SCIENCE AND THE CRIMINAL
UNIFORM WITH THIS BOOK
HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION
By
Bernard Hollander, M.D.
“It is the work of a man of established reputation, who has devotedhimself for years to the subject, and whose aim it is to tell whatHypnotism really is, what it can do, and to what conclusions it seems topoint.”—Globe.
TRIAL OF CAROLINE RUDD
Frontispiece
SCIENCE AND
THE CRIMINAL
BY
C. AINSWORTH MITCHELL
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1911
To
Mark Hanbury Beaufoy, Esq., J.P.
as
A Mark of Regard and Esteem
PREFACE
In the following pages I have endeavoured to give some account of the waysin which scientific discovery has been utilised in the struggle betweensociety and the criminal.
I have tried to describe the principles upon which different kinds ofscientific evidence are based, and at the same time to bring humaninterest into what would otherwise tend to be dry detail by giving anoutline of trials in which such evidence has been given. It is, perhaps,hardly necessary to mention that in many of these illustrative trials theaccused persons were proved innocent of the charges brought against them,and that although their cases were tried in the criminal courts the titleof the book in no way applies to them.
For the accounts of the older trials I have drawn freely upon Cobbett’sState Trials, Paris and Fonblanque’s Medical Jurisprudence, and thefirst edition of Taylor’s Medical Jurisprudence, while I must alsoacknowledge my indebtedness to the Circumstantial Evidence of Mr.Justice Wills and the recent excellent lectures on Forensic Chemistry,by Mr. Jago.
In the later cases I have mainly relied upon contemporary accounts andupon my own impressions of some of the trials at which I have beenpresent.
[Pg viii]My best thanks are due to all those who have given me valuable andungrudging assistance. In particular I would mention Major Richardson, whohas kindly given me a photograph of one of his trained bloodhounds and hasallowed me to quote the description of an actual man hunt withbloodhounds, from his book, War, Police, and Watch Dogs; andMademoiselle Arlette Clary (and the Daily Mirror) who have supplied mewith a photograph of a Paris police dog.
I am further indebted to the late Sir Francis Galton and his publishers,Messrs. Macmillan & Co., who gave me permission to reproduce illustrationsfrom his book on Finger Prints; and to Mr. Thorne Baker and the DailyMirror for photographs illustrating the use of telegraphy in transmittingportraits.
The excellent drawings of the hairs of different a