This is the "Report of the 1973 Turin Commission on the Shroud (2)," part #28 of my Turin Shroud Encyclopedia. See part #26 for information about this series. In this post I am going to first present this part of the report and then add comments at the end.
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A DEFINITIVE REPORT ON THE HAEMATOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS CARRIED OUT ON MATERIAL TAKEN FROM THE SHROUD
Giorgio Frache
Eugenia Mari Rizzatti
Emilio Mari
The laboratory investigations· of the material taken from the Shroud on November 24th, 1973, about which minutes were made at the time, took place at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the University of Modena at successive times from December 28th, 1973.
The technical side was carried out by Professor Eugenia Mari Rizzatti, on the basis of a plan of procedure agreed upon with Professor Giorgio Frache and Professor Emilio Mari.
At the conclusion of each section of the work both the other two responsible were informed and were able, personally, to look over the results.
The pieces taken on November 25th, 1973, in Turin, were in the first place accurately controlled after being taken from the containers. These resulted in being actually those mentioned in the minutes of the expert work done and are as follows:
1. 33r (32r of the minutes): three threads measuring respectively 8, 4 and 6.5 millimetres.
2. 110 A: a thread about 28 mm. in length.
3. 36 v: a thread of about 19.5 mm. in length.
4- 7 1: four threads measuring respectively 12, 17,
7 and 16 mm.
5. 5 o: a thread of about 13 mm. in length.
Macroscopic Investigation
The fibres appear to be basically ivory-white in colour, though not uniformly so, having fairly regular patches which are darker, approaching a brownish colour. These patches show where they belong in the texture of the cloth, in the pattern of the weft and warp.[JM76, 49].
Epimicroscopic Examination 50The following enlargements were used: 18 x 1; 18 x 4; 18 x 8.
The threads were examined directly on the small stand of a stereoscopic microscope under different surfaces. The investigation resulted in what follows:
- fragments of thread, see No. 1 (33r in our notation, 32r in the minutes), appeared as a whole to be made up of numerous fibres of a shiny honey-yellow colour. At the level of the zones which also appeared darker to the naked eye, the surface fibres take on a more intense colouring, a fairly uniform reddish colour. This colouring is found only on the surface fibres, so much so that the above-mentioned colouring was only observed on the reverse of the thread at the level of the underlying fibres by transparency.
- fragments of thread, see No. 2 (110 A), show the same characteristics as the preceding. In these, however, there is no evidence either of colouration or of granulation.
- fragments of thread, see No. 3 (36v), show similar characteristics as the preceding. There is presence on slanting bands of a very light and superficial encrustation of reddish colouring and of granules of the same colour, which are present on the whole circumference of the surface fibres.
- fragments of thread, see No. 4 (7 1), show presence of bands of heterogeneous material in a slanting direction of reddish colour, granular, to be found only on the surface fibres along the whole of their circumference.
- fragments of thread, see No.5 (5 o), for which the same findings as No. 4.[JM76, 50].
Microscopic Examination 51
The different threads, whose fibres have previously been slightly separated by a histological needle were placed separately under a slide, covered with another slide, and held together by adhesive tape. Enlargements used were 63 and 285 diameters.
With the lower enlargement the portions of thread appeared to be made of numerous vegetable fibres, regular enough, without evident encrustations of heterogeneous material, with the presence of some colourless crystals.
The investigation at the 285 enlargement showed for all the fragments a different colouring of the fibres, in greeny-yellow, a colouring not due to the presence of a colouring agent, but due to microscopic vision at a high enlargement. In particular it was noted:
1. In the fragments conserved in 33r (1), few colour granulations of colour from yellow-red to orange denser at the diagonal bands, corresponding to the parts visually darker in the macroscopic investigation.
2. In the fragments drawn from 110 A (2), absence of pigmented bands.
3. In the fragments conserved in 36 v (3), 7 1 (4), 5 o (5), the microscopic examination at 285 has brought to light a framework which can be described in one. There was noted the presence of diagonal bands of fine pigmentation of a yellow-red orange colour and with some coarser granules, but very rare, black or green in colour. These granulations affected the majority of the fibres, indeed substantially so, but they were not found in the spaces between the fibres.[JM76, 51].
