The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China Volume 1

_The Washing Away of Wrongs_ is a guide to Song dynasty (10th - 13th century) bureaucrats investigating questionable deaths. Considered the first treatise on forensics, it is an interesting read, both for its technical merits and for its historical value. As a historian who has a cursory interest in forensic anthropology, it doubly caught my eye. Initally the book outlines the responsibilities of the official,proceedures for medical examination and specific advice on questioning suspects, interviewing familiy members and reminding investigators of the consequences of making false accusations. This is followed by a detailed primer on how to begin an investigation of suspicious death, beginning with examining the disposition of the body, examining orifices, ways of determining whether the corpse was moved and clues to possible causes of death. Forensically, the richest part of the text was its section titled "Difficult Cases", which expained how an official could find facts when the cause of death appears to be something else (for example, when strangulation was masked as suicide by hanging, or an intentional drowning was made to look like an accident.) A pharmacopaeia is also provided to make obscure injuries appear. A detailed description of determining time of death by the rate of decomposition is disucssed as well. Certainly forensic science has advanced by leaps and bounds since the first publication of _The Washing Away of Wrongs_, yet I was struck by how the foundations of good forensic work has not changed, from the method of determining self-inflicted wounds and suicide (determined by the directionality of incisions or the disposition of the body), to the recommendation that tiny details be not overlooked (for example looking underneath fingernails or in various orifices for clues of foul-play.) An Asian maxim says, "China is the ocean that salts all rivers that flow into it." _The Washing Away of Wrongs_ certainly is one example of many of the tremendous influence Chinese science has had on the rest of the world. Admittedly the appeal of the book is narrow, but it was a fascinating intellectual exercise.