ADVERTISEMENT TO THE TENTH EDITION. THE present edition, although announced, and originally so intended, as a reprint from the last London, has been subsequently carefully revised, and enlarged to the extent of several hundred pages. Numerous and important additions will be found in every chapter; and the whole is again tendered to the medical and legal professions throughout the Union, for their consideration, and, it is hoped, approval. AUGUST, 1850. (ix) PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. IN preparing the present edition of this work for the press, I have found that an amount of labor was required equal to that originally bestowed on it. This has arisen from the numerous and important additions made to the science of medical jurisprudence during the last ten years. It has hence been necessary to revise every chapter, and several, indeed, have been nearly rewritten. I have also added essays on two subjects not previously noticed, viz., Insurance upon Lives, and Medical Evidence. In its present extended, and, as I trust, improved form, I can only ask for it a portion of the favor with which my first efforts were so kindly received. Besides the numerous printed works, from which I have derived most of my materials, and to which I have always given due credit, I must not omit acknowledging the use of the Manuscript Lectures of the late Professor Stringham, and of Dr. William Dunlop. For the former I am indebted to the kindness of his surviving relatives, M. Hunt and Jos. Stringham, Esquires; and for the latter, as delivered at Edinburgh, to their author. Drs. Dunlop and Darwall, the successive editors of the English editions, also enriched the work with numerous and valuable notes. These I have preserved in the present edition, not only for their intrinsic worth, but as a mark of respect and gratitude for their labors. I have continued to derive much assistance from the New York State Library, and the Libraries of the Western Medical College and the Albany Institute; while many of my legal and medical friends have allowed me the freest access to their private collections. The chapter on Infanticide, originally contributed by my brother, has been again furnished by him in an enlarged and greatly improved form. I have considered it a bare act of justice, that the author of so important a portion of the work should be associated with me on the title-page. T. R. B. ALBANY, November, 1835. |