Early forensics and crime-solving chemists - Deborah Blum

早期的取证及破案化学师们 - 黛博拉·布朗姆

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

翻译人员: Yulan Zhang 校对人员: Yuanqing Edberg

So we live in what I think of as a CSI age

我们生活在我称之为：现场勘查的时代，

where we take for granted

我们理所当然觉得，

that scientists are going to work together with the police,

科学家们跟警方合作，

help them solve crimes,

一起参与破案，

map fingerprints,

采集指纹，

analyze poisons,

分析毒药，

but in fact, this is really a very new idea.

但其实，这些都是非常近期的概念。

We only actually started training scientists and forensics

我们国家一直到20世纪30年代，

in this country in the 1930s.

才开始培养这方面的科学家和取证技术。

So as a writer interested in chemistry,

作为一名对化学有兴趣的科普作家，

what I wondered was,

我好奇的是，

"What was it like before scientists knew

“在此之前科学家们是如何知道

how to tease a poison out of a corpse,

从尸体中检测出毒药，

before you could actually catch a killer that way?"

并用这种办法找出真凶呢？”

And it won't surprise you to learn

知道之前的办法有多危险。

that the answer is pretty dangerous.

你并不会惊讶。

And in fact, in 1918, New York City issued a report

事实上，在1918年纽约市公布了一份报告，

admitting that smart poisoners could operate

承认纽约市存在高明的投毒犯罪分子，

with impunity in the city.

但他们却逍遥法外。

This is a 1918 crime scene photo from Brooklyn,

这张是布鲁克林在1918年的一个犯罪现场的照片，

and at this time, the coroner system was so corrupt

那个时候，验尸官系统相当腐败，

that you could literally buy your cause of death.

你基本上可以花钱搞定各种死因。

Often coroners didn't even show up at crime scenes.

很多时候，验尸官甚至根本就没去犯罪现场。

And if you go back and you look at the death certificates of the time,

如果你回去看当时的死亡证明，

I found one that read,

我找到这张是这么写的：

"Could be an auto accident or possibly diabetes."

“可能是车祸或者是糖尿病。”

And another, which involved a man who shot himself in the head,

还有这个：有个人饮弹自杀，

said, "ruptured aneurysm".

死亡证明：动脉瘤破裂。

So you find, not surprisingly, the police saying,

所以，也难怪当时的警察会说：

"We're going to look a lot smarter

“我们绝对是断案如神，

if we stay away from the science side of the story."

只不过别跟我们谈科学。”

But, in 1918 New York City appointed

不过，1918年的时候纽约市任命了

the first trained medical examiner it ever had.

史上首位专业培训出身的法医。

That's the gentleman sitting down there.

就是照片上下方坐着的那位男子。

And he hired the first forensic toxicologist ever

而他聘请了美国城市有史以来

attached to an American city.

第一位毒理学家。

And together, these two men,

就这样，这两个人，

Charles Norris, the medical examiner,

法医查尔斯·诺瑞斯

and Alexander Gettler, the chemist sitting next to him,

还有他身边坐着的这位化学家，亚历山大·盖勒，

rewrote the rules of crime detection in this country.

一起重新定义了这个国家的查案程序。

And that wasn't easy because poisons were everywhere.

因为毒药无处不在，所以这活可不容易。

If we take this one, arsenic trioxide,

比如说：三氧化二砷（砒霜）。

arsenic trioxide's probably the most famous homicidal poison in history

它可能是有史以来最著名的杀人毒药，

and it was in every home.

每家每户都能找到。

Anyone could go to the grocery store or the pharmacy and buy it.

任何人都可以去杂货用品店，或者是药房买到它。

It was in every kitchen because,

每家每户的厨房里都能找到它，是因为

believe it or not, it was used to color food.

信不信由你：过去人们用砒霜作为食物染色剂，

It was in medicines

用在药品中，

and it was in cosmetics

还用在化妆品中，

in ways that prevented people from really understanding

其应用很隐蔽，使得当时的民众并不明白

how dangerous these poisons were

这个毒药有多危险，

or how they worked.

也不知道其作用机理。

Now, scientists had in the 19th century

在19世纪的时候，科学家已经开始

begun developing tests to look for poisons in corpses.

发明从尸体中检测毒药的测试方法。

But as this cartoon shows you of the first test for arsenic,

但是就像这幅卡通画上的那样，首个砒霜检测试验

these were very primitive tests,

都是一些非常原始的测试，

so, that our heroes really have to figure this out

所以，我们的主角们必须得琢磨出个办法来，

as they go in the 1920s.

在当时20世纪20年代的时候。

Gettler, for instance, was the first person in the world

比如说，盖勒是世界上第一个

to know how to tell if someone was drunk at time of death.

找到方法来检测死者被害时是否醉酒。

He figured that out right about 1930

他正是在1930年左右的时候找到这个方法，

and he said later it took him 6,000 brains from the morgue

后来他告诉大家，他当时用了停尸间里6000个人的脑袋做实验，

to get to the point that he could get to that answer.

才掌握了他的那个检测方法。

And to give you a sense of what this is like,

这是个什么概念呢，

I'm going to ask you for a moment

我想请你们一起

to become 1920s forensic detectives.

回到20世纪20年代，作一回当时的法医侦探。

This is a case based on one solved by Alexander Gettler in 1923,

这是一个在1923年亚历山大·盖勒解决的一个案子，

and as you can probably tell,

你可能已经看出来了，

it's a case that begins in a tenement building.

这个案子发生在一个公寓楼里。

This particular one was on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

这个楼是位于曼哈顿东部下城，

And these buildings were very crowded

这些公寓楼非常拥挤，

with families who had very little money.

住满了贫穷困苦的家庭。

And the rooms were very poor.

