[Axe blow injuries caused by reflex action?].

In cases of questionable insurance fraud through self mutilation axe blows now as before play an important role. Occasionally it is alleged that the billet began to totter during the stroke and that the left hand responded to this stimulus by an unwilled movement to the billet. By this the thumb or forefinger was placed unfortunately on the upper surface of the timber and hit by the chopper. According to the literature and on the basis of own experiments we estimate the reaction time, i.e. initiation time plus movement time, at 700 msec., at least, whereas the stroke needs only 220-290 msec. (chopper), and 280-380 msec. (axe), respectively, as could be shown in further experiments. That means, that the left hand can only touch the billet when the blow already has reached the goal. Hence unwilling finger mutilations can scarcely be the result of a "reflex action" of this kind.