Adult Hirschsprung's disease diagnosed during forensic autopsy

We report a case of fatal Hirschsprung's disease (HD) discovered at autopsy. A 20-year-old man collapsed at home. Emergency medical personnel found him in cardiac arrest and all resuscitative efforts failed. He had a past history of chronic constipation since infancy. Forensic autopsy revealed a megacolon full of gas and stools. Microscopic examination showed absence of ganglion cells in a short segment of the rectum and enterocolitis in the left and transverse colon. HD is rarely described in adults. In many cases, patients complained of constipation since infancy but the affection remained misdiagnosed. The relative good tolerance of the disease is usually due to a short aganglionic bowel segment. Enterocolitis is a frequent and severe complication of HD in children but is rarely described in adults. This case suggests the importance of HD diagnosis in childhood in order to avoid fatal complications with forensic consequences.     

Safeguarding adults and mass marketing fraud – Perspectives from the police,trading standards and the voluntary sector

Despite the growing awareness of mass marketing fraud (MMF) in the financial abuse of vulnerable older people, little empirical research has been undertaken in this area. This paper is one of the first to consider the perspectives of a range of professionals who work with victims of mass marketing fraud and financial crime. MMF is a growing threat in the financial abuse of older people, and is increasingly recognised as a concern for professionals involved in supporting and safeguarding vulnerable older people. This paper considers the themes emerging from a small exploratory qualitative study into the perspectives of professionals working to safeguard those at risk of MMF and considers some of the complexities involved in tackling MMF. This involves consideration of the techniques used to groom and lure victims in plausible looking frauds, and the factors that serve to reinforce their sustained involvement in such activity.     

On the origins of a fermier général: Family strategies over seven generations (late sixteenth through the late eighteenth centuries)

Family archives from the French ancien régime period offer the possibility of analyzing complex family strategy in the long term. The present article deals with the Brac family over seven generations, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, as it rose in prominence from a start in leatherworking to eventual high office in regional and Parisian public life. Over the centuries, the family accumulated land (the patrimony); used a combination of marital, geographical, professional, and kinship networks to advance its various members; maintained a policy of economic parsimony in its expenditures; and through various procedures favored a single heir in each generation. Though the various lines of the family were geographically dispersed, their activities in the main continued to focus on the ancestral family lands and the local society of its origins.