The series edited by prominent forensic scientists, provides a state of the art overview of current knowledge in forensic sciences by reviewing the progress in this rapidly growing field. Every volume gives a balanced view on various aspects of this science. It is the believe of the editors that every forensic worker should be informed about all branches of his science even if he may very well be specialised in one or few of them.

Thermal analysis methods have been introduced into forensic sciences only in recent times. Though thermoanalytical instruments have been available commercially for some decades it was not until the beginning of the seventies that forensic scientists became interested in them. At that time some state forensic science laboratories in the Federal Republic of Germany made use of differential thermal analysis for forensic soil investigations. The forensic science section of the city police of ZUrich, Switzerland, applied an instrument (differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetry) for...

Competitive binding techniques such as radioimmunoassay (RIA) are widely used to measure an enormous variety of compounds in biological fluids. Current methods have 1 2 arisen from the pioneering work ofYalow and Berson in the U. S. A. and Ekins in the u. K. Much of the early development was concerned with the analysis of protein hormones, and nearly a decade passed before attention focussed also on small molecules such as steroids and drugs. The potential of immunoassay methods for drug monitoring in clinical and forensic laboratories and in addict treatment programmes resulted in the...

The range at which a weapon has been fired is an important measurement for the reconstruction of firearms offenses (murder, suicide, accident). All changes caused by a shot and which vary according to the distance from the weapon are suitable in principle for determining this distance. However, some procedures are very elegant in theory but hardly applicable in practice. The constructions of ammunition and the sequence of events during a shot are dealt with first as this knowledge forms a basis for understanding the various methods. The individual zones (classes) of firing distances (contact...