The principles of forensic medicine, systematically arranged and applied to British practice / John Gordon Smith.

  • Smith, John Gordon, 1792-1833.
Date:
1827
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of forensic medicine, systematically arranged and applied to British practice / John Gordon Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which I presume there can be no doubt that the _ Forensic one claims priority as to date, if not im- portance. We may indeed, in the oldest of all ex- isting writings, in the books of Moses himself *, find scattered precepts for the maintenance of public health; but these were not dictated by medical ‘science, which itself had not yet begun to dawn; nor were they the suggestions (as we are bound to believe) of any class of men, whether physicians or lawegivers.. At a much later period, and in a very ‘ different quarter, arose the science of State Medi- cine, the first beams of which were directed to the . illumination of the publit tribunals—whereas the Politia Medica is more the affair of the senate. We date the origin of the study, as it is now culti- vated, from the reign of the Emperor Charles V., who having profited by the example setinthe code promul- gated by George Bishop of Bamberg, made it pre- scriptivein the celebrated constitution n which bears his namet ,to callin the aid of medical men, in several cases therein set forth. Among the first attempts to im- prove medical knowledge in this bearing, we have to enumerate the commentaries to which this code or constitution gave rise; but, from that period, the labours of. authors have been advancing in a pro- gressive ratio, until the amount of productions in a department of Medicine, unknown almost by name in this country ten years ago, has reached many oo * The following passages are among those which contain the pre- cepts alluded to. Leviticus vii. 23, &c. ; xiii. xiv. and xv: at the 17th verse of chap, xxi., however, are precise instructions respecting a subject of Forensic Medicine, that will be noticed under the head of » “* Disqualifications.” Numbers v. 1. + “ Constitutio Criminalis Caroli, vel Carolina,” which I have somewhere seen translated, The Criminal Constitution of Carolina {