Experimental studies on the presumption of the time after food intake from stomach contents

A variety of model experiments were conducted in an attempt to obtain reference data for estimating the time of death from the stomach contents. The evidence derived from experiments with artificial gastric juices comparing the rates of digestion of various items of food showed that fish is more quickly digested than meat, with relatively small fish being disintegrated and becoming unrecognizable within a short time. The lower the pH of the gastric juice, the faster the rate of digestion. Experiments with dogs to study the rate of digestion of various food products indicated that, while the residual stomach contents decreased with time, there was still 190 g (approx. 36%) left in the stomach after 8 h. This suggested that, depending on the conditions, food can remain in the stomach for a considerable length of time. The residual contents in a dog's stomach and the changes in the shape of the food ingested may not necessarily concur, as the observations suggested that, after a lapse of eight hours, the stomach contained food that had been half digested as well as that which had virtually retained its original shape. Lumps of meat with a large surface area are digested more quickly than those with a small surface area, indicating the importance of mastication. Experiments on human stomach contents after ingestion of food mixed with a contrast medium showed that these had been discharged almost completely after 5 h. A somewhat larger amount of food had been retained in the stomach following alcohol intake as compared with no alcohol consumption. Experiments performed on dogs to determine their stomach contents after death indicated that, in high-temperature conditions, for example, the ingested chunks of meat are reduced to a mushy-sloppy consistency after three days, suggesting that digestion will proceed to some extent after death as putrefaction continues.