Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-16


thing has been shown. Hitherto the
guinea fowl has been classed as be-
longing to the same family as the
domestic fowl. The guinea fowls
blood crystals, however, have now
been demonstrated to be more nearly
like those of the ostrich.
When it comes to the practical APP
plication of this knowledge its value
in relation to murder trials will be OBJ
vious in the same glance. In them its
Importance will be supreme, for it will
be possible to tell with absolute GER
tainty from what animal the blood
which made the stains on the gar
ments of the accused-if there are
stains-was obtained.
Today there is a delicate test by
which the blood of all the lower an
imals can be distinguished from that
of man. 1t is used under all cendi-
lions when the necessity arises for
making such a distinction. 1t cannot,
however, be relied upon should it be
necessary to distinguish between the
blood of the primates-man and GER
tain of the higher apes and monkeys.
But in these cases the bloods can be
readily distinguished by means of
the crystals.
The discovery of blood crystals in
1910, like so many other important
discoveries, came about in an unex-
pected way. A psychologist had taken
drop of blood, put it on his micro
scope slide and covered 1t with
cover slip in the ordinary way to ex-
anime it.
He was called away for a little
while, and on returning to the micro
scope he was astonished on looking
at the blood, to find that number OF
bright red crystals with a fiat surface,
like the top of a table, and sharp cor
ners, had been deposited in the fluid.
Seeing that human blood is the one
which is the most easily obtained,
most people would jump to the conclu-
sion that these crystals were those of
human blood. They were not. The
blood the scientist was studying was
that of the earthworm.
Naturally, he wrote about his dis
covery, but, possibly, because it was
a creature so low down the scale of
creation no notice was taken of it. 1t
was not until several years later, when
again by accident blood crystals were
discovered in the body of a guinea
pig, that scientific circles began to be
interested in them.
At once, psychologists wanted to
know whether these crystals could be
obtained from the blood of all animals;
and if so, whether they were all alike,
since they were all developed from the
same kind of coloring matter. The
result was that several methods Were
devised for preparing these crystals.
Those first obtained were from the
blood of man, the horse, the OK, the
dog, the cat, the pigeon and certain
fish.
Comparison proved that instead Of
being alike they presented a remark
able difference from one another. At
| once people jumped to the conclusion
that the differences in their shape
We're characteristic of the species Of
animals from which the blood was
taken.
No sooner, however, had one set of
observers advanced this theory than
others, who had obtained different
looking crystals. declared the differ
ence in appearance of the crystals
was purely accidental and due to ex-
| ternal conditions and had nothing to
do with the fact that the blood from
which they were obtained was drawn
from different animals.
So the matter remained until my ex-
haustive experiments which prove that
the blood of every species of living
creature crystalizes in a perfectly dis
tinct and recognizable form of it's
own.