General Unknowns
Powders, liquids, and stains that are of indeterminate origin, or cannot be readily classified, may be submitted to the laboratory for a “general unknown” examination. Potentially, every type of instrumentation available in the section, may be used to analyze this evidence. Full identification may not be possible, but a general substance classification may be attained using a variety of microscopical and instrumental comparisons to our reference collections and libraries. If a known sample is also submitted, this can also be useful for rendering an opinion about the general consistency between the unknown and known samples.