Medico-legal report of a case of infanticide, with additional remarks on the foetal lungs / by Alfred S. Taylor.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medico-legal report of a case of infanticide, with additional remarks on the foetal lungs / by Alfred S. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    and that ofLecieux, with 048.* I have made use of 48 observa- tions contained in an anonymous essay, published at Paris in connection with several treatises on midwifery.f Orfila has contributed 17 observations of his own, and 47 which he publish- ed on the authority of Eisenstein and Zebisch, and which were made under the eye of Bernt.J From Devergie’s work I have obtained 17 facts,§ and from that of Jorg 6 facts.|| From do- mestic sources I have not been able to glean any large number of facts. To Mr Taylor's excellent essays,f and to his courtesy I am indebted for 8facts. Five others I have gleanedfromapaper by Dr Brady,** and I have added 20 observations of my own.*j**f* I might have added to the number of my facts had the subject ap- peared of sufficient importance to require a more extended induc- tion. Many single facts are doubtless scattered through the foreign journals, and many small collections of facts might be discovered if the search for them promised to repay the labour which it en- tails. As it is, the facts now brought together are much more nu- merous than any single collection which has been hitherto formed, and they are numerous enough to establish the principal data ne- cessary for medico-legal inquiries. By stating the sources from which I have drawn my facts, as well as the number of facts from which each average is obtained, I have given every facility for ad- ding to the collection which I have thus made, any new facts ob- served by myself or others ; and as some of the averages are • Considerations Medico-legales surl‘Infanticide, par A. Lpcieux, a Paris, 1819. The number of facts published by Leceiux, is 400. Of these, I have been able to make use of .348 only, the remainder being so badly reported as to be utterly use- less. Devergie has not made more than 200 available for his purposes ; but he has li- mited his inquiries to children who have lived one month or less, whilst I have admit- ted a considerable number of observations on children above that age. This difference sufficiently accounts for the larger number of facts which I have been able to make use of. I have admitted as still-born, 30 observations on lungs, which, not being putrid or diseased, sank when placed in water, though it is not positively stated that respiration had not taken place. The only source of fallacy here is that extremely imperfect degree of respiration which is compatible with sinking of the lungs; but, as cases of this kind are of very rare occurrence, these observations may be safely embodied with those made on still-born children. I have been obliged to correct a large proportion of Lecieux’s calculations. •f* Proces-Verbal de la distribution des Prix, Ac. 1812. Some of the observa- tions contained in this paper seem to have been reprinted in Lecieux’s treatise. In making use of these duplicates, I have not introduced any important fallacy. ^ Traite de Medecine Legale, Vol. i. p. 40-1. The observations of Eisenstein and Zebisch are the only ones which I have not been able to procure and examine for myself. The title of the work from which they are taken is not given, and I have not been able to procure that in which they were most likely to be found. I have therefore trusted in this instance to Orfila’s high authority. § Medecine Legale. Vol. i. Article Infanticide. II Atelectasis pulmonum. By Dr Edward Joerg of Leipsig. ^ Guy’s Hospital Reports. No. 5. See also London Medical and Physical Jour- nal for 1832 and 1833. One fact has been kindly forwarded to me by Mr Taylur since the publication of his essay in the Guy's Hospital Reports. ** Dublin Journal of Medical Science. If For the opportunity of making these observations, I am chiefly indebted to the* kindness of my friend and neighbour, Dr Reid.