The claims of forensic medicine : being the introductory lecture delivered in the University of London, on Monday, May 11, 1829. / By John Gordon Smith.

  • Smith, John Gordon, 1792-1833.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The claims of forensic medicine : being the introductory lecture delivered in the University of London, on Monday, May 11, 1829. / By John Gordon Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. My Lords and Gentlemen, Certain recent events, of great national interest, have drawn the eyes of the public upon myself, as having been deeply concerned in them ; and I feel that the task I have undertaken, at the present hour, is neither an easy nor a pleasant one. I am resolved to discharge my duty, however, as you have a right to expect of me; and if there should be any among the audience to whom the sequel may give pain, I have not invited them to come here. At the same time I desire to assure them that I have avoided the quotation, not only of names, but even of times and places, any allusion to which might give unnecessary or unmerited uneasiness. But I have to deal, nay I must deal, with matters of public his- tory ; and the first duty of an historian is impartiality. Having formerly entered, at considerable length, into the nature and objects of the study confided to my direction, I do not conceive it necessary to go over the ground again, upon the present occasion. I have repeatedly taken oppor- tunities, when the public had the power of becoming ac- quainted with my views, of alluding to the antiquity, the universality, and the importance of MEDICAL JURISPRU- DENCE : so that a very few remarks on these points are all that I shall think of troubling you now to listen to. In the first place, as to its antiquity.—I am sufficiently tinctured with the spirit of the present times not to believe in the excellence of any thing merely because it is old,—-con-