Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 10, 2006 22:37:25 GMT -5
'Proofs': In Death, Bodies Speak Volumes
A "body of evidence" is not always a metaphor. Sometimes a body is the
evidence.
"Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body" is a small, quirky exhibit
mounted by the National Library of Medicine (on the Bethesda campus of the
National Institutes of Health) for the delectation of fans of TV's "CSI"
and "Bones" (and those longer-standing admirers of Sherlock Holmes, P.D.
James, etc.) who have heard the siren call of secrets untimely interred.
In a honeycomb of photo blowups, film clips and corporeal fragments, along
with a leavening dose of kitsch, the exhibit shows how the evolution of
various medical specialties aids in the pursuit of justice as well as
knowledge. It is, one might say, a true meeting of hearts -- in
formaldehyde -- and minds.
The displays range from the affectionate (a counter of Holmesiana,
true-crime comics and kids' fingerprint kits) to the grotesque (coffin-
and skull-shaped poison bottles), from the meticulous (three shoe-box-size
scale re-creations of crime scenes) to the macabre (the life cycle of the
fly as indicator of time of death). The implements used in Abraham
Lincoln's autopsy are here, along with a lineup of skulls exposing fatal
injuries that looks goofily like a Halloween novelty.
A dead body tells no tales, goes the old saw, except, as a
late-19th-century professor of medical jurisprudence at the University of
Edinburgh put it, "those it whispers to the quick ear of the scientific
expert." Authoritative forensic texts appeared in France as early as 1621
(the example here is a 1657 edition with woodcut illustrations) and in
Germany a century later. The exhibit title comes from the charge made by
the judges to an English jury in 1781:
"You are not to expect visible proofs in a work of darkness. You are to
collect the truth from circumstances, and little collateral facts, which
taken singly afford no proof, yet put together, so tally with, and confirm
each other, that they are as strong and convincing evidence, as facts that
appear in the broad face of the day."
By the end of the 17th century, reports of notorious murder cases in
England were being printed as popular pamphlets complete with the
testimony of medical examiners and consultants. (The need for accurate
anatomical data also created a new and gruesome character, the body
snatcher, who haunted burial grounds for fresh corpses that then could be
sold to doctors and teaching hospitals -- and who became a fixture in
19th-century literature.)
And with the desire to improve the judicial system, newly emerging
scientific and medical procedures were increasingly exploited to legal
ends.
Entomology, spectrometry, chemistry, pathology, ballistics, dentistry,
photography, radiology, computer modeling and digital imaging are among
disciplines that take their bows here.
But it was not quick with the dead. The recognition of fingerprints,
traces of toxins in hair and digestive organs, records of the damage
inflicted on bone by gunshots near or far, all had to battle their way
from the laboratory to the courtroom. And even now, computer simulations
have not made corpses unnecessary: At the University of Tennessee's
Forensic Anthropology Center, made famous in Mary Roach's book "Stiff: The
Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" as "the body farm," donated bodies are
exposed to extraordinary stresses in the name of science. (They are also
treated with the greatest respect and gratitude.)
Their importance, however, is unquestioned. The discussion of DNA testing
pays tribute to the case of ex-Marine Kirk Bloodsworth, whose death-row
conviction was overturned in 1993 through the efforts of former Montgomery
County public defender Robert Morin and the Innocence Project. Films of
mass-grave exhumations point out that the work of anthropologist Clyde
Snow and his army of Argentine students in the 1980s led to the murder
convictions of 6 of the 9 former junta members who "disappeared" an
estimated 20,000 citizens.
There are only a few specimens that might shiver the squeamish, including
the fly maggots (and the description of their work) and a trio of
suspended hearts. The stiffest moments, so to speak, are the clips from
how-to autopsy films, but these are discreetly recessed into the projector
and equipped with a quick stop button so those with weaker stomachs need
not see similar organs excised. (Although there are odd and intriguing
bits of information that emerge; for instance, it's easier to cut through
the ribs of young people than older ones because of the greater
calcification.)
Among the lighter-hearted exhibits are a fingerprint recorder that you can
use on yourself (a much more modern version than the box set) and the 3
"nutshell studies," as the miniature crime scenes came to be called, part
of a group of 19 assembled by the heiress to the International Harvester
fortune and still in the possession of the Baltimore medical examiner's
office.
A cautionary note: Since the library is on the campus of the National
Institutes of Health, all drivers must enter at South Lawn Drive and go
through the security gate and car check, which takes some minutes, then
follow a snaking route to the few visitors' parking spaces at the library.
The meters accept only quarters, and each one buys only 7 1/2 minutes, so
all in all, you'll save time and money if you take Metro.
VISIBLE PROOFS: FORENSIC VIEWS OF THE BODY Through Feb. 16, 2008, at the
National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, NIH Building
38 (Metro: Medical Center). 301-594-1947 or e-mail
NLMExhibition@mail.nlm.gov. www.nlm.nih.gov. Open Monday-Friday
8:30 to 5, Saturdays 8:30 to 2. Free.
