1.1: Forensics

When your author mentions the word “forensics” in conversation, he is generally asked the following three questions: What are forensics? How long have we been doing forensics? Is it like on TV? Allow me to answer each of those questions separately. First, the word forensics comes from the Latin word “forensis” which when translated as an adjective into English means ‘public.’ However, the word would be used most to mean to argue in a persuasive manner in the public forum. Today, we can say that we are arguing in a persuasive manner in the legal system, or the courts, using scientific methodology and logical conclusions drawn from observations and experimentations. Second, we have employed forensic investigative techniques for far longer than you would imagine. Finally, no, it is not like on television. Trust me, it is far less glamorous.

Returning to the question of how long we have been doing forensics, we know that Egyptian physicians performed what could be called “autopsies” as far back as 3000BC; however, these autopsies were more closely associated with religious practices than with the legal system. The first recorded autopsy could be said to have been performed by the Roman physician, Antistius, who conducted an internal examination of the body of First Citizen Julius Caeser following his assassination by stabbing in the Roman Senate in 44BC. Antistius recorded that although he counted 23 stab wounds, only one wound penetrated the chest of Caeser leading to his death. The physicist and mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse dabbled in forensic engineering in 265BC when a young general named Heiro won a battle against an enemy of Syracuse and was proclaimed as king by his soldiers. A crown made of gold was commissioned from a goldsmith. A quantity of gold was given to the goldsmith with which the crown was to be made. When the crown was presented to Heiro, he thought it to be a bit on the light side. He wanted to test his theory that the goldsmith had mixed silver with the gold in an effort to cheat the new king, but he did not wish to destroy the crown to answer this question. He presented his quandary to his cousin, Archimedes, then a 22-year-old young man. During his morning bath, Archimedes had his well-known Eureka! moment regarding the displacement of water when an object is immersed. Archimedes measured the displacement of water in a vessel when either a quantity of silver or a quantity of gold was immersed. He determined gold was denser than silver and therefore would displace more water. He then repeated the experiment with the crown and determined it displaced less water than the lump of gold from the previous experiment. Ergo, he proved through forensic engineering that the goldsmith did in fact mix the gold with silver and defrauded the king. No mention is made of the return policy of the goldsmith, or whether he kept his head. In 13^th century China, during the Song Dynasty, the brilliant physician, forensic pathologist, judge, anthropologist, and perhaps the first forensic entomologist, Song Ci (also known as Sung T’zu) wrote a book entitled the Hsi Yuan Lu, a guide for coroners’ inquests (also called The Collected Cases of Rectified Injustices or The Washing Away of Wrongs). 13^th century Chinese inquests were conducted either on those who had died or those who received a severe wound but survived. In many of the collected cases presented by Song Ci, it is apparent that the inquest concerned itself with not just wound pathology, but also with the weapons that caused the wounds. In this regard, your author will present the reader with the following story.