Forensic Toxicology in Germany and France during the 19th Century: Methods Development in Judicial Context

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Carsten Reinhardt
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391910812

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

The project covered the choice of methods in forensic toxicology during the nineteenth century, applying a comparison between France and Germany. Our aim was to investigate the role of the social context with the help of the concept of epistemic values. Using the example of chemical analyses in court trials involving poisoning, we were able to show the adaptation of scientific criteria to the juridical environment. Methods were not just tools for establishing knowledge during a specific analysis, but also served as rhetoric means in court. Next to a correctly pursued analysis, the core criterion for the choice of a method was to convince chemical lay people (judges, lawyers, jury members), and to bolster the authority of the scientific community.

Publications

• The Making of Evident Expertise: Transforming Chemical Analytical Methods into Judicial Evidence. NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, 29(3), 261-284.
  Carrier, Marcus B.
  
• Presenting Chemical Practice in Court: Forensic Toxicology in Nineteenth-Century German States. Evidence in Action between Science and Society, 42-59. Routledge.
  Carrier, Marcus B.
  
• Der Wert von Methoden. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  Carrier, Marcus B.