[Morphometric findings of stab wounds].

Stabbing experiments with a single-edged blade on skin preparations taken from three regions of the body (anterior chest wall, abdominal walls, lumbar region) showed the following results: The most gaping stab wounds were found, as anticipated, if the blade was stabbed perpendicular to Langer's lines. If the blade entered parallel to these lines, which depend on the pattern of cutaneous fibres, narrow slit-like wounds were produced; the dimensions of wounds from stabs at an angle of 45 degrees were between the two extreme patterns. The length of the skin wounds in orthograde stabbing (without cutting movement) was greater in the abdominal region than in the chest and lumbar regions, but never reached the full width of the penetrated blade, not even after restoration (by approximating the edges of a gaping wound).