Medical evidence in railway accidents / by John Charles Hall.

  • Hall, John Charles, 1816-1876.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical evidence in railway accidents / by John Charles Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    directors of the railway company, and to the family of the gentleman who had been injured. And here I would venture to suggest, that such a course as this ought always to be taken, and the physician or surgeon of the company invited to see the case. I have had, for more than twenty-five years, no little experience of railway accidents, and of injuries to the brain and spine from other causes. I have, of late years, been many times consulted, both by the friends of the sufferers, and also by the railway officials; and in a great majority of such cases, where there has been no attempt at exaggeration or fraud, there has been a prompt and fair settlement of claims; and, consequently, an avoidance of the public scandal which so frequently occurs in our law courts, when medical witnesses called by the plaintiff swear one thing, and medical witnesses called by the company, another. Of course, I exclude from a chance of such honour- able and satisfactory settlement a class of actions which, unhappily, are daily becoming more and more common. Actions touted for, and got up on speculation, for the mere purpose of obtaining costs—actions in which the plaintiffs play a very insignificant part, and obtain a very small share of the plunder—actions which every honourable member of our profession must feel it his bounden duty to discourage by every means in his power. There has recently been tried in London an action against the South-Eastern Kailway Company, in which two of the most eminent hospital surgeons gave opinions the most opposite. More than this. Two colleagues—two distinguished teachers in the same school—gave at this trial opinions completely at variance, not only as to the nature of the alleged injury, but also as to the probable duration of the effects of the accident. How is this ? Let any man who has been long and extensively engaged in consultation practice ask the question fairly, if this difference of opinion exist