52 The microscopic examination, in natural light, of the different threads previously having been treated with an acid solution, sulphuric acid, was completed by putting all the material through a microscopic examination in ultra-violet light, in order to show up the possible existence of fluorescence as typical of all haemoglobin derivates.
The examination showed negative results.
It is stated in advance that the treatment with various chemical means, acetic acid, soda, did not modify the colour of the granulations. Only in the course of treatment with glycerine of potassium and ammonium sulphide, did the granulations appear to assume a dark or colouring with a clearly brown tone, after some time.
First of all, it must be clearly stated that researches by generic and specific diagnoses of blood on material of a very ancient date, subjected for various contingencies to influences from atmospheric factors and the action of physical agents such as high temperatures, can have a real probative import only if the results are positive. In effect, the specific proteins of the blood, and of the relative pigment, if subjected for different reasons to processes of degeneration or decay, can lose the characteristics which allow identification.
Generic Researches on Blood 52
In carrying out the investigation it must be remembered that we had only a very small piece of material at our disposal. Consequently we had recourse to particularly sensitive microtechnical instruments. In general we proceeded by fractioning and sectioning the threads in order to have at our disposal the points where the presence of the granulations had been perceived by microscopic examination and the colouring of which could lead one to think that an haematic pigment was present in its various transformative phases.[JM76, 52].
a) Reactions to the benzidine 53
This test is among the best known of generic tests for blood, and is based on the property which some substances have, substances normally colourless, of assuming a particular colouring on oxidation. The oxidation is assisted by the presence of a peroxidase which, acting as a catalyst, liberates the oxygen from a common peroxide H2O2, thus making the benzidine to take on a blue colouring. The catalyst in the case of the generic research into the marks of blood is made up of a peroxidase, greatly resistant through time, contained in the red globules. The reaction is most sensitive, more than 1 to 200,000, but is not strictly specific, on account of which a possible positive result cannot be assumed to have the value of absolute proof. The negative result, on the other hand, allows us to exclude that in the material under examination there are traces of blood still demonstrable.
In the examination, the test carried out with freshly prepared reagents took place under microscopic control for the purpose also of collecting the very localised possible reactions at the level of the fibres of the thread, particularly at the points where the preceding microscopic and epimicroscopic evidence had shown the presence of coloured granulations. Careful examination did not show any change of colour to blue, either at the level of the bulk of the granules, or in the combination of the fibre.
It is to be emphasised also that the chemical treatment with acetic acid, benzidine, and oxygenated water did not in the least modify the colour of the granulations, neither was there observed any solutionising of these.
b) Micro-spectroscopic Examination
The microspectroscopic examination directly of the material without any preliminary treatment proved negative. Thereupon we went on to an investigation of the haemochromogen, a prior transformation of the possible haematin present, (the derivate of the haemoglobin found more frequently in marks[JM76, 53].
54 of an ancient date). We sought to obtain this transformation by treating the fibres beforehand with a solution of soda at 33% in order to solutionise the possible haematin and then by using, for the transformation in the haemochromogen, the solid reagent in a solution of glycerine of potassium. Although under microscopic observation the unsuccessful solutionising of the granules was perceived, the preparations were placed all the same under micro-spectroscopic examination using the apparatus of Abbe.
The investigation proved negative in all the evidence. Consequently the haemochromogen is absent. Its presence would have been perceived through the appearance of the typical bands of absorption.
c) Thin-layer Chromatography (1)
We went on then with our work on one of the threads conserved in 7 1 after previous extractive incubation in alkaline solution by performing circulated chromatography of 10 cm. on a Kieselgel G plate of a thickness of 250 mμ, with a solvent system made up of a mature of methanol, acetic acid and water (proportions 90: 3: 7). The plate was then dried in an oven for five minutes at 100 degrees. It was then examined in ultra-violet light at the length of a wave 254 and 360 mμ, and it did not reveal the presence of fluorescent spots. Following this it was sprayed a first time with an ethanolic solution of benzidine without obtaining any colouration. Then, also by spraying, it was treated with a fresh solution of water oxygenated to 3% and there was a similar negative result.
