Technologies

Murder the Result of Various Injuries, 1898
Suicide by Cutting the Throat, 1898
Encircling Gunshot-wound in Brain, 1898
Carbonic-oxide [carbon monoxide] Poisoning with agonal injuries due to a fall, 1898
Suicide through Stabbing, 1898
Bloodstain, blisters, bullet holes, 1864
Head and hand of a drownee, 1864
Decomposed stomach, 1864
Rope marks and upper thigh, 1864
The color of the lungs of dead newborn children: stillborn, newborn who have taken a breath, newborn whose lungs have been artificially inflated, 1864
Murder the Result of Various Injuries, 1898
Murder the Result of Various Injuries, 1898
Plate 15, Figure 101. Murder the Result of Various Injuries Inflicted with Different Instruments. On January 5th, at midday, B.K. , aged 38 years, after having been heard screaming, was found in her room lying in a pool of blood and dying. Beside her stood her lover, with a bloody carving knife in his hand....The evidence collectively considered justifies the assumption that the deceased was first felled with a flat-iron, and that as she lay prostrate upon the floor she was struck numerous additional blows with it; that at the same time her ribs were fractured by her chest being knelt upon or by her being kicked; that directly thereafter the injuries to the neck were produced by blows with the carving-knife; and that death resulted from hemorrhage. The culprit was condemned to death by hanging, but his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life.
Eduard Ritter von Hofmann, M.D., Atlas of Legal Medicine, Philadelphia, chromolithograph; Artist A. Schmitson
National Library of Medicine
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The 19th-century revolution in forensic imaging

In the 19th century, forensic pathologists began using pictures and words to show how various conditions appear in the cadaver, and to teach students and colleagues new methods of analysis. Line drawings, half-tone photography, and chromolithography, which could render coloration, texture, and subtle shading, became increasingly common as improvements in print technology made detailed illustrations cheaper to produce.