Xdical Times and Gazette.

June 24, 1976

PARDON

LONDON:

AND SON, PRINTERS, PATERNOSTER ROW.

LECTURE I-PERSONAL IDENTITY. QUESTIONS respecting persons about whose identity doubts are entertained not unfrequently arise, both in civil and in criminal proceedings in courts of law. In such cases the inquiry comes to be whether an individual is the person supposed by the court, or who he is asserted to be by others, or who he himself alleges that he is.

The same inquiry also arises, at times, when the dead body of an unknown individual is found under any unusual circumstances; when portions of the body, or the skeleton in whole or in part, come to be discovered in a suspicious situation; where a corpse has been purposely distributed in order to throw light on an alleged murder or violent death at a period more or less remote. Here the point to be discovered is, who the person was to whom the remains belonged.

The subject of personal identity thus divides itself into two parts-viz., the identification of the unknown person during life, and, secondly, after death. We shall therefore treat of these two points in the order as here stated. 1. Identity in the living. The occasions on which the medical practitioner is called upon to take part in such investigations regarding living persons are those in which the proofs rest almost entirely or altogether on such physiological facts as he alone can supply. Otherwise, as happens in the majority of instances of confusion of persons, or suspicious claims, the relations and connexions of the party are examined; or, failing these, witnesses who have been personally acquainted with the individual; while, as in the late famous Tichborne Baronetcy case, in addition the claimant's memory may be tested regarding facts and occurrences which none but the real party could be expected to bring out under a rigorous search.

In a few instances, however, this proof fails-as when a new-born infant, or a child soon after its birth, has been sent away or abstracted from its parents or friends, and has been returned or recovered after several years; or in the case of persons who after long absence have come back to their native country, so changed by the progress of years, their mode of life, or the effects of sickness or other sufferings, as not to be recognisable by their former acquaintances. In these and other similar circumstances attended with unusual difficulties the medical practitioner is called in to assist in proving the identity on account of his superior means of deciding on the effects of time and accidents of life in changing the personal appearance, and as being the best fitted to detect the existence of corporal defects, marks upon the skin, traces of former wounds, diseases, etc.

Again, a question has occasionally arisen in criminal prosecutions whether a certain individual be actually the person who committed the offence with which he stands charged; or, once more, whether, when a prisoner after conviction escapes and is retaken, he is the same person who was convicted. In this case the time which has elapsed since the parties were previously seen is usually too short to allow for those changes to have occurred which age, diseases, or prolonged sufferings are capable of producing in the personal appearance. These are effected by change of dress, shaving the head, altering the style of adjustment of the hair, allowing the whiskers and beard to grow, or removing them when previously worn, or by varying the previous carriage and deportment. With this, however, the medical jurist has nothing to do. Another mode of disguise it behoves us to notice: we mean the changing the colour of the hair, as this will fall to be investigated by him. The attention of the profession to this subject was first prominently called for by the occurrence in Paris of the following

case:

A man named Benoit was suspected of having committed a murder. Certain witnesses deposed to having seen him in Paris at two o'clock in the afternoon of the day in question with black hair, and others to having seen him at Versailles with fair hair at five or six o'clock the same evening. The man's hair was naturally jet-black (and it does not appear that VOL. L 1876. No. 1331.

he wore a wig). The question in consequence proposed to Orfila by the law authorities was whether black hair could be dyed fair. One of the first hairdressers of Paris who was consulted declared that it was impossible; but M. Orfila stated that it was not only possible, but that it had been done twentysix years before by Vanguelin by means of chlorine. (We shall see presently that this decision of Orfila's has been called in question.) We notice

1st. The means of darkening the hair. There are various methods in use for altering the colour of the human hair. In general, the object is to change red or sandy hair to a darker hue-i.e., brown or black.

Preparations of lead, silver, or bismuth are employed for the purpose, lime or ammonia being first used to remove the fatty matter of the hair. A very common agent is a mixture or compound of lime and oxide of lead in equal parts, or three parts of litharge to two of lime; the litharge being sometimes replaced by the carbonate of lead. The mixture, made into a paste with hot water, is applied to the hair for four or five hours. The lime combines with the fatty matter of the hair, while the lead forms with the sulphur of the hair a black sulphide of lead. (a)

The use of bismuth-at one time employed in place of lead -appears latterly to have been abandoned, if we may trust the investigations of Chevallier, who recently studied the subject. This author mentions that in Paris the hairdressers and perfumers who keep articles of this sort for sale trust to the use of litharge or nitrate of silver, which last they dissolve in about nine parts of water, and vend under the names of Parisian, Egyptian, Cyprian, or ebony water, with a solution of the same strength of sulphide of potassium to be first used to remove the grease previously to the application of the silver salt.

It should be known that the above preparations for darkening the hair are not unfrequently attended with dangerous consequences to the individual employing them, such as erysipelas, excoriation of the skin, inflammatory swellings of the face, cerebral disturbances, and even permanent insanity. (b) In one instance in which severe effects followed the dyeing of the hair and beard, the powder which had been made use of for this purpose was found to contain one part of quicklime, three of red-lead, and one of carbonate of iron. (c)

But in the case of dyeing the hair of a dark colour, "as it is not difficult to attain the desired end, so neither is it difficult, by means of close inspection, or by chemical reagents, to detect what has been done. The metallic sulphides thus formed can be decomposed, and the metals extracted for testing; the lead and bismuth by hydrochloric acid, and the silver in the form of chloride by chlorine. When, on the other hand, the object is to render dark hair of a lighter colour, the end is attained by the employment of chlorine-first washing the hair with ammonia to remove its greasiness. One part of strong liquid chlorine, diluted with four parts of water, will change in the course of two hours, according to Orfila, black hair to dark chesnut. By successive immersions in a solution of the same strength it will be brought to a bright chesnut. If the same hair be brought to a deep blonde colour, it may ultimately be brought to a bright yellow, or a white with a yellowish tinge."

Devergie differs from Orfila thus far, that he has never been able in his trials to produce the full effect of whitening in less than twelve, fifteen, or twenty hours; further, he has noticed that chlorine does not destroy the colour very uniformly. (d)

This last circumstance might enable us to decide, in most cases, whether or not the hair had been artificially changed, independently of chemical experiments. Besides, as the hair grows the new growth will be of the previous colour.

Moreover, it should be borne in mind that, as persons dyeing their hair to avoid recognition would scarcely think of going further than to alter that of the head and whiskers, by comparing the hair of these parts with that of the pubis and other parts of the trunk, a ready means of detecting the change presents itself to the examiner.

In cases of disputed identity, the question has arisen in legal medicine as to the possibility of the disappearance of a scar.

We believe that, as a general rule, all scars resulting from wounds and from cutaneous diseases, which involve any loss of substance, are indelible, the only exception which can be made

(a) Medical Gazette, vol. xix. page 215; vol. xviii. page 312.
(b) Annales d'Hygiène, January, 1860, pages 119-22.
(c) Ibid., p. 121.

(d) Medical Gazette, vol. xix. page 215.