Lectures on medical jurisprudence / by Francis Ogston ; edited by Francis Ogston, Jr.

  • Ogston, Francis, 1803-1887.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on medical jurisprudence / by Francis Ogston ; edited by Francis Ogston, Jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    MEDICAL EVIDENCE. Preliminary Eemarks.—Designations of Medico-legal Science—Occasions for its Application — Evidence of the Ordinary Witness — Evidence of the Scientific Witness—Limits of Legal Testimony—Limits of Medical Testimony—Forms of Legal Procedure in Criminal Cases—Criminal Institutions of Scotland ; of England; of the Colonies and United States ; of France; of Germany. Criminal and Ecclesiastical Courts.—Position of the Expert at the Inves- tigation of Criminal Charges—In his strictly Medical Capacity—At the Precognition in Scotland—On the Coroner's Inquest in England ; in America— The Written Eeport—The Viva Voce Examination—Rules for the guidance of the Expert—Examination for the Defence—Cautions to the Medical Witness. The department of medical science to whicli it is my province to draw your attention here is rather unfortunate in its usual desig- nation. Little fault indeed could be found with the titles of Forensic Medicine or Legal Medicine, which some have chosen whereby to characterise it; but I cannot say so much for that by which it is best known, namely Medical Jurisprudence, an unfor- tunate misnomer, which, however inappropriate, can scarcely now be got rid of Of the scope of the science generally, it will not be necessary to say much. You must be aware that occasions arise in the course of a professional career on which the medical man will have to step beyond the sphere of his ordinary avocations as the attendant on the sick. Such occasions occur in the case of those judicial proceedings, civil or criminal, which are found to bear more or less directly on medical science, and in which the adminis- trators of the law require for their guidance facts and opinions which are only to be procured from the medical practitioner in his strictly professional capacity. In aU such inquiries at law there are two leading forms in which evidence to this effect may be called for on the part of the legal authorities—forms which, though not always kept apart in practice, need to be distinguished, and borne distinctly in mind by the scientific witness. Thus, evidence may be called for from tlie witness as to the B