An analysis of medical evidence: comprising directions for practitioners, in the view of becoming witnesses in Courts of Justice; and an appendix of professional testimony / By John Gordon Smith, M.D.

  • John Gordon Smith
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An analysis of medical evidence: comprising directions for practitioners, in the view of becoming witnesses in Courts of Justice; and an appendix of professional testimony / By John Gordon Smith, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Append. IL] PATERNITY. ” . 865: which is most probable, leaving the woman’s evidence out of the ques- tion, that this should be the child of a black or a whiteman? Prima Jfacie, I should say, it was a case under the general rule. If I did not adhere to the rule, it would be on account of the circumstances attending the case, which I take to be an exception; for if I have no knowledge of any matters which go positively to contradict the woman’s testi- mony, I should naturally lean towards it *.— Do you consider this case as having any affinity with what is called albinage? I have not much experience on the subject of Albinos, as my residence has been chiefly in New York, where such accidents rarely occur. But I have known instances of negroes turning white, where there was no symptom of disease or sickness.—Have the goodness, Doctor, to relate them. [ Here the witness related three cases. The first was a gra- dual change, in a black son of negro parents. After he became white, he could bear the heat of the sun less than before ; his sense of touch was sharpened ; but his flesh was less ready to heal from cuts. His hair changed from woolly to straight. In the two others, white spots made their appearance, without any known cause; and in all, the fair colour was a healthy carna- * tion, and not the dead hue of the Albinos.] * % * * ; As to those cases in which the agency of some external objects upon the mother’s imagination, produces an entire change in the foetus, have you any facts within your own knowledge? There was a man in the city of New York, who kept a cow, which cow was a favourite with the wife of.the man; but he found it more convenient to kill her than to keep her. The cow affording a larger supply of provisions than was required for family consumption, he sold part, and reserved the rest. Among the parts reserved were the feet. The wife saw them hanging up in a mangled state.. It was the first news she had of the death of her favourite cow ; and she was so vehemently moved, and so shocked, as to affect the child of which she was then pregnant ; and it was born without any arms, and with distorted feet. — Did you ever converse with the father or mother of the child? I did not; but the child is still alive, and there is no doubt of the fact. — Have you examined the child? Isaw it once, as I passed, playing with a cooper’s shaving knife between its toes. I stopped to enquire, and was told the story t.—Is there no other case, ancient or modern, to support this theory: is there nothing in prose or verse? There is acase called the black case, in Haddington’s poems. He was a lord of session, or other considerable man in Scotland. The story runs thus: — There was a man who followed the profession of an attorney, or scrivener, who had a very amorous wife; but he had not. leisure to attend to all her * Then I am bold enough to assert, that the learned witness’s nature is not a very natural one. Big + Surely, American judicature, outré as we are taught to believe it, could not allow this to pass as evidence. The whole affair, however, seems to have been so purely jocose, that it is almost a pity that the rae, could not have been given without the incongruous solemnity of oaths.