Never say never. Negligible carboxyhemoglobin in the victim of a smoldering mattress fire

For many years, a high blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration has been used as a criterion for determining that a victim of conflagration was alive in the fire. We report a case in which a man died from the combined effects of burns and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. He had a negligible blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration, but the environmental evidence and autopsy findings are indicative of life in the fire, which arose in a smoldering mattress. We conclude that uncritical, rigid adherence to the requirement that fire victims have high carboxyhemoglobin concentrations can be misleading.     

Homosexual panic and murder

The following case study shows the important motive relationship between homosexual panic and lust murder. By case analysis, the selected rationale system of the subject is discussed and illustrated.     

Reviews

Archie Brown ed., Political Culture and Communist Studies. London: Macmillan, 1984, xii + 211 pp. £25.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

J. Arch Getty, Origins of the Great Purges. The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered, 1933–1938. Cambridge, New York, London, Cambridge University Press, 1985, viii + 269 pp. £25.00.

Ronald Tiersky, Ordinary Stalinism: Democratic Centralism and the Question of Communist Political Development, Boston, Mass: George Allen and Unwin, 1985, xiii + 209 pp. £15.00.

Michael Ellman, Collectivisation, Convergence and Capitalism. Political Economy in a Divided World. Academic Press, London, 1984, xii + 332 pp. £35.00, $55.00.

Sarah Meiklejohn Terry ed., Soviet Policy in Eastern Europe, a Council of Foreign Relations Book, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984, xiv + 375 pp. £27.50.

Kristian Gerner, The Soviet Union and Central Europe in the Post‐War Era. Aldershot: Gower, 1985, xi + 228 pp. £16.50.

Boris Z. Rumer, Investment and Reindustrialization in the Soviet Economy, Boulder and London, Westview Press, 1984, xvi + 145 pp. £14.50.

David A. Dyker, The Future of the Soviet Planning System, London and Sydney: Croom Helm, 1985, ix + 172 pp. £17.95 h/b.

Andrew Freris: The Soviet Industrial Enterprise; Theory and Practice; London and Sidney: Croom Helm, 1984, 170 pp. £14.95.

Susan J. Linz, ed., The Impact of World War II on the Soviet Union. Totowa, N. J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985, ix + 300 pp., $28.50.

Philippe Frémeaux and Christine Durand, Comprendre l'économie soviétique, Syros, Paris, 1985, pp. 139. 39 FF.

Jacques Sapir, Travail et travailleurs en URSS, Editions La Decouverte, Paris, 1984, 127 pp. 31 FF.

Peter Kneen, Soviet Scientists and the State: An Examination of the Social and Political Aspects of Science in the USSR, London: Macmillan, 1984. x + 138 pp. £25.00.

John N. Hazard, William E. Butler, Peter B. Maggs, The Soviet Legal System: The Law in the 1980's. Oceana Publications, Inc., Dobbs Ferry, New York, 1984. xiv + 439 pp. $45.00.

William B. Simons and Stephen White eds., The Party Statutes of the Communist World, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1984, viii + 545 pp. £58.50, Dfl. 230.00.

Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, The Image of Peter the Great in Russian History and Thought. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985, ix + 331 pp., £29.50.

Marianna Tax Choldin, A Fence around the Empire. Russian Censorship of Western Ideas under the Tsars. Durham, Duke University Press, 1985, xii + 281 pp. $42.50.

Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 1905–1920: The Shaping of National Identity in a Muslim Community. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney. 1985. xiii + 256 pp. £25.00.

Bohdan Krawchenko, Social Change and National Consciousness in Twentieth‐Century Ukraine. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press, 1985, xix + 333 pp, £30.00.

Jan Adam, Employment and Wage Policies in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary Since 1950. London and Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1984, xix + 251 pp. £25.00.

Nigel Swain, Collective Farms which work? Cambridge UP Soviet and East European Studies, Cambridge, New York, London 1985, 235 pp. £25.00.

C. M. Hann, A Village Without Solidarity: Polish peasants in years of crisis. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985, ix + 208 pp., £12.00.     

Reviews

E. Comisso and L. D'Andrea Tyson eds. Power, Purpose and Collective Choice. Economic Strategy in Socialist States. Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London, 1986, 422 pp. $43.45 h/b, $16.45 p/b.

Dietrich Andre Loeber ed. Ruling Communist Parties And Their Status Under Law. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1986, xxi + 550 pp. £101.50 h/b.

E. S. Williams, The Soviet Military: Political Education, Training and Morale. London: Macmillan, 1987, xv + 203 pp. £27.50.

John Erickson, Lynn Hansen and William Schneider, Soviet Ground Forces: An Operational Assessment. London: Croom Helm & Westview, 1986, xix + 267 pp. £25.00.

Kurt M. Campbell, Soviet policy towards South Africa. London: Macmillan, 1986, xii + 223 pp. £27.50.

David A. Korn, Ethiopia, the United States and the Soviet Union, London: Croom Helm, 1986, 199 pp. £19.95.

Samuel M. Makinda, Superpower Diplomacy in the Horn of Africa, London: Croom Helm, 1987, 241 pp. £22.50.

Ivan Volgyes, Politics in Eastern Europe. Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1986, xvii + 368 pp. $20.00.

