The word forensics comes from the Latin forensis, which means "to the forum." The forum in ancient Rome was surrounded by numerous important government buildings. The forum was an open space for gathering and debate. Today the adjective form of the word means of or pertaining to courts of law or public debate or discussion. The noun form of the word refers to the art of formal debate. Some schools have forensic teams.
Forensic science refers to the application of scientific methods to the investigation of legal problems.
In Puddn'head Wilson, the lawyer David Wilson dabbles in finger printing and palmistry.
What do the characters actions using these forensic methods say about life? The use of finger printing and palmistry may say something more about some of the other topics covered by the novel, i.e. identity or the law, than they do about themselves.
Ch. 21
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 21, Wilson proves from his fingerprint records that it was not Luigi and Angelo. This was proven by Wilson and the jury double check and replied "THEY DO NOT EVEN RESEMBLE," Proving the twins innocent. Which then leads to the question of who is the assassin?
Fingerprints are a ingenious way of identifying people and now are a common part of modern day forensic science as a way to identify unknown bodies. In this case, it saved the innocent from being pronounced guilty.
P1-22
Ch. 21
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 21, after Wilson has proven the twins innocent. Raises another question. Who is the assassin now? Wilson the shows photos of the fingerprints of Baby "A" and Baby "B" at 5 and 7 months, and ask the foreman if they tally. They were perfect matches of each other. After he was asked to compare those to those of taken at 8 months, which the foreman replied "NO- THEY DIFFER WIDELY!". Which opens up a theory of someone switching the babies (probably for a selfish reason) between 7 and 8 months. Then "Tom" was eventually announced guilty, Roxy asking forgiveness from the Lord. And "Chambers" was then announced free.
The issue of Roxy switching the babies was for her child to not be sent down the river which ironically, happened anyway because of her switching the babies in the first place.
P1-22
Re-do of commentary
DeleteRoxy selfishly switched the babies so that her baby could have a better life and to not be sent down the river. It is ironic because Roxy switched Tom and chambers so chambers could have a better life and not be sent down the river, yet he got sent down the river anyway.
P1-22
Palmistry in Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson
ReplyDeleteChapter 11
(page 61) Pudd'nhead Wilson mapped out Luigi's character and disposition, his tastes, aversions, proclivities, ambitions, and eccentricities using palmistry. This was correct to the point that the twins laughed at the results. At the end, both twins declared that Pudd'nhead Wilson was an outstanding palm reader. This summary provides evidence of palmistry by the use of it for finding everything about Luigi.
P5-17
Chapter 21 finger printing/palmistry/forensics
ReplyDeleteThere is a pivotal scene where Wilson is using his hobby of taking other people's prints and using them to identify the murderer, who is Tom. Every man's fingerprints are unique to himself. And since there was a set of fingerprints on the murder weapon, by comparing the fingerprints to the recorded ones, Wilson was able to accurately discern who the killer was.
P5-11
Chapter 19
ReplyDeleteWilson had perfect tracings of the finger marks of the knife handle; and among his glass records he had a great array of fingerprints of women and girls, collected during the last fifteen or eighteen years, but he scanned them in vain, they successfully withstood every test; among them were no duplicates of the prints of the knife.
Fingerprinting and forensics show the prints which Wilson had tracings of. Therefore the finger prints on the knife provides a summary for forensic and fingerprinting. You can trace the fingerprints to the suspects.
P5-10
Forgot to put the quotations for the first paragraph. ""
DeleteP5-10
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ReplyDeleteChapter 11
ReplyDeleteAs to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out. - Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
In Puddn'head Wilson, the lawyer David Wilson dabbles in finger printing and palmistry. Luigi passed the finger prints through his crop of short hair, and pressed them one at a time on the glass. He passed them onto another glass and Wilson marked the glasses with names and dates, and put them away. Things were good but till' they thought luigi killed someone.
(Page 58, 59)
P5-6
Chapter 11
ReplyDelete""It was prophesied that I would kill a man. It cam true before the year was out.'"
Here we see Wilson reading Luigi's palm. Wilson reads that Luigi had killed a man. Later the twins explain as to why Luigi had killed someone which proved that what Wilson had read was true.
P6-6
Chapter 2
ReplyDeleteOne of Pudd'nhead Wilson's pet fads was palmistry. He explained to anybody that he merely enjoyed doing it because it amused him. He also enjoyed it because he had a large abundance of idle time. This later helps him figure out who kills Judge Driscoll.
