The proofs of infanticide considered: including Dr. Hunter's tract on child murder, with illustrative notes ; and a summary of the present state of medico-legal knowledge on that subject / By William Cummin, M.D.

  • Cummin, William, 1800-1837.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The proofs of infanticide considered: including Dr. Hunter's tract on child murder, with illustrative notes ; and a summary of the present state of medico-legal knowledge on that subject / By William Cummin, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    probably will not find it safe to venture into the witness box without being familiarly acquainted with its contents Hence, it has been conceived expedient to set it fairly and in a complete form before the reader. The tendency of Dr. Hunter's tract is to explode all the ordinary tests of child-murder: and being written in a plain and unpretending style, it is frequently found a convenient instrument for those engaged on behalf of the accused. It is known, moreover, that medical practitioners, many of them too indolent to make them- selves better informed, have but too often implicitly acquiesced in the positions of Dr. Hunter, joining the lawyers in the cry that medical inquiry on the subject was incapable of attaining to any satisfactory conclusion. But it is hoped that the thorough perusal of this little volume will remove so erroneous an impression. In the Notes and Illustrations subjoined to the paper of Dr. Hunter, an attempt is made to estimate the objec- tions of that eminent physician at their true value. The Summary, by giving a comprehensive view of all the points specially connected with the investigation of the proofs, and the application of the tests, of infanticide, will, it is expected, show that however objectionable those tests may be in the hands of the incompetent, they are certainly capable of affording, when applied by diligent and skilful inquirers, a correct and decided answer in a vast proportion of cases,—perhaps that in ninety-nine out of a hundred, by careful and judicious management, they may be employed with almost infal- lible success.
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