Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-01-24

suspected signature in enlarged form
upon a screen with a magic lantern.
He saw at once that this might as read
lily be done with blood corpuscles as
with forged signature So he did it.
First he set about to measure 1900 cor
puscles of each kind of blood which
seemed most likely TO be brought into
question in murder cases. He found
the diameters to be as quoted above.
Then by means of the camera lucida, an
attachment to his microscope. he cast
the image of an average corpuscle of
each variety onto a sheet of white pa
per, from which, with infinite care, he
cut a disk exactly corresponding to it
in size but enlarged by means of COM
passes. He saw to it that his focus was
absolutely the same while he carried
on this work, and he knew when he
had finished that he had six disks of
paper which bore exactly the same re-
lation to each other in point of size that
the blood corpuscles did to each other
He then took these disks of paper,
pasted them on glass and used them as
"A lantern slide. This enabled him to
throw them on a screen magnified as
many times as he chose. 1t would
have been simple for him, had he so
desired, to arrange an apparatus by
which he could have made the smallest
of them as large as the side of his
study. He was contented, however,
with magnifying them until the larg-
est one measured about two feet across
1t was then possible for him to take
foot rule and measure the black spots
on his screen. with certainty that the
differences in size could not he affected
by any small, extraneous influence.
This method of cutting paper disks he
selected as the most desirable, al
though at first it seemed that photog-
raphy afforded the best means of ac-
complishing his ends The adjustment
of the Photographic focus, however, is
so delicate a matter that he soon real
lied that this would add to the posi-
bilities Of inaccuracy and. therefore,
he a bandoned it.
When superintendent Byrnes was
told of DR.. Edson's new method he
greeted the news with pleasure Said
he: Or Edson's discovery is most inn
| portant. Few people will realize how
important it is until they know that
within year at least fifteen murder
cases have occurred in or near New
York in which this matter of the
Identification of blood played very
important psrt, will not saw that in
any one of these cases blood Identified
ton was the vital point. but do not
hesitate TO declare that there is scarce
~ any scientific advance watch is like
~ to prove as useful in the ferreting
ont of murder as is this one of DR.. Ed
sons.
There Is an advantage in it which
/ will scarcely occur to the laymen too,
/ in the fact that tae presentation of
4 this form of evidence will add dra-
/ matte feature to murder trials Moth
/ ing is more effective with iuries than
/ the dramatic One might induce a jury
/ To pore over microscopic evidence for
4 hours without in any sense convincing
/ them. even if there were no possible
i shadow of doubt of the scientific ae-
/ curacy of the scientists deductions,
but let him suddenly flash this same
/ evidence in big black spots on a screen
i before their eyes and there would not
/ be Juror in the box who would not be
impressed and very likely convinced by
it. Under the American jury system,
/ it is often more necessary to present
, ones evidence in an attractive form
than it is to present 1t with minutely
detailed accuracy, prestime that sci
/ entists will be inclined to doubt the
Importance Of DR.. Edson's new method
because Of It's simplicity. but to man
who is constantly brought in contact
with juries and the general machinery
/ of justice, it is much more attractive
than it would be if it were a compli-
Gated and ustra-scientific process"
EDWARD MARSHALL.