Subdural Hemorrhages

Mystery has always shrouded the supposedly rare condition to which Virchow gave the name of pachymeningitis hemorrhagica interna chronica. Neither the title nor Virchow's study of the subject tended to abate the mystery. It is my purpose in this paper (1) to endeavor to dispel this mystery, (2) to demonstrate that the condition is not rare, (3) to call attention to its operative curability in many cases and (4) to indicate its possible medicolegal relations. The Massachusetts medical examiner law gives the medical examiner exclusive opportunity to investigate deaths by violence. This exclusive opportunity entails a stewardship with a responsibility for the proper use of the material that comes into his hands. One of the implied obligations of the medical examiner is to aid or if possible to stimulate medical progress in dealing with the results of traumatism. The appalling death rate from automobile and other traumatic hazards approximates wartime