P6-12
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ReplyDeleteChapter 21: Doom
ReplyDeleteDuring the trial of the Angelo twins, Wilson presents a pantograph-enlarged image of the fingerprints of two children, which he refers to as A and B. He then has the foreman compare the fingerprints of the assassin to the twins. He finds they do not even compare, and Wilson reveals his final discovery; children A and B were swapped!
The fingerprints revealing the true identity of "Tom" raise interesting questions of identity. Who is the true white man? The 'negro' who is only 1/32nd black, or the 'white' who was raised a black man?
P1-11
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteDavid Wilson was skilled at many things including palmistry. “’But really, you want to let him take a shy at your palms once…’” Tom had said as he tried to convince the twins to let Mr. Wilson read their palms. The twins agreed and Mr. Wilson proceeded to analyze their palms and discover unknown information about the two, including the incident where Luigi killed a man.
P1-6
Chapter 13
ReplyDeleteIt’s perfectly plain that the thief took advantage of the reception at Patsy Cooper’s when all the neighbors were in her house and all their niggers hanging around her fence for a look at the show, to raid the vacant houses undisturbed. Patsy is miserable about it; miserable on account of the neighbors, and particularly miserable on account of her foreigners, of course; so miserable on their account that she hasn’t any room to worry about her own little losses
“Tom” makes invasions on people’s houses in a craftily technique. “Tom” does this to compensate his forfeiture from gambling, so in return his uncle will not disinherit him.
P2-14
Chapter 20
ReplyDeleteFinger Printing/Palmistry/Forensics
Pudd'nhead pulls "Tom"'s old prints from his collection. The print that "Tom" had left on the slide with Roxy's prints fits the finger prints on the knife perfectly, as well as more recent sets of "Tom"'s prints. "Tom"'s prints from when he was a baby don't match the others. Confused, he goes to sleep. A dream gives him an idea of what happended, and he rushes to check more of his finger prints. Pudd'nhead has figured out Roxy's secret.
Pudd’nhead uses finger prints to help solve the case. Pudd’nhead links the finger prints to be “Tom’s”. Not only does he have an idea of who did the crime, but also has solved another mystery in the process.
P2-21
Ch.2
ReplyDeleteWilson took people's fingerprints and examined them. People found this to be an odd occupation, and a waste of time.
"Wilson chatted along for awhile, and presently got Roxy's fingerprints for his collection- right hand and left- on couple of his glass strips; then took records for both children."
This strange occupation later allowed Wilson to solve the crime, and find out that the twins had been switched.
P2-12
Ch.15
ReplyDeleteTom responded, turning to leave:
“You find the old woman, Blake, and if she can’t furnish the knife, go and search the twins!” Tom was trying to ruin the twins reputation by telling Blake that the twins probably hid the knife themselves.
“Here is de plan, en she’ll win, sure. I’s a nigger, en nobody ain’t gwine to doubt it dat hears me talk. I’s wuth six hund’d dollahs. Take en sell me, en pay off dese gam- blers.”
Tom was dazed. He was not sure he had heard aright. He was dumb for a moment; then he said:
“Do you mean that you would be sold into slavery to save me?” This shows the Parent-Child relationship that Tom has with his mother by showing she is willing to be sold down the river to save her son.
P7-8
Chapter 13
ReplyDelete'Tom' starts mocking Puddn'head Wilison in palmistry. He likes to look a peoples' hands and get their finger prints for research. Wilison finds the twins outside and he talks to them about the knife and suspects them that Luigi killed the man because he never got their finger prints two years ago. Then Tom gets happy that Wilison thinks the killer was one of the twins. But when Wilison tries to get Toms' hand to get his finger print Tom pulls his hand back fast.
Which explains Tom could be the one who killed the man. (p.76)
P7-18
P6-22
ReplyDeleteChapter 2
In Chapter 2 Pudd'nhead Wilson starts his business in law but the people don't want to go to him because of his "reputation" of being a 'pudd'nhead'.
Wilson starts out as a lawyer but ends up just doing fingerprinting as a pastime due to the lack of clients. This pastime will help him later on to find out who was doing all the stealing because he had 'Tom's' and 'Chambers' fingerprints when they were babies.