Olga A. Narkiewicz, Soviet Leaders: from the Cult of Personality to Collective Rule. Brighton: Wheatsheaf, 1986, ix + 256 pp. £18.95.

Simon Bergstrand and Rigas Doganis, The Impact of Soviet Shipping. London: Allen & Unwin, 1987, xvi + 184 pp. £30.00.

Martin Kitchen, British Policy towards the Soviet Union during the Second World War. London: Macmillan, 1986, viii + 309 pp. £29.50.

Alexandre Popovi?, L'lslam balkanique. Les Musulmans du sud‐est européen dans la période post‐ottomane, Osteuropa‐Institut an der Freien Universitat Berlin, Balkanolo‐gische Veröffentlichungen, edited by Norbert Reiter, vol. 11, Berlin, in conjunction with Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1986, xii + 493 pp.

Bernard Lory, Le Sort de l'Héritage Ottoman en Bulgarie; l'Exemple des Villes Bulgares, 1878–1900. Published at the initiative and with the help of the Institut Français d'Etudes Anatoliennes d'Istanbul and l'Association pour le Développement des Etudes Turques, Paris, Editions Isis, Istanbul, 1985, viii + 235 pp.

Shirin Akiner, Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union. 2nd ed. London: KPI, 1986. xiii + 462 pp.

Bruce W. Watson and Susan M. Watson, eds., The Soviet Navy: Strengths and Liabilities, Westview Press/Arms and Armour Press, London, 1986, xv + 333 pp. £19.95.

Robert Conquest, ed., The Last Empire: Nationality and the Soviet Future. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, Calif, (distributed in UK by Clio), 1986, xiv + 406 pp. £23.45.

Jeffery Simon and Trond Gilberg, eds. Security Implications of Nationalism in Eastern Europe, Westview Press. Boulder, Colorado and London, 1986 xvi + 327 pp. £27.75.

K. R. M. Short, ed., Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain, Croom Helm, London, 1986, 274 pp. £22.50.

John Bushnell, Mutiny amid Repression: Russian Soldiers in the Revolution of 1905–1906. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985, ix + 334 pp. £24.50.

Roger Woods, Opposition in the GDR under Honecker 1971–85. Macmillan, London, 1986, x + 257 pp. £27.50.

Yury Boshyk, ed., Ukraine during World War II— History and its Aftermath. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1986, xix + 219 pp. no price quoted.

Peter Beilharz, Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism, London: Croom Helm, 1987. 197 pp. £25.00.

A. Buick & J. Crump, State capitalism: the wages system under new management. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1987, ix + 165 pp. £25.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.     

Reviews

Israel Getzler, Kronstadt 1917–1921: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy. London: Cambridge University Press, 1983, xii + 296 pp. £25.00.

Hans Dieter Seibel and Ukandi G. Damachi, Self‐Management in Yugoslavia and the Developing World, London: Macmillan, 1982, 316 pp. £20.00. Fred Singleton and Bernard Carter, The Economy of Yugoslavia, London: Croom Helm, and New York: St. Martin's, 1982, 279 pp. £19.95.

Steven Rosefielde, False Science: Underestimating the Soviet Arms Buildup. An Appraisal of the CIA's Direct Costing Effort, 1960–80. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Books, 1982, xxi + 340 pp. p/b $14.95.

Donald S. Zagoria (ed.), Soviet Policy in East Asia, London: Yale University Press, 1982, xiii+360 pp. £21.00.

Aryeh Y. Yodfat, The Soviet Union and the Arabian Peninsula, London: Croom Helm, 1983, 191 pp. £13.95.

David Lane, The End of Social Inequality? Class, Status and Power Under State Socialism, London, Boston and Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1982, x+208 pp. h/b £12.95. p/b £4.95.

P. J. Potichnyj and J. S. Zacek (eds.), Politics and Participation under Communist Rule, New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1983, xvii+282 pp. $29.95.

Vladimir G. Treml, Alcohol in the USSR: A Statistical Study, Durham, N.C.: Duke Press Policy Studies, 1982, xiii + 103 pp. $27.75.

R. Amann and J. M. Cooper (eds.), Industrial Innovation in the Soviet Union, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1982, xxix+526 pp. £33.00.

Malcolm R. Hill, East‐West Trade, Industrial Co‐operation and Technology Transfer, London: Gower Publishing, 1983, xviii+217 pp. £15.00.

Roy Medvedev, (translated by Brian Pearce), Khrushchev, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982, x + 292 pp. £9.50.

Roger Munting, The Economic Development of the USSR, London: Croom Helm, 1982, 228 pp. (with one map and 54 tables). £13.95.

David Rousset, The Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution: A Critical History of the USSR, volume 1, London/New York: Allison and Busby, 1982, translated by Alan Freeman, 333 pp. h/b £13.95, p/b £5.95.     

The evolution of commitment law in the nineteenth century

The generally accepted interpretation of the evolution of commitment law in the nineteenth century is challenged by means of an historical investigation of the law's development in a single state—Pennsylvania. Rather than an abrupt switch from relaxed commitment procedures to a system of stringent safeguards, which most historical accounts of the period describe, examination reveals that Pennsylvania law underwent a slow accretion of procedural protections, with the essential discretionary role of families, friends, and physicians left undisturbed. The implications for current policy of this challenge to the traditional account are discussed.