[Autopsy of count Jakob 3d of Baden. The earliest forensic medicine case of the Freiburg University in 1590].

Abstract

In 1590 Markgrave Jakob III. of Baden died, 28 years old, after a sudden disease which had lasted nine days. A necropsy was performed by two professors of the Freiburg University faculty of medicine. A written report amazingly accurate for the time, exists. It points at poisoning by arsenic powder. This is the first existing written protocol of a forensic autopsy, performed by professors of the faculty of medicine of Freiburg in 1590, 26 years after Vesalius' death.