The crime of infanticide (q.v.) is only seven years old in Eng lish law. Before that wilful killing of an infant as of any other human being was murder, but the unwillingness of juries to con vict led to the Infanticide Act of 1922, whereby the killing of a newly-born child by its mother is made equivalent to man slaughter. Enquiries into the death of infants born alive are not infrequent. The questions for the opinion of the police surgeon, who usually performs the autopsy, will be : Was the child born alive? How long did it live? Was death due to violence, neglect or natural causes? The answers to these questions can be given with precision only by those who have experience of such cases and are acquainted with the fairly comprehensive body of knowl edge already acquired—a body of knowledge elaborated, it must be remembered, under the jealous scrutiny of the courts of law when infanticide was murder.
Abortion in law means unlawful abortion, a criminal act, the penalty for which is provided by ss. 55, 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861. Abortion, however, means to medical men any artificial termination of pregnancy. There are several indications for the lawful termination of pregnancy and their common factor is the danger to the mother's life through the continuance of pregnancy; if the foetus is viable its life will, if possible, be preserved. In criminal abortion on the other hand, it is the mother's convenience that is studied and the act is aimed against and is intended to destroy the ovum or foetus. Lawful abortion will be marked by deliberation, consultation with pro fessional brethren, and the asepsis of the operating theatre. Criminal abortion will be hurried, secret and often septic and unskilful.
Space does not allow the consideration of the numerous other offences against the person which are comprised in legal medi cine. The various kinds of manslaughter need not detain us, but mention must be made of the increase in the number of convic tions in recent years, due to the enormous development of motor transport. Where, e.g., the driver was "drunk in charge" of a vehicle, criminal negligence will be hard to rebut. The criteria of drunkenness are a subject which is not purely medical. In this condition akin to insanity (q.v.) the factor of conduct looms so large that others besides medical men claim to be able to give an opinion. In the navy, e.g., the criterion is : "Is the man fit for duty?" and it is the officer of the watch who applies it, unless the man asks to see the surgeon.
Turning now to civil causes, medical evidence will be required in inquisitions upon lunacy, sometimes in actions upon wills, in actions under Lord Campbell's Act, under the Workmen's Compensation Acts and in matrimonial causes. In connection with workmen's compensation the question of malingering has sometimes to be considered, a subject more familiar to medical men in countries which have adopted conscription. In divorce and in legitimacy cases the period of gestation will sometimes be an issue. After much learned argument there is now pretty general agreement that the period can, in exceptional cases, be as much as 30o days, which happens to be the figure fixed by the XII. Tables. (See ROMAN LAW.) The fact that a medical man may be compelled to disclose in a court of law information obtained from a patient who has con sulted him on the faith of the secrecy promised by the Venereal Diseases Act would seem to make it desirable that medical privi lege should be accorded, not indeed with regard to this particular matter alone but in all cases which concern neither fraud nor crime nor otherwise the public interest. (F. T. G.) Medical Jurisprudence deals with the reciprocal relations of law and medicine, using the latter term in its broadest sense. The application of medical knowledge in legal trials is designated forensic medicine. In the United States, the practice of medicine is restricted to licensed physicians, the issuing of licences, as also the regulation of practice, being in the main the function of the individual States. Exceptions include particular Federal laws, such as the act regulating the use of narcotics, popularly known as the Harrison Act, and the act restricting the medicinal use of alcoholic medicinals, known as the Volstead Act. Closely allied is the Food and Drugs Act of 1906, legalizing drug standards.
In presenting evidence of service to a patient, the elements to be established are: the employment, the performance of the service and the value of the service. An original entry of the actual transactions is generally receivable in evidence and is a valuable record. The calling on or of a physician is generally accepted as evidence of employment. Unless there are definite circumstances indicating a contrary relation, the person treated and not the person calling the physician is liable.