Interpreting Nature

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841 is considered to be the first true detective story ever written, and the influence for works such as Sherlock Holmes. The narrator and his friend C. Auguste Dupin, after finding out about an intriguing murder, find themselves trying to free an innocent man and find the real beast behind the murders in the rue morgue. Through Poe’s use of symbolism and vivid imagery, the theme of the story is revealed as the struggle between the analytical, emotional, and imaginative. The Murders in the Rue Morgue presents a recurring theme of the battle between the analytical, emotional, and imaginative. In the beginning of the story, Poe describes a chess battle in great detail,

scientific law enforcement in his creation of a mass fingerprint file in 1926 and the

Many people enjoy the detective and crime shows, but what they may not realize is that Edgar Allan Poe was the one to pioneer this genre. For the short stories, poems, and a few books he wrote, Edgar Allan Poe is a recognized American writer. He lived in the era of westward expansion, slavery laws beginning to become an issue, and most influential to Poe, Tuberculosis(TB) was a major issue. There was not yet a cure for people with TB, in fact, there wouldn’t be a known cure for another 100 years after his life. He lost many people during his life; his father left before Poe was 3 years old, his mother died from TB when Poe was three. He moved into a foster home, but stories tell that his foster father did not like him so he struggled to find the support he needed both as a child and as a broke college student. Although many myths state that Poe was a drunkard and incapable of love, he was married. His outsiderness in his foster home likely influenced his writing, as well as his irregularity and uniqueness, and his horrid memories of how TB had taken some of his closes family. Poe’s unique literary techniques enhance his macabre writing style.

With the estimated 200 victims of Holmes 9 confirmed and 27 confessed, we could have pin pointed exactly if he was their murder and this would have eased so many families minds who wondered what had happened to their loved ones. In the late 1800s when identifying a body, family members would have to recollect on features such as, teeth or hair, if it was still available. For example, long black hair was used to describe Nellie Pietzal. In cases now, we use fingerprints to identify bodies and most of the time their killer simply because of evidence left on the victim. It is hard to tell how many people walked into Chicago’s fair daily, but with the help of today’s technology we could pin point every set of prints that were there. In fact, most of Holmes victims were lured from the fair to his very own hotel where the crimes were committed. This alone could have aided in the incarceration of H. H Holmes

For over a century fingerprints have been one of the most used tools of forensic science. Fingerprints have been used to identify criminals of small crimes

The next significant advancement in fingerprinting was achieved by an Englishman, Dr. Henry Faulds, who created a fingerprint classification method and suggested using printers’ ink to obtain quality fingerprints (The History of Fingerprints). Perhaps the most important advancement in fingerprinting came in 1892, when a British Anthropologist, Sir Francis Galton, published the book Fingerprints. For a while it had been thought that no two fingerprints were identical. However, Galton became the first to scientifically prove this, as well as the fact that fingerprints remain unchanged throughout a person’s life (The History of Fingerprints). It was these two facts that made fingerprinting the preferred method of identification.

Detective stories that have been published over the years all contain dramatic elements that the reader has come to expect. These conventions that Aydelotte discussed in The Dectective Story as a Historical Source are especially ever present in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue and they shed light on the concerns of the people of the time.

In this passage, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle seems to perfectly epitomize his characterization of Sherlock Holmes by providing an abridged, yet enlightening, account of his fundamental beliefs. Rather than making an uneducated and unfounded prediction as to the meaning of the mysterious letter, Holmes proceeds to lecture Dr. Watson on the basic tenets of proper scientific inquiry. Emotional and personal language is entirely excluded from Holmes’ vocabulary in favor of an austere, scientific locution. More specifically, words such as “data, theory, and fact” dominate his discourse and shape his overall understanding of the world around him. The fact that Holmes considers theorization in the absence of data to be a “capital mistake,” demonstrates the seriousness in which he approaches the practice of science.

Edgar Allan Poe, famous literary critic and American poet, most known for his short stories on horror. He changed the writing game for everyone by creating a new genre of writing. His talent led him to be known as the “father of the detective story”. Poe’s short stories attracted readers from all over, all while his life was a mystery.

Edmond Locard was known as Sherlock Holmes of France who was a forensic scientist that studied medicine in Lyon (Crime Museum, 2017). He was well known for multiple methods of forensic analysis but is known for one specific method. The most well-known method created my Locard is the Locard’s Exachange Principle.

Fingerprinting is used for many things, such as a robbery, or at a crime scene. Fingerprints were first discovered in 1870 by Alphonse Bertillon, who was a French anthropologist. In 1892, Juan Vucetich had made the first criminal report using a fingerprint. In 1905 America used fingerprints for identification. When America started using fingerprints for identification they had to match the fingerprints manually when needed. When technology was able to enter fingerprints, and match them with anonymous ones, it helped identification immensely.

The writing style of Poe’s short story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, is ornate, however, there are several writing styles that represent the different aspects of an investigative team. When Dupin and the narrator speak the writing style and voices are complex which conveys their intelligence to the audience.

Knowledge: He used his knowledge of footprints, shoeprints, horse prints or wheel tracks to identify the murder suspects by analysing and practising several experiments. It is sure that he studied footprints and fingerprints for quite some time however, some previous experiences

According to Jain Anil, fingerprint-based identification is the oldest method which has been successfully used in numerous applications and though Bertillon’s anthropometry raised many valid points in forensic science, it was discarded and replaced by the fingerprint identification method after Bertillon’s death 1914.

Every time somebody touches something, they leave behind a unique signature that forever links them to that object. This link is their fingerprints, which are unique to every person, for no two people have the same set, not even family members or identical twins. Palms and toes also leave prints behind, but these are far less commonly found during crime scene investigations. Therefore, fingerprints provide an identification process that is applicable to background checks, biometric security, mass disaster identification, and most importantly, crime scene investigations. Fingerprints are so differentiated because they are made up of distinct patterns of ridges and furrows on the fingers. The ridges are the “raised” portions of the prints, and the furrows are the “recessed” portions. This perceived uniqueness has led some people to falsely accept fingerprint analysis as absolute scientific fact. Although overall fingerprints are reliable, there are definitely situations where their accuracy can come into question.