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Feb 1, 700
Chinese used fingerprints to establish identity of documents and clay sculpture, but without any formal classification system.
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Feb 1, 1000
Quintilian, an attorney in the Roman courts, showed that bloody palm prints were meant to frame a blind man of hismother’s murder.
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Feb 28, 1248
A Chinese book, Hsi Duan Yu (the washing away of wrongs), contains a description of how to distinguish drowningfrom strangulation. This was the first recorded application of medical knowledge to the solution of crime.
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The first treatise on systematic document examination was published by François Demelle of France
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Marcello Malpighi, a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, noted fingerprint characteristics. However,he made no mention of their value as a tool for individual identification.
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In Lancaster, England, John Toms was convicted of murder on the basis of the torn edge of wad of newspaper in apistol matching a remaining piece in his pocket. This was one of the first documented uses of physical matching.
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Eugène François Vidocq, in return for a suspension of arrest and a jail sentence, made a deal with the police toestablish the first detective force, the Sûreté of Paris.
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Mathiew Orfila, a Spaniard who became professor of medicinal/forensic chemistry at University of Paris, publishedTraite des Poisons Tires des Regnes Mineral, Vegetal et Animal, ou Toxicologie General l. Orfila is considered thefather of modern toxicology.
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John Evangelist Purkinji, a professorprofessor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, Czecheslovakia, publishedthe first paper on the nature of fingerprints and suggested a classification system based on nine major types. However,he failed to recognize
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Henry Goddard, one of Scotland Yard’s original Bow Street Runners, first used bullet comparison to catch amurderer. His comparison was based on a visible flaw in the bullet which was traced back to a mold.
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James Marsh, an Scottish chemist, was the first to use toxicology (arsenic detection) in a jury trial.
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Jean Servais Stas, a chemistry professorprofessor from Brussels, Belgium, was the first successfully to identifyvegetable poisons in body tissue.
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The Dutch scientist J. (Izaak) Van Deen developed a presumptive test for blood using guaiac, a West Indian shrub.
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The German scientist Schönbein first discovered the ability of hemoglobin to oxidize hydrogen peroxide making itfoam. This resulted in first presumptive test for blood.
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Arthur Conan Doyle published the first Sherlock Holmes story in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of London.
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Alexandre Lacassagne, professorprofessor of forensic medicine at the University of Lyons, France, was the first totry to individualize bullets to a gun barrel. His comparisons at the time were based simply on the number of lands andgrooves.
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Sir Edward Richard Henry developed the print classification system that would come to be used in Europe andNorth America. He published Classification and Uses of Finger Prints.
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Karl Landsteiner first discovered human blood groups and was awarded the Nobel prize for his work in 1930. MaxRichter adapted the technique to type stains. This is one of the first instances of performing validation experimentsspecifically to adapt a meth
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Sir Edward Richard Henry was appointed head of Scotland Yard and forced the adoption of fingerprintidentification to replace anthropometry.
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Professor R.A. Reiss, professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a pupil of Bertillon, set up one of thefirst academic curricula in forensic science. His forensic photography department grew into Lausanne Institute ofPolice Science.
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Edmund Locard, successor to Lacassagne as professor of forensic medicine at the University of Lyons, France,established the first police crime laboratory.