Mike's Death's Acre Essay

The author’s Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson introduce forensics in an outstanding way through the writing of Death’s Acre. In each chapter Dr. Bill Bass explains his life’s work in great detail. Throughout the book Dr. Bill Bass also explains the most important techniques a forensics scientist needs to know. For Example, the first thing one should do in order to investigate the remains of a body is to find out “sex, race, age, and stature”. Because of the great detail and well thought out interpenetration of forensics one can learn only so much from Death’s Acre.

Through out Dr. Bill Bass life he exhumed hundreds of body’s and received an answer from all of them using his knowledge as a forensics scientist. Again the first thing that a forensics scientist needs to do before anything else is to determine the “sex, race, age, and stature”. Dr. Bill Bass put this to the test every time he investigates a death of an unknown person. The first thing that one should do is to lay out the remaining’s. Many of the cases Dr. Bill Bass investigated where all just bones. One would think that it would be harder to identify the body if there was no flesh, fingerprints, or blood to help them determine the identity. To determine the sex one can look at the skull and see that if the mouth was narrow and the chin is pointed. This could mean that it belongs to a womens or a young child, or if the mouth was wide and the chin blunt indicates a male. To be certain that the sex was correct one would examine the pelvis. If the pelvis is narrow that indicates that it is a man, if the pelvis were wider it would lean towards a women. Next he would look at the teeth of the skull, if the skull had a full set of teeth that would lead to an adult. The pelvis can also determine the age of the unknown. “The joint at the body’s midline where the left pubis meets the right pubis is an excellent yard stick for measuring the age”. To identify the race again the skull can be used. “Her teeth jutted sharply forward: so did her jawbones in the region where the teeth were rooted. It’s a trait called prognathism even novice anthropologist can readily recognize it as one of the hallmarks Negro skull”. Finally to identify the stature one can simply measure the length of the femur. Dr. Bill Bass has solved hundred of cases’ by using this first technique.

Because of the great detail and well thought out interpenetration of forensics one can learn only so much from Death’s Acre. The first thing one should do in order to investigate the remains of a body is to find out “sex, race, age, and stature”.