Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-02-27
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CHEMISTRY AND CRIME
medical Detectives" as Aids to the
Police in Murder Mysteries.

! ro''ce in Murder Mysteries.
Meuieal detectives" are the latest in
bhgland. They are not. as the term
might imply. police officers who are
graduates in medicine. but are ch,mi.
eai analysts who aid the police in
sowing murder mysteries. They play
cd an important part in the case Of
LIZ. HaWiey Fl. Crippen. accused of tho
murder of his wife. and furnished the
| prosecution with one of its stronpes,
POINTS. commenting on this, a writer
IN Tit Bits tells of other cases in
| "hich chemical exports have served
| the ends Of justice.
FTactlcailS, the poiSontrS can hide
| hothinG from the modern analyst. for
| that gentleman is not only familiar
with ali poisons, but can recognize
| Their presence almost as easily as he
can recognize the dome of ST. Paurs
| Cathedral he says. by the aid of his
test tune, his microscope and his spec
| iroscope he is able to lay bare the
poisonet's secret and track him down,
| Il any great criminal was suspected OF
| poisoning his wife. the analysts. upon
| examining the remains. would be able
to prove what poison vas used and in
wnat quantity
Delicate to marvellous degree are
the tests employed by analysts in the
case Of poisons. If n man were to be
poisoned with arsenic tomorrow and
were buried without being examined
Internally. an analyst could a quarter
OF century later gather from tho re-
mains of the body a considera bic
amount of the poison which killed him
and in the same state as that in which
1t was administered.
Probably arsenic has been more
frequently used by murderers as a
death dealer than any other poison.
and arsenic is very peculiar poison.
II is q we'll known fact that many men
and women take arsenic in small doses
as a medicine, while the inha bitants
of Syria are said to eat it as freely as
we eat salt. To a person who has
never touched. eaten or smelt arsenic
medium sized dose would have a fatal
effect. No matter how il got into the
system It would be deadly. for arsenic
kills whether ii is swallowed. rubbed in
to wound. or breathed as vaper.
Chapman, who was hanged for poison
ing his mistresseS, used arsenic and
the drug was also used in the memor-
able Maybrick case.
Mime. Lafarge poisoned her hus-
band. an ironmaster. by means of ar
se.ic. While NJ. Lafarge was in Paris
on d visit his wife pretended to send
him parcel, in which was her por-
trait. five small cakes made by his
mother, and letter. This parcel was
sealed in the presence of witnesses.
When the parcel reached Lafarge is
confined only one large cake. He ate
this. and nine days later he died. Nine
Lafarge was arrested and charged
with murder by poisoning. At the trial
it was alleged that she had made the
large cake with arsenic as one of the
ingredients, and substituted it for the
five small ones. She was found guilty
after a trial exceeding 4 fortnight. and
condemned to Imprisonment for lie.
TO micro photography the discovery
of many crime is due. The spectre
scope is infallible in revealing the
presence of the minutest trace of blood.
but 1t is unable to distinguish between
human and animal blood. The micro
scope can, however. The corpuscles OF
different nammalia can only be dis
tinguished by their size and shape. aud
it can be seen that without the micro
scope it would be impossible to draw
a distinction between the blood of a
man and the blood of an animal
THE corpuscleS Of both men and
animals are all circular, with the ex-
| ception of those of the Hama. alpaca.
camel and their kind. which are oval.
Some time ago a man suspected OF
| murder was found to own all axe COW
cred with blood. An analyst examined
| the blood, and found that it was that
| of goat, the corpuscles measuring ~
| tentllS of a micron. On this evidence
| the man was found not guilty.
| Cloth stained with red thought to
| be blood is touched with ammonia. II
| the stain is caused by fruit juice 1t
| turns blue or green; if by Condy's $
| fluid it becomes blue; and if by cochi-
| neal it becomes crimson. But if it be
| blood. human or animal. the color un-
| der the influence of the ammonia does
| not change in the least.
| M. Rogier, who was found burned
| to death in d cottage in France some
| wears ago, was said to have been mur-
| dered. An analyst took a few drops Of
| blood from the dead mans lungs and
| examined them by means of the spec
| troscope He discovered that their
| condition was normal, which proved
! that death must have occurred before
| the cottage was set on fire.
| "A man was found in Cornwall with
| his head battered in. evidently with
| some blunt instrument. The detectives
whc took up the case found hammer
some distance from the corpse. Upon
it were a couple Of gray hairs. and
medical man declared that they came
| from some ones eyebrows. On COM
pairing the hairs with those of the de-
ceased's eyebrows they correspondent.
The two hairs on the hammer brought
| tho murderer to i,IStice"-N. Y. IT'D