Publication Forensic Medicine I represents the first part of the comprehensive collection of the latest information in the field of medical forensic sciences. It is organically linked to the textbook of Vorel. issued more than 20 years ago (1993), which is taken as a free continuation ol the textbooks of professor Tesaf (first edition 1975). The text, on which experts from all facilities of forensic medicine in the C/.ccli Republic and Slovakia participated, is primarily aimed at legal practitioners, but it may be useful to experts in other fields, not only medical and legal. The first volume contains 18 chapters, starting with the history of forensic medicine which is one of the oldest medical disciplines in the Czech Republic. For the education of physicians inherently belongs the legal literacy. The basic information is given in the second and fifth chapter. Following chapters deal with the general issues of the death, including post mortem changes, determination of the time ofdeath, and vitality of an injury. The interdisciplinary character of the forensic medicine is revealed namely in chapter six "Identification of persons" whose authors are not only general practitioners but also stomatologists, and particularly natural scientists, anthropologists and geneticists. Extensive chapters seven "Natural death" and eight "Forensic pedopathology" show close relation to pathology. Chapter nine "Sharps injuries" and ten "Gunshot wounds" are in turn linked to the surgical disciplines, such as traumatology and neurosurgery. Comparatively independent are Chapter eleven "Suffocation", twelve "Drowning", thirteen "Accidents and disorders during diving" and fourteen "Body damage by reduced atmospheric pressure". The last part is the Chapter fifteen "Starvation" and loosely related chapter sixteen "Blectrical injuries", seventeen "Radiation injuries" and eighteen "Thermal injuries".