With Compliments to the B.C. Police * The Wells Club * J. C. PIDGEON GEORGE BOWE Wells, British Columbia . JACK O’CLUBS HOTEL THE CARIBOO'S BEST “Where You Meet Your Mining Friends” WELLS British Columbia Townsite Store South Wells Store Phone 36 Phone 40 THE WELLS PRODUCE FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES QUALITY GROCERIES DELNOR FROZEN FOODS | WELLS B.C. You'll Enjoy an Evening Spent at the LODE THEA TRE GOOD ENTERTAINMENT WELLS British Columbia WELMORE CAFE Ted Harris, Proprietor ROOMS FULL COURSE MEALS AMID PLEASANT SURROUNDINGS PASTRIES AND CAKES OUR SPECIALTY WELLS BRITISH COLUMBIA NEUFELD BROS. General Repairs Welding -:- Body Work FORD-MONARCH AGENTS WELLS BRITISH COLUMBIA PERE PAV IGE FUR DEALER Taxi - Phone 22 Two 5 and 7-Passenger Cars at Your Service 24 Hours a Day ry WELLS British Columbia Page Thirty-four “American Magazine,’ a ladder-back chair, carpets, tools, plumbing, in fact everything to exact scale. And where is this room full of wonderful miniature scenes? It is at Harvard Medical School in the De- partment of Legal Medicine. Each scene, the result of months of care- ful and painstaking work, portrays an actual tragedy. Minor changes are made to present a problem which is possible of solution by observation and without handling of any of the minute exhibits. Used in the “seminars’’ on homi- cide investigation conducted by the Department of Legal Medicine, these scenes are viewed by lawyers, doc- tors, coroners, criminal investigators of State and Provincial Police Forces, and others belonging to duly accred- ited public law-enforcement agen- cies. During the session, each mem- ber of the “‘seminar’’ under instruc- tion (and these are confined to about 20 members) receives two printed sheets containing a story about the scenes allocated to that particular member. From this story and from his own observation of the “‘Ietter- perfect’’ miniature, he is requested to prepare his report on the case, which he later delivers verbally to the group as a whole. At the conclusion, after discussion of the various clues and deductions to be made from obser- vation, the correct answer is supplied and if any error is made in the report, the member is enlightened on_ his oversight. It is the most absorbing. realistic, and factual method of training obser- vation and deduction ever seen by the writer. It becomes so fascinating that every member wants to view and analyse all the other tableaux, but usually lack of time prevents the study of more than two for each member. The name of these studies? The “‘Nutshell Studies of Unex- plained Death’’ for truly they are “crime in a nutshell.” For several years now the Depart- ment of Legal Medicine has been conducting these seminars for a sel- ected group of officials. Though in- tensive, they are very thorough and cover the entire field of homicide and disaster investigation. Constructed on the principle that the field investiga- tor must know what the scientist re- quires to arrive at an accurate con- clusion, every phase of the work is covered. ‘There are lectures on what information may be gained from skeletal remains, on fragments of human bodies, on the detection and identification of blood, on the ap- proxiate time of death where a victim is left in the open or in an enclosed place, and so on, Attention is also given to identification work afte major disasters, such as the Cocony Grove holocaust and, more recently the SS. Noronic disaster. Aviatio; accidents are also discussed with th same object. Through the lectures which are delivered by eminen: pathologists, chemists, and member of the faculty of Harvard Univer sity, besides the valuable scientify information imparted, there js ; “hard core’ of common sense discus. sion. The whole purpose of th seminar is to make the member: think and they certainly achieve thei; goal. As an illustration, let us take ; simple little story told at one of thes¢ short courses. One morning a maic¢ in a Boston hotel knocked at a bed- room door and receiving no answer opened the door to make up the room. She found the occupant still apparently asleep, so quietly with- drawing she went about tidying up ether rooms. Some time later the maid came back to the room and opened the door. The figure on the bed was in exactly the same position. Approaching the bed, the maid screamed and ran out of the room. Rushing downstairs, she babbled out to the room clerk that the occupant of room so-and-so was dead in bed. The clerk notified the medical exam- iner and the police, then awaited their arrival. Shortly after, the offi- cials entered the room. The occupant was dead, there was no doubt about that. She was a young woman of attractive appearance. Her clothing had been neatly arranged and there was no sign of a struggle. Everything pointed to a natural death in her sleep. The medical examiner was about to leave when he noticed a slight peculiarity in the dead girl’s face. He picked up both pillows and carefully examined them. There, on the underside of one of the pillows, he found a full-bodied set of lip prints. He examined the girl’s mouth and compared the color on the cloth with the remains of her lip rouge. They were the same. The impression was so clear and sharp, he reasoned, there must have been some consider- able pressure. Could this be murder? The woman had registered under an assumed name. There were no marks in her clothing to identify her. The contents of her handbag gave no clue of who she was, and she had only registered the day before, but on the dressing table there was a small vial containing a mild sleeping tablet. Hurrying to the drug store whose name was on the label, the investi- gators soon learned the name of the doctor who had prescribed for the young woman. In turn, he was able to identify the girl, and tell the offi- THE SHOULDER STRAP