里面的房间条件非常差。

This is actually an abandoned room

这是一个被遗弃的房间，

at the Tenement House Museum

位于公寓楼博物馆，

that is in Lower Manhattan today.

就在今天的曼哈顿下城区。

These rooms often had no electricity,

这些房间通常没有通电，

they had no hot water,

也没有热水，

and people who lived this way

住在这里的人

depended on gas to fuel everything

都是使用天燃气

from their stove to their electric lights.

来做饭用来点灯。

And this gas was called illuminating gas,

这个燃气叫做照明燃气，

and it was both a toxic and explosive mixture

它是一种有毒的爆炸性混合气体，

of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

成分有一氧化碳以及氢气。

So you, the forensic scientist, are called

现在，你们作为法医科学家，被召唤到

to a crime scene in a tenement house.

一个公寓楼的案发现场。

This is actually a police photo from the time in question,

这个就是一张案发现场的警方照片，

but the story that I'm going to tell you

不过我接下去要告诉你们的，

is a little more complicated than this.

要比这个再复杂一些。

Nevertheless, you're going to go into this building,

我还是陈述一下：你们现在要进去这个公寓楼，

you're going to walk down this hall,

走进这条走廊，

you're going to go through the door,

穿过这道门，

and you're going to find yourself

来到一个

in a very shabby apartment.

简陋不堪的公寓。

The floors are splintered,

地板是裂的，

the walls are peeling,

墙壁也是裂的，

there's only gas lighting,

只有燃气灯照明。

and in this case,

在这个案件里，

you go into the back bedroom.

当你们走进去后面的卧房时，

There's clearly been a gas leak,

就会发现有明显的燃气泄露，

there's a broken fitting on the wall.

因为墙上的输气管破了。

The police are opening the windows,

警察就把窗户打开，

and in the bed there's the body of young woman

床上有一具年轻女子的尸体，

who's clearly been dead for some time

而且很明显，她已死去多时，

because she's cold

因为她的尸体冰冷，

and she's stiff

僵硬，

and she's pale.

而且发白。

And you turn to the police and you say,

然后，你们就对警方说：

"No, this is not an illuminating gas death

“不对，这个不是由燃气泄露致死的案件，

because...."

因为.....”

Because if you're killed by carbon monoxide,

因为如果你是因为一氧化碳中毒死亡，

there is such a powerful chemical reaction in your blood

你体内的血液会产生剧烈的化学反应，

as the oxygen is muscled out of the blood stream

血液中的氧气被挤出去，

that the blood cells are turned a bright, cherry red.

导致血液细胞呈现一种明亮的樱桃红。

And this red is so strong that it flushes the skin

这种樱桃红非常明显，会从皮肤中透出来，

of the corpse a cherry pink.

使得尸体的肤色呈现出樱桃粉一般的颜色。

In fact, people who see bodies

实际上，有人看过

after someone has died of a carbon monoxide death,

死于一氧化碳中毒的死者，

they'll often talk about how healthy they look.

通常他们都会说，死者看上去很健康。

So your poor, pale corpse could not have been killed by this gas.

所以说这个可怜的，发白的死者肯定不可能死于一氧化碳中毒。

You take the body back to the morgue,

你们就把尸体带回停尸间，

you run more blood tests,

你们作了一些血液检查，

and you find another gas at extremely high levels,

然后你们发现另一种气体的浓度非常高，

carbon dioxide.

二氧化碳。

And what does that tell you?

这个说明什么？

If you think about the way we breath,

试想我们呼吸的时候，

we inhale oxygen,

我们吸入氧气，

we exhale carbon dioxide,

呼出二氧化碳，

but what if you can't exhale?

假如我们没法呼气呢？

What if that gas can't get out?

假如二氧化碳没法排出体外呢？

It backs up into your lungs,

它就会充满你的肺部，

and the number one clue of a suffocation or a strangulation

而窒息或者被勒死的话，首要线索就是

is elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the blood.

血液中高浓度的二氧化碳。

And in fact, what they found

而事实上，他们发现，

when they took a closer look at the body

当他们仔细检查尸体的时候，

were the bruise marks left by her husband's fingers

发现了她丈夫的手指留下的瘀痕，

as he had held her down and suffocated her.

就是当时他按住她，致其窒息时留下的。

And it turned out that he had

最后，他们发现

taken out an insurance policy on her life,

他为她买了一份人寿保险，

suffocated her,

然后闷死了她，

broken the gas fitting to try to stage an accident scene,

还破坏了燃气管，企图伪造一起事故，

and it turned out that it was chemistry

而最终就是运用化学分析

that sent him to prison.

将他绳之于法。

There are so many good poison and murder stories

在那个时代，毒杀谋杀的案件层出不穷，

from this time period that I would love to tell you.

我都很想跟你们分享。

It's one of my favorite subjects obviously.

这个案件是我最喜欢的几个案子之一。

But I want to leave you with this thought.

但是，我希望在结束前请你们想想

Two things.

One is that case that I just described to you

两件事。

第一件事，就是我刚才告诉你们的那个案件，

is one of my favorites

之所以是我最喜欢的案件之一，

because it's the beginning of a series of investigations

是因为它开启了一系列的勘察技术，

that persuade the New York police

让纽约的警方心服口服，

that they do need to work with scientists

他们的确需要科学家的帮助。

and it lays the foundation for, in fact,

并且这个案件实际上成为了

our CSI-era age,

我们的“犯罪现场勘察“时代的奠基石。

and, because it's such a good story of two very determined people,

另外一点就是，这个故事本身就非常精彩， 讲述了有着坚定信念的，

in this case two city scientists,

两名城市里的科学家，在这个案子中

who were able to change the world around them.

他们改变了整个世界。

Thank you.

谢谢。