Forensic Science Timeline

Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) developed the field of phrenology. Phrenology is the study of the conformation of the skull as indicative of mental faculties and traits of character.

Andrew Duncan Sr. (1744-1828) was the first in Britain to lecture in forensic medicine, at Edinburgh University, beginning in 1789.

German chemist Valentine Rose devised a method for recovering arsenic in a victim’s stomach, thus advancing the investigation of poison deaths. Valentine Rose discovered that arsenic could be uncovered in the human body. If the stomach contents of victims of arsenic poisoning are treated with potassium carbonate, calcium oxide, and nitric acid, arsenic trioxide results. This could then be tested and confirmed by Metzger’s test. 

In 1807, the University of Edinburgh was the first in the country to establish a Chair of Medical Jurisprudence. Andrew Duncan Jr. (1773–1832) became the first Medical Jurisprudence professor.

Germany’s first recorded use of question document analysis involves a chemical test for a particular ink dye applied to a document known as the “Koenigin Handschrift.”

Eugène François Vidocq, in return for a suspension of arrest and a jail sentence, made a deal with the police to develop the first detective force, the Sûreté of Paris.

James S. Stringham (1775-1817) became the first Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the United States.

Mathieu Bonaventure Orfila (1787-1853), a Spaniard who became a professor of medicinal and forensic chemistry at Univ. of Paris, published his first book called Traité des poisons (Treatise on Poison), which introduced a new branch of science named toxicology (the study of poison); hence he is considered the father of modern toxicology. Made significant contributions to the development of tests for blood in a forensic context and was credited as the first to attempt the use of a microscope to assess blood and semen stains.

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.

Sevillas isolates arsenic from human stomach contents and urine, giving birth to the field of forensic toxicology.

John Evangelist Purkinji (1787–1869), a professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, devises the first crude fingerprint classification system when he publishes his thesis discussing 9 fingerprint patterns and suggesting a classification system based on nine major types. However, he too makes no mention of the value of fingerprints for personal identification.

William NICOL (1768-1851) invented the polarizing light microscope, better known as Nicol Prism.

Sir Robert CHRISTISON (1797-1882) gives evidence in the trial of William BURKE as a medical witness. The Burke and Hare murders were a series of 16 killings committed over about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.

Sir Robert CHRISTISON (1797-1882), Professor of Forensic Medicine at Edinburgh, publishes “Treatise on Poisons,” which has been regarded as the standard work on toxicology for many years in the English language.

1829: Thomas BELL (1792-1880) first describes “pink teeth.” It presumes that they are pathognomonic of hanging or drowning.

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, a Belgian statistician, provided the foundation for Bertillon’s work by stating his belief that no two human bodies were exactly alike.

Erhard Friedrich LEUCHS describes the diastatic action of salivary ptyalin (amylase) on starch.

One of Scotland Yard’s original Bow Street Runners, Henry GODDARD (1866–1957), first uses bullet comparison to catch a murderer. His comparison is based on a visible flaw in the bullet, which was traced back to a mold. His discovery that bullets have ridges and visible flaws that can be matched to other bullets shot from the same gun made it possible for many other cases to be solved and changed the way investigators can solve a crime.

• Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806–1880) develops the first test for arsenic in human tissue. He taught chemistry at Grey’s Medical School in England and is credited with establishing the field of forensic toxicology as a medical specialty. 
• James Marsh (1794–1846), a Scottish chemist, develops an easier and more sensitive test for arsenic (Marsh test) than Metzger’s initial test. The Marsh test proved arsenic’s presence by treating the solution with hydrogen. If arsenic is present, the gaseous arsine is formed and then decomposed black deposit of arsenic. Although James Marsh tested a substance for arsenic to prove a man guilty when he was on trial, the jury did not find sufficient evidence in this test, so he was acquitted. The Marsh test was later revised to be more accurate and became the standard test for arsenic compounds.

H. Bayard published the first reliable procedures for the microscopic detection of sperm. He also noted the different microscopic characteristics of different substrate fabrics.

BAYARD was conferred doctor of medicine in 1836, was a pupil of Charles-Prosper Ollivier d’ANGERS (1796-1845), and after the death of d’ANGERS took over a large part of his forensic practice.

Dr. John DAVY (1790-1868) recounts experiments with dead soldiers in Malta and Britain, using a mercury thermometer. One of the first attempts to determine time since death from fall in body temperature.

Charles LAFARGE, on a business trip in Paris, falls ill after eating a cake sent to him by his wife. Back home, he dies on January 13, 1840. His young wife, Marie LAFARGE, widow a second time was arrested and is sentenced to life imprisonment. 

Mathieu Bonaventure ORFILA (1787-1853), meantime Dean of the Paris medical faculty is summoned by the court in the LAFARGE case. He applies the Marsh Test correctly and finds arsenic in the corpse. This is the first occasion on which scientific toxicology was introduced to the courts of justice.

Edgar Allan POE publishes “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, the first fictional detective story, starting the symbiotic interplay between the development of genuine Forensic Science and the development of the fictional detective or criminalist.

Carl Rokitansky (1804-1878), pathologist and professor of pathology at the University of Vienna from 1844 to 1874, published the first volume of his famous work, Handbuch der pathologischen Anatomie. A historical milestone in pathological anatomy, Rokitansky’s work represented the first attempt to systematically classify pathological specimens.

Students from many countries came to Vienna to study under him. Legal medicine profited greatly from his works. It is said that Rokitansky performed over 30,000 post-mortem examinations.

Bones and teeth remains used as evidence of murder given by a forensic team led by anatomy professor Dr. Jeffries Wyman