Volume 1

Text-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by Arthur P. Luff.

  • Arthur P. Luff
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Text-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by Arthur P. Luff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/462 (page 10)
    I. As far as possible, technical and scientific terms should be avoided; for instance, instead of speaking of an ' hj^Dertrophic liver,' speak of an ' enlarged liver'; instead of mentioning the 'duodenmn,' mention the 'commencement of the small intestine'; instead of employing the terms 'gastritis' and ' enteritis,' use ' inflammation of the stomach ' and ' inflamma- tion of the intestine.' II. Avoid the employment of terms and language which may be considered as exaggerated or wanting in definition; for instance, such terms as ' intense inflammation ' and ' enormous dilatation' are relative terms, inasmuch as what may appear to be intense inflammation or enormous dilatation to one person may not appear to be so to another. III. In medico-legal reports the facts should be kept distinct from the comments upon the facts; the facts are evidence, the comments are not necessarily so. IV. The introduction of any liearsay statements, of statements made by others, or circumstances coming to the knowledge of the medical man through public rumour, should be carefully avoided. The procedure in the coroner's court is very simple. Witnesses are examined on oath, their evidence is taken down, questions may then be put to them by any member of the jury, and, in the event of further proceedings being taken, they are ])Ound under a pecuniary penalty to appear at the Superior Court to which the case is sent. If the evidence given at the iiiquest is incomplete, and if further evidence may be forth- coming, the coroner may then adjourn the inquest. Magistrate's Court Another preliminary court of enquiry is the Magistrate's Court; in this court the proceedings take the form of an in- vestigation as to the culpability or non-culpability of a prisoner accused of some act of criminality or of negligence of a criminal nature. At this court, as it is now a question of guilt or innocence, the accused person must be present, and for the