THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF HUMAN BLOOD AND HUMAN BLOOD SUBSTITUTES

• Jurisdiction: Australia

Introduction and overview ............................................................................. [97.200]

The physical properties of human blood

Introduction ................................................................................................... [97.210]

Surface tension ............................................................................................. [97.220]

Viscosity ........................................................................................................ [97.230]

Specific gravity .............................................................................................. [97.240]

Human blood substitutes .............................................................................. [97.300]

[97.200] Introduction and overview

As stated earlier, there are occasions when the importance of the patterns of bloodstains associated with a crime of violence outweigh the importance of the biochemical analysis of the bloodstains. It may be paramount that the bloodstain patterns are interpreted to attempt to reconstruct the events that gave rise to the scene staining. It is widely accepted that an informed understanding and appreciation of crime scenes comes from practical experimentation in conjunction with an understanding of the causal science. Indeed, this view is supported by practitioners worldwide. MacDonell (1982; 1993); Laber and Epstein (1983; 1994); Stephens and Allen (1983); Eckert and James (1989); Sweet (1993); Raymond and Ashley (1997) and associated texts carry a significant practical, or practically orientated, component. It is also not uncommon that a particular scenario hypothesised by the prosecution or defence needs to be tested in order to either refute or support that proposition.

The physical properties of human blood

[97.210] Introduction

There are three...