ABSTRACT
The alarm caused by the sudden deaths was slowly subsiding, when in February 1707 another horrifying story of death circulated in Rome. In truth, fear of premature burial had already had a very long tradition indeed. Ascertaining death with the utmost thoroughness to prevent tragic mistakes or unmask deceit was an issue of particular interest to forensic medicine. In De subitaneis mortibus Lancisis briefly examined the indicia mortis with a few considerations pertaining to forensic medicine. Although he acknowledges the difficulty of ascertaining death. In fact, the Hippocratic Oath forbade doctors from administering poisonous drugs to accelerate the patient's death, a practice that was probably commonplace in antiquity. As is well known, an expectant attitude had been predominant in Western medicine since antiquity. In the Hippocratic triangle the sick person, doctor medical art was conceived as support for the sick in their fight against illness.
