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ABSTRACT
Medico-legally, the ratio of ethanol concentrations in the vitreous humour and the blood is sometimes used to determine the survival time in the victims of ethanol poisoning. Since the postmortem examination of the body of a man immersed for about 6 weeks in a lake in winter revealed alcohol in the blood and urine but not in the vitreous humour, we wished to determine experimentally whether or not ethanol can remain in the eye for that period of time in rabbits put under a similar but simulated condition.
After an intravenous injection of ethanol (1.25 g/kg), one eye (A) of a rabbit (n = 3) was assayed for the ethanol content of the vitreous. The animal was then sacrificed and its head containing the other eye (B) was kept immersed in water at 4°C for 6 weeks. The ethanol content of the eye B was then assayed. The vitreous of the eye B contained about 1/6 of the amount of ethanol present in the vitreous of eye A.