The History of Forensics

FORENSICS:
THE APPLICATION OF
SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO LEGAL
PROBLEMS, ESPECIALLY THE
SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL
EVIDENCE. (WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY)
 Forensic Science Timeline

 Pre-historic picture writing of a hand with ridge patterns is

discovered in Nova Scotia.
 In ancient Babylon, fingerprints were used on clay tablets
for business transactions.
 700 BC-Thumb prints were found in clay seals in ancient
China.
 250 BC-Erasistratus, an ancient Greek physician, observes
his patients’ pulse rates increase when they tell him lies.
 44 BC-Antistius, an ancient Roman physician, examines
the body of Julius Caesar after his assassination and finds
more than 23 stab wounds.
1248-The Chinese book, Hsi Duan Yu (the Washing Away
of Wrong), is the first recorded application of medical
knowledge to the solution of crime. The book becomes an
official text for coroners.
 1658-Sir Thomas Browne discovers adipocere, the fatty,
waxy, soap-like substance derived from decayed human
corpses buried in moist, air-free places.
 1686-Malpighi, professor of anatomy at the University of
Bologna, noted ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints.
 1752-Mary Blandy was tried at Oxford for murdering her
father with arsenic. She was found guilty and hanged.
 1784-In Lancaster UK, John Toms is convicted of murder
on the basis of a wad of newspaper in a pistol matching a
remaining piece in his pocket.
 1813-Mathieu B. Orfila, the father of modern toxicology,
publishes Traite des Poisons. He is the first to attempt to
use a microscope in the assessment of blood and semen
stains.
 1835-Henry Goddard of Scotland Yard, first uses bullet
comparison to catch a murderer.
 1842-Edgar Allan Poe publishes “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue”, the first fictional detective story.
 1863-C.F. Schonbein discovers the ability of hemoglobin to
oxidize in H2O2 making it foam. This is the first presumptive
test for blood.
 1865-Taylor and Wilkes write a paper on determination of
time since death from the fall in body temperature.
 1901-K. Landsteiner first discovers human blood groups. M.
Richter adapts the technique to type blood stains.
 1902-R. Fischer describes the furrows on human lips; a fact
that later formed the basis for cheiloscopy (lip print ID)
 1903-The first forensic science curriculum is developed at
the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland.
 1905-President T. Roosevelt establishes the FBI.
 1908-George Popp firmly established forensic geology as
a means to find the murderer of a Bavarian woman.
 1910-A.S. Osborne publishes Questioned Documents on
document forgery in America.
 1924-A. Vollmer, police chief in Los Angeles, implements
the first U.S. police crime laboratory.
 1933-T. Gonzales of Mexico City Police Headquarters,
introduces the diphenyl-amine test in the U.S. to detect
gunshot residues.
 1937-W. Specht develops the chemiluminescent reagent
luminol as a presumptive test for blood.
 1950-M. Frei-Sulzer develops the tape lifting method of
collecting trace evidence.
 1974-Aerospace Corp. scientists develop the technology
to analyze GSR using SEM with electron dispersice X-rays
 1977-M. Soba develops the technique for lifting latent
fingerprints using Superglue fuming
 1985-Police in the UK first use forensic DNA
profiling
 1998-The FBI sets up that National DNA Index
System, enabling city, county, state, and federal law
enforcement agencies to compare DNA profiles
 1999-The FBI implements the Integrated Automated
Fingerprint Identification System, allowing paperless
submission, storage, and search of the national
database.