HOW SCIENTISTS AID THE LAW

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 24

HOW SCIENTISTS AID THE LAW

FORENSIC CHEMISTRY AND CRIME DETECTION

Amongst the many spheres in which science can be applied to the ordinary affairs of everyday life, none is more important than that in which the chemist finds himself allied with the law.

m this direction his activities range from aiding justice in the detection of crime and demonstrating the guilt or innocence of accused persons to helping to watch over the health of the community. In his laboratory nowadays he works marvels unsuspected by the ordinary layman. Some remarkable advances in the application of chemical science to the detection of crime and criminals have been made in recent years, but frequently the scientifist is on the other side when his investigations are directed towards establishing the innocence of an accused person. There was an excellent example of this not long ago when a man had been detained in connection with the mysterious death of an old-age pensioner, in whose company the suspect had been seen. One of the things which had directed suspicion was the existence of a number of bloodstains on some portions of his clothing, but fortunately for himself he was able to find expert support for his statement that the stains had been caused while lie was skinning rabbits. For a serological examination revealed the exact nature of the marks. Much better known, of course, is the work of the analytical chemist in connection with the detection of crime, for nowadays in poisoning trials the most important and conclusive evidence is' nearly always given by the chemists. So accurate have modern quantitative methods become that it is now possible for the presence of ten thousandth fractious of some. poisons to be detected with comparative ease, and the poisoner’s last hope of using one of the more potent drugs and then trusting that the minute quantity of it required for the deadly work will be too small to be discovered in the victim’s body has evaporated. Incidentally, it 'is now generally recognised and admitted in 'both legal and medical circles that had the technical methods of to-day been available forty vears ago the unfortunate Mrs. Maybrick would never have been convicted of causing the death of her husband. There are other branches of forensic chemistrv, however, with which the public is’ not so familiar, including the examination of cheques and documents with the object of determining whether thev have been forged or not. Banks nowadays frequently enlist the service of the chemist when it is desired to ascertain whether a signature or other writing has been tampered with, while lawvers often submit papers about whose age or authenticity thev are doubtful,' for there was worked out some vears ago a delicate process by which the ink in a sample of writing

can be made to reveal its age with an extraordinary degree of accuracy. To the chemist bankers and the public in general are indebted for the manufacture of a special make of paper for cheques which positively cannot be f tampered with without the interference immediately becoming plain to the sight, and because of this thousands of pounds formerlv lost in cheque frauds and forgeries are now being saved. The State, in its turn, also owes a debt of gratitude to modern chemical science for having prepared inks and papers which render the counterfeiting of bank and Treasury notes, even bv the most skilled forgers, so difficult a task that the danger from this quarter can now hardly be said to exist at all. Somewhat less interesting, but none the less important,_ are the labours the chemist in seeing that the public is not poisoned with deleterious foodstuffs, or defrauded with adulterated goods. In every. big city nowadays the government maintains a whole corps of analysts specially to carry out these duties, ’ and from morning to night there goes on the ceaseless work of ex* amining milk, butter, pickles, jams, sauces and everything else which is to be found in the innumerable provision and food shops in the city. . t These foods are periodically inspected for the presence of ptomaine, while not long ago there was devised a method by which the age of an egg could be told and its • last secrets wrested from it. In the Federal laboratories which the Commonwealth Government of Australia has established in all the capitals and in the larger country towns the tasks of the chemists include everything from guarding the Federal revenue and performing analyses for the Custom’s Department to trying to discover methods of coping with a few of the worst of the pests with which Australia is afflicted. , , r Somewhat similar work, states the “Sidnev Sun,” is carried out in the State Agricultural laboratories, where, also, exhaustive tests are made of the food values of various vegetable products and comprehensive analyses are carried out of the soils in the different parts of the State—valuable information which, when compiled and properly co-ordinated, is. distributed to the often unappreciative fanner for Ins use. , , As vet, there has been touched upon onlv the merest outer fringe of the vast field waiting for the applied chemist, for it would be difficult, if indeed not quite impossible, to tlnnk of a phase of the existence of the modem community with which the chemist does not come into contact in some wav or another. It is onlv recently that both Governments and public have recognised the enormous value of the far-reaching . aid which is to be obtained from science and from co-operation with the scientist.