The method we have described is of a high sensitivity and capable of showing the presence of blue stains up to 3:4μ grammes of blood.
Consequently the results of the investigation in the laboratory of forensic medicine made up to the present time in the area of generic diagnosis would tend to exclude the presence of blood, even of the slightest traces in the material under
(1) Farago J. "Chrom " 27 (1966)[JM76, 54].
55 study for the following reasons:
1. Because the pigmented encrustations did not pass into solution in the solvent acids and the alkaline we used.
2. Because the reaction to the benzidine was clearly negative.
3. Because the micro-spectroscopic investigations resulted clearly in the negative.
4. Because the examination by thin-layer chromatography resulted, as before, negative.
The negative results of the tests carried out in the area of the generic investigation of blood give sufficient grounds for a conclusive judgment. However, for the sake of methodological completeness, in order not to leave untried any way of identifying the material under study, the following further examinations were performed on the remaining portions of thread drawn from 33r, 110 A, 7 1, and 5 o.
a. Diagnoses of species, limited to the human species, with the siero-precipitation method in agar on a slide. The result was negative.
b. Diagnoses of (blood) group, limited to the ABO system by using a method (absorption-elution) research into the specific group property of cloth, which in its turn did not produce evidence of antigens A and B.
On the material taken from the Shroud on the 24th November 1973 in Turin, the generic test, the species test and the group test (limited to ABO), have produced negative results.
From the point of view of interpretation, regarding a correct scientific methodology, it has to be made clear that in our judgment, taking into account the reservations made in the introduction, the negative answer given by the investigations we carried out does not permit us to make an absolute judgment about the exclusion of haematic substance from the material under examination.[JM76, 55].
56 Signed: Professor Giorgio Frache,
Director, Institute of Legal Medicine
and Insurance, University of Modena
Professor Eugenia Mari Rizzatti
Professor Emilio Mari[JM76, 56].
Comments:
Blood At the First International Study Congress held in Rome and Turin in May 1950, the French surgeon Pierre Barbet (1884–1961) presented a report showing how the various bloodstains on the Shroud exhibit the morphological characteristics of coagulated blood[BZ98, 19]. Yet, in 1973, Professors Giorgio Frache, Eugenia Mari Rizzatti and Emilio Mari, of the Commission of Experts[PM96, 207] set up by the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Michele Pellegrino (r. 1965-77), tried unsuccessfully to detect the presence of blood on threads taken from the Shroud, though their analytical techniques were skilful and painstaking[BZ98, 19]. Their results proved negative for the generic proofs (reaction with solvents, reaction with benzidine, investigation with microspectroscopy and chromatography examinations); for specific proofs (belonging to the human species), as well as proofs concerning the blood group (limited to the ABO classification)[PM96, 207]. They had, however, already warned "that researches by generic and specific diagnoses of blood on material of a very ancient date ... can have a real probative import only if the results are positive. In effect, the specific proteins of the blood, and of the relative pigment, if subjected ... to processes of' degeneration or decay, can lose the characteristics which allow identification"[JM76, 52]. In other words the Shroud was so old that only a positive result counted. Blood was certainly present if you could prove that it was; if you could not prove it, however, that might mean no more than that the proofs had vanished down the centuries[BR78, 72]. That no blood had been detected on the Shroud was at least balanced by the fact that no fraudulent substance had been identified either[WI79, 77]. Since then, research undertaken in 1978 by STURP by visible light and by ultraviolet revealed the presence of a fluorescent serum halo around the bloodstains on the Shroud[BZ98, 19-20]. This made it inconceivable that the bloodstains were not real blood from a wounded organism[BZ98, 20], later shown by Dr Pierluigi Baima Bollone (1937-), Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Turin, through haematological immuno-fluorescence, to be from a human[BZ98, 21]. In 1980, the American research scientists Dr John Heller (1921–1995) and Alan Adler (1931-2000) announced they had succeeded in identifying a blood porphyrin from a bloodstain area of the Shroud[HA80, 29; BZ98, 20]. In May 1981, Baima Bollone, reported that forensic haematological analyses conducted on the threads that he had removed from the Shroud in 1978 showed the presence of blood preserved unaltered[BZ98, 20]. Then in August 1981 Heller and Adler reported that they had obtained analogous results from strips applied to the Shroud surface in 1978[HA81, 35; BZ98, 20]. Adler explained that Frache, et al., were unsuccessful in identifying blood in their Shroud samples because they were unable to get the blood into a solution in order to perform the necessary wet chemical test[RC99, 74-75].
