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Victorian CSI
The first edition of William A. Guy's "Principles of Forensic Medicine" was published at the start of Victoria's reign; the final edition, from which these selections derive, was published towards the end, just a few years after the Whitechapel horrors had pushed the emerging science to the forefront of the public's consciousness. With this guide in hand, a detective could tell whether the victim had suffocated, drowned, been shot, stabbed, or struck by lightning, spontaneously combusted, frozen to death or expired due to starvation - or, as the guide warns, was not dead at all, but simply in a state of 'suspended animation'. Suggestions include examining the face of the deceased for an 'expression of angry resistance', a clear indication of murder, and studying the demeanour of the nearest and dearest in cases of suspected 'secret poisoning'. With original woodcuts, case studies and notes on identifying the corpse and walking the crime scene, "Victorian CSI" will fascinate lovers of crime fiction and of true crime alike.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 27, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 16, 2012
A very interesting book that details things like wounds and the effects of poisoning on the body, it then provides cases of accident or self inflicted violence against others of murder so the user (in this case obviously intended for a Victorian policeman) can use what they have learned from how the body reacts to such things to illustrate whether the victim was murdered etc.
It's not a bad thing to read, I only gave it four stars because it could have used more pictures. Because of the period that the book was written I suppose it has a ghoulish cast to it (which is why I wanted more illustrations), of course reading a modern day book about the putrefaction of the human body would only be used by pathologists. The reason I read it was because I wanted to know what the police forces knew about collecting this sort of evidence during the times of Jack The Ripper. Turns out they were pretty far ahead of what I thought they were capable of in them days.
There were a few things I found interesting about the book. There were some pretty good lines, as you can imagine from any text written for a Victorian gentleman - one of them was from a paragraph describing what constitutes a strangling and how a murder victim can easily be identified from a broken hyoid bone which isn't something that needs to be done to kill someone by strangulation and so the line went on to say "...the Murderer uses unnecessary violence..."
There was also a case stated about starvation where a girl called Ann Moore supposedly fasted for Six Years without eating anything at all, the case was referred to as The Welsh Fasting Girl and is worth reading up on. Though spoiler alert, she was a hoax, but to be honest from what the experts knew in them days there probably would have been few who would have fallen for such a thing.
In the end I read this over the Halloween period to supplement my usual horror story fest over the month of October and it was certainly horrific, but it was mostly informative. I now know more about dead bodies than I actually wish to but it has reminded me how clever those damn Victorians actually were. If you're squeamish - there aren't that many pictures - unless you have a good imagination, I'd say avoid, this is a book about the condition and stages of the human body through violence and accidental death. It's a book that sets out the foundation of how the police force is able to use science to prove guilt and innocence and is now a major part of our judiciary system which I think many good citizens ought to be informed about.
Overall, it left me feeling like it's nice to know there are rational people out there who know how to ask the right questions and how to go about finding the answers to them.
It's not a bad thing to read, I only gave it four stars because it could have used more pictures. Because of the period that the book was written I suppose it has a ghoulish cast to it (which is why I wanted more illustrations), of course reading a modern day book about the putrefaction of the human body would only be used by pathologists. The reason I read it was because I wanted to know what the police forces knew about collecting this sort of evidence during the times of Jack The Ripper. Turns out they were pretty far ahead of what I thought they were capable of in them days.
There were a few things I found interesting about the book. There were some pretty good lines, as you can imagine from any text written for a Victorian gentleman - one of them was from a paragraph describing what constitutes a strangling and how a murder victim can easily be identified from a broken hyoid bone which isn't something that needs to be done to kill someone by strangulation and so the line went on to say "...the Murderer uses unnecessary violence..."
There was also a case stated about starvation where a girl called Ann Moore supposedly fasted for Six Years without eating anything at all, the case was referred to as The Welsh Fasting Girl and is worth reading up on. Though spoiler alert, she was a hoax, but to be honest from what the experts knew in them days there probably would have been few who would have fallen for such a thing.
In the end I read this over the Halloween period to supplement my usual horror story fest over the month of October and it was certainly horrific, but it was mostly informative. I now know more about dead bodies than I actually wish to but it has reminded me how clever those damn Victorians actually were. If you're squeamish - there aren't that many pictures - unless you have a good imagination, I'd say avoid, this is a book about the condition and stages of the human body through violence and accidental death. It's a book that sets out the foundation of how the police force is able to use science to prove guilt and innocence and is now a major part of our judiciary system which I think many good citizens ought to be informed about.
Overall, it left me feeling like it's nice to know there are rational people out there who know how to ask the right questions and how to go about finding the answers to them.
June 9, 2012
It is not every day that you have the opportunity to look back into the world of real Victorian CSI. It is a fascinating trip through history and well worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews