Elements of medical jurisprudence / By T.R. Beck and J.B. Beck.

  • Theodric Romeyn Beck
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of medical jurisprudence / By T.R. Beck and J.B. Beck. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/1168
    11 is chapter on Reports, and h i> observations on feigned diseases, indi- cate the talents for which he is still famous at the present day ; and in such estimation were his works liclcl in his native country, that for more than a century they formed the sole guide of the French sur- geon. To him succeeded Gendri, in 1650; Blegni in 1684; and Deveaux in 1693 and 1701. Their works were particularly intended for the benefit of surgeons, from whom, as 1 have already stated, the examiners in medico-legal cases were selected. Louis is, however, considered, and with great justice, as the indi- vidual who first promulgated a just idea of the science to Ids country- men. He investigated several important points with great ability, such as the certainty of the signs of death, protracted gestation, drown- ing, and the proofs that distinguish hanging through suicide from hanging as an act of murder. Ilis consultations also in various cases, and which are preserved in the Causes Celebres, abound in various and instructive learning. Some of his opinions gave rise to animated discussions, and thus excited public attention to these subjects gene- rally. Winslow, Lorry, Lafosse, and Chaussier, also deserve notice among the French writers; while towards the conclusion of the eighteenth century, Professor Mahon, with several others, published in the Encyclopedic Methodique, copious dissertations on Medical Jurisprudence.* In 1796, Fodere published the first edition of his work in three octavo volumes, under the title of Les Lois eclairees par les Sciences Physiques ; ou, Traite de Medecine Legale et d’Hygiene publique. This learned physician was a resident of Strasburg, and the author of several other treatises of deserved reputation. In 1807, the system of Mahon, late Professor of Legal Medicine and the History of Medicine in the school of Medicine at Paris, appeared, with notes, by M. Fautrel ; and about the same time, Belloc, a surgeon at Agen, published his sensible and useful treatise in one volume. Marc, in 1808, presented a translation from the German of the Manual of Rose on Medico- Legal Dissection, and enriched it with valuable notes, besides adding two most instructive dissertations, one on the docimasia pulmonum, and the other on death by drowning. In 1812, Ballard published a trans- lation, also from the German, of Metzger’s Principles of Legal Medicine. 1 his work is peculiarly valuable for the great learning displayed in its notes, and the opportunity thus afforded, of becoming acquainted with the sentiments of authors whose writings are either inaccessible or in some degree antiquated. After bestowing great labour during several ye^rs, a second edition of his treatise was published by Fodere in. 1813. It was now ex- tended to six volumes, four on legal medicine, and two on medical police, and was undoubtedly', at the time of its publication, the most valuable systematic work on the science in the French language.t Fodere, vol. i. Introduction, p. xxxvii. (See. *1 Frofessor 1 ode re died at Strasburg in February of the present year (1835), in the seventy-second year of his age.