Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1895 — THE CAMERA A DETECTIVE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE CAMERA A DETECTIVE.

ft May Brins Indisputable Proof of Guilt to the Jury. Many criminals have escaped punlshjment because the public prosecutor has been unable to establish their guilt save by scientific deduction, the Jury, In hundreds of well-known cases, refusing to be convinced by verbal or

written testimony. Now a new application of photography, with images magnified through the microscope, has come to their aid. A jury may now receive tangible proofs of absolute correctness of evidence submitted. It can follow the expert’s flight into unknown regions by meahs of illustrations; In fact it can see with its own eyes, where formerly it had been asked to make its observations through the eyes of another. To Illustrate the possibilities of photontlcrography, it may be mentioned that a man magnified microscopically In a camera would appear as high as Mount Washington. A drop of blood, a single hair, a particle of skin that may be found under the finger nails of a person suspected of murder—photomicrography will tell the tale. It will establish whether the bloodYourid is from a human being or mot, whether It Is from the person murdered or from that of the supposed murderer. Almost the same holds good with respect to hair. It can be determined whether the hair Is from a male or female; be It ever so small, it can be. matched with the hair of the suspected person. To fully appreciate this, It must be understood that human hair differs

vastly, “no two hairs alike,” says a scientist. A hair possesses a root, a shaft and a tip. The root Is imbedded in the hair follicle, while the shaft and tip form the free projecting part. The substance of the human hair is com-

■posed of a horny material, with many cells containing the pigment granules. In the thicker hglr (In a man-’s beard hair, for instance), these cells contain air. The hair root?, of the female are lank and thin; those from a man’s head are club shaped. Tfte tips of the woman’s hajr show that they have not been cut for a great many years, while those of the man’s head clearly exhibit the marks of the scissors where the tips have been cut from the shaft. , When the finger nails of the former are scraped even the minutest particles of skin will be found, and this skin, put under the microscope, will demonstrate Its own origin. Like experiments can be made with the accumulations under the finger palls of the murdered person, who, In the struggle with the murderer, may have scratched his victim.

ROOTS OF HAIR.

PARTICLES OF HUMAN BLOOD.