bridewell.

[Lechmere]

Yes but there is a difference between processing and getting inebriated as a result if drinking the stuff. The inebriate effect would have passed although the body would still be processing the chemicals.

[Bridewell]

Processing Alcohol

Yes but there is a difference between processing and getting inebriated as a result of drinking the stuff. The inebriate effect would have passed although the body would still be processing the chemicals.

Alcohol is absorbed directly through the stomach lining into the blood stream and carried to the brain. After the alcohol circulates through the brain, a small percentage is removed in urine, perspiration and by breathing while the rest is carried to the liver to be broken down into carbon dioxide and water. The liver can only process 1/3 ounce of alcohol per hour. This is a fixed rate so only time, not black coffee or a cold shower, will sober up a person who is impaired. Alcohol depletes the body of water so the morning after, you may have a headache, upset stomach and be dehydrated. Clearly, the drug alcohol, even after just a few drinks, is stressful for the body. Once alcohol gets into your bloodstream, you cannot kick it out. People think they can. Alcohol, because it is a poison, hasto pass through your liver and your kidneys. It hasto be cleaned, oxidized, and passed out through urine.
That process takes approximately one hour per drink, under ideal circumstances.
http://www.bobbattlelaw.com

Hi Lechmere,

The body cleans itself of about 8mg of alcohol per hour. A person who is double the UK drink-drive limit will take about 5 hours to get below it and about 10 hours to become completely clear of alcohol. Polly Nichols was drunk and staggering when last seen alive at 2.30am. She was dead by 3.40am. She was drunk when she was killed.

We're probably going to have to agree to disagree on this one though!

Regards, Bridewell.

[lynn cates]

thanks

Hello Errata. Thanks. Permit me to say that, sometimes, it feels like Dr. Llewelyn is groping a bit.

Cheers.
LC

[Lechmere]

Bridewell
I don't doubt she was drunk.
I do question that she was falling down drunk or significantly incapacitated at 3.30 when she clearly wasn't at 2.30 and had not been drinking since 12.30. She would have been less drunk by 3.30 and there can be no serious doubt as to that.
I have no doubt she would have failed a driving drink test at 3.30.

[Errata]

Hello Errata. Thanks. Permit me to say that, sometimes, it feels like Dr. Llewelyn is groping a bit.

Cheers.
LC

a bit? He evidently doesn't even bother to catalog how many cuts there were on the body.
I also may have lied about Polly being the one with the clot in the brain. Unfortunately, now I can't find that reference anywhere, so my advice would be to ignore me until I figure it out.