JURISPRUDENCE, MEDICAL, the application of medical science to legal cases. Its practice dates to a very early period, particularly among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, the Greek Hippocrates being the highest authority among the latter. It embraces a far greater circle of knowledge and more extended research in almost all directions than any other branch of human knowledge. The medical expert should not only be well grounded in what is strictly termed medical science, but he should have a fair knowl edge of chemist"', to be able to appreciate the bearing of the work of the chemical expert upon the case, and he is called upon to decide many questions of mechanics and other branches of physics. A fair understanding of the principles of criminal law must also be considered proper adjuncts to his` strictly medical knoWledge. On account of the great extent of the subject, a few names onlywill be mentioned of the most distinguished promoters of legal medicine. As a science it is of comparatively modern date, having made little systematic progress until several centuries after the completion of the Justinian code, or until some knowledge of human physiology had become general in the medical profession. The code of Charles V. ordered that in all doubtful cases of suspected infanticide, homicide, and other cases of death by violence, there should be reference to physicians. Ambroise Pare (1517-90) published a treatise upon tardy births, and Fortunatus Fidelis published in 1602 all that was then known in regard to medicine in all its branches. About 20 years afterwards Paulus Baccidas began the publication of his Medico-Legal Questions, which were completed about 1630. At this date medical jurisprudence may first be considered as meriting the name of a science. In 1609 Henry IV. of France ordered by a patent the appointment of two surgeons. in every town of sufficient importance, to make examinations in medico-legal cases. The application of the hydrostatic test of Galen (2d c.) had already been revived by Harvey, and was afterwards discussed by Bartholin, Schreyer, Bohn, and others. In 1722 Valentine published his celebrated Medico-Legal Pandects, and Aibertini between 1725 and 1747 published his great work, entitled System of Medical Jurisprudence, which was followed by Tisehnieyer's Institutes of Legal or Forensic Medicine, which was used by Haller as the basis of his celebrated lectures. Passing over several names of importance, we come to that of Antoine Louis (1723-92), who greatly advanced the science by dissertations and opinions given in the courts, afterwards collected under the title Causes Celebres. In the latter part of the 18th c. Fodere published his celebrated work on legal medicine and public hygiene, an exhaustive treatise upon the science; and about the same time Dr. Parr published in England his Elements of Medical Juris prudence, which was, however,. little more than a compilation from continental author ities. In 1813 Fodere published a revised edition of his original work, and about the same tittle Ortila published his great work on general toxicology, the most erudite and useful which had yet appeared, followed by his Lecons de Medecine Legale,. Then fol lowed the works of Devergic, Capuron, Esquirol, and and the establishment of4the Annales d'Hygiene et de Medecine Legate in 1829, which to this time has been the repository of the most celebrated medico-legal cases. In Germany contemporary labors of great merit were also performed. The names of more recent authors would fill much space. For the trial of legal cases involving the investigation of medical questions there is required a degree of skill and learning on the part of the lawyer as well as of tale judge, and of intelligence on the part of the jury, not demanded in ordinary civil or criminal cases. Every medical expert has witnessed the mismanagement and loss of
numbers of cases through want of comprehension on the part, frequently of lawyers, and sometimes of judges and juries. If the lawyer have the knowledge of his particu lar case well settled in Ids mind by a course of careful examination and consultation with his medical counsel, and Ids case be a good one, he will generally be able to make it clear to both judge and jury; and alas ! if the case be a bad one, he will be likely to carry it if the opposing counsel be unable to comprehend it. Upon a consideration of the innumerable accidents often involving injuries of an occult nature and occurring under an endless variety of circumstances, and of the various kinds of homicides by all kinds of weapons and by poison; of injuries from violent assaults not resulting in death; and of the variety of cases of mental alienation, it is obvious that the sphere of investigation of the medico-legal expert is vast, and that it will often require the joint labors of several persons. In cases of homicide a question as to whether a certain instrument found near the scene of the tragedy'is capable of making the wound found upon the body is extremely likely to arise. Or it may be disputed whether the wound was the cause of death, it having, perhaps, been made after the death, which had resulted from poisoning or drowning or suffocation. Many circumstances. if carefully observed, may shift the weight of evidence from one side to another, and the greatest caution is required in guiding the search to a sound conelusion. In cases of suspected infanticide there is often required the profoundest knowledge of physiology and path ology. A winless may testify to having heard a cry, or to having observed certain signs of life; but it may be within the power of a physician to expose the falsity of such tes timony by showing the physical impossibility of its being true, on well-demonstrated physiological principles. A proper examination of the lungs, made with due circum spection, precluding the possibility of tampering or of mistake, is competent to decide the question in regard to respiration, but the examination may he performed so care lessly as to vitiate the evidence of the expert. There are often circumstances under which post-mortem examinations are made which require the most extended observation and experimental knowledge. After a body has been buried a few days, a few weeks, or a few months, certain changes, termed post-mortem. take place, which have been mistakenly ascribed to injuries produced before burial. The utmost care in examination is often required in order that the truth shall be maintained. The medical jurist or expert is often called upon for an opinion in regard to the probable ultimate result of an injury, such, for instance, as has followed a concussion in a railroad car, or a fall of a building. The claimant of damages is producing all the evidence of severe and per manent injury that can possibly be displayed, with holvinieh sincerity it behooves the defznse in the shit or dainales 0_40W! ThcluAltVeitiNVinahcrsAbv.both sides must be men of the keenest perception and of practical and theoretical knowledge, or injustice will be likely to follow% to the unfair advantage of one or the other of the parties.