forensic- odontology
by Leif Kullman
Back to the roots of Forensic Odontology
This year it is one hundred years since the fire at the Bazaar de la Charite´ in Paris happened. A lot of people were killed and dentists played an active role to identify the victims. This event has therefore by many been seen as the birth of forensic odontology. However our history goes even far behind one hundred years and my ambition today is to describe some of our historical cases.
We can start our journey as early as AD 49 and the case was later on described by Dio Cassius in his books about Roman history. Agrippina had a son named Nero, who the mother ruthlessly tried to put on the emperor throne. She even killed some women out of jealousy one of them was Lollia Paulina. Agrippina wanted to see the head of her victim after the murder, but she could not recognise it when it was brought to her. However she opened the mouth and inspected the teeth, which she knew had some peculiarities and could see that the right person had been murdered.
Charles the Bold tried in the fifteenth century to create an independent state in Europe between France and southern Germany. However he was killed at a battle near Nancy in France. A man called Jean de Troyes reported about this later on. The page of Charles, called Baptiste, was present at his death and when he had been interrogated he took the other warriors to the place where Charles had fallen. They found Charles lying completely naked and it was difficult to recognise him. However they know that he missed a number of upper teeth and based on this fact they could establish an identity.
Let us take a big jump until the beginning of the nineteenth century namely 1814. Then the first case was taking place in England when members of the dental profession were called to court as expert witnesses. A lecturer in surgery and two students from Glasgow were charged of violating the grave of Mrs. McAllister. Her body was said to have been removed to the dissecting room after her burial. It became important during the trial to establish that the dissected body really was identical with Mrs. McAllister. Dr. Alexander had been the regular dentist of Mrs. McAllister and he testified that he had constructed a partial upper set of teeth to her. He took the mould for the teeth with him and also the teeth, which he obtained from her husband and could fit the denture in one of the heads that were shown to him. That was the same head that the relatives of Mrs. McAllister had recognised. Another dentist also testified that the teeth fitted the gums exactly in this head.
But the defence had also dental and medical witnesses and they declared among other things that the upper denture did not articulate with the natural teeth in the mandible and they argued that the artificial teeth could fit other jaws equally well. Being faced with such conflicting evidence the court decided to declare "not guilty " for the charged lecturer and students.
I started to tell you about a terrible catastrophe that took place in Paris in May 1897 and probably you are curious about this matter. During a Charity Bazaar an explosion occurred in a gas lamp in a cinematograph. This cinematograph was situated in a long gallery in front of the Bazaar building. The building was made in wood with a roof made of tarred cardboard. Several hundred visitors were within the building.
Surrounding drapes spread the fire to the ceiling and very quickly the whole interior of the building were set ablaze.
The fire brigades arrived quite soon, but the building collapsed already 20 minutes after the fire had started. However fire extinguishers continued throughout the night. More than 200 persons were wounded and 126 were finally found dead. All bodies were taken to a nearby building, where they were laid out in rows on wooden planks in a big room.
Early in the morning hours the next day, relatives were admitted into the room for recognition of their next-of-kin. All bodies except 30 could be identified in this manner. One of those who had came to the place was the Paraguayan Consul. He was looking for the body of Duchesse d´ Alencon. The consul got the idea to call up the dentists who had treated the remaining victims and this advice was followed. And thus by means of accurate dental records many of the remaining body could be identified. The reports about these dental identifications became later a main part of the thesis of Oscar Amo‰ do (1863-1945). He was at that time a lecturer at the "Ecole Odontotechnique de Paris ". He was not personally involved in the identification work but this accident started his interest in the subject. His interest continued for the rest of his life and he wrote a lot about this subject and is known as the founder of forensic odontology.
Next month I will make a report of the status and organisation of forensic odontology in Sweden.
Leif Kullman
