FORENSICS:THE APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC

KNOWLEDGE TO LEGAL PROBLEMS, ESPECIALLY THE SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. (WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY)

The History of Forensics

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.