Preface

• Author: James G. Wigmore
• Pages: 21-22

Preface  xxi

Preface

When my encyclopedic work, Wigmore on Alcohol: Courtroom Alcohol

Toxicology for the Medicolegal Professional, was published in , I was

pleasantly surpri sed by the response. There were many favourable reviews

in both forensic and legal journals. The book sold in every continent

except for Antarctica (perhaps because penguin s don’t drink), and I have

received many positive emails at my website (www.wigmoreonalcohol.com)

and through LinkedIn ex pressing gratitude and support for publishing

such an extensive book.

The book, however, was perhaps a bit too intimidating and over-

powering for many lawyers, students, and general forensic experts, as it

included details about every scientif‌ic study (such as number of subjects

tested, their ages and gender, alcohol dosing regimen, and experimental

conditions) that were perhaps unnecessary in order to understand the

basic forensic aspects of alcohol toxicology. Additionally, as the book

is  pages, it is a bit cumbersome and heavy for easy carr ying, espe-

cially to court or other proceedings. It a lso had higher publication costs,

which were ref‌lected in the price.

Therefore, I decided to issue another book — the abridged Wigmore

on Alcohol — in which all the deta iled descriptions of each of the 

scientif‌ic studies were removed, but still had my extensive and practical

notes with references. This resulted in a book that is about one-half t he

number of pages, but is still invaluable to the practising medicolegal

professional and can be purchased at a more af‌fordable price.

Each of the  references cited in this book are given a reference

number, which I call the WOA number. It is a f‌ive-digit number in which