SCIENCE AS A DETECTIVE.

Gisborne Times, 16 December 1911, Page 3

SCIENCE AS A DETECTIVE.

V/HAT A CRIME INVESTIGATOR MUST KMO VITO MEET CRIMINAL ON PLANE OF l.\"J ELLINTI'AL EQT’ALJ.f i. Poli<*e r-.utine work, the walking o£ beats, the direction of traffic, the cjtplling of strike riots —these activities, -vers Ainsworth Mitchell, a British auihoriiv on the investigation oi, crime, will never again evolve me skn.ea detective. Time was when a policeman became a detective, through his exp' rionoe in the station-:: wise. To-day tiie investigator of crime ana its methods must enter the detect we service ny another door that or applied science. That is to say, me criminal in our age becomes. more :nc more of a scientist. The swinoler and the murderer are proving memsc-ives psychologists of power,. chemists, ox great knowledge, electricians ot genius. The great detective must meet the r eat criminal upon a plane ox tr- *- —- n-etnal equality. ‘ He fails t-o do t.tat nowadays, and this circumstance accounts "for the relatively large amoan-. ;;j undetected and mysterious crime. Let us consider, "for instance, the crime of murder. The general public little- idea of the number of murders that pass undetected, owing to. the chemical expertness revealed in disposing or tire body of the victim. This is the scientific problem involved in all murder. The bungling murderer doc-s not knew how to dispose of the. body of. his victim, whereas the scentihc criminal can do so. With what increasing advantage and success the weapons forged by scientific research can be utilised in the war or society upon the criminal has been shown in various recent- trials. Or all modern agencies, electricity, says Mr. Mitchell, is one of the most- affective, if not for detecting, at least xor capturing the criminal. Ihe man in the street is not quick at grasping the possibilities of a novel invention. At first it is popularly regarded as a new tov. a matter of amazement and of

amusement, but < f no moment in the practical affairs of men. So it was in our dav with the telephone, the phonograph, the biograpli, the miracle of the X-ray. of radium, and of wireless telegraphy. A great invention must prove itself and so live. rttill we find it hard to believe that the utility of the telegraph was once in such, grave doubt that even when it transmitted, messages with speed over hundreds of miles the public could not take it seriously. Not. until the telegraphy had shown its utility in the capture of criminals did it acquire any reputation with public men as a useful invention instead of a triflling toy. Prior to that time the invention had been little better than a failure from a commercial point of view. The telegraph has learned a lot about detective work since that time. It has even dabbled in photography, and is now able not merely to describe but to depict a fugitive criminal. The last word (so far, at any rate) on this subject appears to be the telec to graph invented by Air. Thorne Baker, which, savs Air. Mitchell “may also be usee with wireless installations for the transmission of simple pictures or diagrams, and by means of which it would be easy for a ship at sea to send or to receive portraits.” Indeed, a picture of the late King Edward was actually transmitted in this manner.

In every department of crime nowadays science seems to have lent a ha no to make easy the work of the criminal. This circumstance greatly discourages tho layman who does not realise that were the deteteive also an applied scientist, the forger, the thief, and the murderer would be quickly apprehended. The criminal’s own finger prints, as everyone knows, are an infallible means of identification, but the retort and the microscope of the analyst are equally fatal to the adepts in the higher and more scientific departments of crime. In the chi days the murderer caught red-lianded could safely deny that tho bloodstain was human. The microscope was unable to contradict him. Bv a method recently discovered the analyst examining the minutest stain of blood dry and scarcely discernible to the naked eye. on tile garment of a suspect, can tell to a certainty the species of animal in the veins of which it originally flowed. There is but one exception to the rule. The blood of the anthropoid ape gives the same reaction as human blood. “One might fancy the spirit of Darwin rejoicing in this singular confirmation of his theories,'”- 1 Air. Mitchell says.

Tho cautious murderer w ho resorts to the subtle agency of poison has even more reason to dread the analyst, with his test tubes and his microscope, than has his brother in crime who adopts the cruder method of hone-breaking and blood-biting. On this head it is noteworthy that a deal of nonsense, from' a scientific standpoint, has been written by historians about Caesar Borgia and his sister. Their poisons were so subtle and so deadly that tho loss on their secret was described as a blessing to mankind. Tho modern, poisoner has fluid, powder, and perfume far more subtle and far deadlier at his disposal, yet among them are none that, could elude the scrutiny of modern science.