(source: The Washington Post)
A "body of evidence" is not always a metaphor. Sometimes a body is the
evidence.
"Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body" is a small, quirky exhibit
mounted by the National Library of Medicine (on the Bethesda campus of the
National Institutes of Health) for the delectation of fans of TV's "CSI"
and "Bones" (and those longer-standing admirers of Sherlock Holmes, P.D.
James, etc.) who have heard the siren call of secrets untimely interred.
In a honeycomb of photo blowups, film clips and corporeal fragments, along
with a leavening dose of kitsch, the exhibit shows how the evolution of
various medical specialties aids in the pursuit of justice as well as
knowledge. It is, one might say, a true meeting of hearts -- in
formaldehyde -- and minds.
The displays range from the affectionate (a counter of Holmesiana,
true-crime comics and kids' fingerprint kits) to the grotesque (coffin-
and skull-shaped poison bottles), from the meticulous (three shoe-box-size
scale re-creations of crime scenes) to the macabre (the life cycle of the
fly as indicator of time of death). The implements used in Abraham
Lincoln's autopsy are here, along with a lineup of skulls exposing fatal
injuries that looks goofily like a Halloween novelty.
A dead body tells no tales, goes the old saw, except, as a
late-19th-century professor of medical jurisprudence at the University of
Edinburgh put it, "those it whispers to the quick ear of the scientific
expert." Authoritative forensic texts appeared in France as early as 1621
(the example here is a 1657 edition with woodcut illustrations) and in
Germany a century later. The exhibit title comes from the charge made by
the judges to an English jury in 1781:
"You are not to expect visible proofs in a work of darkness. You are to
collect the truth from circumstances, and little collateral facts, which
taken singly afford no proof, yet put together, so tally with, and confirm
each other, that they are as strong and convincing evidence, as facts that
appear in the broad face of the day."
By the end of the 17th century, reports of notorious murder cases in
England were being printed as popular pamphlets complete with the
testimony of medical examiners and consultants. (The need for accurate
anatomical data also created a new and gruesome character, the body
snatcher, who haunted burial grounds for fresh corpses that then could be
sold to doctors and teaching hospitals -- and who became a fixture in
19th-century literature.)
And with the desire to improve the judicial system, newly emerging
scientific and medical procedures were increasingly exploited to legal
ends.
Entomology, spectrometry, chemistry, pathology, ballistics, dentistry,
photography, radiology, computer modeling and digital imaging are among
disciplines that take their bows here.
But it was not quick with the dead. The recognition of fingerprints,
traces of toxins in hair and digestive organs, records of the damage
inflicted on bone by gunshots near or far, all had to battle their way
from the laboratory to the courtroom. And even now, computer simulations
have not made corpses unnecessary: At the University of Tennessee's
Forensic Anthropology Center, made famous in Mary Roach's book "Stiff: The
Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" as "the body farm," donated bodies are
exposed to extraordinary stresses in the name of science. (They are also
treated with the greatest respect and gratitude.)
Their importance, however, is unquestioned. The discussion of DNA testing
pays tribute to the case of ex-Marine Kirk Bloodsworth, whose death-row
conviction was overturned in 1993 through the efforts of former Montgomery
County public defender Robert Morin and the Innocence Project. Films of
mass-grave exhumations point out that the work of anthropologist Clyde
Snow and his army of Argentine students in the 1980s led to the murder
convictions of 6 of the 9 former junta members who "disappeared" an
estimated 20,000 citizens.
There are only a few specimens that might shiver the squeamish, including
the fly maggots (and the description of their work) and a trio of
suspended hearts. The stiffest moments, so to speak, are the clips from
how-to autopsy films, but these are discreetly recessed into the projector
and equipped with a quick stop button so those with weaker stomachs need
not see similar organs excised. (Although there are odd and intriguing
bits of information that emerge; for instance, it's easier to cut through
the ribs of young people than older ones because of the greater
calcification.)
Among the lighter-hearted exhibits are a fingerprint recorder that you can
use on yourself (a much more modern version than the box set) and the 3
"nutshell studies," as the miniature crime scenes came to be called, part
of a group of 19 assembled by the heiress to the International Harvester
fortune and still in the possession of the Baltimore medical examiner's
office.
A cautionary note: Since the library is on the campus of the National
Institutes of Health, all drivers must enter at South Lawn Drive and go
through the security gate and car check, which takes some minutes, then
follow a snaking route to the few visitors' parking spaces at the library.
The meters accept only quarters, and each one buys only 7 1/2 minutes, so
all in all, you'll save time and money if you take Metro.
VISIBLE PROOFS: FORENSIC VIEWS OF THE BODY Through Feb. 16, 2008, at the
National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, NIH Building
38 (Metro: Medical Center). 301-594-1947 or e-mail
NLMExhibition@mail.nlm.gov. www.nlm.nih.gov. Open Monday-Friday
8:30 to 5, Saturdays 8:30 to 2. Free.
(source: The Washington Post)