The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-02-13
DETECTIVE MICROSCOPY.

tAOAA - 0AoPA0OA " S11lHC HAS D66n
greatly celebrated in theoretical dis
QUESTIONS, but do not always estab-
lish themselves when the law seeks
to avail itself of them in practical
cases. Recent trials of alleged pois-
oners have developed very little APP
parent trustworthiness in chemical
analysis and microscopical tests for
the determination of questions re-
specting the character and quantity
of poisonous drugs supposed to be
present in the human remains sub
jected to examination; and the va
rlous ingenious attempts made from
time to time in French courts to
utilize the camera for detective pur-
poses have scarcely proved more
satisfactory. It may be, however,
that the mere quackery of science,
rather than its professional exact
ness, is what lawyers have wilfully
cited to confuse rather than instruct
unprofessional jurymen and that,
in days Of less audacious pettifog-
ging, crime may yet be made to
tremble before witnesses who, by
the wonder of scientific vision,
may be able to trace the criminal
unerringly in every step of his dark
commission. Th> subject is sug-
gested by an article in late nun
Der of the English Journal of H.
croscQpy. describing the experience
of one DR.. B. in what may be tech
nically called the detective use of
the microscope. Having used the
Latter instrument for many years in
his study of comparative anatomy,
the medical practitioner in question
has been particularly impressed by
the varieties of hair appertaining
to the human and brute creations,
and believes himself able TO tell not
only from what race of man-white
or black-or from what particular
animal, or part thereof, given hir-
suite tuft has been taken, but also
whether it was removed by violence
or not. Consequent upon his fame
in this relation, there came to him,
not long ago, enclosed in an envelope,
a number of short hairs, with the
request that he would examine them
and give his judgment of their char
acter. Submitting them to micro
scope, he found that they were from
J a human eyebrow, and had been
greatly bruised and recorded his
decision to this effect upon paper
with them in the envelope, Sooa
thereafter stranger called for the
latter and, though rendering fee
for the professional service rendered,
abstained from revealing why the
examination bad been asked. It
enS1ed, however, that DR.. B. was
to hear more of the matter, for he
was presently subpoenaed to attend
at the L-assizes as q witness
for the prosecution in a murder case.
A man had been killed by a heavy
blow upon the eyebrow with some
blunt instrument upon a hammer
found In the possession of the sus-
pected murderer had been discovered
the hairs which had been sent to the
microscopic, and the latter's iden
LITIGATION of these hairs was just the
link in the chain of evidence requi-
site to fasten the crime upon the ac-
cused. 1t required no little positive
assurance from the presiding Judge
that scientific testimony was in
controvertible, to induce the jury to
act upon it and render verdict of
conviction, and even then one of
the Jurors was skeptical as to the
exactness of the science involved.
Asking the doctor if he could surely
distinguish the hair of one creature.
or part, from another, and being
answered in the affirmative, he ex-
pressed an intention to test the mat
ter for himself at some future time.
Accordingly, one day in the same
week the skeptic appeared at the
microscopist's office with a lock of
J soft, dark hair, and, with few words,
leaving it for Identification, depart
ed for the neighboring house of a
friend. When next he called he
: wished to know "what kind of a
nersnn,, had been the nrin;nal 80