Casper's Dictum

Banished from the medical communityOne brilliant German forensic pathologistJohann Casper, his nascent methods onThe rate of rot made him a cunning medico-criminalistThe heady chemical stench of decay set him freeTo discover putrefaction patterns others failed to seeInternal and external bacteria coalescedAnd illustrated their wisdom in a semi-liquid messProfessor of Forensic PathologyDisgraced by Berlin doctorsMisunderstood forensic geniusNineteenth century medicineRejected forensics and outlawed himAmongst reeking gassy corpsesCasper hatched his dark scienceMedical examiners now uniteBring Casper's Dictum to scientific light[Casper's Dictum:]"A week in air-two weeks in waterTwo weeks in water-eight weeks in ground!"Ballooning stiffs and liquescent corpsesBursting models for Casper's DictumStreptococci and Clostridium WelchiiBattle for postmortem bacterial supremacyAutolytic conversion hosts and breedsWhile putrefactive ooze squirts from the seamsCasper draped in a rotten visceraPopping bleb and bullae sebumNavigating the semi-fluid black messCharting decay for his seminal dictumHe noticed that corpses found submergedDecay half as fast as those uninterredExhumed carcasses revealed to himFour times less rot than those in the swimHe penned a text in 1850Called Forensic Dissection (naturally)His dictum was touted a medicolegal successEven Rudolf Virchow was begrudgingly impressed[Casper's Dictum:]"A week in air-two weeks in waterTwo weeks in water-eight weeks in ground!"Ballooning stiffs and liquescent corpsesBursting models for Casper's DictumSulphemethaemoglobin stains, putridity marblesBlood is haemolysedThe unyielding hot logic of decay persistsCasper is immortalizedBefore predation can strip the corpse cleanCasper graces the grisly crime sceneFrom waterlogged stiffs soughing their fleshTo exhumed partially skeletonized mulchHis ghastly rule of thumb is well knownFrom recently deceased to sun-bleached boneForensics and anatomy are hideously wedCasper's science of the dead