Professor Nara Milanich of Barnard College, author of Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father, notes that both earnest scientists and charlatans of the 19th and 20th centuries were driven to solve the puzzle of paternity. Their efforts were amplified by a media landscape that sensationalized cases of alleged infidelity and disputed lineage.

During the 1920s, widespread reports of babies being swapped in maternity wards sparked a national panic. Courts found themselves tasked with determining rightful parentage, and the legal system desperately sought an objective, scientifically grounded solution.

Early attempts ranged from studying the ridges on a child’s palate to relying on the flawed racial theories of eugenics, which catalogued traits such as nose size, ear shape, and hair texture as hereditary markers.

The most captivating figure of the era was Dr. Albert Abrams, who promoted the so‑called oscillophore. He claimed that by measuring electrical vibrations in blood—termed “Electronic Reactions of Abrams” (ERA)—one could reveal familial ties. His instrument supposedly distinguished, for instance, Irish blood at 15 ohms from Jewish blood at 7 ohms.

Despite the questionable science, Judge Thomas Graham of the Superior Court of San Francisco commissioned Abrams to resolve a high‑profile paternity suit involving Paul Vittori, who denied child support for a daughter he claimed was not his. The oscillophore’s verdict confirmed Vittori’s paternity, catapulting Abrams into the spotlight as a sought‑after paternity authority.

Milanich wonders why such a dubious test garnered both press attention and judicial acceptance. She suggests that a frustrated legal system yearned for a definitive answer, while 1920s America wrestled with shifting gender dynamics and emerging female autonomy—factors that made the promise of a conclusive test particularly alluring.

In the 1930s, however, genuine scientific progress emerged. Researchers discovered that blood itself carried immutable clues—specifically, blood grouping (A, B, AB, O)—that could be used to infer parentage. The rules were straightforward: if a child is type AB and the mother is type A, the father must be type B or AB.

Armed with this knowledge, courts could now apply real science to evaluate paternity claims, though even these methods are not infallible.