Volume 1

Taylor's principles and practice of medical jurisprudence / [Alfred Swaine Taylor].

  • Alfred Swaine Taylor
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Taylor's principles and practice of medical jurisprudence / [Alfred Swaine Taylor]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    real flaws in the evidence arose from (1) the incompleteness of the post-mortem examination, which was no fault of Hunter’s, but does point a warning to all medical men under similar circumstances, and (2) the difficulties of analysis insuperable in those days, but which are now easily overcome if the medical man will only take those pre¬ cautions which will be found in the Sections on “ Poisons.” The variety of subjects in which a medical jurist is required to have knowledge and experience may alarm a student of medicine, and lead him to suppose that, as he cannot make himself perfectly acquainted with all, he may well forgo the labour of preparing himself in any. But this would be taking an erroneous view of his position. The above description of the qualifications necessary to constitute a good witness in a court of law must not deter him from entering on the study. It is assuredly beyond the mental power of any individual that he should be at the same time profoundly versed in all the principles of medicine and jurisprudence, and that he should be able to answer all possible questions, and encounter and remove all medical difficulties that may occur during the trial of a civil or criminal case. All that the law expects from a medical man is a fair average knowledge, not merely of his profession, but of those data which come more peculiarly within the province of a medical witness. There can be no doubt that the more perfectly a man has made himself master of his profes¬ sion, the better will he be fitted to follow the principles, and apply himself to the practice, of medical jurisprudence ; but he must divest himself of the notion that these principles can be spontaneously acquired, or that they are necessarily derived from the study of those isolated branches of medicine upon which medical jurisprudence is based. The materials for the medical jurist undoubtedly exist in these collateral sciences ; but they require to be assorted, selected, and moulded into shape, before they can be applied to any useful purpose. The duties of a medical jurist are distinct from those of a practis¬ ing physician or surgeon : the latter looks to the treatment of disease or accident, and the saving of life ; but the object of the former, in a large proportion of cases, is, whether in reference to the living or the dead, to aid the law in fixing on the perpetrator of a crime, or to rescue an innocent person from a falsely imputed crime. Thus he may be required to determine whether, in a particular case, the cause of death was natural or violent; and for this purpose it will be necessary for him to make an entirely new application of his professional know¬ ledge. He has now the difficult task of making a selection from those parts of the medical sciences which bear upon the legal proof and unravelling of crime. Some members of the medical profession have been inclined to look upon medico-legal practice as an unnecessary addition to their ordinary duties, but there are few who have been long engaged in the practice of the profession who have not found themselves occasionally placed in situations of difficulty from the accidental occurrence.of cases demand¬ ing medico-legal investigation. A medical man is summoned to attend
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