forensic time line

700 BC-Thumb prints were found in clay seals in ancient China

1248-The Chinese book, Hsi Duan Yu (the Washing Away of Wrong), is the first recorded application of medical knowledge to the solution of crime. The book becomes an official text for coroners

1658-Sir Thomas Browne discovers adipocere, the fatty, waxy, soap-like substance derived from decayed human corpses buried in moist, air-free places.

1686-Malpighi, professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, noted ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints.

1752-Mary Blandy was tried at Oxford for murdering her father with arsenic. She was found guilty and hanged

1784-In Lancaster UK, John Toms is convicted of murder on the basis of a wad of newspaper in a pistol matching a remaining piece in his pocket.

1813-Mathieu B. Orfila, the father of modern toxicology, publishes Traite des Poisons. He is the first to attempt to use a microscope in the assessment of blood and semen stains.

1835-Henry Goddard of Scotland Yard, first uses bullet comparison to catch a murderer.

1901-K. Landsteiner first discovers human blood groups. M. Richter adapts the technique to type blood stains

1924-A. Vollmer, police chief in Los Angeles, implements the first U.S. police crime laboratory.