Forensic Timeline

  • Fire with death

    Carl Scheele was a Swedish chemist who devised the test for detecting arsenic in corpses.
  • MEs

    Medical advancements enabled medical examiners to determine causes of death.
  • Development of chemical tests allowed more evidence testing

    Valentin Ross, a German chemist, discovered the precise method of detecting small amounts of arsenic
  • Development of chemical tests allowed more evidence testing

    Mathieu Orfilla, the Father of Toxicology, published articles on the detection of poisons and effects
  • development of microscopes allowed traced evidence examinations

    polarizing microscope invented
  • Development of microscopes allowed trace evidence examination

    first microscopic detection of sperm
  • Development of chemical tests allowed more evidence testing

    The first use of toxicological evidence in a criminal trial
  • Period: to

    the development of photographs allowed for more accurate records and documentation

  • Development of chemical tests allowed more evidence testing

    The first presumptive test for blood was discovered
  • Alphonse Bertillion

    French anthropologist, introduced the Bertillon System (Anthropomorphize). system of identifying people by their physical appearance.
  • Jack the Ripper

    London was terrorized by the ripper
  • the first book of criminal investigation using forensic science

    criminal investigation was published by Hans Gross from Austria
  • ABO

    Karl Landersteiner discovers ABO bloody typing
  • Kansas State Prison

    incarcerated two individuals by the name of Will West. They both had identical facial features and body measurments, by the Bertillons System. This led to the end of Anthropology.
  • Locards Exchange

    when two objects come into contact with each other, they exchange materials (cross transfer)
  • Berkeley

    the university of California at Berkely department criminalistics was opened and led by Dr. Paul Kirk