MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, the sci ence of applying medical knowledge to the pur poses of legal investigation; the application of the principles and practice of various branches of medicine in judicial proceedings requiring the explanation of doubtful questions, such as those relating to conception and birth, time and cause of death, physical and mental diseases, etc. Medical jurisprudence is often spoken of as forensic medicine, that is, the medicine of the forum. It embraces subjects both purely medical and purely legal, and covers a very wide range. These questions have usually been considered under five divisions : (1) Such as arise out of the relation of sex, including im potency, pregnancy, legitimacy and rape; (2) injuries to persons, as wounds, death from vio lence, poisoning and abortion; (3) disqualifi cation by different forms of mental diseases; (4) feigned disability or disease; (5) questions as to age, identity and life insurance. The major part of what is known as medical juris prudence relates to evidence given in courts, even if the whole subject is not properly em braced within the subject of judicial evidence. As medical books can be used only in a very restricted sense in judicial proceedings, the testimony of medical experts has become very important. Our laws do not give recognized preference to any particular class or school of medical practitioners as qualified for expert witnesses. Knowledge is the test of qualifica tion to give such evidence. The presiding judge passes, as a preliminary, upon the question of qualification and determines whether the witness shall be permitted to testify. The opinion of a medical expert is never conclusive but is simply to 'be regarded by the judge or jury in the same manner-as other evidence given to assist in es tablishing a fact. The medical expert is fre quently called upon to state facts, as well as to give his opinion based upon facts shown by other testimony to exist. He may testify as to the health of a patient whom he had treated, of his habits and mental traits. He may testify that he found poison in the stomach of a person found dead and give an opinion as to whether the poison caused death. He may give an opin ion as to how long a person has been dead, from the condition of the body when found; whether a certain wound would produce death; and his opinion as to the instrument used to inflict the wound.
In all of these subjects of investigation the evidence of a medical expert is almost indis pensable. In matters of life insurance, where the insured dies shortly after a policy has been issued to him, medical expert examination and evidence are often of great importance, bearing upon the condition of the insured at the time of insurance and upon the question of representa tions. In suits for injuries to persons through the fault of others the question of the extent and probable continuance of disability are to he investigated with the aid of expert evidence.
Many questions of supposed crime could not be properly determined without the knowledge and skill of the physician, applied as science directs. In cases involving sanity and mental capacity medical jurisprudence reaches the zenith of its importance. The untrained non-scientific mind cannot measure the status and capacity of other minds. If it is difficult, sometimes nearly im possible, for the best informed to determine accurately the physical condition of a person, none but those eminent for knowledge of and experience in matters of the mind ought to judge of its condition and hazard opinions as to its peculiarities and capacity. Insanity is a disease of the mind which assumes many forms —almost as many as there are different phases in the human mind. Many definitions are given of insanity, one of which is that it is a physical disease located in the brain, which de ranges the mental and moral faculties to a i greater or less degree. This definition is not quoted in preference to any other for the pur pose of approval, but because it differs so rad ically from others, and to show the difficulty of comprehending the nature of this dread malady. The general term insanity comprehends all shades of mental diseases, from the slightest abnormal condition to that of the wildest ma niac. The expert alienist is called upon to testify as to a person's ability to make a will, a contract or to transact any kind of business. He is asked to decide whether a person is bereft of his normal reason to the extent that prudence requires his confinement; and when he has been whether it would be safe or prudent to let him have his liberty. The questions upon which the expert's opinion with i regard to the or those supposed to be insane, are asked can hardly be enumerated. The importance of the subject cannot be over estimated, and new and earnest efforts are be ing constantly exerted by the medical profes sion to render its information upon this dif ficult subject as full and complete as possible. Many works upon medical jurisprudence have been published and in all of them insanity, its various forms, has had a prominent place, while quite a number of authors have produced commendable works devoted entirely to the sub ject of the medical jurisprudence of insanity. Consult Brothers,