ABSTRACT
Identification of unknown human remains is one of the substantial contributions of radiology to the forensic sciences. As early as October 1898, Dr. Fovau d’Coumelles wrote, “Knowing the existence of a fracture in a person, who has been burned or mutilated beyond recognition, we can hope to identify him by the x-ray…”. It was a prescient prediction. Yet, it was a long time coming to fruition. In the meantime, as we have seen, Koenig found that he could demonstrate identifying features in dental x-rays as early as 1896. Yet, it was not until 1927 when Culbert and Law 1 identified a body by roentgenography of the nasal sinuses and mastoid processes that radiologic identification came into its own. Dental identification really did not take off until after World War II when the identification of Hitler brought some notoriety to the process (see Chapter 24). However, now, the use of radiologic comparison for identification of unknown remains is well established.
