Early postmortem course of washerwoman's skin of the fingers

Studies were carried out systematically in both corpses and the hands of corpses in order to find out when " washerwoman 's skin" begins. The temperatures ranged between 10 degrees and 18 degrees C and the time of the experiments did not exceed 300 min. The initial formation of washerwoman 's skin could be observed after 20-30 min at the fingertips and after 50-60 min in the entire finger. The longest intervals observed were 100 or 150 min, respectively. These long intervals were interpreted as being exceptions from the norm, probably due to either extraordinarily heavy strips of fat on the fingers or abnormally hard skin on the hands. The course of washerwoman 's skin obviously depends on the water temperature, and afterwards it disappears rather slowly--even after a short immersion--in the open air. We will carry out additional experiments in the future.