The image is superficial. That is, it lies on the very topmost fibers of
[Right (enlarge): STURP's 1978 transmitted light photograph of the front half of the Shroud, in which the light source is behind the suspended cloth so only the light transmitted through it is seen. The scorches and waterstains from the 1532 fire, and the bloodstains, have penetrated the thickness of the cloth and so can be clearly seen. But the body image has almost completely disappeared, demonstrating that the image of the man on the Shroud is superficial, only one fibre deep[11Nov16].]
the threads of the Shroud[WI79, 249; SH81, 59; IJ98, 187; OM10, 200]. The initial examination by Frache's team of the image threads under a microscope revealed that the image was strictly a surface phenomenon[BR78, 72]. This had already been discovered in the taking of the thread samples in the previous "Report of the Experts' Examination of the Shroud":
"A thread in square 32r ... broke on extraction so two fragments were obtained [and] It was observed that the reddish tint of the thread was· limited to the surface, while the inside appeared to be perfectly white" (11Mar24).The "reddish tint" was not blood (as I originally thought) but the colour of the image fibres compared to the yellow of non-image fibres (see above). As per the report: "This colouring is found only on the surface fibres, so much so that the above-mentioned colouring was only observed on the reverse of the thread at the level of the underlying fibres by transparency" (see above):
"In other words, the stains that formed the image had not penetrated the material at all. They had not, as one would have expected, changed the colouration of the whole thread. Indeed, in order to see the stain at all from the underside of the thread, one had to focus a light intense enough to render the material semi-transparent. Every [image] thread so examined showed the same characteristics. The image on the Shroud was strictly a surface phenomenon. How strictly was not really appreciated until the threads, their fibres teased apart with a histological needle, were examined at an enlargement of 285 diameters. The reddish-brown granules of which the stains were composed were clearly visible. `These granulations affected the majority of the [image] fibres, indeed substantially so, but they were not found in the spaces between the fibres'"[BR78, 70-71]Whatever the image was, it had neither seeped into nor penetrated the fibers as a paint, pigment or dye would have done[WI79, 249; IJ98, 187; OM10, 200]. Moreover, it was insoluble and resistant to acids[WI79, 249; IJ98, 187]!
Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]
Bibliography
AC02. Adler, A.D. & Crispino, D., ed., 2002, "The Orphaned Manuscript: A Gathering of Publications on the Shroud of Turin," Effatà Editrice: Cantalupa, Italy.
BR78. Brent, P. & Rolfe, D., 1978, "The Silent Witness: The Mysteries of the Turin Shroud Revealed," Futura Publications: London.
BZ98. Baima-Bollone, P. & Zaca, S., 1998, "The Shroud Under the Microscope: Forensic Examination," Neame, A., transl., St Pauls: London.
HA80. Heller, J.H. & Adler, A.D., 1980, "Blood on the Shroud of Turin," in AC02, 29-33.
HA81. Heller, J.H. & Adler, A.D., 1981, "A Chemical Investigation of the Shroud of Turin," in AC02, 34-57.
IJ98. Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY.
JM76. Jepps, M., ed., 1976, "Report of Turin Commission on the Shroud," Turin, Italy.
OM10. Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK.
PM96. Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta.
RC99. Ruffin, C.B., 1999, "The Shroud of Turin: The Most Up-To-Date Analysis of All the Facts Regarding the Church's Controversial Relic," Our Sunday Visitor: Huntington IN.
SH81. Stevenson K.E. & Habermas G.R., 1981, "Verdict on the Shroud: Evidence for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ," Servant Books: Ann Arbor MI.
WI79. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition.
Posted 25 May 2024. Updated 26 July 2024.
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