A New Method for the Examination of Markings on Bullets, Shell Cases and Breech Faces
| Author | Alan Richards Moritz |
| Published date | 01 July 1938 |
| Date | 01 July 1938 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3801100310 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
A
New
Method for the Examination of
Markings on Bullets, Shell Cases and
Breech Faces
By ALAN RICHARDS
MORITZ,
M.A.,
M.D.
From
the
Department
of Forensic Medicine of
the
University of
Edinburgh
and
the
Department
of Legal Medicine of
Harvard
University
THE demonstration that a given bullet or shell case was or
was not fired in a certain firearm is of obvious importance
in the science of criminal investigation.
The
exclusion of a
weapon as the possible source of an unknown bullet or shell
case is usually arrived at by the recognition of differences in
calibre, rifling, type of ammunition, or the presence of certain
peculiarities in the firearm which would constantly impart
markings not found on the unknown bullet or shell case, or by
markings on the unknown bullet or shell case, of such a
nature as to require the presence of corresponding defects in
the gun in which it was fired.
The
matching of markings on an unknown bullet or shell
case with identical markings on a bullet or shell case known to
have been fired in a certain weapon frequently establishes
that that firearm and no other was the source of the heretofore
unidentified bullet or shell case. An extensive literature
devoted to this subject exists, and it is not the purpose of this
report to review a technique so well described by Goddard,
Sydney Smith, Burrard and others.
Having determined that a bullet or shell case could have
been fired from a certain weapon because of certain type
characteristics common to both, it is then necessary to com-
pare microscopically the fine secondary markings on
the
bullet of unknown origin with those on a bullet known to have
been fired from the weapon under investigation. Because of
the large size of the objects to be compared, a comparison
364
To continue reading
Request your trial