BOOK REVIEW
TITLE : STUDENT’S GUIDE TO FORENSIC SKELETAL
ANALYSIS
AUTHOR : Prof. MUDITHA VIDANAPATHIRANA
PUBLISHER : SARASAVI PUBLISHERS 2015
Reviewed by Hemantha Situge
e-mail : hsituge@gmail.com
blog : Hemantha Situge@blogspot.com
Prof. Muditha Vidanapathirana’s
maiden English book entitled : Student’s Guide to Forensic Skeletal Analysis
published by the Sarasavi Publisher’s was released recently. This book is
peer-reviewed by Dr. P. R. Ruwanpura Consultant Judicial Medical Officer of the
Karapitiya teaching hospital Galle.
In his preface Prof.
Vidanapathirana states thus :
“Teaching of
medico-legal aspects of skeletal remains for the undergraduate and postgraduate
medical students for the last many years influenced me to write this book. The
training on Forensic Anthropology received during my undergraduate and
postgraduate training programs on continuous professional development and the
special training received on Forensic Anthropology at the St. George’s Hospital,
London were helpful to produce this book. I believe that this book will be
useful not only to undergraduate medical students but also to lawyers,
criminologists, police officers, inquirers in to sudden deaths etc.”
Prof. Muditha Vidanapathirana
is a Senior Lecturer attached to the Dept of Forensic Medicine, in the faculty
of medical sciences of the University of Sri Jayawardanapura. Prof.
Vidanapathirana’s years of experiences in teaching and his forensic expertise
has made him eminently qualified to compile this student guide.
Student’s guide to
Forensic Analysis runs into 99 pages with eight chapters. First chapter has
dealt with ‘Bio-mechanics of Injury Production’ per se it appears a novel
concept for the guide of a student. The second chapter dealt with ‘Description
of specimens of skull injuries’ where he provides eight such descriptions of
specimens. The third chapter is titled : ‘Blunt Force Trauma to Head spans to
14 pages with four sub-titles. The fourth chapter has dealt on ‘Sharp Force
Injuries’. The fifth chapter is titled : ‘Injuries due to Firearms.’ The sixth
chapter is overall the shortest in the book reads : ‘Late Deaths Following Head
Injuries’. The seventh chapter has dealt on : ‘Long Bone Fractures’. The eighth
on : ‘Cervical Injuries’, the ninth chapter the longest : ‘Identification of
skull, pelvis and long bones’ with eight sub-headings.
Once I perused at the
first and second titles of this chapter ‘Are they bones ? and ‘Are they
Human Bones?’ What whetted my curiosity was A.C. Alles’s ‘Famous Criminal cases
of Sri Lanka’ volume 5 Alfred De Zoysa and the Kalattawa Murderer trial where Queen’s
Counsel G. G. Ponnambalam unsuccessfully argued the bones found were not of
human. If the bones are of Archaeological value it would rank in the
discoveries like famed Balangoda Manavaya,
Pahiyangala Manawaya and Batadombalena
Manawaya. The fifth heading : ‘Identification by examination of the skull’
it aroused my interest as our national hero Monarawila Keppetipola Nilame’s
cranium with the advent of freedom that was sent to our country – which was
reposed at the Royal Prenological Society was buried in a glass box in front of
the Tooth Relic of Buddha – Dalada Maligawa – with the marked place erected
with a monument. Dr. John Davy in his ‘Account of the Interior of Ceylon’
published in 1821 contains two photographs of this cranium. Alas! Sri Lanka is
devoid of the forensic pathologists analysis of this cranium – a national
treasure. When this reviewer roves his mind through the pages on teeth , it
was undoubtedly forensic dentistry that revealed the death of the mass murderer
Adolph Hitler where his traces were not kept to see the light of the day !
The 76th
page of the book contains a photograph where Prof. Vidanapathirana refrains
commenting about the identification superimposition. The photograph depicted is
of Adeline Vitharana’s (facing page 110) which is also found in Famous Criminal
Cases volume 7 of A.C. Alles’s. This case was a cause célèbre in the annals of
crime in Sri Lanka. Neil Wijayasinghe translated this volume in to Sinhalese as
“Wilpattu Sihiwatanaya”. Then
Wasantha Obeysekera made an award winning movie based on the story as “Dadayama”. Thereafter Justice Alles
sued Wasantha Obeysekera the Director of the said film for violating his
copyright of his book and lost the suit. Where at the SC Justice C. V. Wigneshwaran
delivered the landmark judgement. Famed novelist Newton Goonesinghe wrote ‘Dadakeliya’ published by Dayawansha
Jayakody where Adeline Vitharana’s daughter sued the novelist and lost the
District Court battle.
Pages 76 and 77 has
dealt on the ‘References’ A careful perusal by any reader would find that most
of the references are from 1970’s to 2009 that all text dealt are of recent
ones. That is : Mostly Murder, Forensic Medicine by Sir Sydney Smith, 40 years
of Murder, Doctor’s Guide to Court and Forensic Medicine by Prof. Keith Simpson
were by-gone pioneering works.
But the only lapse
this reviewer would see is that a ‘glossary of medical terms’ which would have
serve the wide array of readership : That is legal practitioner’s,
criminologists, forensic students, police officers and inquirer’s of sudden
deaths alike.
Students of Sri Lanka
are short of guide book to guide themselves in the subject of Medico Legal
aspects. Prof. Muditha Vidanapathirana has trail the blaze in compiling an
invaluable student guide in this aspect. The only guide book that was available
to the students of law were ‘Researcher’s guide book for the Laws of Ceylon’ by
Barry Metzger 1971 which is considered as a long – outdated book today. Prof.
Muditha Vidanapathirana deserves all praise for his conscientious scholarly
efforts in compiling this opus in a ‘nutshell’ form.
Prof. Muditha
Vidanapathirana’s ‘Student guide to Forensic Skeletal Analysis’ fills a void of
a student’s guide’s that hitherto existed. Undoubtedly this guide book would
serve as a vade mecum for all these
wide array of the readership.
