Article ID: CBB001553384

Chemistry, Microscopy and Smell: Bloodstains and Nineteenth-Century Legal Medicine (2015)

unapi

This paper analyses the development of three methods for detecting bloodstains during the first half of the nineteenth-century in France. After dealing with the main problems in detecting bloodstains, the paper describes the chemical tests introduced in the mid-1820s. Then the first uses of the microscope in the detection of bloodstains around 1827 are discussed. The most controversial method is then examined, the smell test introduced by Jean-Pierre Barruel in 1829, and the debates which took place in French academies and learned societies during ensuing years are surveyed. Moving to the courtrooms a review is conducted of how the different methods were employed in criminal trials. By reviewing these cases, the main arguments against Barruel's test during the 1830s are explored as well as the changes making possible the return of the microscope to legal medicine around 1840. By reconstructing the history of these three methods, the paper reveals how the senses of smell and vision (colours and microscopic images) were employed in order to produce convincing evidence in both academies and courts. The paper questions two linear master narratives that are organized in terms of progress and decline: the development of forensic science as a result of continued technological progress; and the supposed decline of smell in the history of the senses, particularly in the realm of chemistry and medicine.

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Authors & Contributors
Lavenia, Vincenzo
Adriano Mantovani
Giorgio Battelli
Tisci, Caterina
Carnevale, Diego
Luigi Marvasi
Concepts
Medicine
Forensic medicine
Microscopy
Autopsy
Chemistry
Anatomy
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
17th century
20th century
Early modern
Renaissance
Places
France
Italy
Europe
Naples (Italy)
United States
Spain
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