The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-06
FIGHTING CRIME IN
 THE LABORATORY
M. Tevis, in Leslie's Weekly.

Suppose that lying beside the body of the victim of murder, blood stained and crumpled newspaper is found which has ev- dently been used to wipe the blade of the mur- derous implement, obviously hatchet Sup pose, again, that neighbor is found in pos session of hatchet similar in size and shape to the one with which the bloody deed was con- mitted, and that this tool has evidently been recently wiped off.
 Just such case was presented to the Paris police laboratory not very long ago. The owner of the hatchet was taken into custody although there was no other evidence against him, and though he stoutly protested his inno- cence, declaring earnestly that he had merely chopped ham in two. The hatchet was shipped to the laboratory where a micro-pho- tograph was made of it.
 Just as the edge of the keenest razor ap- pears to be jagged or toothed like that of saw when greatly magnifed, so the edge of hatchet really contains indentatons which, though extremely minute, are sufficiently large to catch and hold tiny fbers. But the ibers of cotton are different in shape from the wood fiber of which modern newspapers are com posed. The fbers caught the edge of this particular hatehet were stained with chem ical fluid known as seegers reagent At once the beautiful pink color characteristic of cotton fbers when thus stained appeared in- stead of the yellow color exhibited by the ibers of wood pulp from which news print is made. This, of course, pointed to the inno cenee of the accused man, and his claim was further supported by the fact that chemical alyss of the stains upon the hatchet showed absolutely no trace of human blood while small spot proved to contain 80 per cent ef sea salt. These data were the turning point of the proceedings as a result of which the pris- oner was freed.
 Cases of fraud are, naturally, far more com mon than those in which murder has been com mitted, and many of these pass through the laboratory. Some time ago, for example, an envelope containing 25,o0o francs was posted from a certain house in Paris, but when t reached it's recipient, in spite of the five seals it bore, it was found to contain nothing but sheets of brown paper instead of bank notes. Since the wax of the seals had obviously not been tampefed with, M Bayle first dissolved them in benzo-alcoholic solution, whereupon the paper beneath them to be unin- jured showing that the e<thief had not removed them as is sometimes done; the next step, therefore, was to soak the envelope in water so as to loosen the flaps, in order that they could be spread open.
 The envelope was then photographed by transmitted light, whereupon one of the flaps exhibited small spot of greater transparency than the other edges, indicating that when the thief had opened the flaps, probably by the in- sertion of sharp instrument, he had in spite of all his care, made slight tear at this point. Moreover, the part thus split off from flap was found to be stuck to the opposite flap in a corresponding position. A tiny particle of wax, too, was. discovered sticking to the torn part, thus proving that the envelope had been violated before the letter had been sealed. This was enough to direct suspecion toward certain employe of the firm from which the let ter had been sent-a suspicion which was later verified