INTRODUCTION. MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, Legal Medicine, or Forensic Medicine, as it is variously termed, is that science which applies the principles and practice of the different branches of medicine to the elucidation of doubtful questions in courts of justice. By some authors, it is used in a more extensive sense, and also comprehends MEDICAL POLICE, or those medical precepts which may prove useful to the legislature or the magistracy. I shall employ it at this time in its restricted meaning.* Traces of this science are to be found as early as the institution of civil society. Thus, in the Jewish law, indications of it may be observed in the distinction established between mortal wounds and those not so, and in the inquiries prescribed in cases of doubtful virginity. Among the Egyptians, according to Plutarch, it was ordained that no pregnant woman should suffer afflictive punishment; while the Romans, even from the period of Numa, grounded many of their laws on the authority of ancient physicians and philosophers. Propter auctoritatem doctissimi Hippocratis is a phrase frequently met with in their decisions; † and the Emperor Adrian, in extending the term of legitimacy from ten months, (the period fixed by the Decemvirs,) to eleven, was influenced in so doing by the prevailing sentiments of the physiologists of that day. Some detached, but striking medico-legal facts, are also mentioned by the Roman historians. Thus, the bloody remains of Julius Cæsar, when exposed to public view, were examined by one Antistius, who declared that out of twentythree wounds which had been received, but one was mortal, and that had penetrated the thorax, between the first and second ribs. * If a general term be necessary to include both these sciences, I should prefer that used by the Germans, viz., STATE MEDICINE. † Belloc, p. 6. Foderé, Introduction, p. 14. The body of Germanicus was also inspected, and, by indications conformable to the superstitions of the age, it was decided that he had been poisoned.* The code of Justinian contains many provisions appertaining to this science, which we shall have frequent occasion to quote in the subsequent pages. Some of these, indeed, are incorporated into the laws of almost every civilized country at the present day. All the laws of the ancients, however, and all the facts drawn from their history, are to be considered as merely the first glimmerings of knowledge on this subject—and knowledge too, founded on the imperfect diagnostics which medicine afforded at that early period. It was never ordained that physicians should be examined on any trial until after the middle ages, and we are indebted to the Emperor Charles V. of Germany for the first public enactment prescribing it as necessary, and thereby recognizing its value and importance. In the celebrated criminal code which was framed by him at Ratisbon, in 1532, and which is known by the name of the "Constitutio Criminalis Carolina," or the Caroline Code, it is ordained that the opinion of medical men shall be formally taken in every case where death has been occasioned by violent means— such as child-murder, poisoning, wounds, hanging, drowning, the procuring of abortion, and the like.† "The publication of such a code very naturally awakened the attention of the medical profession, and summoned numerous writers from its ranks." It was the first regular commencement and origin of legal medicine, and it required only such an enactment, to apprehend the utility of which it was susceptible. The kings of France soon became aware of the value of similar institutions. In 1556, Henry II. promulgated a law by virtue of which death was inflicted on the female who should conceal her pregnancy and destroy her offspring. In 1606, Henry IV. presented letters patent to his first physician, by which he conferred on him the privilege of nominating two surgeons in every city and important town, whose duty it *Foderé, Introduction, p. 30. "George Bishop, of Bamberg, in 1507 proclaimed a penal code, drawn up for his States by Baron Schwartzemberg, in which the necessity of medical evidence in certain cases was recognized." The Caroline Code was founded on this. Dr. Trail, in Encyclopedia Britannica, seventh edition, vol. xiv. p. 490. Paris' Med. Jurisprudence, vol. i. p. 10. should exclusively be to examine all wounded or murdered persons, and to make reports thereon; and in 1667, Louis XIV. formally declared that no report should be valid unless it had received the sanction of at least one of these surgeons.* At a subsequent period (1692) physicians were by law associated with surgeons in these examinations. The writers who have investigated the science of medical jurisprudence are numerous. Some have noticed it as a system, while others have examined detached parts. I shall content myself with mentioning the more distinguished. Fortunatus Fidelis is probably the earliest writer on the science. He was an Italian, and his work, "De Relationibus Medicorum," was published in 1598, at Palermo.† Paulus Zacchias soon followed him in his great work, "Questiones Medico-Legales," which appeared at Rome between 1621 and 1635. This distinguished man rose to great eminence in his profession, and was physician to Pope Innocent X. He died in 1659, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His treatise on legal medicine, although partaking of the superstition of the age in which he lived, is still a most valuable record of facts, and a permanent monument of the talents of the author. In Germany, Bohn was among the earliest writers, but his treatise is confined to a consideration of wounds. The "Pandects" of Valentini, which appeared in 1702, and which were shortly followed by his "Novellæ," form a very complete and extensive retrospect of the opinions and decisions of preceding writers on legal medicine. They consist, indeed, of medico-legal cases, and the consultations of distinguished physicians, and of medical and legal faculties on them. Alberti, Zittman, Teichmeyer, Fazelius, Goelicke, Hebenstreit, Plenck, Daniel, Sikora, Ludwig, and Metzger, are also German authors of eminence in this branch of learning. But one of the most valuable and comprehensive collections that has ever appeared, is that edited by Schlegel. It consists of upwards of forty dissertations on various parts of medical jurisprudence, written by his countrymen at different periods during the eighteenth * Foderé, vol. i., Introduction, p. 32. †Dr. Cummin considers Condronchus as an earlier writer on legal medicine than Fidelis. He published in 1597, at Frankfort, his tract, Methodus Testificandi. According to Dr. Cummin, Fidelis published in 1602. (London Med. Gazette, vol. xix. p. 3.) Life of Zacchias, prefixed to his Questiones Medico-Legales. 2 century, and is alike honorable to the national character, and the individuals whose investigations appear in it. In our own days, the indefatigable industry and great learning of the Germans have furnished important contributions to the science. From a host of names, I will only select those of Henke, Bernt, Gmelin, Emmert, Jaeger, Kopp, Hecker, Hoffbauer, Remer, and Wagner. Foderé, in his sketch of the history of the science in France, considered Ambrose Paré as the earliest writer on it in that country. In such estimation were his works held in his native country, that for more than a century they formed the sole guide of the French surgeon. 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 I have already stated, the examiners in medico-legal cases were selected. Louis is the first who promulgated a just idea of the science to his countrymen. He investigated several important points with great ability-such as the certainty of the signs of death, protracted gestation, drowning, and the proofs that distinguish hanging through suicide, from hanging as an act of murder. His consultations also in various cases, which are preserved in the "Causes Célèbres," abound in various and instructive learning. Some of his opinions gave rise to animated discussions, and thus excited public attention to these subjects generally. Winslow, Lorry, Lafosse, Chaussier, also deserve notice among the French writers; while toward the conclusion of the eighteenth century, Professor Mahon, with several others, published, in the "Encyclopedie Methodique," copious dissertations on medical jurisprudence.* In 1796, Foderé published the first edition of his work in three octavo volumes, under the title of "Les lois eclairées par les sciences physiques, ou Traité de médecine légale et d'hygiène 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 * Foderé, vol. i., Introduction, p. 37, etc. |