The principles of forensic medicine, systematically arranged and applied to British practice / By John Gordon Smith.

  • John Gordon Smith
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of forensic medicine, systematically arranged and applied to British practice / By John Gordon Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DEATH BY PERSONAL AGENCY, OR HOMICIDE. i] Tae subjects discussed in the preceding section have prepared us to enter on those questions that relate to criminal attempts on human life. Homicide literally signifies the killing of a man, generically speaking ; and such is its signification in law. It implies deeds, to which very different degrees of culpability are attachable ; while in the establishment of that which is really incurred, our careful investigation and consequent testimony may . be of the last importance. Murder, the highest degree of criminal outrage, implies a malicious dis- position—an wntent to take away life; nor does it follow that the party offending is not guilty of mur- der, because the person killed by him did not happen to be the individual against whom the design was conceived. ‘This species of murder is syled felo- nious homicide. Again, there is a degree of homi- cide, called culpable, where a person kills another without such intention ; as when he acts in a dan- gerous manner, or places the sufferer in circumstances of danger, in consequence of which he loses his life. Such for instance would be the consequence of firing a loaded gun at a person with intent to miss
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