forensic Science

By Masongriffin1
  • 44 BCE

    Death of an Emperor

    Julius Caesar is assassinated. Following this event, a physician performed an autopsy, and determined that of the 23 wounds found on the body, only one was fatal.
  • Period: 44 BCE to

    Forensic Science

  • 400

    Who determines cause of death(400s)

    Germanic and Slavic societies made law that medical experts must be the ones to determine cause of death in crimes.
  • Apr 13, 600

    Use of fingerprints for the first time (600s)

    Fingerprints first used to determine identity. Arabic merchants would take a debtor's fingerprint and attach it to the bill.
  • Apr 13, 1248

    First forensic science book

    First forensic science manual published by the Chinese. This was the first known record of medical knowledge being used to solve criminal cases.

  • Physical evidence used in criminal case

    First recorded instance of physical matching of evidence leading to a murder conviction (John Toms, England). Evidence was a torn edge of newspaper in a pistol that matched newspaper in his pocket

  • Investigating poisoning

    German chemist Valentin Ross developed a method of detecting arsenic in a victim's stomach, thus advancing the investigation of poison deaths.

  • More physical evidence discovered to work in forensics

    Clothing and shoes of a farm laborer were examined and found to match evidence of a nearby murder scene, where a young woman was found drowned in a shallow pool.

  • Chemical testing utilized

    James Marsh, an English chemist, uses chemical processes to determine arsenic as the cause of death in a murder trial.

  • First uses of photos in identification (1854-59 )

    San Francisco uses photography for criminal identification, the first city in the US to do so.

  • Fingerprints found to be unique

    Henry Faulds and William James Herschel publish a paper describing the uniqueness of fingerprints. Francis Galton, a scientist, adapted their findings for the court. Galton's system identified the following patterns: plain arch, tented arch, simple loop, central pocket loop, double loop, lateral pocket loop, plain whorl, and accidental.